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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 1205710" data-attributes="member: 151">Yup.   The actual chronology was:Tolkien's Death: 1973Rankin&Bass's The Hobbit: 1977, TV (CBS, iirc)Bakshi's LotR (condensing Fellowship and Two Towers): 1978Rankin & Bass's Return of the King, 1980, TV (ABC) Tolkien had been in negotiation over the film rights to the movies for a long time, but had never felt that they could possibly portray them, particularly given the limitations of film-making at that time, iirc.  That was why animation was such a natural choice.  Bakshi seemed like a good choice, too: he'd made several 'cutting edge' animated adult films...and even if some of them were controversial, he had a reputation for getting attention for animated fare aimed at Adults.  He'd even tackled adapting other folks work, such as Fritz the Cat, and had done some fantasy work with Wizards (another flawed but visually interesting film, also adapted from a comic).  Unfortunately, he also had a well deserved reputation for pitching his projects as needed a lower budget than they actually needed.  Witness the travesty that is Helm's Deep in Bakshi's work, and you'll get my meaning.  The first half-hour is pretty enjoyable, but the rotoscoping process starts to become tedious after a while, and the limitations of it are glaring.  The condensing that takes place throughout the movie is somewhat odd at points, but it has redeeming qualities, even if I consider it horribly flawed. I consider the animated version of "The Hobbit" to be great, and my kids love it, too.  It's pretty faithful, all things considered, and suffers more from poor foley work and some odd editing than anything else.  As I remember it said (legend or no), Return of the King was made to complete the trilogy, after the massive disappointment of the first movie, and was placed back in R&B's hands.  While R&B's love of adding songs is a little irritating at points, you can't help but admit they're somewhat infectious...particularly the 'whip' song, which I know many gamers can still recite from memory to this day.</blockquote>

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