While the early 1980s seemed to be sounding the end of Disney animation styles, animator/directors like Ralph Bakshi were taking animated film to new levels artistically in films like Wizards and The Lord of the Rings.  Bakshi’s often fascinating color palettes and realistic drawings are still amazing to watch on the screen even if the film narratives themselves do not always flow as well.  Partially, one must suspend their expectations about storytelling to absorb the detailed scenes and landscapes in these films.  This is no particularly true for Fire and Ice (1983).

For this film, Bakshi invited noted illustrator and artist Frank Frazetta to participate with Frazetta’s unique style being the inspiration for the character designs and landscapes in the film.  In many ways, the end result is like an illustrated comic book.  Against this imagery, animators worked to recreate realistic movement in characters that is quite remarkable.  Where the film fails perhaps is in its dialogue, which is fortunately sparse.  The story itself is fairly basic, a bit Conan-like perhaps.  It takes place as the “Ice Age” ends and an evil ice lord, Nekron, wages war against the fire lord Jarol whose daughter is abducted to try and bring an end to Jarol’s power.  He enlists the help of Larn, whose village is destroyed by Nekron’s minions at the beginning of the film, to help rescue his daughter.  To aid in creating the right atmosphere for the film, Bakshi turned to William Kraft, a noted timpanist (founder and director of the Los Angeles Percussion Ensemble) and concert composer.  Kraft’s film work is rather sparse and this is the first of his scores to appear on disc.  His first score was for the low budget horror film Psychic Killer (1975) followed by Avalanche (1978).  He provided music for The Chisholms TV series and a score for the TV movie Bill (1981).  Some may recognize him for his conducting roles on Patrick Doyle scores in the early 1990s.  For Fire and Ice, Kraft was encouraged to draw a symphonic score that required thematic development to help overcome the lack of dialogue and to provide music that could pull the audience into the landscapes.

The orchestral writing is certainly one of the score’s best assets that takes a variety of styles and melds them into a whole.  One has to get past the “Main Title” music a bit which takes its cues from Jaws and The Rite of Spring before launching into a bright fanfare.  This shifts into intense atmospheric clusters with a plaintive melodic idea.  Once these thematic threads are introduced, the score enters into another of its exciting action sequences with great asymmetrical rhythms and off-accents.  The harmonic structure tends to be in more open intervals here suggesting ancient modes while a variety of contemporary orchestral technique will remind listeners of Corigliano with suggestions of Stravinsky and primitivist aesthetics driving much of the score appropriately.  Kraft moves effortlessly from dense textures held together by short motivic ostinato patterns and intensified by shifting ideas throughout the the orchestra.  The result is an orchestral support that manages to pull the viewer into the film, though some may find that the score overwhelms the imagery at times.  The music also has moments of sensuality (“Meet Teegra” and “Teegra is Abducted”) and beauty (“Thoughts of Teegra”) in the moments that involve Teegra, Jarol’s daughter.  These provide nice contrasting material to some of the more brutal musical sequences.  One these, “Larn and Teegra,” is a mix of magic and playfulness with hints of danger intruding along the way.

Fire and Ice celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year and a recent reissue of the film allows animated film buffs a chance to appreciate the attempt.  BSX’s release is intended to honor this score on its anniversary and many who inadvertently check out this film will find themselves wondering if a score release exists.  Fortunately, this limited edition is available for those who find the score for this film one of its additional highlights.  Fire and Ice is a great score that grabs its required temp-track influences (shifting from derivative to original very quickly) and moves them into fascinating orchestral realms that work quite well on its own making a fitting companion to fans of scores for Krull and Conan the Barbarian.  This is another fine BSX release!

In Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, a shift in time effects The Flash and alters history that results in a fight between the forces of Atlantis and the Amazons thus setting up conflict between Aquaman and Wonder Woman.  The Justice League must discover a way to mend this rift.  Frederik Wiedmann has already garnered much critical acclaim for his work on The Green Lantern, and here continues to expand the animated superhero universe with an exciting score.

The opening “The Incident” is a mostly string piece that sets the tone for the style of the score with interesting thematic material introduced, but also with hints of darkness as it moves to its conclusion.  Wiedmann adds in a fuller orchestral sound for big action cue moments (“Rogue”) and his thematic ideas manage to provide additional interest as they soar over interesting string textures on full display in “Justice League.”  To further set apart some of the cultures in the story, Wiedmann uses a collection of guitars to depict the Amazons (“Chased by Amazons”), and ambient and electronic music for Aquaman’s underwater world (“Atlantean War”).  There is even a little noir-ish trumpet to kick off “Sin City” before it heads into action music territory with its drum sequencing.  Chris Bleth’s unique ethnic woodwinds enter the picture in the mysterious “Inside the Batcave.”  The score is well sequenced here shifting from slower narrative support to exciting action cues all held together by thematic ideas.  Some will be surprised at a sort of anti-hero music used for “Superman”, a result of the direction of the story here.  Wiedmann’s use of electronics, often coupled with orchestral effects, is also excellent at setting tone for sequences.  These notably are all quite brief tracks in which Wiedmann must paint his musical support but he is quite adept at this ratcheting up the energy level rather quickly, but not just simply turning on his drum machines.  This helps make the score a rather engaging work overall.  Both “Last Man Standing” and “Hell of a Messenger” provide some longer musical moments towards the end of the disc that help bring together a variety of thematic ideas and sounds of the score.

The Flashpoint Paradox makes for a rather exciting action score.  Thematic ideas are rather engaging and the sound shifts for different characters help delineate the narrative somewhat in this presentation as well.  Wiedmann continues to provide some excellent musical support for these superhero animated films.

The present release is a 2000 limited edition CD available from La-La Land Records.