Fire and Ice

Maverick director Ralph Bakshi is not one you would expect to follow trends.  Maybe create a few.  His breakthrough feature was 1972's FRITZ THE CAT, an X-rated cartoon that resonated with children of the '60s and became a counter-cultural smash.  Bakshi went on to create several other vivid, bleak, unflinching, sometimes gross dramas that set him apart from other animators.  But there were a few attempts to go mainstream, including 1978's adaptation of Lord of the Rings and 1983's FIRE AND ICE.

The early '80s were rife with sword and sorcery epics.  Some were near classic, like EXCALIBUR, but most were forgettable (THE SWORD & THE SORCERER and many B titles).  FIRE AND ICE would likely occupy the latter category were it not an animated feature.  Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas' screenplay really isn't anything special.  In prehistoric times, Juliana is what you could literally call an ice queen: she rules the barren landscape of Icespeak with her son Nekron and desires to annex the more peaceful Firekeep away from King Jarol.  Multitudes of glaciers, along with groups of "sub-humans" are dispatched to do the deed, but a warrior named Larn and Jarol's daughter Teegra, along with the green eyed Darkwolf, are there to stop them.

There are sword battles, hand to hand combat battles, frightening creatures, and of course, death by fire and ice.  Nekron is a smart mouthed brat.  Larn looks like he was rejected from an audition for He-Man (in fact, the entire movie plays like a slightly more graphic episode of that show).  Teegra wanders around clad in what amounts to little more than dental floss over her unmentionables.  Bakshi also shamelessly has the camera stalk and even seemingly caress her figure more than once.  There is no doubt at which group this movie was aimed.

And Bakshi again rotoscopes the action.  Some feel this is akin to cheating.  It does make movement look a bit awkward at times.  In case you weren't already aware that the animators traced over live action, you'll notice a credit for a stunt coordinator. It doesn't really bother me, and it didn't affect my enjoyment of this or any other of Ralph Bakshi's movies.  But FIRE AND ICE is far from his best, or most indisposable, work.  Unintentional laughs are aplenty, right from the truncated opening narration (WIZARDS' was far more effective on all counts).  Darkwolf, voiced by Steve Sandor, was the only intriguing character, and we don't learn much about him.

What makes the film worth catching is, almost exclusively, the animation.  Bakshi and his team fashion some stunning cels at times. Almost any random frame could be admired in itself.   None other than Thomas Kincaide, who later gained enormous fame for his warm, pastoral depictions of cottages and fields, was one of the background artists.  Bakshi collaborated with sci-fi/fantasy comic book artist Frank Frazzetta (who also drew some of those stunning Molly Hatchet album covers) on this movie, and the replications of the latter's visions will be appreciated by anyone with an eye for detail.  And fearsome beasts and buxom heroines, natch.