Wizards (Netflix Series)

Wizards is an American adult animated post-apocalyptic science fantasy television series created by Ralph Bakshi and co-produced along with George Lucas. The series is a retelling of Bakshi's 1977 animated film Wizards.

The series features the battle between two powerful wizards. Avatar, the good and kind wizard who represents the powers of magic and his twin brother Blackwolf, the evil mutant wizard who represents the powers of technology. The series was released on February 9, 2017 coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the original films release date.

Premise
Earth has being ravaged by a nuclear war instigated by five terrorists. 800 thousand years later Earth has regenerated, with only a handful of humans having survived the nuclear holocaust with the rest either being killed off or hideously mutated by the nuclear fallout leaving very few unaffected. Eventually creatures of legend, Elves, Dwarves, Faeries, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Dragons and Unicorns resurface and live alongside the unaffected humans in the idyllic land of Montagar. Eventually the queen of the Faeries, Delia gives birth to a pair of twin wizards, the good and kind Avatar and the evil and cruel Blackwolf. Years later Blackwolf, having equipped his armies with guns and ancient military technology sends his robot assassin Necron 99 to hunt down and kill Avatar

Opening Narration
''My name is Freya, the crown Princess of Montagar. and I want to tell you a story. A story of war and peace, a story of the everlasting struggle for world supremacy, fought between the powers of technology and magic. A story myself, my beloved James, my brother Freyr, our companions Weehawk, Peace, Durin and Dain. But mostly of the the great wizard, Avatar himself. But first we need to go back, back to the year 1999 A.D. itself. The Earth blew up in a thousand atomic fireballs, the first blast was set off by five terrorists and the following war plunged the world into darkness and death. It took 1'000'000 years for the Earth to heal itself and for the radioactive clouds to allow the sun to once again shine, by then however only a handful of humans had survived the nuclear holocaust. The rest of humanity had either perished or had changed into hideous mutants by the fallout, these mutants species floundered in the badlands, radioactive lands which never allowed them to return to their ancestors form and made them cruel and hateful to the world. For the unaffected humans all hope seemed to be lost and they wanted to die, but they soon learned not all hope was lost. In the good lands of Montagar, that were never poisoned by the radiation, we came back from our long sleep. Elves, Dwarves, Faeries, Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Dark Elves, Dragons and Unicorns, creatures of fantasy and legend, the true ancestors of man. The Elves, Dwarves and Faeries took pity on the humans and offered them aid and friendship, the Dark Elves, Orcs, Goblins and Trolls refused to have anything to do with the humans due to their ancestors driving us into hiding eons ago and left. 5'000 years later, Delia queen of the Faeries was presiding over the Feast of Plenty, which celebrated 5 millennia of peace and prosperity between us and our human friends. During the celebration a mysterious storm began brewing, Delia fell into a trance and left for her palace, confused the Faeries and humans followed her to the palace. The storm continued to grow until it was a raging cyclone hoovering over the palace, then as soon as it had appeared the storm was over. Delia then emerged from her palace holding a pair of twin sons in her arms, one of the Elves realized that these were not ordinary twins but magical wizards. The baby wizards were polarized like magnetics, one drawing with a strong pull, but the other repelled and was impossible for anyone to get near. Avatar, the kind and good wizard spent much of his boyhood entertaining his mother with the most beautiful of visions. But his brother, Blackwolf the mutant wizard would never visit his mother and would instead spend his boyhood torturing small animals and of building empires. When Avatar and Blackwolf had both grown to manhood a great tragedy had befallen Montagar, Delia had been stricken with a deadly illness. Avatar tried desperately to use his magic to heal her, tragically it was in vain and all he could do was cradle her in his arms and wept. When Blackwolf heard of his mothers passing, he was excited and gathered an army of mutants to take the throne of Montagar. When Avatar learned he was enraged, he gathered the armies of the Elves, Dwarves, Faeries and humans together to stop Blackwolf. After a long war, Avatar and Blackwolf confronted each other and began a furious duel. They fought until they had nearly destroyed each other, but Avatar's magic was stronger as he had the emotional loss of his mother which drove him on. Blackwolf and his army were defeated and banished to dark realm of Scortch, but before he left he swore to Avatar, "the day will come my brother when I will return and make this a planet where mutants rule". Blackwolf then headed off, leaving Avatar very disturbed and pondering when he would return.''

Avatar's Fellowship

 * Ewan McGregor as Avatar - The main protagonist, he is a wise and powerful wizard who is the protector of Montagar and the wizard representing magic. He was born to the Fairy queen Delia along with Blackwolf during the Feast of Plenty celebrating 5'000 years of peace between Faeries and humans, years later following Delia's death he fought and banished Blackwolf after he had attempted to take her throne by force. 1'000 years later he found a young orphaned human named James whose family had been killed by Blackwolf's Orcs, he adopted James and took him in as his apprentice.
 * Tommy Knight as James - A human who is Avatar's apprentice and adoptive son whom he has raised ever since he was 5 years old. He was orphaned after his family were killed and his village destroyed by Blackwolf's Orcs, he was found by Avatar who took him in and trained him as his apprentice.
 * Yasmin Paige as Princess Freya - A beautiful Elf with flaming red hair who is the princess of Montagar and the beloved of James. She and James first met when they were both 5 years old, shortly after James was taken in by Avatar following the destruction of his village and death of his family by Blackwolf's Orcs.
 * Callum Turner as Prince Freyr - The Elf warrior prince of Montagar who is Freya's brother and James' best friend.
 * Bailey Noble as Elinore - A Fairy and the daughter of President Solomon.
 * Gianpaolo Venuta as Weehawk -An Elf berserker member of the Elf royal guard.
 * Robert Craighead & Adam John Harrington as Durin & Dain - Two Dwarf brothers and warriors from the Dwarf Kingdom of
 * Anthony Daniels as Necron 99/Peace - A robot who was built by Blackwolf to assassin the practitioners of magic. After he assassinated President Solomon, he was incapacitated by Avatar and kept in his house where he was transformed into an avenging instrument of justice and was renamed Peace.

Scortch

 * Mark Hamill as Blackwolf - Avatar's evil twin brother who is the main antagonist and the wizard representing warfare and technology. When he was a child he would never visit his ailing mother Delia, instead he would spend his time torturing small animals and learning black magic. Years following the death of his mother and banishment by Avatar for attempting to take over Montagar, Blackwolf went to live in the dark radiated lands of Scortch where he gathered a vast army of Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and Mutants and began salvaging and restoring ancient technology like guns, tanks, armored vehicles and planes. His
 * Andy Serkis as General Grimskull & Larry Lizard -
 * General Grimskull - An Orc who is Blackwolf's most favorite general and his right hand man. Years ago he was sent by to destroy a village of humans after learning that one of their children possessed powerful magic.
 * Larry Lizard - A cowardly lizard mutant and Blackwolf's obedient servant.
 * TBA as Ratso, Skullface & Robin - A trio of Goblin triplets who serve Blackwolf as his assassin's.
 * Ratso - The oldest brother who is the leader of the triplets and the most intelligent.
 * Skullface - The middle triplet and the most sadistic of the three.
 * Robin - The youngest triplet who is the least violent and wicked as his siblings. He is mostly nice for a Goblin
 * Christopher Knights as Lorgrin - A large and powerful Troll who is Blackwolf's bodyguard and is always seen by his side. He is shown to be capable of tearing an Elf prisoners skull apart, he rarely shown speaking and mostly communicates in grunts.
 * TBA as Admiral Scurvy - A Dark Elf who is an admiral in Blackwolf's navy. He was given command of a Type 1936A Destroyer that Blackwolf salvaged and restored as his flagship in the Scortch Navy, he would then procced to attack and sink the ships of the
 * TBA as Lilith -

Montagar

 * Carrie Fisher as The Great Dragon - A very powerful, ancient and wise Dragon who was born during the Age of Legend, a time eons ago when when Earth was filled with magic and humans coexisted with mythical beings. When the Age of Legend ended and humans became the dominant lifeforms on Earth, she went into an enchanted sleep and slept for eons.
 * TBA as King Oberon & Queen Titania - The parents of Freya and Freyr and the king and queen of Monatagar.
 * TBA as President Solomon - Elinore's father and the President of Montagar.
 * TBA as Delia - The former queen of the Faeries and the mother of Avatar and Blackwolf. 1'000 years before the events of the series, she was presiding the Feast of Plenty, which celebrated 5'000 years of peace with the surviving humans. During the celebration a mysterious brewed which caused Delia to go into a trance and head for her home, when one of the Elves went inside to check on her and discovered that she had given birth to Avatar and Blackwolf.
 * Golden Mane - A Unicorn stallion who is Freya's beloved steed.

The Free States

 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Abdul - A Desert Elf chieftain and an old friend to Avatar.



Magical Races and Creatures

 * Humans - The former dominant race on planet Earth.
 * Elves - A race of magical humanoids who resemble humans except with pointed ears, pale skin and perpetual youth.
 * Dark Elves -
 * Dwarves - A race of short and stout magical humanoids with beards who are famed for their skills in metallurgy.
 * Faeries - Magical humans with wings who ranged in several sizes, from small to human sized.
 * Orcs - Brutish humanoids with pointed ears, sharp teeth and greenish-gray molted skin. They are a warlike race who have long been known to serve evil kings and sorcerers, they also make loyal soldiers to whomever they serve.
 * Goblins - Lanky green humanoids with pointed ears, noses and sharp teeth. They are known for being sly and skilled assassin's
 * Trolls - Large and very strong humanoids either green or tan skin and skins, two spikes protruding for the sides of their head, one on the top of their head and seven running down their backs. Trolls are known for being mostly unintelligent save for a few,
 * Dragons - Large scaly reptilian beasts with wings and the ability to breath fire.
 * Unicorns - White horses with a golden horn in the center of their heads.
 * Mutants -
 * Mutant Humans - The descendants of humans who were mutated by the fallout from the Great Atomic War.
 * Mutant Octopus -

Locations

 * Montagar - A land that was left unscathed by the Great Atomic War.
 * Avatar's Home -
 * The Royal Palace - The home of the Royal Elf Family of Montagar
 * East Elfland -
 * Scortch - A vast barren and radiated wasteland located beyond the mountains of Montagar.
 * Scortch One - A large castle located in the heart of Scortch and the home of Blackwolf

Differences from the original film
Whilst mostly having the same plot as the original film, the story line has being expanded and the characters changed for example:


 * The series features several new characters who did not appear in the original film, these include Avatar's human apprentice and adopted son James, Elf Princess Freya, Elf Prince Freyr, Elf King Oberon and Queen Titania, the Dwarf warrior brothers Durin and Dain, Freya's Unicorn steed Golden Mane The Great Dragon, Blackwolf's Orc General Grimskull, his Goblin assassins Ratso, Skullface and Robin and his Troll bodyguard, Lorgrin.
 * Humans are shown living alongside the magical beings. In the original they were all either wiped out or mutated.
 * Elinore is portrayed as being more villainous in series, she is also revealed to be a secret agent of Blackwolf. She later betrays the fellowship and kills Avatar before fleeing to Scortch One in one of Blackwolf's tanks, she is later confronted and killed in Scortch One by Freya.
 * Avatar is portrayed as being human sized and is shown wearing shoes. In the original film he was Dwarf sized and was barefoot.
 * In the original film Avatar was portrayed as been cynical and somewhat perverted. He is portrayed in the seires as been less cynical, more willing and kind.
 * In the original film Peace was killed by Elinore when they, Avatar and Weehawk were attacked by a tank, whilst in the series Peace survives and it is Avatar who is killed by Elinore.
 * Due to Avatar's death, it is James who kills Blackwolf.
 * Blackwolf's wife is named Lilith. In the original film she was unnamed.

Trivia

 * The series was released on Netflix on February 9th, 2017, which was the fortieth anniversary of the original films release.
 * This is the third series in which actors Tommy Knight and Yasmin Paige have starred together. The first time was in the Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures and the second was the E4 drama series Glue.
 * Callum Turner had previously starred with Tommy Knight and Yasmin Paige on the E4 drama series Glue.
 * Ewan McGregor, Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and Andy Serkis have all starred together in the Star Wars Saga.
 * Mark Hamill previously voiced the character of Sean in the original film.
 * This was Carrie Fisher's final acting role shortly before her death.
 * This would be the first time that Robert Craighead and Adam John Harrington would both voice a pair of Dwarf brothers. The second time would be a year later in the 2018 video game God of War where they both voiced Dwarf brothers Brok and Sindri.
 * Montagar is located in Germany, whilst Scortch is located in France.
 * The weapons and vehicles used by Blackwolf's army include Luger P08 pistols, Karabiner 98k rifles, MP 34 and MP 40 submachhine guns, MG 08 machine guns, 88 mm Flak 37 Anti-Aircraft Guns, Panzer IV tanks, Sd. Kfz. 251 half-tracks, Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter planes and a Type 1936A Destroyer all of which were used by Nazi Germany during the Second World War.