I watched "Fire and Ice" because of its awesome looking cover that made me think about some epic fantasy sword fights and magic in battle between powers of good and evil. I got that, kind of, because it was so generic and predictable I dosed off several times. Most of the time the generic princess from the fire kingdom was just running away from the minions from the fire kingdom. That should have kept me at the edge of my seat, but when the character is both so bland and has no backstory I had not got any feelings for her being in danger. The blandness deprives almost every character of a possibly engaging persona even his/her role was still generic.The voice work was generally bad, but that again comes down to the predictability of the entire movie. I liked the ice king's voice a little when he made his slimy personality come a little more to life, but that's pretty much it. The animation was a mixed bag. I really liked the backgrounds with their classic feel of hand-drawn paintings, but the character animation was sketchy and some times felt unnatural in their movements. The music was nice, with a dramatic pounding feel to it accompagnied by trumpets and other horns to make it sound epic. With all that said, maybe hardcore fantasy fans will like it, but I would skip it in favour of pretty much anything else.

FIRE AND ICE is an animated sword and sorcery epic from director Ralph Bakshi, and as a film it's a real treat to watch. This movie features unheralded realistic animation of the main characters, achieved by a motion capture process in which real actors were used to capture the movements of the figures, then transformed into 2D drawings. It's very similar to the motion capture used for modern day CGI, but to my mind it's even more effective than that.The story is a good mix of CONAN THE BARBARIAN style heroic action with QUEST FOR FIRE-style setting and backdrop. The hand-drawn mountains are quite lovely to behold, while the central figures are lithe and realistic, reminiscent of the art of Boris Vallejo. The character of Teegra, for instance, would have delighted any teenage male viewer in terms of her voluptuous realism. The voice work is adequate. The action is intense and visceral, and the bad guys are suitably imposing, with one of them impressive enough to influence cinema until this day (check out HARDCORE HENRY if you don't believe me). Altogether this is a fine experience, and something of an instant favourite of mine.

Fantasy has been the first genre I got into when I was a child and animation was the first outlet for it. Animation and the fantasy genre really do suit each other hand in hand since animation has always carried a broader creative freedom in the visual medium that only live action can only hope to match. This is one of my favorite animated films of all time and it's my favorite film from one of my favorite animated directors Ralph Bachi.This film was just a dream come true since as a kid I was into the cartoon show "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" but also read some of the "Conan" comics, so you can guess how psyched I was watching this.This film is pretty much a straightforward fantasy action adventure, which is fine by me sometimes the best fantasy stories for me are ones that are simple and just being what they should be escapist fun.The animation is just fantastic and I personally things holds up today in my book anyway. Let alone the fact it's been done by Frank Rashatta whom did the art and cover art for "The Savage Sword of Conan", "Vampiera", and "Tarzan" all three I like which makes this film all the more good. From the character and creature animation, but I'm more impressed with the background animation which successfully creates this lush and vast fantasy world that is reminiscent of the "Conan" stories but also some of the worlds in Edgar Rice Burroghs "Tarzan" stories. There are jungles, forests, ruins, temples and a whole lot of other things I don't want to give away, like in any great fantasy story it always made me wonder what more is in that world. I even like the movements of the characters which is realistic all due to the technique of rotoscoping, I thought it was used in this film well and right. It's kinda interesting seeing these characters move this way where in most common animated features the characters movements seem to vary or be uneven in pacing sometimes which is sort of weird when you think about it.The music is just spectacular and memorable, it's personally one of my favorite and I think underrated movie scores. The theme song is one of my personal favorites because it is exciting and has that epic action adventure feel to it.The story I think is great it's not a deep story but as I said before this is escapist fun and the fact that Roy Thomas whom is a writer for the "Conan" comics wrote is is great, it's a shame he didn't write for any more animated films because this film showed how capable he was. This I feel also give the film sort of a throwback feel of some of the pulp fantasy stories from long time ago, our need to excape from reality and dive into a realm away from the familiar and were anything is possible.Characters like the typical hero Larn and princess Teggra both are two dimensional and are simply there to serve their functions. If there is a character that stands out is Blackwolf whom is just awesome, I really like the design of him which might have been a partial inspiration to the caveman version of Batman in Grant Morison's graphic novel "Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne". He has some of the best lines but is just simply a man of action, as he is just kick butt and taking names in the film.Yeah, I know not deep characterization but we're in this film for the action and adventure. And this film's action is just great, it is well choreographed and the battle sequences are creative and different, like one of my favorite battles sequences is seeing the tribe of fire invading by flying in with Teradacdyls. The action sequences are also very violent which is awesome, we do see some blood, I wouldn't say a heavy amount but enough to satisfy. It's always awesome seeing in those sequences Darkwolf use that Axe of his which could make comic book hero "Ax Cop" eat his heart out as we see how well he handles it.Fire and Ice burns.Rating: 4 stars

I won't claim to be a fan of Ralph Bakshi, because i am not. I have only watched 5 of his animated films so far: Coonskin, Wizards, Fritz the Cat and Lord of the Rings and finally "Fire and Ice". What i CAN claim, is that i found "Fire and Ice" to be the most enjoyable of the lot. It is a straightforward fantasy tale of swords and sorcery along the lines of Conan the Barbarian, but the beautiful artwork, realistic animation and lively film score effectively lends a very classic charm to this movie.Deserving first mention, is the animation itself. I do not care what people say about rotoscoping but in my opinion Ralph Bakshi used that technique very effectively here. I was amazed at how realistic the movements of the characters were. The style of directing and the photo-realistic character designs made "Fire and Ice" feel more like a big budget fantasy blockbuster than a cartoon. Sadly the level of art detail tends to get a little inconsistent, especially near the end of the movie. Some scenes just look really flat with little to no body contour details or fabric folds and shadows on the characters.With realistic moving characters, realistic action would naturally follow. Not only was the action well choreographed, but it was really brutal. I would be so bold as to compare the brutality of the action to live action movies like Zack Snyder's 300. I did notice however that though there was blood shed, the blood splatters were kept to a minimum. Again, a great choice by the creative team that only heightens the viewing experience by not taking things too "over the top".Though i do not recognize any "big names" in the cast, the voice actors manage to deliver a satisfying performance; keeping the delivery of every line realistically subdued and only hamming it up in the case of the bad guys.Did i say bad guys?? yes i did. Because that is exactly what the story is about, a standard good vs evil tale. Nothing really original about the story which seems to merely be a mix of pre-existing fantasy film clichés that involve scantly clad warriors and maidens. Anyone looking for "depth" would be sorely disappointed. THe characters are not given much development and some of them like Nekron and Darkwolf are one dimensional at best(I did however hear rumor of some deleted scenes that explains Darkwolf's obsession with killing Nekron and his mother. Scenes like that deserved full restoration and should have been included in the final cut to add a level of depth to the show). In fact, i would not be surprised to find out that the whole movie was just a "tech demo" of sorts to showcase the awesome animation and art, with the story cobbled together and thrown in as an afterthought in order to pass it off as a proper "movie".A true classic of a bygone era, "Fire and Ice" really captures the blazing spirit of adventure and mysticism with its beautiful renderings of fantastic creatures and charming characters. It is a unique vision of a world created by Ralph Bakshi and artist Frank Frazetta with a good measure of action and suspense. Would it hold up to animated film standards of today? Definitely not. But i urge animation fans in general to "get off your high horse" and give this simple but beautiful film a chance to grow on you. It is Truly a gem of the 80s worth checking out.