I watched Ralph Bakshi’s movie Wizards this past weekend.

Images from the movie poster.

Until I saw this, I had never realized that Ralph Bakshi directed the half-finished live-action/rotoscope/animation Lord of the Rings movie! As I watched it, I wondered why more movies like it – animated fantasy epics – didn’t exist. I don’t know for sure, but I would think that this kind of movie is cheaper than both an entirely live movie and a 3D CGI verison. Then, during the special features, I discovered the reason – A New Hope came out two weeks after Wizards was released. Oh well.

Movie still.

My buddy Ryan Lauderdale pointed out that the strange mix of animation and color keyed stock footage is probably more interesting in 2009 than it was in 1977, now that that kind of mixed medium film is more prevalent out on the net and lots of people have access to video editing software. I wonder what someone in 2409 will think if they sit down (or download or mentally upload or whatever) and view Wizards – will any of it be relevant anymore? Or will they all be living out their own epic fantasy quests in a solar system that has been transformed into a Matrioshka Brain?

Movie still.

Unanswerable questions, really. I’ll just have to sit down and watch Fire and Ice.