Bakshi's LotR with new eyes

[Plane Sailing]

So, I noticed that (at the moment) the whole of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings is on youtube, so I thought I'd give it a watch.

I remember that I'd always hated their decision to bumpkinise Sam. But there were some surprises:

So far, the bad surprises are
1. how much incomplete rotoscoping they did for the crowd scenes, which really brought it down
2. The 70's style music - awful and jarring to me now


The good surprises though:
1. How much more closely it hewed to the book (at least in the passages I've seen so far - Merry and Pippin joining up with Frodo, the scenes in the prancing Pony (including Merry going for a wander and seeing the black riders).

Despite my reservations about the music, Sam and quality of animation, I intend to watch the rest of it and see to what further extent it better mirrors the books (knowing, of course, that they only got 1/2 - 2/3 of the way through the titles!)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJZPJrbGgEc&feature=related]Lord Of The Rings Animated ~FULL MOVIE~ - YouTube[/ame]

Cheers

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've seen it several times- about once every 2-3 years since I first saw it back in the 1980s- and it never ceases to please me.

Esp. since the dirty stinkin' fairies shot Fritz!

 

[GreyLord]

What's more surprising is that some of the shots from Bakshi's were copied almost frame for frame in some ways for Jackson's LotR.

In comparisons some of them would be in no way imagined from reading the book in how they occurred, but with the settings of the hollows and windows, etc...they mirror some of the scenes to the point that I feel Jackson may have gotten a LOT of "inspiration" from the Bakshi version.

Jackson had better pacing and better overall filming, but it's still kind of shocking.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One might call it..."homage."

 

[Mark CMG]

Esp. since the dirty stinkin' fairies shot Fritz!

I'm okay, Max.

 

[Gronin]

Esp. since the dirty stinkin' fairies shot Fritz!

I'm okay, Max.

And another movie goes on my Christmas break watch list......it has been far too long since I last watched it.

 

[Mark CMG]

And another movie goes on my Christmas break watch list......it has been far too long since I last watched it.

Sure has, Peewhittle!

 

[billd91]

Bakshi's Lord of the Rings was one of the first DVDs I bought when I finally got a DVD player. I still watch it from time to time. There are definitely elements of it I like better than Jackson's LotR trilogy.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Is this the one that ends with Gandalf throwing his sword in the air after the battle of Helm' Deep?


Pass.

 

[Felon]

Let's not forget the Rankin Bass version of RotK. I always thought it was a shame that Rankin Bass doesn't have the fan following that other old studios do. They had good animation. Heck, I think a lot of their Thundercats episodes have greater visual impact than what we see on the 2011 remake.