Fire and Ice: Back to the Bakshi

Fire and Ice is a 1983 American animated epic dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, a collaboration between Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, was distributed by 20th Century-Fox, which also distributed Bakshi's 1977 release, Wizards. The animated feature, based on characters co-created by Bakshi and Frazetta, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live-action and then traced onto animation cels.

The screenplay was written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, both of whom had written Conan stories for Marvel Comics. The background painter was James Gurney, the author and artist of the Dinotopia illustrated novels. Iconic American painter Thomas Kinkade also worked on the backgrounds to various scenes. Peter Chung, the creator of Aeon Flux, was a layout artist. - Wikipedia.

Fire and Ice is a part of that wave of sci-fi/fantasy that was kicked off by Star Wars in 1977; it tried to take advantage of the nostalgic pulp adventure that was so much in the air at the time. There is a strong Conan vibe as well, and not just from the 1982 movie; the fact that Frank Frazetta (who did the famous covers for the barbarian’s first series release) and Roy Thomas were involved meant that they dealt in iconic designs already familiar with the sword-and-sorcery fandom.

Ralph Bakshi had evolved a bit since he had produced the 1978 The Lord of the Rings; his use of rotoscoping had settled down into one style. Frank Frazetta adapted his iconic “Death Dealer” into the character of Darkwolf. There was quite a bit of naked butt-cheek (both male and female, with a discretionary wisp down the crack) and enough horror and gore to appeal to the hormonal adolescent in everyone.

It never impressed me greatly as a work of art or a particularly good fantasy. But it has a certain nagging persistence. It is part of my growing up, part of an age of movies, and part of my memories. The way the narrator spits out the word ‘Pow-uhz’ (instead of ‘powers’), the stirring of the dead witch in the ashes, the evil Nekron spurning the princess and unexpectedly turning on his mother for suggesting their marriage (what is he, a poofter?) flash through my mind when I think of the film. And now it is in the Archive, and I can test my memory against another viewing at last. It should be an interesting experiment.