The Lord of the Rings (1978 ver) announced from WB

[Edo]

great cartoon/movie..i saw this when i was a lil kid and fell in love w it..cant wait for the blu

[RevolveR72]

While Bakshi I believe used rotoscoping on this movie, in my opinion it lacked the artistic style and charm of the Hobbit & The Return of the King. I was excited when I first read this thinking that the other two were being released as well, but It's a shame that they are not (at this point). I think they would have sold well....

At least it's a positive sign for LOTR fans....

[Blu Falcon]

April 6th is my wife's birthday. Might be a sign.

I got this on standard DVD. I guess I'll have to get it on Blu even though it's funny to watch Bakshi's version now.

Ralph Bakshi's Aragorn. Anton Chigurh. Coincidence? I think not.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by retablo

They never got to make the sequel, but far from Bakshi's best animated work.

Depends what you mean by "best":
It was his most SANE (and least misogynistic) one, during his Fantasy-geek/Rotoscope phase--qv. Wizards and Fire & Ice--when he was able to keep his mind on a good story.
If you'd ever wondered what Ralph's movies would look like if he'd become a real animator, this's as close as we'll ever find out.

Yes, the rotoscope model actors flail about wildly, yes, that's Billy Barty as the live-model for Sam, yes, that's C-3P0 voicing Legolas, and no, Boromir was not a Viking...
But on the upside, fantasy author Peter S. Beagle does a good "Tolkien For Dummies" condensation of the script, back when nobody thought it could be condensed.

[Blu Titan]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

I've never seen this.

I guess the BD will be a good opportunity to see it for the first time.

Same here. I am buying.

[Pondosinatra]

I wish they'd come out with Wizards on Blu as well!

[DaveFi]

Me? I loved this movie, and along with many of you think this is much better than the the live action footage, especially for the memorable trek through Moria. The Moria "Watcher in the Water" monster never fails to scare the shit out of me. Also the line about Aragorn "looking more fair and feeling foul" is better suited here, as Aragorn looks weathered and supposedly his true long lived life. Things that could not (or wouldn't be done) in live action, can be done in animation. I'm just sad Bakshi never got to complete his work.

Needless to say this is a must have for me.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

Also the line about Aragorn "looking more fair and feeling foul" is better suited here, as Aragorn looks weathered and supposedly his true long lived life.

Can't remember if "...While I seem fair and look foul?" was in the original Tolkien, but it was a perfect line I was waiting to hear in the Jackson version and didn't (and John Hurt sounds grizzled enough to be Aragorn, though not as noble-in-disguise as Viggo Mortensen)

And again, the scene between Galadriel and Frodo:
Bakshi's usual tastes for "bimbos" has the beneficial side effect of giving us a more gentle than commanding Galadriel (with 70's hair)...
Her momentary look of "ohh, poopie!" when Frodo offers her the Ring is key to her character (that Jackson and Cate Blanchett missed), but when she goes into her "temptation" speech, Bakshi and Beagle play it as her sadly laughing off the idea, as making rueful fun of herself for ever thinking otherwise--
When Peter Jackson played it as a cheap-thrills "Oo, neat FX!" CGI scene in his version, I sat there at the time thinking "...No. No, no, no, no. "

[Ernest Rister]

This is one of the worst high-profile animated films ever made. It is an embarassment to the animated medium.

Put that quote on a jacket.

And if you want to laugh your head off, aside from watching Aragorn trip on his own sword or the Balrog scene in the Bakshi "film", check this out:

http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/bakshi/bakshi.htm

[HotRats]

I'll pick up a copy as I haven't seen it for a very long time. It was quite heavily merchandised at the time (by 1970s standards) with a variety of books and calendars and a huge range of good quality white metal wargaming and display figures from (I think) Heritage Models, which are quite pricey these days. Some of the figures like barrow wights did not appear in the film so I assume some sequences were planned but unshot

The best adaptation of Lord Of The Rings, in my opinion, is the BBC's 13 hour long radio version, made in 1981 with a fine cast. Around the same time the BBC did a four part parody called Hordes Of The Things which has finally been released on CD

[radagast]

Originally Posted by HotRats

I'll pick up a copy as I haven't seen it for a very long time. It was quite heavily merchandised at the time (by 1970s standards) with a variety of books and calendars and a huge range of good quality white metal wargaming and display figures from (I think) Heritage Models, which are quite pricey these days. Some of the figures like barrow wights did not appear in the film so I assume some sequences were planned but unshot

The best adaptation of Lord Of The Rings, in my opinion, is the BBC's 13 hour long radio version, made in 1981 with a fine cast. Around the same time the BBC did a four part parody called Hordes Of The Things which has finally been released on CD

I was surprised no one did a movie version of the "Bored of the Rings" parody that the Harvard Lampoon published. One of the writers was the late Doug Kenny of Animal House fame.

[jonsmith369]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

This is one of the worst high-profile animated films ever made. It is an embarassment to the animated medium.

Put that quote on a jacket.

This movie is very very bad and yet somehow it is deemed worthy of getting the Blu treatment. If I promise to buy this movie will it increase the odds of some of the GOOD older non-Disney animated films coming to Blu-ray. I would really love to see The Secret of NIMH or The Land Before Time in High Def even though the original masters are probably in terrible shape, especially when compared to how well Disney took care of their classics from as far back as 70 years ago. Maybe they could outsource the restoration of these films to Disney.

[fdm]

Put me in the "this sucked" camp.

(Surprised so many here liked it; it's pretty awful.)

[Macgoonda]

I have not seen it, but I heard the animation was horrible. They used live actors?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Macgoonda

I have not seen it, but I heard the animation was horrible. They used live actors?

It's called "Rotoscoping", they've done it since Max Fleischer's Gulliver, and Don Bluth drove it a mile into the ground with "Anastasia". (Bakshi was Like Really Into It at the time, and you probably must've seen "Fire & Ice" by now that it's on Blu....Not as good, though.)
Anime hadn't arrived yet, so animators didn't really know how to do realistic-action non-Disney animation on their own back then all the way into the early 80's, which's how we got roto-stuff like the Harry Canyon segment from "Heavy Metal".

To save money on massive hordes of Orcs and battles, though, Bakshi just negative-posterized clips of live D&D-cosplayer-extra footage during the Helm's Deep battle...Let Peter Jackson handle the Two Towers.
That's what some of the purist-geeks are howling so loudly about, which's why it's always better to see a movie before buying forum-whines in a poke.

[AFightingPanda]

I have to say that I think this film is awful, why is this getting blu before something like an American tail? For those that like it that's cool I guess, but I cant stand it since the animation is just so distracting.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

I'm still trying to parse this sentence. What exactly are you talking about? How did this relate to the rest of what you wrote? Is this line noise?

Okay, try: "Animation fans nitpick endlessly that just playing around with live footage or negative-fritzing it up isn't 'really' animation. And if you're not a 'niche' nitpicking animation fan who lives to thread-crap it wherever it's mentioned on a board, then, hey....it's not that bad a movie.
And yes, Peter Jackson did Orc battles better, but considering nobody else had done it before 1978, it wasn't a bad first try."

(And Jackson claims he intentionally homaged the Bakshi version in a few places--
See if the Hobbit "...Proud-FEET!" gag at the beginning of "Fellowship" doesn't look slightly familiar.)

[radagast]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Can't remember if "...While I seem fair and look foul?" was in the original Tolkien, but it was a perfect line I was waiting to hear in the Jackson version and didn't (and John Hurt sounds grizzled enough to be Aragorn, though not as noble-in-disguise as Viggo Mortensen)

Yes it is from Tolkien. It was in response to Frodo's reaction to Aragorn when Sam or one of the other hobbits expessed distrust for Aragorn.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by Imrahil2001

This isn't a day-one buy (I try to wait for sales) but it is a definite-buy. I love many of the character designs and voice work.

I am really NOT a fan of the Rankin-Bass animated specials. The gigantic eyeballs annoy me.

Not so surprisingly, the Rankin-Bass ROTK got the confrontation between the Witch-King and Gandalf at the entrance to Minas Tirith correct, although they left out the part where Denethor loses it and tries to burn Faramir alive, because they were trying to make it more family friendly.

The conclusion? The definitive cinema version of Lord of the Rings has yet to be made.

[radagast]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Okay, try: "Animation fans nitpick endlessly that just playing around with live footage or negative-fritzing it up isn't 'really' animation. And if you're not a 'niche' nitpicking animation fan who lives to thread-crap it wherever it's mentioned on a board, then, hey....it's not that bad a movie.
And yes, Peter Jackson did Orc battles better, but considering nobody else had done it before 1978, it wasn't a bad first try."

(And Jackson claims he intentionally homaged the Bakshi version in a few places--
See if the Hobbit "...Proud-FEET!" gag at the beginning of "Fellowship" doesn't look slightly familiar.)

Compare the budget and the technology available to Bakshi and Jackson. The gag you mention about "Proudfeet" is straight out of the books.