THE SWORD IN THE STONE

title: THE SWORD IN THE STONE

year: 1963

genre: animation

studio: Disney

rating: ***

This has as much to do with King Arthur as The Phantom Menace does with Darth Vader, as a clumsy pre-teen squire named "Wart", working for a mean step-father and bullying brother, befriends the wizard Merlin, more goofy than wise, and his talking pet owl. Merlin turns the kid into several animals including a fish, squirrel and bird, teaching him more about natural selection than anything that'd aid him in his future position as King of England, which is only shown for the last five minutes after "Wart" pulls the titular sword from the stone with inevitable ease. The songs aren't too annoying, the animation looks good, and it definitely won't bore the kiddies.

HEAVY METAL

title: HEAVY METAL

year: 1981

rating: ***

The sexually explicit, violently-glorious cartoon is tops for about an hour, and then, during the last thirty minutes involving the searing, pointless journey of a gorgeous sword-wielding chick who flies a giant turkey (which is the movie/album/poster/VHS/DVD image), the animators get carried away by their own visual talents, abandoning the energetically flowing pace of the first hour involving wanton babes shedding their clothes and monstrous heads being hacked-off with some cool tunes (few of them actually heavy metal) as we follow the handoff-journey of a murderous space-born green orb through the lives of characters such as a Film-Noir-esque cabbie (voiced by Robert Romanus i.e. "Mikey" from MEAN STREETS); a nerdy kid who becomes a bald strongman on another planet; zombies making a WWII flying ace's life a living hell; and several other deliciously weird tales. John Candy, providing voices for a few characters, takes you out of the escapist-factor just a bit... but no matter. It's still a dynamic visual treat. And then some. 

FIRE AND ICE

title: FIRE AND ICE

year: 1983

cast: Steve Sandor

director: Ralph Bakshi

animator: Frank Frazetta

rating: ****

The plot isn't much: the daughter of an important warrior is kidnapped and a blonde warrior must rescue her and rid the land of the encroaching glaciers... and this scant setup works to an advantage. Since it's is a fantasy we don't get a big epic, instead a lot of little battle scenes pitting the blonde buff dude and the sexy brunette chick against really nasty creatures. The direction by Ralph Bakshi of the incredible animation by Frank Frazetta makes this a really entertaining, very bloody yet somehow laidback fantasy adventure that gets right down to the nitty gritty without a lot of rambling backstory.