Wizards (1977) on Netflix
PG19771h 20mAdventureAnimationFantasy
Twin wizards Avatar and Blackwolf take opposite paths, one to magic, the other to technology. When Blackwolf's mutants march from Scortch, Avatar sets out to destroy his brother's projector.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.3/1014,901 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes59%
Trailer
Plot summary
A nuclear war devastates Earth, and in time mutants and the old races, trolls, fairies, elves and dwarves, resurface. The fairy queen Delia gives birth to twin wizards: the good-natured Avatar and his mutated brother Blackwolf. After Delia dies, Blackwolf tries to take her place, loses a magical duel to Avatar and leaves Montagar, vowing that mutants will rule. Three thousand years later he rules Scortch, where he and his followers restore ancient machines, and a Nazi propaganda projector, its images amplified by his magic, becomes his weapon; two attacks on Montagar fail when his warriors wander off. Avatar trains the President's daughter Elinore in magic until a robot sent by Blackwolf reaches the court; Avatar rebuilds the machine for nonviolence, renames it Peace, and sets out with the elf warrior Weehawk, Peace and Elinore to destroy the projector.
Cast
- Jim Connellas President (voice) (as James Connell)
- Steve Graversas Blackwolf (voice)
- Barbara Sloaneas Fairy (voice)
- Hyman Wienas Priest (voice)
- Christopher Taybackas Peewhittle (voice)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wizards (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Bakshi could not complete the battle sequences on the budget Fox had given him, he asked for an increase and was refused; in the same meeting George Lucas asked for a budget increase for Star Wars and was also refused. Bakshi finished the film by paying out of his own pocket, using rotoscoping for the unfinished battles.
- Mark Hamill auditioned for and received a voice role in the film. Bakshi recalled: “He needed a job, and he came to me, and I thought he was great, and [George] Lucas thought he should do it, and he got not only Wizards, he got Star Wars.”
- As War Wizards neared completion, Lucas requested that Bakshi change the title to Wizards to avoid conflict with Star Wars. Bakshi agreed because Lucas had allowed Mark Hamill to take time off from Star Wars to record a voice for Wizards.
- Bakshi wanted a female narrator and loved Susan Tyrrell's acting; she narrated the film but requested that her name be left off the credits. Years later she told him she got most of her later work from that narration and wished she had allowed him to use her name.
- Artist Alex Niño signed a contract with Bakshi and was granted a work visa, but could not get permission from the Philippine government to leave for the United States until two months afterward; by the time he arrived the animation had been completed, and his visa did not allow him to submit freelance work on any other projects.
- Besides stock footage, the film used battle sequences from other movies for rotoscoping, among them Zulu, El Cid, Battle of the Bulge and Alexander Nevsky. Live-action sequences from Patton were also featured.
- Bakshi said that Wizards “was about the creation of the state of Israel and the Holocaust, about the Jews looking for a homeland, and about the fact that fascism was on the rise again”.
