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The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) [DVD] [1978] |
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Staring:
Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler
Director:
Ralph Bakshi
Average Customer Rating: 
List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £1.59
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker
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 lord of the rings - old school, 2010-04-06
item delivered on time and as expected. Watching the film brought back memories of my child hood. A good film for those who are keen followers of "the ring"
 A stepping stone to Moria, 2010-07-19
Those of us old enough to have been the right age will recall the excitement which surrounded the lead up to the release of this movie. We had never had a LoTR cinema experience before, and here we had one helmed by the cult creator of Fritz The Cat [1972] [DVD] and Wizards [DVD] [1977]. This was the first of a 2-part adaptation, and was the subject of numerous in-depth articles in the press as well as specialist magazines such as "Starburst".
When it came down to it, the final product was a bit of a disappointment, despite making some $30 million after costing just over $4 million to make. The rotoscoping didn't really work very well, the orcs were clearly just some blokes with capes and masks on, and the overall experience was less than enthralling. As mentioned in other reviews, the depiction of the balrog leaves a lot to be desired, too.
Leonard Rosenman is a very talented composer, as his music and adaptations for Barry Lyndon [1975] [DVD] clearly show. However, his score for this movie, far from being avant-garde as the Amazon review suggests, shows that his mind was probably elsewhere, and the 'theme tune' unfortunately sounds like a recycled march from a second-rate war movie.
Some of the voice talents on show do a good job, although the BBC radio version is probably even stronger in that regard. Eventually, neither the studio nor Bakshi were interested in completing the project, and so this is the sum total of the journey.
We are left, then, with a curiosity, although one which was an important stepping-stone towards Jackson's trilogy of adaptations.
 Lord of the misfire, 2010-05-16
Long before Peter Jackson ever got the go-ahead to depict a live-action "Lord of the Rings" movie, Ralph Bakshi gave it a fair stab.
And by "stab," I mean he made a rotoscoped, animated movie that attempted to encompass half of JRR Tolkien's classic fantasy epic. "The Lord of the Rings" is a genuine effort with obvious affection for Tolkien's original work, but unfortunately Bakshi misses the mark more often than he hits it -- from the bizarre character designs to random renamings, a crammed narrative to grainy rotoscoping.
The movie starts (after some background info) several years after Bilbo Baggins gets a golden Ring of invisibility. At Bilbo's 111st birthday party, he vanishes with intent to leave the Shire -- and Gandalf sees that Bilbo is exhibiting signs of falling under its power. He convinces Bilbo to leave the Ring with Bilbo's young cousin, Frodo, and then leaves.
Seventeen years later, Gandalf reappears and tells Frodo that it is the One Ring, and that Frodo now has to leave the Shire (accompanied by his gardener Sam and cousins Merry and Pippin), heading off to the town of Bree and then to Rivendell. Unfortunately, Frodo soon is pursued by the snuffling Black Riders, and accompanied by the mysterious ranger Aragorn. Worst of all, he's being tempted by the Ring -- and it nearly costs him his life.
Then he volunteers to take the Ring into the dark land of Mordor to destroy it -- but the Fellowship of the Ring must deal with horrors and terrors along the way. And when they lose two of their company, Frodo sets out into the wilderness with only Sam beside him, while Aragorn, the elf Legolas and the dwarf Gimli set out to free Rohan from the evil Saruman (or "Aruman," depending on what scenes you watch).
I'll give Bakshi credit -- he put genuine effort into trying to turn "The Lord of the Rings" into a two-part movie. Unfortunately for him, the second part never materialized (the movie clangs to a stop halfway through the second book) and the first one is an awkward, uncertain piece of work that never quite figures out where it's going.
And the animation simply doesn't work -- the characters all have exaggerated gestures and shuffling walks, not to mention odd costuming (a Viking? A Roman senator?). The backgrounds tend to look like matte paintings, and the rotoscoping is bizarre-looking, grainy, and distracting at best.
The animation is not the only problem. Bakshi's movie is riddled with very choppy editing (we go straight from Moria to Lothlorien), bizarre script changes ("Saruman" becomes "Aruman") and important details that are left out, or left in with no explanation as to why they are there. Worst of all, he has little idea of what looks absurd -- the bat-winged lion-Balrog with its big fuzzy feet is a legendary example, as well as the virtually crippled Black Riders and turnip-shaped Treebeard.
Nor does he succeed with the characters. The mellow young Frodo, skeletal Gollum and ethereal-looking Legolas are well done. But Gandalf acts like a manic old weirdo, and most of the others (especially Merry and Pippin) are barely more than cardboard cutouts. The worst offender is loyal, steadfast gardener Samwise Gamgee -- who looks and acts like a brain-damaged, potato-shaped chimp.
"The Lord of the Rings" was a valiant effort that fell flat on its face somewhere along the way. Watchable as a curiosity, but nowhere near the scope of Peter Jackson's masterpiece.
Flawed masterpiece, 2010-03-25
Sentimentally this film introduced me to a few things during childhood. It introduced me to Tolkien and I went on to read most of his books from a very early age. It introduced me to fear as the real characters animated over style scared the life out of me. It also introduced me to the idea of an unfair world as it isn't and never will be the complete story.
The animated lord of the rings has undoubtedly aged, but it is still clear that it was lovingly created and it has a memorable uniqueness about it. Whether the ageing will ruin it for you or not I cannot tell you. I would give the film a try as a curiosity, just for the chance that it might capture your imagination as much as it did mine.
 Flawed but fab, 2010-07-23
This was the first version of LOTR that I saw and it is still my favourite. Many scenes in this cartoon are similar to those in Peter Jackson's epic. Yes, it isn't the complete story and ends abruptly but there is still much to savour. If you haven't seen it yet, it is well worth a punt.
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Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Parental Guidance
Binding: DVD
EAN: 7321900374088
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dubbed, PAL, Subtitled, Widescreen
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 2001-11-26
Running Time: 127
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1978-11-15 |
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