Rating: 
Summary: KES Evenstar
Review: The hero, Frodo Baggins, is told by the wizard Gandalf that his ring has the power to conquer the world. Frodo and the fellowship sent to protect him must journey across Middle-Earth to the villian's (Sauran) land to destroy the ring. The fellowship faced many foes and suffered many hardships and occasionly met a friend. As the power of the ring grows, war was unleashed upon the heroes.
Rating: 
Summary: Give it some credit...
Review: Ok, this is no masterpiece. The animation is poor at times, horrid at others. BUT, let's look at it for what it is. I first saw this movie when I was much younger, and it is what started my whole LotR fascination(?). And the DVD edition is much better than the VHS. You'll finally be able to see what is in the background. I spent the first 20 mins. of the movie rewinding, going "I never knew there was a bridge there..." "Oh! Those are trees!"
So, if you have never seen this movie, have read the books and liked Peter Jacksons film, this movie will no doubt disappoint you. Big time.
But if you have seen it, and did like it , the DVD is defidently worth getting.
Rating: 
Summary: Rotoscopy not a prob; this vers. captures Tolkien's spirit!
Review: I don't understand why so many people had such a problem with the rotoscopic animation. I thought it looked kind of cool and added a touch of realism to the cartoony animation. Clearly, this cartoon was made for serious adult fans. How many venture-capitalist cartoons can truly boast that, these days?Beyond that, I am absolutely compelled to add that this version's characters are the best, most accurate, most expressively voiced/acted/animated out of ANY of the LOTR films, to date. (The live action movie was great for the scenery and special effects, but sadly, its actors were just "going through the motions" during so many critical scenes. Pay attention to Legolas in particular, if you need a clear example of this.) Bashki's actors and animators really breathe life and depth into the story. Peter Woodthorpe is outstanding as Gollum! John Hurt and William Squire read their parts with exactly the right inflections on the appropriate words. Due to the excellent job of the actors and animators, these characters spring to life right off the animation cel. Most importantly, this work speaks the closest to the very soul of Tolkien's writing. Yes, it has its shortcomings, but they are mostly due to storyline truncation, and the abrupt ending. It is a pity that it could not have been longer and more thorough. I would sit through 30 hours of animated cinematography of this caliber if they had taken the time to film it. In my opinion, the "good" parts in this film are the best pieces of Tolkien-based film making ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Atrocious, just plain atrocious
Review: This animated "LOTR" is simply terrible. Its only redeeming quality is the first half, right up until the point that Frodo and Sam go off alone in the boat, but once the animators start relying heavily on some atrocious cel animation, the film is sunk.
It's practically unwatchable -- one can't help but laugh with much cynicism seeing the visual atrocity that's taking place. It reminds one of the "He-Man -- Masters of the Universe" and early "Spiderman" cartoons mixed in with the Sega Saturn "Street Fighter" video game based on the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.I thought of giving it the benefit of the doubt, but thought, "No, even at the time it was made, it must have looked awful."
And with the passing of time, and the release of Peter Jackson's "LOTR" live-action movie, it should sink to the depths of Gollum's cave.
Rent if you must, but you'd be far better off purchasing both the two-disc and four-disc "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring" to get your Lord of the Rings fix.
Rating:
Summary: Come back, come baaack! To Mordor we will take you!
Review: This was and is a really cool animation, and the only mistakes they made in the making was cutting to much out of the original story. Also, they didn't continue on to make
The Two Towers and The Return Of The King.
Rating:
Summary: Very Stupid
Review: I had the unfortunate oppurtunity to watch the animated version of The Lord of the Rings from 1978 that my sister rented. [...] It felt more like 5 hours long instead of just 2! Even my [...] sister thought it was terrible! Anyway, buy the awesome LIVE ACTION The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring instead. Then you won't have to endure [awful] voice acting, strange, distracting animation and [mis] representations of characters.
Rating:
Summary: Not much eye candy, but true to the story.
Review: At first I was greatly disappointed by this version of "Lord of the Rings." The mixture of live-action and animation seemed garish. It wasn't until I re-read the entire trilogy and saw the 2001 theatrical release of "Fellowship of the Ring" that I realized what a treasure this DVD really is. There's no eye-candy here. This version gets right to the heart of a magnificent story and tells it beautifully.
Rating:
Summary: Not So Bad
Review: The Lord Of The Rings animated movie is an excellant film. The first part of the movie was The Fellowship Of The Ring which did go by the book very well. I thought The Ring Wraiths were pretty scary in the film. The Fellowship had to battle many orcs , and trolls. But when Gandalf battled the balrog in the dark mines of Moria it was most exciteing , but there is a sad part to that part in the film , when Gandalf falls. I was not at all dissapointed in the film until it had finally reached the second part , The Two Towers. At that part the film had gotten quite confusing and it skipped many parts from the book and the movie only had half of The Two Towers part. And it never even got to the last part in the film , which is in the books of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy , The Return Of The King. How dissapointing! Ok so the movie isn't that excellant. But as I have said the first part in the film , which is J.R.R. Tolkiens first book in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy , The Fellowship Of The Ring does go along with the first book VERY WELL. So if you want to see The Lord Of The Rings animated film directed by Ralph Bakshi then only expect to see real surprise in the first full 80 minute part in the film , The Fellowship Of The Ring.
Rating:
Summary: Overly Criticized and Underated
Review: So what happened when two of my favorite things, Lord of the Rings and Bakshi's unique animation came together? One of the least appreciated and most overly ridiculed attempts at translating Tolkien's works to the screen. Having read the books since the third grade I am more than ready to admit that Bakshi's vision has its share of problems. However he was making lemons into lemonaide. After the horror of the Rankin Bass Hobbit, the mutilation of such a great book complete with cheesy 70's folk music, This was a welcome change. Definitly incomplete, being only 1 and a half of the trilogy, it saddens me that they never completed this version. What ever you do, DO NOT seek comfort in the arms of the Rankin Bass "Return of the King," or may the torturous song "Frodo of the nine fingers" be forever burned into you memory. You have been warned!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Great In Its Own Way
Review: Now, first of all, there's really no sense in comparing this film to Peter Jackson's, live-action, gargantuan-budget Lord of the Rings trilogy. These are two entirely different creatures. That said, Bakshi's "old-school" version of The Lord of the Rings has a few things going for it. The animation is a creative (but unfortunately haphazard) blend of rotoscoping and traditional cel-shading. Interestingly, I found the rotoscoped Ringwraiths in Bakshi's version much more creepy than the new live-action ones. That may well just be the result of leftover fear from my childhood viewings :) The voice-acting is solid and the score is half-decent. It's a rather frustrating watch since it concludes at the Battle of Helm's Deep, roughly covering half of "The Two Towers" and none of "The Return of the King". Even more frustrating is the glaring reality that a sequel was never made (I suspect the lukewarm reception this film received cost Bakshi a green-light for his sequel). As with any adaption, the plot has been changed, but even the live-action version has some pretty frustrating changes (Glorfindel, one of the most powerful elves in Middle Earth and the slayer of a Balrog, replaced by Liv Tyler!?!?). At the end of the day, this is a mediocre film that you will only enjoy if you're not only a big Tolkien fan, but a relatively forgiving one. For myself, I'd give it 4 stars because I belong to that group. For anyone else, I'd give it 2 stars. As a warning, the special features are completely worthless.
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