YMMV / Wizards

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Was Eleanor really brainwashed? The only proof we have is her own word, as we never see her being possessed, and the act itself seems to go even against Blackwolf's own policies, which are about assassinating the enemy leaders and not controlling them. Judging by all that, it's entirely possible to believe that she was a Manipulative Bitch who pretended to desert to Blackwolf's army in order to both gain entrance to his fortress and have the chance to kill Peace to avenge her father. Even worse, if it is true, it might mean she is actually manipulating Avatar's own attraction to her by the end of the film to help her found a kingdom.
  • Were Avatar and Blackwolf's natures predestined? Given that they are even officially described as some sort of mystical incarnation of good and evil, it might mean they have no free will and are just acting out of their respective predetermined personalities. Also, considering Blackwolf clearly believes it is awful to be a mutant, it might be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: he became evil because he resents being born a mutant while his brother received a much better life as an elf.
• Anticlimax Boss: The final battle between Avatar and Blackwolf. Avatar just cuts the BS and shoots him with a handgun, killing Blackwolf on the spot and ending his reign of terror then and there.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: For many people, Elinore is by far the most memorable part of the film.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The scene with the priests dancing around, spanking and crucifying each other among other things.
• Complete Monster: Blackwolf fancies himself to be the next Adolf Hitler. Millions of years after the world is devastated by a nuclear war, Blackwolf and his brother Avatar are born in the kingdom of Montagar. After their mother dies, Blackwolf is overjoyed, seeing this as his chance to seize power. Avatar defeats Blackwolf in battle and banishes him. Blackwolf moves to the kingdom of Scortch, a radioactive waste land filled with mutants and takes over. Blackwolf sends out assassins to search the land and kill anyone who practices magic. Blackwolf also assassinates all the leaders of the free states so he can be at a better position to strike. Blackwolf's mutant army is at first undisciplined and unmotivated and does not win battles. However, Blackwolf eventually finds a projector and some old Nazi propaganda films, which he uses to inspire his troops and bring fear and confusion to his enemies, so now Blackwolf's troops often slaughter the opposing side. Blackwolf's troops seize a village and end up killing all the prisoners they captured, as well as blowing up a church. Blackwolf claims mutants are a Master Race and wants to fight for their interests, but when he discovers his son will be a mutant, he plans on killing him.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Necron 99/Peace. A badass robotic assassin with a design that can best be described as Bender cosplaying as Deadpool as a cartoon Nazi. His design was so striking he wound up on the film's most well known poster◊ and even spawned some merchandise◊.
• Evil Is Cool: Blackwolf's army which is comprised of mutants, demons from Hell and everything in-between.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The mounts ridden by the characters are two-legged horses.
  • A fantasy world populated by magical monsters and mutants after a nuclear holocaust. Sound familiar?
  • Peace, a robot assassin, was originally known as "Necron 99."
  • Background artist Ian Miller would continue to make contributions to two very iconic brands of science fantasy.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "They killed Fritz!"
  • Bakshi referring to the film as "A family picture" in his distinct accent on the DVD is now one of The Nostalgia Critic's catchphrases (appropriately enough when he asks What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?), even though Ralph himself never actually said this.
• Narm:
  • Necron 99/Peace's nasally, almost Jewish sounding voice coupled with a You No Take Candle speech pattern post-reprogramming kinda diminishes the badass presence he'd built up and many people, including internet movie reviewer Brandon Tenold, have pointed out that it probably would've been better if he'd stayed silent throughout the film instead.
  • The climax of the movie where Avatar pulls a pistol out of nowhere and shoots Blackwolf dead is so unexpected that it's hard not to laugh at it. It almost feels like a joke, especially considering how unexpected it is for the otherwise very pacifistic Avatar.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • One of the fairies is voiced by Mark Hamill around the same time that he got the role of Luke Skywalker.
  • Illustrator and background artist Ian Miller would later go on to work for Games Workshop.
• So Okay, It's Average: The movie has had its loyal fans since its release, especially among Bakshi fans, but for many the movie falls flat and today many find it has not aged well. The most common criticisms are a clumsily handled and unsubtle story with a lot of dialogue that tries too hard to sound poetic, a mostly unremarkable cast of characters outside of Avatar and Peace, and pacing that tends to alternate between going too fast or too slow. The animation and humor are the most lauded aspects of the movie, though the first does contain some severely rough moments, like some laughably bad rotoscoping that happens in the battle scenes.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • There are some scenes when a character is seen from a different angle, but the background behind them does not change. This is especially noticeable in the final battle in Blackwolf’s castle.
  • Tracing devil horns onto live-action footage of Sword & Sandal movies and soldiers fighting in World War II makes for as convincing an evil mutant/demon army as you'd expect.
• Squick: Eleanor becomes Avatar's love interest because of the fact that he looks much older than her.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The misconception of the movie being made for children comes from its PG rating^note  Bakshi's lowest rating for a movie as well as Bakshi himself referring to it as such; despite its copious amounts of violence and the well-endowed Eleanor in what looks like a Vegas showgirl outfit. Bakshi clarified in 2012 that when he called the movie a "kids film," he was really inferring to *older* kids aged 13 and up, not actual children. This is also reflected in the film's previously mentioned rating in America, as receiving a PG rating in the 70s was the equivalent of receiving a PG-13 today— at the time, the PG-13 rating didn't even exist. So while the film certainly isn't for small children, it's much more kid-friendly than Fritz the Cat or Coonskin.
  • Even This Very Wiki made this mistake because, at one point, this film was cataloged under What Do You Mean, It's for Kids? despite it not being a children's film.

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