Wizards

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"They killed Fritz!"

Wizards is a 1977 animated science fiction film by Ralph Bakshi. It takes place in what is basically a Standard Fantasy Setting, except it's actually Earth way, way, waaaaay After the End. It tells the story of a war between an army of nuclear mutants and a coalition of humans and various fantasy races - each group led by one of the two titular Wizards, the brothers Blackwolf (the evil one) and Avatar (the good one).

Notable for featuring the early work of Mark Hamill.

Tropes used in Wizards include:

• Affably Evil: Most of the Gas Mask Mooks, who get all the best scenes and just seem to be regular Punch Clock Villains. Specifically, the mutant General who gets killed by Weehawk near the end.
  • Of course, that's the point: they're all a bunch of feeble-hearted morons who wouldn't be anywhere near as dangerous as they are without Blackwolf's propaganda kicking them into gear.
• After the End: At least three million years after the end, no less.
• All Hail the Great God Mickey: The temple is filled with old pop culture memorabilia mistaken for religious relics.
• Badass: Necron 99/Peace, Weehawk
  • To elaborate on both - Necron 99/Peace takes on a tank. Weehawk kicks a mutant's head off at one point.
• Badass Grandpa: Avatar, the protagonist, who is also something of a Deadpan Snarker.
• Big Bad: Blackwolf, who's looking to become the next Adolf Hitler.
• Black and Grey Morality
• Brilliant but Lazy: Avatar is a very strong wizard, but regards the threat of his brother, the deaths of untold elves and the destruction of the entire world with an attitude that states he really just doesn't care anymore.
• Cain and Abel: Avatar and Blackwolf. Even as babies it was clear that Avatar was a good kid while Blackwolf was a revolting little creep.
• Combat Pragmatist: Rather than wasting time with an argument or an epic duel, Avatar (who, oddly, had made it clear earlier that he Doesn't Like Guns) simply shoots the Big Bad as soon as he gets the opportunity.
  • He actually says "no matter what happens, I will die anyway" shortly before doing this. He was heartbroken by Elinore's betrayal, and lost faith in his own philosophy. That is, until AFTER the shooting... Anyway, you have to watch the film very carefully.
• Covert Pervert: Given Elinore's outfit, it's hardly surprising what Avatar says when she sits down on his bed in front of him, asking what the plan is.

Avatar: Oh, why don't you sit there for a couple of hours while I figure it out?

• Death by Cameo: Continuing a running gag in Bakshi's work, he appears voicing a minor character who is almost immediately killed.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Avatar and Elinore both go barefoot throughout the movie; even when they end up on a glacier during a blizzard, Avatar conjures up a cloak for the nearly-naked Elinore, but still no shoes for either of them!
• Evil Sorcerer: Blackwolf
• Eye Scream: A couple of scenes most notably when Weehawk shoots an enemy soldier's camel in the eye with an arrow.
  • It was Necron 99's mount that he shot, and it got better!
• Face Heel Turn: Elinore, or so it appears at first.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Necron 99 A.K.A Peace is forgotten about almost instantly after his death. In fact, Avatar's grief isn't about Peace's death so much as it is Elinore betraying the group.
• Gas Mask Mooks: Most of Blackwolf's rank-and-file soldiers wear gas masks.
• Heel Face Brainwashing: See the below trope.
• Heel Face Turn: Necron 99, one of Blackwolf's top assassins, joins Avatar's side early in the film, taking the name 'Peace'.
• Heroic BSOD: Avatar has a short one after Elinore pulls an apparent Face Heel Turn. He gets better.
• Load-Bearing Boss: When Blackwolf dies his lair collapses.
• Lost Aesop: Most people assume, probably due to the introduction at the beginning of the film, that the moral is Science Is Bad. According to the commentary, it's actually a statement about propaganda.
  • In fact, the good guys have no problems using technology (namely, guns) when they have to.
• Mood Whiplash: One moment we're laughing at the antics of the two priests, and the next we see that their carrying-on has caused the demons to kill their prisoners and blow up the church.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Blackwolf's rhetoric about fighting to assert mutant superiority is somewhat belied by the implication that he will kill his own child when it turns out to be a mutant.
• Non-Identical Twins: Avatar and Blackwolf. The only things they have in common is that they have beards, and they're wizards.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: Avatar shoots and kills Blackwolf with a luger he had hidden up his sleeve that he had obtained off of a dead enemy.
• Perverse Sexual Lust: Weehawk.
• Putting on the Reich: Blackwolf's regime rapidly turns into Nazi Germany IN A FANTASY SETTING!, complete with swastika banners, German uniforms, German weaponry, Panzers, planes, and old propaganda films of Hitler.
• Precision F-Strike: "I'm glad you changed your last name, you son of a bitch!"
• Ragnarok Proofing: One of the most ridiculously egregious examples in film history. Old artifacts of civilization still exist three million years after the end of the world, including functioning film projectors with intact, watchable movies.
• Rock Beats Laser: Brutally averted. When the last few heroic survivors of the free nations get together an army and launch a desperate final strike against the enemy, knowing that they are the last hope to save the world... they are almost completely slaughtered by artillery, planes, tanks, and machine guns once the enemy puts themselves together. If not for Avatar shooting Blackwolf, they would have been exterminated to a man.
  • In an earlier scene, it was established they got access to guns and were actually putting up a great fight. They only started to lose because Blackwolf activated the film projector.
• Simpleton Voice: Necron 99 doesn't really sound as menacing as his reputation makes him out to be.
  • There's also the fat gas-mask mook who doesn't want to fight and merely wants peace for everyone... until he's quickly motivated by talk of a secret weapon Blackwolf's using.
• Stripperiffic: The outfit worn by Elinore is ridiculously so, complete with clearly-visible nipples. Lampshaded at least once by a line of dialogue from Avatar.
• The Magic Versus Technology War: The entire plot of the movie.
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: The last big battle scene. Think about it: Mutant and Demon Nazis fighting war-harded Elves and Fairies set on a crazy rotoscoped background, and all the while set to jazz rock. This movie is incredibly 70s.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never found out what became of Blackwolf's wife and son. They are shown escaping from Scortch after she prevents Weehawk from killing Elinore, whom he believes is a traitor, but are never shown again.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute? This is egregiously bad. By the end of the movie one is rooting for Blackwolf as the story seems more like unreliable fascist propaganda against the mutants than a normal fantasy story (although possibly this may have been the intent.)
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: A rare heroic example. Specifically, a rare heroic subversion. When Avatar meets Blackwolf, there is no big wizard duel. He just shoots him.