The Wizard of Speed and Time (short)

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I am the Wizard of Speed and Time, I've got magic to let you shine. Rise to the wonder, step into the scene; I can help you find your dream.

The Wizard of Speed and Time is a legendary short film which made its creator, independent animator/filmmaker Mike Jittlov, famous.

Originally created for and shown as a segment of "Major Effects", a 1979 episode of The Wonderful World of Disney which aired as cross-promotion for Disney's film The Black Hole, it became a Cult Classic during the 1980s. Like virtually all of his work before and since, it was made on a shoestring budget in Jittlov's garage using a homemade animation table for effects that Jittlov applied by hand to the film stock.

In it, a man in green wizard's robes runs across America at Super Speed. Along the way, he gives a pretty girl a swift lift to another city, and gives golden stars to other women who want a trip themselves. He then slips on a banana peel and comically crashes into a film stage, which he then brings to life in magical ways.

During the 1980s it began to be shown at science fiction conventions around the country, gaining popularity and eventually earning Jittlov the opportunity to create a heavily fictionalized account of how it was made in the form of a feature film.

Tropes used in The Wizard of Speed and Time (short) include:

• Acting for Two: Jittlov is not only the Wizard, but the judge who gave the Wizard a score of 9.7
• Banana Peel: See the "display" frame of the embedded video on this page. Inexplicably left in the middle of a country road, miles from anywhere.
• Bridal Carry: How the Wizard transports his hitchhiker.
• Cult Classic
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The Wizard's passenger is dropped off at Hollywood and Vine, and a moment later uses a payphone in front of Mann's Chinese Theatre (ten blocks away).
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: Especially when they turn into large gold stars that can be held and admired.
• Fast Tunnelling: Demonstrated by the Wizard when he simply runs through a mountain in his way.
• Film Leader Gag: Starts with a mock countdown in the style of the Academy Leader, using a still of The Wizard as a background. The countdown appears as numerals appearing in a ball of light held in his hand, ending with the word "BEEP" instead of the numeral 2, synchronized with an audible beep.
• Groupie Brigade: After carrying his passenger to Hollywood, a gang of screaming girls put themselves in the way of the Wizard in the hopes he'll do the same for them.
• Hold Up Your Score: At the end of the "Speed" segment. Four out of five judges give the Wizard "10"s; the fifth gives him "9.7" and is soundly beaten about the head and shoulders by the others.
• Hollywood Geography: As noted above in Eiffel Tower Effect -- the Wizard's passenger somehow manages to go from Hollywood and Vine to Mann's Chinese Theater (a distance of ten blocks) in an instant.
• Homage: The "acceleration" montage right before the Banana Peel has been reproduced by a couple of big-budget films, although it is itself an homage to a similar sequence in Yellow Submarine.
• "I Am" Song: During the second half of the film:

I am the Wizard of Speed and Time, I've got magic to let you shine. Rise to the wonder, step into the scene; I can help you find your dream. Come to me, 'round to me, all of my friends, Dance to your wishes in the camera lens. Just watch for the wizard in the robe of green, And I will help you find your dream.

• Memetic Outfit: The Wizard's green robes echo Mike Jittlov's trademark green jacket and sneakers.
• Montage: After the Wizard bypasses the mob of girls looking for a lift and before he hits the Banana Peel, there is a rapid sequence of still photos of landscapes into which the camera zooms, one after another.
• No Budget: Jittlov had to borrow the shoestring on which he made this film.
• Pixilation
• Robe and Wizard Hood
• Rules of the Road: Mocked in the "Speed" segment in the scene where the Wizard consults a map while standing between a set of ridiculously self-contradictory traffic signs.
• The Runt At the End: The smallest marching tripod in the movie studio. Also the birdlike clapboard.
• Security Cling: The Wizard's passenger during her ride.
• Self-Deprecation: Jittlov as the judge who gives the Wizard the 9.7 score -- and then gets beaten about the head and shoulder by the other judges.
• Shout-Out: The film set into which the Wizard falls is inside the castle in the Magic Kingdom -- a tip of the hat to the show on which the film originally appeared.
• Stop Motion: Used -- with lip syncing! -- in the movie studio segment.
• Super Speed
• Title Drop: In the first line of the "I Am" Song which makes up the second half of the film.