a review of

i watched this as part of a group stream that played the director's commentary afterwards which really elevated my opinion of this movie. lots of people told me it was going to be quite bad; but actually, it's a pretty cromulent movie of this genre and era, if you compare it to other stuff from this time. they were forced to pivot away from the sword and sorcery genre by the flop of another film, and tried to make it more science fiction. This resulted in a hybrid film which has more interesting aesthetics than the typical s&s but still fits that style of plot. the practical effects are great and the commentary describes how they made them, which i can highly recommend. many effects like the fire were done through the use of real-time mirrors, and the stop motion is cool. i do feel bad for the animals in the film including a drugged tiger and clydesdales running on treadmills, though the credits do claim that no animals were harmed. The Big Bad is terrible. i can see why they slathered the lens in vaseline. it's pretty anticlimactic and it seems like it is extremely far away from the protagonists who could be in another country. very weird perspective and scale. i was sad because i wanted the cyclops and wizard to date.