3 out of 5

Director: Lance Laspina

Its hard to say whos deserving of documentaries. Frazetta is an amazingly influential artist, with a reach spreading farther than those who dont already know his name could ever be aware. So in this sense he is deserving of something that shows his audiences appreciation and perhaps gives people a way to learn more and discover more about the artist. While the 92 minute painting with fire is absolutely watchable, and paints a great picture of Frazetta, theres not too much meat to his life story beyond his genius. He overcame some incredible difficulties, for sure, but part of his charm is that hes a pretty normal guy – and so we have an hour and a half of some brief bio work, and then people continually talking about how awesome Frazetta is. Its never boring, and thankfully Frank did tons of work that weve probably never seen that they can keep flashing across the screen, and he is a cool guy – hes aware of how good he is and doesnt deny it, but isnt pompous at the same time – but as far as being something to show to someone who isnt already aware of Mr. Frazetta, this doc wont interest them much, and thats a shame. For the rest of us – The few minutes they dedicate to his comic upbringing is great, seeing his stylistic flexibility, and it is fun to hear how impactful he is/was to guys like Kaluta, Bisely, etc. Pretty straight-forward stuff, but the runtime and lack of headline-grabbing info prevents from being for anyone except curious fans.