Ralph Bakshi's Wizards

I finally saw a film that I was always curious about last night. Wizards, an animated film from 1977 from Ralph Bakshi. It was pretty good, I am somewhat of a fan of Bakshi. I haven't seen all of his work. But what I have seen I thought was provocative and original. Bakshi is most famous I guess for his adaptation of Fritz the Cat, the old Spiderman cartoon from the 60's, and his Lord of the Rings adaptation. Wizards has a good storyline, and is appealing to all ages. If you were 8, or 38, there is something in it for you. I was a little surprised at some of the adult themes in it though. I watched it with Bakshi's commentary, and was amused that he kept calling it his family film. Speaking of Bakshi, the guy seems incredibly bitter about how his career turned out. I can see why though, he was a pioneer and does not get very much credit these days. He also seems incredibly nostalgic for the days when he was making films like this. It was a little sad.
Back to the film, I like how he used rotoscoping. It made for a nice effect, and was different. His character designs seem to have been influenced by Vaughn Bode's Cheech Wizard heavily. In Bakshi's Wikipedia entry, it says that he and Bode were friends. However, Bode's son Mark calls it plagiarism. Whatever, the movie works regardless. The best character designs are Peace, and Elinore, (since when did hard nipples become family fare?)Keep an eye out for the comic book-like stills that tell the backstory. They are amazing, and were done by Mike Ploog, who went on to work on Heavy Metal. Anyway, I would recommend to anyone into animation. I find myself wishing that there were more films like this. Now we gotta wait for Coonskin to hit video, Bakshi's attempt at blaxploitation. Word.