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

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by DaveFi

If you think Gollum is freaky here, I highly suggest you get the Rankin and Bass film The Hobbit, with Brother Theodore (encore in Return of the King) playing the role. The guy did lots of appearances on Letterman's show in the '80s. He was a Jewish comedian who frequented the borscht belt, and he was out of his mind. I remember those appearances on Letterman. Wow. He was old even then. Freaky stuff.

Brother Theodore's "act" was play the persona of that looney guy on the streetcorner saying "The end is near", and we don't know how much of it was kidding.

Which turned out to be perfect casting, though, as it gave us a much freakier and far-past-gone "bad" Gollum in The Hobbit. ("Does it...like...RIDDLES???")
And closer to the author's own image of Gollum, if you've ever heard the recording of Tolkien reading the chapter.

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

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

Really? No comment? Anyone seen this great film???

[Blu Falcon]

Originally Posted by sasquatch

I HATE Jackons's trilogy but I LOVE the Rankin-Bass Hobbit ( the voice acting in that was stellar and all of the music was awesom) and I LOVE this film by Bakshi.

Whats-his-face's portrayal of Frodo in Jackons' trilogy was too whiney and wimpy for me.

And whats-his-face's portrayal of Aragorn in this (Bakshi's) film is dead-on.

The only parts of this film I didn't like was the long drawn out Frodo-dying-on the-horse bit. I would have preferred them to cut that part down and put more into the ending.

Wow. Are you serious?

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Really? No comment? Anyone seen this great film???

I seen Fire & Ice but never saw Wizards

[madmojo]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Really? No comment? Anyone seen this great film???

Fritz! Fritz! They killed Fritz! Those lousy, stinkin, no good yellow fairies! Take that, and that!

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by madmojo

Fritz! Fritz! They killed Fritz! Those lousy, stinkin, no good yellow fairies! Take that, and that!

Oh, and I'm glad you changed your name, you sonuva--

[Show spoiler](pulls out gun)

(Definitely the crossover film between the 70's Crumb-wannabe Bakshi, and the 80's Fantasy Roto-geek Bakshi, but it was a learning experience for him...
And they're still paternity-suiting which came first, "Wizards" or "Elfquest".)

[RevolveR72]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Really? No comment? Anyone seen this great film???

I remember seeing this around 17-18 years ago on VHS and being very let down by the quality of the animation. Bakshi to me is very hit or miss, unfortunately I think heavier on the misses part.

I terms of his movies that I have seen here's how I rate them...

1 - American Pop (if LOTR is coming to Blu, this is a no brainer)
2 - Fire & Ice
3 - LOTR
4 - Hey Good Lookin'
5 - Wizards

[radagast]

On Best Buy's site, they have Bakshi's version as FULLSCREEN:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/The+Lord...ings&lp=3&cp=1

Amazon says it's in 1:77 aspect ratio.

[DaveFi]

Originally Posted by radagast

On Best Buy's site, they have Bakshi's version as FULLSCREEN:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/The+Lord...ings&lp=3&cp=1

Amazon says it's in 1:77 aspect ratio.

Most likely their idea of "fullscreen" on HD means no black bars. The movie's OAR is 1.85:1, so 1.77 is close enough. Keep in mind, quite often Amazon and Bestbuy's tech specs are wrong.

[sasquatch]

April 6th on Amazon. Can't wait to get this.

[Grand Bob]

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)
"

Although I liked the idea of Bakshi using that quote in his animated feature (and was surprised that Jackson didn't use it in his movie), I thought the animated Aragorn looked more like a North American Indian (?) than the Numenorean depiction of Aragorn ascribed by Tolkien. Certainly a major difference between both movies and Tolkien's idea of Aragorn was his height. From his papers:

"Aragorn, direct descendent of Elendil, and his son Isildur, both of whom had been seven feet tall, must nonetheless have been a very tall man, probably at least 6 ft. 6."

[DaveFi]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

Although I liked the idea of Bakshi using that quote in his animated feature (and was surprised that Jackson didn't use it in his movie), I thought the animated Aragorn looked more like a North American Indian (?) than the Numenorean depiction of Aragorn ascribed by Tolkien. Certainly a major difference between both movies and Tolkien's idea of Aragorn was his height. From his papers:

"Aragorn, direct descendent of Elendil, and his son Isildur, both of whom had been seven feet tall, must nonetheless have been a very tall man, probably at least 6 ft. 6."

Also, you have to remember that Aragorn was in his 80s and lived a rough life, most of it in the outdoors- so I think his appearance was more faithfully depicted here than it was in the live action movies. The whole theme of the books was that it's what's inside that matters, not on the outside...

[EugeneE]

This is cool news.

I never got to see the original animated version of LOTR from the 1970's. I'm defintely adding this one to my collection in the future.

[marty666]

Does anyone know if this will be regiopn A or region free.

[LeBougre]

Originally Posted by marty666

Does anyone know if this will be regiopn A or region free.

Since it's Warner, it will be region free, as always

[RYJAPE21]

An enjoyable adaptation, I look forward to seeing it in HD.

[Dubstar]

the movie also has one of the best underrated filmscores... ever

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by radagast

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.

the Rankin Bass version also got the Witch King - Eowyn confrontation scene right too, with the great lines that both of them speak to one another prior to the Witch King biting it. Jackson completely eff'ed up the scene IMO.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by radagast

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.

that'd be funny as hell...

which reminds that the French & Saunders parody of 'The Lord of the Rings' is one of the funniest things I've ever seen, I was dying of laughter (is this on DVD?)

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by radagast

There were several things in Bakshi's version that was more true to the book than Jackson's:

1) The reason Merry and Pippin were on the quest.
2) Frodo alone on the horse at the Ford of Bruinen
3) Bilbo at the Council of Elrond.
4) Gandalf's desire to go through Moria.
5) The snowstorm that cause them to go through Moria not being of Saruman's design
6) The depiction of Lady Galadriel
7) The breaking of the Fellowship

On the other hand, Bakshi must have been on drugs having Saruman called "Saruman" in some places and "Aruman" in others.

it's also interesting to note that in the book, as in this film version, Gandalf almost pawns off the decision to Frodo - which he refires back at Gandalf and the Fellowship by saying "if it's what Gandalf wishes" - in Jackson's version, the whole decision by Frodo to go through Moria seems like a careless. off the wall. stupid decision on Frodo's part.