In a post Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings Trilogy world, this basically feels like the animated CliffsNotes for 'The Fellowship of the Ring' and 'The Two Towers'.

(I hope now that we have reached 2020, that CliffsNotes has not become a dated reference for students in literature class.)

"So all you had to do was say friend ... and enter ... Those were happier times..."

I fondly remember discovering this little gem at a Blockbuster on New Year's Eve in 1998, and watching it with my best friend who got me into reading Tolkien. He had already read all of LOTR by that point, and I had only read 'The Hobbit'. I remember asking him throughout at what point…

I admit I have never read the book The Lord of the Rings....and my entire L.O.R. knowledge comes from the mind of Peter Jackson. So when watching the hand drawn Lord of the Rings from Ralph Bakshi...my mind repeatedly went back to Jackson's movies. The story is classic....the animation is interesting.....the pace of the movie seems like it is on steroids compared to Jackson's very laid back pace. This movie covers The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers...but ends after the fight at Helms Deep. Sadly Bakshi never got to finish the trilogy.

The movie is interesting but compared to the Jackson's movies it is like reading cliff notes. Cliff notes are fine....but to get the whole experience…

This. Was. So. Bad.

I'm not even comparing it to the live action movies, just in isolation, it is so frustrating. Half of the damn movie was rotoscoped, and it wasn't just rotoscope, it was bad rotoscope. I would rather have something like Scooby Doo where even though there's basically no movement and it's really crude, at least you can tell what the fuck is happening and what things are supposed to look like.

Oh, also, apparently Bakshi is salty that Peter Jackson didn't ask for his blessing to make his version, so I guess I'm also salty about Kathleen Kennedy not asking me for permission to make new Star Wars movies when my awful fanfiction I wrote in high…

After rewatching the Peter Jackson trilogy, I thought I should also rewatch the Ralph Bakshi animated film. I used to love this as a kid and I think it holds up well today. I think it's honestly just as good as Jackson's trilogy and in some cases better.

There was a lot that Jackson did better in his films, but there's also a lot that Bakshi does better here. The best thing I liked that Bakshi did was the characters. He gave the kind of character that I thought was lacking in the Jackson films, namely in Frodo. In Jackson's films, he always came off as too much of vulnerable and reluctant damsel. Here, he can actually take care of…

Twenty-three years before the release of Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, Ralph Bakshi gave us this nearly entirely forgotten adaptation. And I gotta be honest... it's not great, but it is insanely watchable. The cast (featuring the likes of John Hurt as Aragorn and Anthony Daniels as Legolas) is exceptional, the score is grand (with the Ring Wraiths theme actually being legitimately unsettling), and the overall look and feel of this world are just magical... it clearly having inspired the aesthetics of Jackson's trilogy more than a bit.

Of course, when talking about it, one must address the elephant in the room - that being the fact that this is an adaptation of Fellowship of the Ring, half of…

So I tend to trot out adaptations of The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings the way a kid will sometimes bust out a board game they bought for a quarter at a yard sale because it looked cool and almost gets how to play it even though it's missing some vitals like instructions and a few game pieces and possibly an entire set of cards. I'm guessing the Tolkien books are those vitals, and someday I truly should get around to reading them, but for now I occasionally enjoy putting on one of these installments and pretending like I fully understand how this fantasy game is being played.

While the dedication to detail of the Jackson films is impressive, what I…

Animation Sunday 2015 #35- The Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson's epic, groundbreaking, and phenomenally directed adaptations of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings stories serve as some of the finest examples of fantasy filmmaking out there, but before Jackson had his hands on the material, Ralph Bakshi attempted to stamp his mark on the acclaimed property with an ambitious animation project combined with live-action actors participating in intense battle sequences. As much as I admire the effort, Bakshi's take, though unique, definitely crashed and burned. Since the pressure was too burdensome for him to continue and make the sequel film that would have covered Return of the King, this film, based on Tolkien's first two books, feel incomplete. Heck, even…

The Virgin LOTR 1978

- Only two good musical themes, has an annoying brass section

- None of the human men wear pants, even though Tolkien was Christian

- Sam is a weirdo with an ugly face

- Awkward Helm's Deep battle since rotoscope animation doesn't lend itself well to action scenes

-All the Rohirrim men literally look like the exact same blonde man

- Important plot beats are treated like filler scenes

- Gandalf is always angry and being an asshole for no reason

- youtu.be/Kylnv0eTsGc?t=60

VS.

The Chad LOTR 2001 - 2003

- Iconic score with a banging brass section

- Everyone is fully clothed, just as John Reuel (and God) intended

- Sam is the greatest friend…

Ralph Bakshi's version of LORD OF THE RINGS has slowly grown on me over the years. Known for a long time as "that trippy cartoon from the '70's" and then completely dismissed after Peter Jackson's live-action adaptations, I'm glad that its cult popularity has grown since.

Today, we have a very set idea of what a big franchise movie is supposed to be like and how it is packaged. But the 1970's was an era of risk-taking and experimental adult-themed animation. Perhaps it's no surprise that anime was experiencing its boom in Japan, and Miyazaki would make his debut a year later. It's a shame that most animated films in the west today are no longer like this. Today the…

"So all you had to do was say friend... and enter."
"Those were happier times..."

1978's The Lord of the Rings is an interesting one indeed, on one hand it does a good job at putting J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic to screen but I feel there was still a lot more things that could have been done with this film. I think it's safe to say Peter Jackson's trilogy is without a doubt the superior adaptation of Tolkien's works and will never be topped, but I do still like this animated version that covers Fellowship and Two Towers.

I think story is pretty simple and good as the Fellowship of the Ring embark on a journey to destroy the One…

"There's that Mount Doom again, Mr Frodo, see it?"

I'm not that surprised after the animated Hobbit (even though I know there's no connection) but in my head I thought Ralph Bakshi was better than this, I'm sure I've seen some of his other films, not least Cool World, but the only thing of interest here is the fascinating degree to which Jackson ahem borrowed visually from it, which would be something worth giving it credit for - and I guess I am, as they did - if it weren't such borderline unwatchable (sometimes not even) animation you almost don't want to. Maybe if you have nostalgia for it, but I don't. And I never understood why they only made…

Wow. There is so much to say about this movie, but also unfortunately for me, not enough, because before this, I had never seen a single Lord of the Ring in my life. Yes, this is literally the very first LOTR media I've ever willingly put into my eyes, and 100% deliberately. I know the Peter Jackson movies are epic, beautiful, and elegantly crafted, and I do plan on watching them soon, but here's the truth: when I learn that there is a CARTOON Lord of the Rings movie made in the late 70s that is widely regarded as disjointed, rushed, an acid trip and just overall 'bad', made by the one and only Ralph Bakshi, where everything is bizzarely…

You know, I love jackson´s trilogy, but I'd say that I am less than enthusiastic about the impact it had on fantasy movies.
Nowadays most fantasy movies tries to be this realistic gritty overly dignified pieces but wind up being kinda dull. Not that it was dull in Jackson´s movies, as a matter of fact I think they did a hell of a job in making the world feel as alive and lived in as possible, but that got misinterpreted as "Let´s make fantasy realistic" you can even see it in the last four Harry potter movies where they ditched a lot of the colorful elements of the world in favor of making it grimmer and conventional. I guess part…