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6
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10 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: Aug.
30, 2005 |
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As
a kid growing up in the 1970s, whenever I visited the bookshop
I invariably made a beeline to the sci-fi section and the paperback
editions of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard.
A big part of their allure was the incredible cover art by renowned
fantasy illustrator Frank Frazetta. What 12-year old boy wouldn't
want to be one of those mighty-thewed warriors, savagely dealing
death and destruction to all enemies — human and inhuman — who
dared oppose him? What pubescent male wouldn't face down foes
from a hundred different worlds just to win a smile from one
of those impossibly voluptuous women? (Be they Martian princess
or Hyborean dancing girl, these babes were stacked, jack:
double-D breasts, big, muscular bubble butts and thighs that
could crack a man's skull like an eggshell!) To tell the truth,
Frazetta's unforgettable cover paintings were sometimes the
best thing about these books... The stories inside often had
a hard time living up to them.
In the early
'80s a resurgence in the popularity of sword and sorcery flicks
prompted director Ralph Bakshi (Fritz
the Cat, Wizards) to approach
Frazetta about collaborating on an animated feature film. The
project would not be an attempt to bring Frazetta's creations
to the screen in a literal sense; the money just wasn't there
for a huge Disney-sized team of animators. Instead Bakshi hoped
to capture the spirit and flavor of the artist's work in a sort
of "Frazetta comic book" that moved. With Fire
and Ice he largely succeeded.
Not that the
by-the-numbers plot helps matters much. The story, alas, is
merely one fantasy adventure cliché after another, despite
having been written by two of Marvel Comics best scribes, Roy
Thomas and Gerry Conway. You've got your stock evil sorcerer
— in this case called Nekron (who somewhat resembles Michael
Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné) — hell-bent on world domination.
Nekron crushes cities who defy him with a titanic glacier he
moves and expands across the land. Those not destroyed by the
ice are massacred by Nekron's army of bestial subhumans. The
last city-state to stand against him is Firekeep, ruled by the
wise King Jarol. Jarol is willing to negotiate with Nekron although
the wizard wants no part of it — he rather enjoys all the killin'
and slayin' and conquerin' stuff. ("I spit on peace!")
But Nekron's mother, the equally evil sorceress Juliana, wants
him to sire an heir. So she has Jarol's bodacious (and barely
dressed) daughter, Princess Teegra, kidnapped. Fortunately this
nubile noble finds a champion in Larn, a strapping young warrior
who rescues her (time and again) from Juliana's soldiers as
well as the occasional monster. Larn is the only survivor of
his village and wants revenge on Nekron for the genocide of
his people. He's still a bit of a greenhorn when it comes to
this hero jazz, though, so luckily for him there's this super
badass masked fighter named Darkwolf who helps him out of a
couple of sticky situations. Darkwolf doesn't say much, but
he eats Nekron's troops — and anybody or anything else that
gets in his way — for breakfast. He too wants to kill the ice
wizard in a bad way, for reasons that are never explained. Accordingly,
Larn and Darkwolf team up with Jarol for an assault on Nekron's
frozen palace (hail, ye Dragonriders of Firekeep!), to rescue
Teegra and destroy their enemy before he enslaves the world.
I've always
admired the Rotoscope style of animation — a pre-computer form
of "motion capture" in which actors are filmed conventionally,
their figures then traced onto animation cells by artists —
even if I haven't always enjoyed what was done with it. The
technique is used to fine effect here, especially in the various
chases and fight scenes. Creatures (wolves, an aquatic monster,
pterodactyls) had to be created from scratch, however, as were
the numerous background paintings. Ranging from lushly detailed
to Saturday morning 'toon-level expediencies, it's amazing that
these backgrounds were painted by just two artists — all Bakshi
could really afford, and who labored to crank out some 10 to
15 of them a day. The most inferior-looking aspects of the animation
are the glacier and lava flow sequences, which open and close
the film respectively. They're pretty cheesy, barely above the
level of Thundarr the Barbarian.
Warts
and all, Fire and Ice can
be a breezy little movie if you're willing to switch off your
brain and be a kid again. It's breathlessly paced and brimming
with action; there's truly never a dull moment. Today's kids
should readily enjoy it. Dad may get a little embarrassed (for
their sake) as Bakshi's camera lingers lustily over Teegra's
nearly naked cartoon form, but despite the high body count the
movie never gets too gory for the young 'uns. Onscreen killings
are numerous but kept within the margins of the PG rating.
So while the
clichéd story may drag it down a few notches there are
a lot worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon. Nice to look
at, Fire and Ice is dumb, sure,
but relentlessly fun. It's just too bad the movie focused on
that pony-tailed dullard, Larn, instead of Darkwolf. Darkwolf
is cool. He's the embodiment of Frazetta's archetypal cover
painting hero — slicing off limbs and bashing in brains to emerge
victorious atop a mountain of corpses.
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Rescued
from obscurity by Blue Underground, Fire
and Ice comes to DVD in a marvelous two-disc edition (reviewed
here) as well as a less expensive single disc incarnation — the
LE set comes packaged in a holographic slipcover case. Disc 1
presents the film via a nearly pristine anamorphic transfer (1.78:1
AR). An eye-poppingly vibrant color palette compliments razor
sharp images, giving the show even more of that comic-book-come-to-life
feel. Newly remastered 6.1 DTS, 5.1 Surround and Dolby 2.0 audio
tracks are offered. (The latter two sound terrific; I'm not equipped
to properly evaluate DTS.) In an unusual move for BU, subtitles
are available in English, French and Spanish. Extras include a
large still gallery and the theatrical trailer, plus three featurettes:
The Making of 'Fire And Ice' (13 min.), a promotional piece
from 1983 (taken from a videotape source, but quite watchable);
Bakshi On Frazetta (8 min.), an interview segment with
the Fire and Ice director about his
collaboration with the celebrated artist; and Sean Hannon's
Diary Notes (14 min.), in which the actor who played Nekron's
Rotoscope 'double' reads passages from the journal entries he
made during the film's live-action shoot. A commentary track with
Ralph Bakshi, moderated by Lance Laspina (see below), rounds out
the Disc 1 goodies. Naturally the discussion centers on the nuts
and bolts technical aspects of the production, although Bakshi
is quite the Brooklyn raconteur.
Distinctive to
the Limited Edition of Fire and Ice
is the 93-minute documentary film contained
on Disc 2: Frazetta: Painting with
Fire (2003), which originally aired on The Sundance Channel.
Among those interviewed are Monster Kid emeritus Forrest J Ackerman,
Conan the Barbarian director John Milius,
Ralph Bakshi, rocker Glenn Danzig, a number of prominent fantasy
illustrators, art historians, Frazetta family members and childhood
friends, and, of course, the man himself — who has, in his twilight
years, taken to drawing and painting again (with his left hand)
after recovering from a series of debilitating strokes. A significant
portion of the doc covers his childhood and personal life; we
end with the opening of the Frank Frazetta Museum. Throughout
we're shown copious examples of his paintings, sketches and illustrations
from age 8 (when he was considered a child prodigy) to today.
Painting With Fire is a terrific
tribute to this influential artist and his inspiring work, and
comes highly recommended if you have even the slightest interest
in fantasy art. (A full-length audio commentary with producer
Jeremy J. DiFiore and director Lance Laspina is included, but
I haven't yet had a chance to listen to it.)
8/09/05 |
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