ANI-MOVIES, *Fire And Ice

Ralph Bakshi had already done sword and sorcery in animated films like Wizards and The Lord Of The Rings, the underground indy cartoonist teamed up with fantasy artist master Frank Frazetta to create Fire and Ice. Released in 1983, the concept of mature animation had peaked with titles like Heavy Metal(which by the way Bakshi had nothing to do with), this fantasy was set in a more prehistoric world as opposed to most Arthurian settings.

Set sometime in the past when humans and dinosaurs apparently still existed together, a kingdom ruled by the water-bending Nekron expands his terrain with ice flows, stopping only at the fiery volcano domain of King Jarol. His daughter, the sizzling Princess Teegra, is kidnapped by Nekron's cavemen minions. She escapes, and crosses path with Lam, the last of a tribe wiped out by Nekron's forces. Teegra is recaptured, so Lam teams up with the wandering masked warrior called Darkwolf(imagine a caveman version of Batman!). The two barbarians get help from Jarol's pterodactyl pilots to launch a Death Star-ish attack on Nekron's keep.

If you were a fan of Thundar The Barbarian, then this one is totally up your alley, or at least what most fans wanted the original He-Man series to be! There's some fantastic rotoscope animation, which had improved since Bakshi's films of the 70s, and Frazetta's designs are truly iconic, especially since Darkwolf was based on his legendary Death Dealer character. There isn't any blatant sex or nudity as you might thing for a primordial fantasy, but still plenty of action and violence. A live-action remake is currently being looked into, but it couldn't possibly compare to the awesome spectacle of the original!