I could do a entire Masters paper on him alone, about his life, his works and his dedication to make animation more adult centered.However, I will save that for another time. This I will focus on one of his less/most popular films.Confused about that statement? Well let's start with the history of this film.
Fire and Ice was a collaboration between Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, Ralph being known for his works in animation and Frank being known for his works in comics.
Where Fire and Ice draws his inspiration from is Conan the Barbarian, which is absolutly no surprise. The year before, Conan the Barbarian had its release with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which launched the decade of the "Barbarian flicks" with such instant classics as Yor: Hunter of the Future(1983) and Barbarian Queen(1985).But the bigger supporter of such inspirational form is Frank Frazetta himself, who is outmost well known for his covers and movie posters, making the Conan comics very popular with his "Barbarian and wench" illustrations.
So with Ralph Bakshi, forerunner of the adult centered western animations, and Frank Frazetta, maker of the most inspirational Barbarian covers ever, you have a duo worthy of creating a barbarian themed hack'n slash flick.
Being a very action-oriented movie, Fire and Ice used a technique that was very familiar to Ralph; Rotoscoping. Basicly meaning filming real actors, and draw over them to make fluid motions. Essentially the predecessor to todays Motion Capture.This makes the movie have a very natural fluid movement to their characters, and doesn't even fall into the trap of unnatural "natural" faces on the characters that makes them look distorted and weird.
All in all it's right up the alley of Ralph and Frank, using Ralphs interests in making the animation industry make films for adults as well, using mature themes and sexualisations of both male and female characters, and Franks own "barbarian" artworks that uses the explicit styling of the hardened ripped barbarian and the voluptous wench that seeks his comfort, or even takes up arms herself.
Despite the combined creative efforts of Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, Fire and Ice never became a block-buster flick with a total gross earning of $760.000 out of a budget of $1.2 million, but has in later time achieved a cult following for fans of Ralph Bakshi's works.
If you are interested in learning more, please watch my video review of it on blip.tv.http://blip.tv/animationconundrum/animation-conundrum-ep-2-fire-and-ice-4261884
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