Fire and Ice (1983)
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Fire and Ice Movie Review
Fire and Ice is a 1983 animated fantasy adventure film directed by Ralph Bakshi. It’s without any doubt his greatest achievement.
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“Next time you present me with
one of your little sluts, Mother dear…
I’ll squash you like a bug“
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It follows the villainous Nekron and his mother, Queen Juliana, attacking the human race from their fortress. They incur the wrath of Larn, a warrior whose entire village was destroyed by ice. When Nekron’s underlings kidnap a beautiful princess, Larn sets out to rescue her.
First and foremost, this is an epic fantasy story that is mostly pretty solid. In reality, the emphasis is on the action-adventure elements and the visuals so the story was only rushed and barely explained, but the core is very good and the mythology is actually terrific.
I wished that it was better explained though. And I wished for better character development for sure. The development is weak, but undoubtedly most of these people are highly memorable and interesting. Larn is an archetypal muscular blonde hero from the eighties and those sub-humans were simply overly used. They were a fine obstacle, but I wanted more from the others to do.
Nekron himself is a very powerful villain. His mother is also great. His personality, design and especially his powers are very cool, and all of his action sequences are the best of the movie. He died stupidly in the end, but everything that happened before that with him was terrific.
But let’s talk about Teegra. She is the most problematic aspect of this entire flick. Yes, she is important for the story to unfold, but she represents the worst tendencies from Bakshi – sex-obsessed representations of women and basically the objectification of them. Yes, he did that somewhat with Larn too who’s a man, but still she had such enormous tits and buttocks, and it was simply ludicrous and unnecessary to have them emphasized so excessively.
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But Fire and Ice is so damn engaging and intriguing in its world building and adventure that I forgot about its characterization and storytelling flaws easily. Yes, this is the kind of movie that appeals to me despite me not liking these epic fantasy flicks usually, but the action serves in the context of the adventure and thus every action sequence here is exhilarating to follow.
Simply following these two young people trek on this very dangerous terrain was thrilling to behold. They encountered many different obstacles – sub-humans, giant lizards, a giant octopus etc. – and every such scene was a lot of fun with only the first group being overused. The film thus wildly succeeds as an adventure flick, but also as an interesting fantasy piece with Nekron being such a great, entertaining villain.
What I loved about this film is also its animation. The world building is so awesome that all of these creatures and intriguing places and terrains needed good visuals and thankfully they got that. This is by far the director’s most visually appealing, but also most artistic achievement. The designs on the characters are standard, but the imagery is splendid, the animation is polished and some of the cinematographic choices were quite inspired.
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Fire and Ice is thus easily Bakshi’s best directorial effort as the direction is so good. The pacing is also excellent. The minimum dialogue went well in line with the minimalist approach to storytelling and an emphasis on great audio-visuals, but still some more explanations were needed instead of that exposition in the beginning.
Thanks to superb animation, a lot of intriguing imagery, memorable creatures and fun fantastical elements, Fire and Ice is an engaging fantasy adventure flick with superb action sequences that serve so well in the context of the spirited adventure. Yes, the women are objectified once again and the storytelling is minimalist to a fault, but still this is undoubtedly the greatest, richest and most entertaining entry in Ralph Bakshi’s filmography.
