Fire and Ice (1983) Reviews

• Very cool fantasy animation...

  Daguon13a2004-05-26

  I first saw this film way back, probably when I was 7 or 8 years old and it impressed me then as it does now. I'm a fan of animation in general be it anime, American animation or otherwise. The beautiful animation of this film holds up well even today in our age of computer animated everything. In fact, every new animated film that comes out uses the same tried and true crappy looking mix of CGI and animation and to be honest, I'm tired of it. I miss those days of hand painted, hand drawn animation. This is a fine example of bygone days where animation got along just fine without the use of bad looking CGI and computer overlayed animation. This is an excellent film and anyone at all interested in fantasy, D&D or just animation in general should most definitely find yourself a copy of this film. -Daguon

• Worth a spin in the DVD player

  oshram-32004-06-11

  When I was a lot younger and 'traditional hand-drawn animation,' to quote Mr. Eisner, wasn't dead, I was a fan of Ralph Bakshi. Sort of the anti-Disney, Bakshi did counter-culture movies like Fritz the Cat (which Robert Crumb hated so much he subsequently killed off the character), Wizards (a midnight movie staple for years), and the unfortunately named Coonskin, which was nearly incomprehensible. Bakshi was a sort of cultural renegade, offering up in animation what no one else could – basically, he made animated films for adults – and following his own warped vision of how things should be. Probably his highest profile work was his 1978 version of Lord of the Rings, a movie I still enjoy to this day. Problem is, aside from Rings, none of Bakshi's films ever made any money, and an attempt to go commercial with 1981's American Pop fizzled (granted, it was an uneven film). Bakshi returned to the genre that he'd done the best with – swords and sorcery – for 1983's Fire and Ice. 70s megastar artist Frank Frazetta designed most of the characters and did a fair amount of pre-production art (some of which, in true Bakshi fashion, shows up in montages in the film). It was a teaming up of the greatest fantasy artist if the day and the only animator who could have brought his stuff to life with any accuracy. The film was scripted by Roy Thomas, famous for working on Marvel Comics' Conan series, and Gerry Conway, another comics writer. That's a lot of genre talent for a small animated film. Fire and Ice is no classic. It probably marks the pinnacle of rotoscoping and is a beautifully rendered film. There's a scant excuse for a plot and the characters are wafer thin, but the joy of the film is in the design and animation. This one really is eye candy, and I don't know if any of those involved with its creation ever aimed higher than making an animated Frazetta painting. Certainly they achieved that in spades. Fire and Ice is achingly simple in its set up. Evil Ice Lord Nekron (a Bakshi staple name, used previously in Wizards) uses his magic powers to crush his enemies with a rapidly moving glacier. He also has a bunch of orcs (call them what they are) at his command who wipe out anyone who dodges the ice. Next up on his deep freeze: Fire Keep, run by King Jerol, who controls the lava, etc. The story centers mostly around a young man named Larn, the stereotypical hottie boy with long hair who runs around in a loincloth. After his village is iced, Larn encounters Jerol's ample daughter, Teegra, a Frazetta gal if ever there were one; body by Pamela Anderson, wardrobe by Frederick's of Hollywood. Aside from the pretty pictures, this would have been a forgettable flick if not for the presence of Dark Wolf, a mysterious warrior who's part Batman, part Superman, and all bad-ass. Dark Wolf's fun to watch, and he elevates the movie into the realm of the watchable. The dialogue is pretty bad and the story is cliché-ridden, but Fire and Ice is still fun in a dopey kind of way. Some of the elements could have made a decent fantasy pulp novel, and a lot of the designs are pretty neat. Bakshi made better films than this (Wizards, Rings) but he made worse, too (most of the rest of his stuff). I wouldn't recommend this for anyone other than Bakshi fans or animation die-hards, or someone who really likes the fantasy genre. But it's light, brainless fun, and in my mind deserves not to be forgotten to the dustbin of obscurity. June 8, 2004

• Ralph Bakshi's animated vision of Frank Frazetta's fantasy world.

  Golgo-132005-09-04

  Fire and Ice is Ralph Bakshi's animated vision of Frank Frazetta's fantasy world (who even assisted in the making of this feature). The story is your basic tale of good verse evil; a ruthless sorcerer and his mother are intent on taking over the world, using their power to spawn ice glaciers to achieve this goal. Their last resistance is Fire Keep, a city built around a volcano. Really, the story and characters are kept simple while the showcase of this movie is the animation and action. Bakshi uses a process known as rotoscoping in this film (not his first time though). Rotoscoping is when actors are shot in live action and then later drawn over and added into the backgrounds. Nowadays, you might call it a form of motion capture. Anyway, the effect is actually pretty cool, bringing a certain realism to the characters that is absent from traditional animation. Keeping this in mind, we now come to the action in this movie, of which there is plenty. The movie only takes breaks to set up the next scene of combat for our two warrior heroes. It's often rather brutal, involving swords, spears, axes, and arrows. Aside from taking on gangs of Subhumans (the evil foot soldiers), there are also a few mythical-type creatures to deal with. Fire and Ice is the third Bakshi production I've seen and at that, the best. While I think it could've been better, it's still a fairly fun and entertaining fantasy picture, and I believe that's all it's meant to be. The Limited Edition DVD from Blue Underground does the movie justice with a decent transfer (the video shows some age but the audio is fine) and a few featurettes. There's also a sufficient commentary with Lance Laspina and Bakshi, who comes off as a bit of a jerk. Finally, the set includes Laspina's documentary, Frazetta: Painting with Fire. By the way, for those in the know, John would love Princess Teegra, a voluptuous, scantly-clad lady right out of one of Frazetta's pictures!

• Neglected gem

  Betelgeuse-192002-07-10

  I own Ralph Bakshis forgotten masterpiece Fire & Ice on an old OOP rental videotape. Well for one thing, this is better than any other Conan-esque film you'll ever see. Sure, it's cheesy, but who cares? It stood the test of time, and the only way it started to look cheesy is in comparisons to modern fantasy epics like LOTR:FOTR (though I love that film.) The plot goes like this: After a battle between Fire & Ice, a kings daughter is kidnapped by Jarols (Ice) subhuman creatures, while a sole survivor of a victimized village rescues her. Yeah it doesn't sound as a original as Nurse Betty, but that's not the point. It is really to bring to life an interesting idea of a world of two enemies: Fire & Ice. And it succeeds. As for the action scenes: superb. They are well handled, have terrific suspence, and have plenty of loud noises. Just check out the climatic battle, now THAT'S an ending! The acting and dialogue: competent. Really. They aren't gonna be nominated for an Oscar, but they are OK and don't get on your nerves. The animation is quite good. Shot on 3D and rotoscoped (I THINK), it looks pretty good. A lot of the backgrounds look really detailed and well drawn, and although the character designs feel a little 1-dimentional, they are OK. Overall, this is a fine neglected little gem and will entertain you more than any of the superfical "entertainment". 10/10

• I kind of liked it but...

  tiger86-22011-10-29

  The title of my review says it all. I saw the movie yesterday and I enjoyed it but... BUT... The movie was - in fact - extremely stupid. And by saying "extremely stupid" I am actually being nice. I mean, it looks like a great fantasy adventure, it is very well animated, the action scenes are absolutely great... Sadly, the screenplay is absolutely horrible. It really is. 'Fire and Ice' is probably the most terribly written animated movie that I have ever seen, and I have sen a lot. The dialogue is just horrible. I saw the movie like 13 hours ago and I can barely remember what the characters were saying, and what I do remember is a few lines that sounded like they came straight out of some gamebook like the "Fighting Fantasy" books written by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. The characterization... Well... There is just no such thing here. All characters depend on the way they were drawn, not on the way they were written. The "I Am Blonde And Brave" hero, the "I Am Here Just Because I Am Naked" princess, the "I Have Covered My Face With A Mask For No Reason At All And I Have An Ax" masked man with the ax, the "Look How Evil I Am MUHAHAHA" villain... You would know pretty much everything about every single character in the movie as soon as you saw them. The setting certainly looks nice. Everything is perfectly drawn. BUT... Well, if you are less than 14 years old boy you are probably going to love it. There are DINOSAURS! There is A KRAKEN! There are ORCS! There are AZTEC BUILDINGS!!! What is not to like? Well... It is just absurd. It looks nice but these things just don't go well together. Actually I would love it if it was relevant to the story but it just wasn't. The kraken, for example, appeared for less than a minute and it didn't add anything to the story. The Aztec buildings were there just because they look beautiful and for no other reason at all - no one event entered any of them. Etc. Now... I am going to stop with the criticisms and I am going to write what I liked about the movie. There is really a lot to be liked, especially when it comes to the quality of the animation. At that time there was no CGI-magic and everything had to be drawn by hand. Yet the characters are very detailed and their moves are extremely smooth. One can rarely see so well animated sword battles even in the finest Japanese anime movies. They move like real, living people, and by saying that I am not exaggerating at all. The fights are masterfully choreographed, the stunts are just stunning, and combined with the beautifully looking set designs the effect is just breathtaking. If that is what you like, see the movie. But if you want good characters, story and dialogue, look somewhere else. Really.