Fire and Ice (1983)

Director: Ralph Bakshi, Tom Tataranowicz
Starring: Randy Norton, Cynthia Leake, Steve Sandor

Synopsis:
As the glacier fortress of the sorcerer king Nekron encroaches on the last bastion of humanity, a young warrior tries to rescue a princess captured to be Nekron's bride.

Impressions:
A collaboration between Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta that's basically an animated Conan, that should be enough to get people's attention. My interest comes from the fact that almost all the character animation is rotoscoped, so as an animation buff, it's worth seeing for that alone. While rotoscoping results in very smooth animation, it dips into the uncanny valley, which is why most traditional animators wouldn't use it this extensively. If you want to see Frazetta art in motion, this is the film for you. The story is fairly standard, but some of the characters are pretty good, especially Darkwolf and Nekron. It's also rather slow-paced. If you like to soak up the atmosphere, it's quite good in that respect as opposed to just pummeling you with one action set piece after another. There's no shortage of action, of course, but you do get plenty of opportunities to breathe. The score by William Kraft is a good fit. The main theme in particular has a nice swashbuckling feel. While by no means a perfect film, it is an entertaining one. Fantasy and animation fans in particular should enjoy it, so give it a watch.

Rating:
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