The earth had suffered countless nuclear blasts after five terrorists set off the first explosion. The world is a struggle between powers of Technology and Magic. It took 2 million years to allow the sky to clear. In the good areas, the true ancestors of humans; fairies, elves and dwarfs, have returned to live in peace. In the desolate places, humans have changed into mutants. Delia queen of the fairies has given birth to twin wizards Avatar and Blackwolf. After the death of Delia, Blackwolf tries to assume the role of dictator and Avatar is able to defeat him. Blackwolf vows to return and rule the planet. In the badlands, he becomes the Führer of Scortch ruling mutants and restoring ancient technology. Eventually he finds an old projector with Nazi military propaganda. He uses magic to create a powerful weapon against the elf army. Meanwhile Avatar becomes the president's daughter Elinore. Blackwolf sends the robot Necron 99 and successfully assassinates the president. Avatar reprograms the robot and renames it Peace.It's a post-apocalyptic world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth if the evil side copied the Nazis. The use of live action war footage in the animation gives the Ralph Bakshi unique vision of the artform. It has the sensibilities of 70s animation including some borderline jokes and a highly sexual fairy. The look is iconic and memorable. It also tries to make a statement about the power of propaganda. This really sticks with you.

Ralph Bakshi is one of those animators I never grew to like. His films are adult, but not necessarily mature. Some find social commentary in his work - I just find him raunchy for the sake of edge.Wizards is one of his tamer works (It was released as a PG film). Is it a parody of high fantasy tales? Is it a violent, sexy take of the genre? Kinda both, kinda neither. Wizards is surprisingly uninteresting, plain and average. If it weren't for some adult themes, it would be forgettable, only remembered as a childhood classic by the middle aged. The characters are stock, and the plot offers little innovation. Bakshi states its about technology, and the plight of the Jewish people. Those were the last things on my mind during this movie.Yeah, people get shot. There are fairies in skimpy clothing. But outside a scene here and there, the plot itself is borderline family friendly. Its actually not adult enough, not so outrageous to have a guilty fun time. And fantasy fans won't have much to take away from it, besides the odd point of Nazi propaganda used to as mind control. Its a dumb plot device - those tapes mean nothing without the context of the culture and time.It does get credit for doing what few films do. There aren't many adult animated films in the west, especially in fantasy. The animation's quality is alright, considering the budget and the time. The use of rotoscope is pretty bad in a few scenes.Some thought the ending was clever. Let's just say I didn't. >:I If you adore fantasy and animation, you could watch this. If not, I wouldn't recommend it.

Very...bizarre. Be prepared for a lot of psychedelicness if you watch this film. Some people dislike that stuff. I personally love it.I would talk a bit more about WHAT was bizarre, but I won't spoil anything. I'd like to say, though, that this film does actually have meaning to it. Many reviews go on about it being a greatly uneven jumble of battles, nudity, decapitations, kung fu, mutants, prostitutes, fairies, robots, gnomes, dwarfs, wizards, elves, machine guns, lasers, tanks, and bright colors, but if you actually pay attention and think about it, you can find both morals and metaphors. Unfortunately, I won't be able to compare it with any of Ralph Bakshi's other films, as this is the only one I've seen, but I hope to see others in the future. One more thing, though. Bakshi may have called this his first "family" film, but it has some language (d***, hell, b****, slut), sexual undertones, and bloody, mildly intense violence.

In a post-apocalyptic Earth there are two warring wizards--Avatar who is good and Blackwolf who is evil. Over the years Blackwolf amasses a huge army of mutants and ancient war weapons like guns and tanks and attacks Avatar and his peace-loving friends. Avatar seems totally unable to defeat him and Blackwolf may rule the world.To say this is weird is an understatement. After a needlessly plot heavy prologue it throws us right into a story with bad dialogue, unfunny comedy and unlikable characters. This is also WAY too violent for a PG rated film--the war scenes are incredibly bloody and graphic. And one fairy (Elinore) is way too underdressed for a "family" film. However the visuals are never dull. There's some incredible mixing of live action and animation and there's always something to look at it. Also the animation itself is just great. I can't say this was a good movie (the plot and characters are a little TOO strange) but I was never bored. This is perfect for older teenagers and adults looking for something different. NOT for kids despite the rating.