Wizards takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where mankind has made extinct and now the creatures of myth and legend are setting about repopulating the planet. As decreed by an ancient prophet, two twin sons are born to the Queen of the Fairies. One of these turns out to be good and human – Avatar. The other one, Blackwolf, turns out downright evil and is a mutant.

As the prophecy goes, the two brothers are predestined to become enemies in a war that will demolish what is now known as the new Earth. When Blackwolf is exiled out of Fairydom he decides to get his revenge by reviving the war technology of the old times. This way he'll be able to bring the people of the new Earth and get them all under his control.

Avatar, on the other hand, hopes to live the life of a pacifist as he doesn't want anything to do with the death and destruction he's been foretold to ultimately be responsible for. When Blackwolf beings to make assassination attempts on Avatar, the good brother isn't left with much of a choice at all and finally realizes that there's no escaping his destiny.

Made in between his most infamous film, Fritz The Cat and Lord of the Rings, Wizards was Bakshi's attempt at a family friendly film. There is some violence in it and a few hints towards some suggestive behavior but for the most part the film keeps it pretty clean. That doesn't necessarily make it kids stuff, however. It's quite a dark movie with stock footage of Nazi stormtroopers inserted in a few scenes and a bit of mild language. The film also uses some strange rotoscope techniques that makes for an odd viewing experience that certainly isn't going to be to everyone's tastes. It takes some getting used to and can be a little off putting, at times coming across as a bad drug trip. The character design obviously stems back to Bakshi's love of sixties underground comics and most of the central characters look like something out of a Vaughn Bode strip.

Overall though, Wizards is nothing if not interesting. It takes some getting used to but once you let it sink in, it's a very Tolkien-esque fantasy with some wild and unconventional animation that keeps things moving along at a nice pace. Worth noting as well is that Mark Hammill of Star Wars fame does some of the voice work in this film.

Video:

Wizards is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85.1 and it is enhanced for anamorphic monitors. While the colors look fairly bright and crisp and the black levels remain pretty consistent, there is quite a bit of print damage throughout the presentation. This is most noticeable during the sequences that utilize stock footage so some of it is to be expected, but there are also more than a few instances where the actual animated footage itself is looking a little rougher than you'd probably have hoped for. Still, overall it's a decent transfer that's quite watchable, it's just not perfect.