The Lord of the Rings

Rating:
Summary: Faithful Retelling of FELLOWSHIP OF RINGS/ TWO TOWERS
Review: I rented this movie years ago (around 1985?) and found it enjoyable. I liked it better this time, maybe because I recently read THE LORD OF THE RINGS (for the 3rd time) and saw the motion picture. Like the movie, minor parts/characters were dropped for simplicity (Tom Bombadil was probably too weirtd for audiences anyway), but unlike the movie, this "cartoon" followed the storyline pretty closely. (Hey, I enjoyed the new movie that everyone is screaming about and will see the two sequels). Anyway, I have some criticism (4 Stars) such as not finding the representation of Treebeard, Strider (American Indian?) or Sam to be that good, and some of the animation (orc fights, etc,) was pretty lousy or just strange- TOO VIOLENT AT END. Still, this was a valiant effort! Frodo came across as a Hobbit, doing things from the book like singing songs, dancing on tables, putting on magic rings...(the new movie had to go and screw up that scene!) Gandalf, Elrond and others were presented in a admirable way, following details from book. My big question now is: Why Didn't The Director Go Ahead and Make A Sequel (Second Half)???

Rating:
Summary: Compelling imagery
Review: This has my vote for best feature-length animation ever. Although mostly drawn, it includes a lot of processed live action. The imagery, in many cases, is a layered composite of ink wash, cel animation, and photography. All of the photography is heavily processed, with hand-drawn extras - it effectively extends the animation instead of competing with it. The main characters are all well drawn, and I am impressed with the motion. Even the cartoony characters create very natural-looking action.

The only problem with this movie is that it took on a story so widely known and well loved. Tolkien purists will cringe at every detail lost; many were lost in reducing this to reasonable length and to the animation technology of its time. What's worse is that so many Tolkien fans have built up pictures of their own for the story's places and people. No director can hope to compete with the fan's personal fantasies. It is nearly impossible for an adaptation of such well-loved text to be considered on its own merits. It is almost as hard to look, today, at a movie made under technological and economic limits of an earlier decade.

If you can watch this for just for itself, the rewards are significant. Bakshi communicates just with pictures better than most do with action, script, music and all the rest combined. This doesn't compete with Jackson's wonderful LoTR - it is a different vision and carries itself well, in its own way.

Rating:
Summary: I love Peter Jackson.
Review: Peter Jackson's is better. Sam is too ugly. And dumb. Sam shouldn't be dumb. I bet Boromir has fleas in that beard.

Rating:
Summary: Review for Animated Hobbitt-1977 Release and LOTR
Review: As a young child, the film impressed me. Its animation is poor by modern standards, but the music and faithfulness to the script and characters make it a worthwhile watching. John Huston is the perfect voice for Gandalf and Brother Theodore is excellent as Gollum. If you are a fan of Peter Jackson's LOTR series, the animated version of LOTR is similar to the Hobbitt. Both are plagued with substandard animation, but are faithful to the storyline and include much more music. While the animation of mobile characters isn't great, the actual settings are well done and accurate, including all towns visited.

Rating:
Summary: Lord of the Rings Cartoon, Part 2
Review: I haven't seen the cartoon of the Hobbit or the Return of the King, but I have to say, Peter Jackson's movies are a lot better then this one. It starts with Bilbo's birthday and ends with the battle of Helm's Deep. The voices go very well with the characters though. Frodo and Sam's story line ends sometime after they see the Ring-wriath on the fell beast. You don't even see Farimir in this one. It does explain stuff very good, so I think that this is a must see for fans.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best of the Tolkien animated features
Review: Finally, Lord of the Rings on DVD. I have loved this movie ever since the first time I had seen it. The VHS has become very rare and Warner has wisely released this film on DVD. The animation is a mixture of animation and live action, making the characters seem more real than those in the Rankin/Bass productions of the Hobbit and Return of the King (which are also available on DVD and worth purchasing I might add). I do agree that one should read the books first, because much of the story has been condensed. This is also ony the first half of the story, being compiled mainly from Fellowship of the Ring and 2/3 of The Two Towers. Bakshi should have finished the story in a second feature, it would have made for a nice two-disc set, but I am not aware of why this did not happen.

The DVD is available in pan-and scan and 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen versions (I thought that only the pan-and-scan version was available until I found the DVD at the store). The video quality is quite good, and the widescreen version adds more detail to the story. The sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 surround. The mix is better than I expected, with good use of the surrounds in battle scenes. The effects and music are good considering the age of the film. There is also a cast and crew list section, and a section that explains about the elven and dwarf races. The package lists a theatrical trailer, but I found none on the disc.

This DVD is a good introduction to the Tolkien universe, and a must for Tolkein fans. I would recommend watching this DVD along with the Hobbit and Return of the King before watching the new film this December.

Rating:
Summary: Bakshi's version has Tolkien's heart
Review: Yes it changes or leaves out some of the key elements of the story. Yes it ends rather abruptly. And yes some people may be put off by the style of animation (I'm not, I thinks it's brilliant). But I just watched the DVD version of this film, first time in probably 10 years, and I just hope I walk out of the theatre this Christmas with the same sense of wonderment and exhileration as I get from this animated version. The acting is superb, couldn't be better (acting as in voices, pronunciation, use of language, etc.). The music was rousing, and the action sequences stiring. If you are a book fanatic you may want to obsess over what's missing rather than accepting what it there. That would be a shame because you are not permitting yourself to enter a world that embodies the spirit of Tolkien. Again, I hope the new movie can live up to this mark.

Rating:
Summary: Where is the Trailer on the DVD version?
Review: Rather that writting a full review of this wonderful version of LOTR for its time... even though it was made in the late 70's it really has its charm, even Peter Jackson has admitted he used some of the angles of this version for his own trilogy's cinematography (the most known is the "Proudfoot... Proudfeet" on Bilbo's Birthday Party).(...)

Thanks in advance to anybody that can help me.

Rating:
Summary: True to the Spirit of the Tolkien's Fantasy Masterpiece
Review: Ralph Bakshi's "The Lord of the Rings" is an animated film adaptation of the first half of Tolkien's classic fantasy trilogy by the same name. Unfortunately, Bakshi never went on to produce another film covering the rest of Tolkien's story.

If you read the early reviews of this movie - which you can do by clicking on 'see all customer reviews' and selecting 'oldest first' - you'll see that they were nearly all enthusiastic. Many of those early reviews specifically requested a DVD version. Yet, now that the DVD version is available - in the original 2:1 wide screen format - the recent reviews are mixed. What happened?

What happened was that Peter Jackson's modern, blockbuster film adaptations of the same story came out. Jackson's films cover the entirity of Tolkien's trilogy, with a big budget that permitted the use of the best in live action and modern computer graphics animation. This 1978 Bakshi film, with a fraction of the budget and using now dated technology, looks primitive by comparison.

And yet, this Bakshi version has many charms, especially for lovers of Tolkien's books. Bakshi better captures the spirit of Tolkien's work, remaining true to the basic story and making good use of Tolkien's timeless prose. Unlike Jackson, Bakshi does not take liberties with characterization: he retains Tolkien's portrayal of Boromir's ambiguous character without turning him into a simplistic bad guy; he doesn't change Saruman from a would be rival of the Dark Lord into a simple minion; he brings out Theoden's underlying nobility. The only real problem is the abrupt ending of the story - and that's only an issue because Bakshi never went on to create a sequel.

If you do want something with modern, big budget production values, you'll probably prefer Jackson's version. If you've already seen Jackson's films and are looking for more of the same, you won't find it here.

If, on the other hand, you're more interested in a movie that's true to the spirit of Tolkien's classic masterpiece - and if you'll be happy with animation techniques with a certain quaint charm, and with a movie that covers only the first half of Tolkien's story - this DVD is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Great aritstic animated piece - and Lord of the Rings !!
Review: I think Ralph Bakshi has done very good job. Just imagine how difficult-or maybe impossible is to make movie or radio conversion of a book. and when it's such a book as lord of the rings... it looks like peter jackson wants to do his LOTR so well that no newer version will be need in future, but bakshi made his version as a big tale without neverending sidestories (which we all loves of course)...but - combined live/anime technique is very artistially interesting, scenes with magic-esspecialy ring wraiths are outstanding! art, animation and expressions of characters is so close to real movements as never.there is a lot of side animation-a little things but very forwarding this film for more experienced viewers. voices are great! gandalf, frodo, gollum-all has perfect voices and intonations.when you have all the time on mind that it was made in 70's it's amazing (even that 'old' fashion has marks for today's imagination (celeborn looks like someone from old startrek)). it's pretty long (>2hours) and ends very unexpected, but i think Bakshi's LOTR is great and can be watched again and again...only note i had on this is music. not as themes, but arrange of motives in movie - trace of emotion position (1st meet with dark rider-totally breaks terror atmosphere with sweet hobbit theme when hobbits are in view shiverring) and that music is in some places too loud and too mid freq (aggressive) but it's matter of all old records and not of principe alone. Must be seen by any tolkien and good art lover!