The Wizard of Speed and Time (1989)

Truly Dreadful Film

This is How Movies Should Be Made

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Mike Jitlov is a lovable genius of animation. The Wizard of Speed and Time, with its silly humor, fun special effects and really catchy theme song is worth seeing once if you have a short attention span and several times if you root for the "little guy".Wizard makes fun of the film industry's obnoxious red tape and the heartlessness of money-grubbing studio executives, while highlighting the generous spirit of friends and of directors who want what's good for a film but have their hands tied by the stuffy studio.The grand finale of this film is worth sitting through some very slow parts. For those who have this movie on video or DVD, I suggest using the slow-motion option to read some of the cute subliminal messages found throughout the finale.

Jittlov has more talent in his little finger than about 3/4ths of the film directing "talent" of Hollywood combined. The three little film bits he did for Disney during the 1980s was the BEST thing that came out of the Disney studio for that entire decade (AND the decade before), but Disney otherwise rejected his pitches for a feature film entirely.Jittlov's WIZARD OF SPEED AND TIME feature film is a wonderful romp of a film, in spite of the fact that he was not allowed to finish the film's special effects and sound effects in many places. (As legend has it, the film's co-producer, Richard Kaye, allegedly made off with the film's completion money before the film was done.) Jittlov considers the film to be only about 75 % completed, which accounts for the less than stellar rating from some viewers who don't know of this behind-the-scenes back-story, and who just don't "get" what Jittlov was trying to do with this film.It boggles the mind to think of how even MORE nifty the film would be is some financial angel would come along and give him the $ to complete it, creating a "director's cut" for release on DVD, with ALL his equally great short films available on the DVD, as well as other extras that Jittlov could add to the DVD also.Alas, no one has been forthcoming, and Jittlov has suffered financially and emotionally for almost two decades. When will Hollywood learn to NOT destroy the creativity of such filmic geniuses as Jittlov, Orson Welles, Buster Keaton, etc., etc., etc., etc. Join with me: Pound on the sand on the beach and shout, "Damn them all to hell !" for not RUSHING to Jittlov's aid.Jittlov can do with 5 million dollars what other filmmakers do with 50 million, and with all the poorly conceived, ineptly produced drek coming out on DVD and on TV, the world NEEDS filmmaker's with the talent, vision(s), and attitude of Jittlov more desperately now than it ever did.And on top of all that, he treats his fans like gold. Returning phone calls (I believe he's still in the L.A. phone book.) and answering e-mails. Even his web sites are more magnificent than most also. (Google can find them for you.) Gawd ! Is there NO justice???? Are ALL the studios in Hollywood so consistently and perpetually STUPID that they don't recognize his OBVIOUS talent? Has the world gone MAD ??? SOMEBODY with money, CALL HIM !!!!!!

This film is magic at its best pure and simple. As such it's not for everyone. People who don't like silliness or weirdness will probably find it dull or worse. But anyone who believes in magic, who wants to see wonders unfold before their eyes and who can be silly for the duration of the film will find it an absolute treat.The Wizard, Mike Jittlov, whisks us into his fantasy world almost immediately and it's a roller-coaster of cheesy but fun jokes and truly astounding and heart-felt FX that speak to the child in each of us.The sheer kinetic ENERGY of this thing makes you feel like you could fly (or run on air anyway)! Rumors are that Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell actually asked Mike Jittlov to visit them to preview a little film they'd thrown together called "Evil Dead" because they wanted someone who they respected to give the thumbs up to their movie before it debuted! Dreamers rejoice in the chaotic joy that is "The Wizard of Speed and Time!"

Some years ago, the USA cable network carried a late-night program called "Night Flight" which featured an assortment of entertainment, including rock videos and short films. Although I wasn't a regular viewer, I stumbled across "Night Flight" when it aired a live-action animated short called "The Wizard of Speed and Time." I was blown away by the film's ingenious use of stop-motion photography and other camera trickery as it told the story of a green-robed wizard who possesses the ability to run around the world in just a matter of minutes."The Wizard of Speed and Time," it turned out, began as a short subject made in 1979 by filmmaker Mike Jittlov. Some years after making the original film, Jittlov took his idea and expanded it into a low-budget feature, also called "The Wizard of Speed and Time," which tells the story of a young filmmaker named Mike Jittlov and his struggle to make a special-effects-laden short film for a TV special despite having few resources (i.e., money) while battling the Hollywood bureaucracy.The five minutes or so of "Wizard" material in the feature are a triumph of shoestring ingenuity. We see a one-minute "work in progress" featuring marching tripods, dancing light stands and flying film cans as well as an infectiously catchy title tune (this was part of Jittlov's original short, with new music added). The film's climax is the finished product mentioned above (a remake and elaboration of the first part of the 1979 short - I think the remake is what I saw on USA). I marvel at Jittlov's ability to visualize in advance the dazzling images he's reaching for and his skill in achieving those images through frame-by-frame animation and undercranking. And notice how the camera refuses to stand still for the animations - other stop-motion films may seem rooted to the floor one set-up at a time, but Jittlov refuses to let his camera be tied down.I just wish I could praise the rest of the movie as highly. It's friendly, it's likable, but when the Wizard isn't conjuring up his magic, the feature turns into what is, at best, only a mildly funny takeoff on Hollywood. I was hoping the ingenuity that Jittlov displayed in the Wizard sequences would also transform the surrounding story, which supposedly is based on his real-life experiences, but what we get is pretty thin stuff.Jittlov's love of movie-making is much in evidence; there's at least one visual homage to the Walt Disney Company, and one of Disney's original "nine old men," animator Ward Kimball, makes a brief appearance as an examiner for the "Infernal Revenue Service." That's right, "infernal," and I'm afraid that's an indicator of the general level of verbal wit in "Wizard." We also get a studio head with a supposedly comic Jewish accent.Still, Jittlov comes across as such an engagingly eccentric fellow - an animated character in his own right - that I wanted to believe in him and his house chock full of film-related gadgets and toys. Former Miss Virginia Paige Moore makes for a charming leading lady, both in the movie and the movie-within-the-movie. Philip Michael Thomas, the biggest name in the cast, plays a cop far removed from Miami. Fans of "Get Smart" may remember Angelique Pettyjohn, who was undercover agent Charlie Watkins in the 60s TV spy spoof; fans of the original "Star Trek" series will remember her from "The Gamesters of Triskelion."