Free Great Movies Review

Ralph Bakshi collaborated with fantasy artist Frank Frazetta on this animated film in the early 80s when fantasy movies like Conan the Barbarian (1982) proved to be big hits at the box office. It's a simple story of an evil ice queen named Juliana and her son Nekron who are moving their glacier city towards the volcanic city of Firekeep to destroy it. They send out a band of grunting subhumans to abduct the beautiful princess of Firekeep named Teegra. Two characters named Larn and Darkwolf seek to rescue the princess and save Firekeep. Almost every character in this movie is scantily clad, including the princess. Frazetta's erotic artistry pushes the limits of PG animation and probably aroused viewers of all ages. The movie features rotoscoping character animation, which was utilized in other Bakshi films, along with beautifully painted fantasy backgrounds. While the fantasy story and dialogue are basic, the animation is the star here. It's not as funny or sophisticated as Bakshi's best films like Coonskin (1975) and American Pop (1981), but fans of 80s fantasy films will still find Fire and Ice rewarding.

Movie Description

Fire and Ice is a 1983 American animated adventure-fantasy 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 Bakshi and Frazetta co-created, was made using the process of rotoscoping, in which scenes were shot in live action and then traced onto animation cells.

The screenplay was written by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, both of whom had written Conan stories for Marvel Comics. Background painter was James Gurney, the author and artist of the Dinotopia illustrated novels. Thomas Kinkade also worked on the backgrounds to various scenes.

In 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the 99th greatest animated film of all time.

(Summary from Wikipedia)