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[Mejilan]

So, you know, the WB's 3 movies, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King. The first and last of those 3 movies were done by the same people, and LotR (the 2nd) was completely different. Still, since LotR essentially recounted the 1st book and half of the 2nd, and the totally different RotK told the tale of the 2nd half of book 2, and book 3, the three kinda do go together.

I think it's safe to say that a lot of us were either kids, or quite young, when we first saw these. In my case, it was WELL before I read the books. I've grown up to be a purist, in many senses, and could never really appreciate the Peter Jackson movies too much.

I haven't really thought of the cartoons in a long time. I picked them all up on DVD some time ago, but never even opened them.

Well, the PSP has become the repository for lots of DVDs I've picked up over the years but haven't found the time to watch at home.

I was curious what other people think of these 3 cartoons. Specifically, what they think of them now, and what they remember thinking of them when they saw them first, 20 or so years ago... No agenda here, just idle curiosity.

 

[ManaByte]

Bakshi's LOTR is vomit-inducing. It's SO BAD. The Hobbit and ROTK are great (even with Where there's a whip there's a way), but Bakshi's movie is a disaster.

I remember when Bakshi was so pissed at Peter Jackson for making all three movies because he claimed that HE was the only person with any right to do them.

 

[Mejilan]

I've always liked that song that goes "The wearer of the ring... the bearer of the ring..." from RotK.

Regarding Bakshi's LotR. I didn't even mind the rather jarring rotoscope animation, but wtf was with the "we have no hip" walking animations?

 

[Teddman]

The "Fir Tree" song in The Hobbit was great.

Anyway, that movie scared the Hell out me as a little tyke. Those animated orcs were scary.

 

[BobbyRobby]

I bought the animated LotR, and RotK on DVD before seeing RotK in theatres. Big Mistake.

The Hobbit kicks ass though.

Crack the dishes, burn the plates, that's what Bilbo Baggins hates!

 

[Dan]

I used to watch The Hobbit all the time when I was a kid. I loved it. The Hobbit was always my favorite of Tolkien's stories, at least from what I read. Haven't seen it in at least a decade though. I should pick it up, it's surely pretty cheap.

I'm not sure I ever saw The Lord of the Rings, but I know I've seen Return of the King, which I also enjoyed but didn't watch nearly as much since it was a self-contained story.

 

[SpoonyBard]

The RoTK cartoon was unbelievably bad. I remember LoTR being much better, but it has been 10 years since I saw it.

 

[Dan]

I just checked out the quotes that IMDB has for The Hobbit and I'm amazed at how Smaug's voice immediately returned to my mind after at least a decade. Heh, now I'm really quite motivated to go buy this. That voice rocked and it brings back memories.

 

[Mejilan]

I think Amazon has all 3 together for just over $30. Not too bad. I think.

 

[Drozmight]

:lol

When I scanned past this thread I went past, then thought it said Classic LOTR's Condoms and immediatly thought oh, hilarity!

Now I'm sad.

 

[border]

The Hobbit is easily the best. ROTK is pretty good, but kind of repetitive and uneventful (They're fighting yet another battle!). It's funny how they kind of glaze over the deaths of people.....in the Hobbit they just do that cheesy spinning effect when Bilbo kills someone and in ROTK Theoden dies from falling off his horse? :lol

Lord of the Rings is totally awful, but what do you expect? I don't think Bakshi has ever been associated with anything remotely good. He's always pretty self-indulgent, but it's pretty astounding how the last 30 minutes seem to plunge into total incoherence and rotoscope masturbation. Every movie has its fans, but I don't think I've heard anyone speak kindly of LOTR.

 

[Wheeljack539]

The Hobbit is easily the best. ROTK is pretty good, but kind of repetitive and uneventful (They're fighting yet another battle!). It's funny how they kind of glaze over the deaths of people.....in the Hobbit they just do that cheesy spinning effect when Bilbo kills someone and in ROTK Theoden dies from falling off his horse? :lol

Lord of the Rings is totally awful, but what do you expect? I don't think Bakshi has ever been associated with anything remotely good. He's always pretty self-indulgent, but it's pretty astounding how the last 30 minutes seem to plunge into total incoherence and rotoscope masturbation. Every movie has its fans, but I don't think I've heard anyone speak kindly of LOTR.

Didn't Tolkein himself chew out Bakshi over this? I seem to recall reading this somewhere...

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I was curious what other people think of these 3 cartoons. Specifically, what they think of them now, and what they remember thinking of them when they saw them first, 20 or so years ago... No agenda here, just idle curiosity.

I haven't watched them in probably 2/3 of my life, and haven't seen the middle one at all, but Gollum freaked me out. Particularly his voice.

 

[hobbitx]

Yeah the Hobbit is awesome, I have that on DVD. Those songs are so awesome though, the best ones imo were the plates song and the Goblin Town song, that one would make such an awesome techno mix.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I have both The Hobbit and Return of the King on VHS. It's been some time since I watched them, but I still enjoy them. The songs are great and they do a decent job of capturing the spirit of the stories.

I orginally saw The Hobbit as a kid on TV and wanted the book immediatly after that. It was really one of my first experiences with fantasy and I was hooked. Years later, I've lost count of the number of times I've read the books.

As for Bakshi's LOTR. It's an abomination. Just terrible stuff, and I could never bring myself to buy it, especially with Peter Jackson's version on DVD.

 

[Guzim]

Didn't Tolkein himself chew out Bakshi over this? I seem to recall reading this somewhere...

Tolkien died in 1973 while Bakshi's version came out in 1978.

 

[Wheeljack539]

Tolkien died in 1973 while Bakshi's version came out in 1978.

Ah, thank you. Must've been his son then, as I recall reading somewhere that Bakshi was was not only chewed out but also given a list of everything he screwed up with in the film.

 

[way more]

When used for artistic direction rotoscoping is very cool, when used to save a few bucks it's not so glamorous.

 

[Fafalada]

I dunno, while it kind of fell apart towards the end, I thought the rotoscoped LOTR animated film did a number of things right - most notably the visual aspects of some of the more interesting scenes, which actually has quite a similar feel in Jackson's movies.

But it was definite hit and miss - the depiction of the Balrog scene was pretty bad for instance.
On the other hand, all the scenes with The 9 were spot on and had an actual feeling of dread to them, something that's completely missing from Jackson's movies.
While the riders in new movies looked fantastic - the scenes with them failed to convey the feeling of dread,urgency and desperation that was quite clear from the books and animation.

 

[Mejilan]

Surprised to see so much Hobbit/RotK love here. I definitely preferred them over LotR. Hobbit really stands alone of the three as being a complete, relatively accurate story.

 

[Duck of Death]

Behold! The timeless analysis of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

Here's a sample:

31. The Balrog. - It has big red-and-black wings, kind of like a Monarch butterfly.
- It has the head of a big stuffed lion.
- It has big silly-looking feet. In fact, the Balrog is clearly wearing oversized fluffy bedroom-slippers.
...It's also noisy as hell, and makes a lot of big roaring Balrog-style noises. Obviously Bakshi had no access to Tolkien's Letters, particularly #210 to Forrest Ackerman:

"The Balrog never speaks or makes any vocal sound at all... [he] may think he knows more about Balrogs than I do, but he cannot expect me to agree with him."

Most curious, though, is this: unlike the original, Bakshi's Balrog can fly. This addition to the story raises an obvious question: if the Balrog can fly, why didn't it just fly back out of the chasm when Gandalf broke the Bridge?

Oh, and Rankin/Bass's Hobbit and Return of the King rule.

 

[Mejilan]

Hhaahh, that was a fun read, Duck.

 

[ManaByte]

Ah, thank you. Must've been his son then, as I recall reading somewhere that Bakshi was was not only chewed out but also given a list of everything he screwed up with in the film.

I believe it was Christopher Tolkien, yes. The Tolkien estate was never really connected to either Bakshi's or Jackson's LOTR. The movie rights were sold by Tolkien because he never thought it could be done and the estate really was hands off with all adaptations, but that doesn't stop them from commenting on them, and AFAIK they hated what Bakshi did.

Again, the Rankin/Bass movies are fantastic and classics, but Bakshi's is horrible.