posted
I have never been a LOTR fan, nor have I read any of J.R.R. Tolkien's books.
That said, I remember seeing Ralph Bakshi's animated version of "Lord of the Rings" (1978). Bakshi was experimenting with a type of animation known as "rotoscoping", which was like tracing an actual live-action film footage and cel-drawn animation on top of the transfer.
It was an ambitious effort, and from what I understand, Bakshi was a major Tolkien fan. But the film was a financial flop, and there were no sequels for it. Also, I found the movie to be far too long for an animated film.
I usually don't fall asleep in movies, but I gotta say, that this one did.
For anyone else who has seen it, what do you think?
Posts: 3385 | From: Sacramento, California, USA | Registered: Sep 2002 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
The rotoscoping was cool and is the most memerable part of the movie. The movie was ok, but nothing special. Out of the 3 animated Rings films, The Hobbit, Lord Of The Rings and Return Of The King... I enjoyed the Hobbit the best.
Posts: 1708 | From: Dallas | Registered: Mar 2004 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
When I was a kid I thought Bakshi's LOTRings was the coolest freakn' cartoon ever made. I was awestruck in the theatre watching it with one of my brothers and his friend.
As an adult, after buying it on dvd in the 5.50 bin at Walmart. I have to say the film was definately artistic and unique and even groundbreaking in the areas of animation. And not only that, but so singular in it's visual representation of Tolkein's work that there are many scenes in the live-action academy award winning version that are almost shot for shot identicle to those in the cartoon (a point, some might argue, is due to the fact they're from the same source material, but while I do consider this a possibility, I think it's more likely that such a huge fan of Tolkein that the filmaker(s) was(were) they had probably watched Bakshi's trippy toon many many times, enough for it to sink into their minds and influence their live action version to a point that not only deserves, but artistically requires that they aknowledge Bakshi's visiual influence.
That aside, I do agree that the Rankin/Bass "The Hobbit" was the best of the cartoons. But the R/B "Return of the King" which I loved beyond words as a kid, now is rather silly viewing it as an adult (from the same 5.50 bin at Wally World). The musical numbers are just a little much, "where there's a whip, there's a way" sounds like the theme song to an S&M convention.
By the way, John Kricfaluci (sp?) who created Ren And Stimpy was a protege of Bakshi's and worked on Bakshi's amazing and controversial (one episode had to be edited for television) "The New Adventures Of Mighty Mouse" from the 80's, of which I was a big fan and still happen to have a lot of the episodes on old VHS tapes.
Posts: 278 | From: Austin, TX USA | Registered: Feb 2004 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
I thought it was terrific, although it did seem a little long when I was a kid. The big problem was the way it ended with no resolve, how could the Studio release an obviously incomplete film and still expect to make money?
Posts: 3383 | From: England | Registered: May 2003 | Site Updates: 21
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
