An ILLUMINATING history bearing on the everlasting struggle
for world supremacy fought between the powers of TECHNOLOGY and MAGIC.
Mom and Dad stuffed me in the car and drove to the seedy
side of downtown Houston. I was eight
years old. The fire hydrants still had
their fading coat of bicentennial paint.
My mother nervously looked out the window of the red beetle as we passed
dilapidated buildings. Finally a neon
marquee came into view, attached to a molding theater. It didn't look like a place that that showed
cartoons.
The theater was dank and sticky and musty, but the red
velvet, gold tassels, and exquisite balcony hearkened back to better times. They were showing a double feature. We were late, but were really only there for
the second show. We saw the tail end of
the first picture, which was confusing and disturbing - a little gem called Phantom
of the Paradise. It was a mix between
Rocky Horror, Phantom of the Opera and Faust.
Needless to say, at eight years old, I didn't get it.
Finally, the main feature began - Ralph Bakshi's
Wizards. Honestly, I don't remember
anything about that viewing. It was too overwhelming,
but the feeling of 'wow' stayed with me the rest of my life. My mother spent a good deal of the time with
her hands over my eyes. She swears to
this day that there was a scene in the movie where the wizard Avatar was
running around pantsless with his penis hanging out. I've watched the movie countless times - and
even looked for a more mature version - with no luck. But it was basically an indie style art house
film at the time with a very small release, so we very well may have seen a cut
of it that never made it to the present incarnation. Later I learned that my father had seen Fritz
the Cat some time earlier in the same movie theater, so penis may very well
have been a recurring theme at the place.
By the 80s they were playing Wizards on cable, and I saw it
many times. It's great. I was enchanted by Avatar's Peter Falk-like
speech, Elinore's bubbly nipples, Peace's soulless eyes, and the narrator's
airy, wistful voice. It's incredibly
emotional stupid and funny and sad.
"Where's daddy?
What's he doing?"
"He’s guarding our home son. There's been a war and this land is
lost."
"Why can't we fight and win mommy?"
"Because they have weapons and technology. We just have love."

I never was into a mix of fantasy and science fiction as a
kid - especially for role playing games.
I didn't like the vanilla to mix with the chocolate either. Wizards was wonderful to watch, but I would have never run an RPG in the setting. But these days I have a more mature palate,
and I wonder what a game would be like based in the lands of Scorch and
Montagar. I'll have to ponder more on
that.
Looking back on it now, some of Wizards is hard to
watch. The pacing is clunky, the art
styles sometimes don't mesh well, and the roto-scoping can be atrocious. We take for granted so many visual
technologies. The road between Bakshi's
Avatar and Cameron's is a very long one - just about the same length from a boy
to a man.
- Ark