Written by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. Directed by Ralph Bakshi. Produced by Ralph Bakshi, Frank Frazetta, Lynne Betner, John W. Hyde and Richard R. St. Johns.
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The evil Queen Juliana and her son Nekron utilise their ability to weaponise glaciers to force their opponents to retreat southwards. Princess Teegra, the daughter of opposition leader King Jarol, is kidnapped by Juliana’s subhuman minions, because the ice queen believes Teegra should be her son’s bride.

In the ensuing adventure, Teegra escapes from the subhumans but is eventually recaptured, blond-haired hero Larn, who grows close to the princess, vows to free her from Nekron’s icy lair, and wolf-masked warrior-dude Darkwolf kicks subhuman ass! Added to the mix are various monsters, a witch, and lots of lava at the end.

Part of the wave of early 80s sword and sorcery films, this Ralph Bakshi animated production has a fairly minimal plot, written by Marvel scribes Gerry Conway & Roy Thomas, that provides lots of opportunities for the underdressed protagonists to be chased by or fight caveman-like subhumans. Adding to the sword and sorcery credentials of this film is the fact that fantasy artist supreme Frank Frazetta was Bakshi’s main collaborator on the project.

The mix of rotoscoped characters and painted background scenes (painted by Thomas Kinkade and James Gurney) lacks the finesse of Disney, but the style does capture the feel of Marvel’s Conan comics (which were written by Roy Thomas) and the action is more violent than anything seen in a Disney movie.

Since my first viewing of the film when it was released, I have retained a fondness for it. Being a Bakshi film, FIRE AND ICE has a small budget that hurts its large scale moments (such as shots of a fast-moving glacier wrecking a village): these scenes are somewhat lacking in detail and seem a little rushed. But the smaller scale action sequences (all the hand-to-hand combat stuff ) are really well handled. There’s something about Bakshi’s rotoscope technique (the use of live action photography to act as the source material for the cell animation) that gives the fight action a vicious, realistic-looking, adult edge.

The design of the production definitely has Frazetta’s aesthetic fingerprints plastered all over it. Amongst other things, Frazetta created sculpted busts to aid the animators, and he produced character designs.

The shapely fantasy femme Teegra, the Neanderthal-like subhumans, and the axe-wielding berserker Darkwolf are all obviously the creations of Frazetta: you can see their likenesses in many of his paintings. Most of the characters are very under-clothed, and it’s no surprise that the film’s Costume Designer was Frazetta!

The creatures featured in the film include a cyclopean lake octopus, a giant swamp lizard, black-furred wolves, a bug-like beast that chows down on a subhuman’s arm, and pterosaur-esque flying reptiles that are ridden into battle against the villains.

FIRE AND ICE is a pulpy, fast-paced, rollicking fantasy-action adventure that doesn’t pretend to be deep or meaningful. Basically, it’s a fine piece of animated eye candy that’s always worth an occasional rewatch. 

Here are behind the scenes shots showing the live action actors who were used as reference for the rotoscoping…

Let’s end this post with one more look at the rampaging rotoscoped mayhem…