A decidedly adult Western (non-anime) animated dark fantasy film that shares DNA with older titles like Fire and Ice, Wizards, Heavy Metal, and Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings. I’m surprised it exists, though I’m a little soft on how much I enjoyed it.

The film is the history of a world suffering under an ageless cycle of violence. Warlords, necromancers, witches, and warriors vie for the power granted them by a blue flower. We get its origin in a forgotten swamp, the oral history of man vs. the gods, and the cycle of horrific violence that grinds humanity to dust.

This is a dark, nihilistic film with a dash of cosmic horror. It’s very R rated with a ton of incidental full frontal nudity (of all stripes) and gallons of blood, ripped flesh, and gore. This is very old school, Frazetta-inspired dark fantasy. It uses rotoscoped actors in front of sometimes surreal, sometimes stark landscapes and cities… it’s an interesting look that immediately turned me off but I got used to it. As far as rotoscoping goes, it doesn’t have the same level of uncanny valley that some such efforts have had in the past.

The film’s structure is fairly unconventional. There are many thinly-written characters in it as, indeed, the film takes places over thousands of years. There is a central battle between two characters that weaves in and out, but largely this movie is more focused on the image and the big picture storytelling.

I felt a little underwhelmed by this approach but I also appreciated the effort. When the movie does occasionally settle down into more traditional storytelling, it’s pretty cool in a way that would have royally geeked out my teenage self. Your results will depend on how much you like (or used to like) this kind of stuff. I doubt it’ll convert anyone who looks askance at a Conan, Red Sonja, or John Carter book cover.

I’d say I was disappointed by the film but there’s still enough there to intrigue me. And I did find myself engaged more than I expected in the final act. It’s certainly not the type of film that gets made much anymore, at least in non-anime form so credit to the effort, for sure.

Score: 76