The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

The Lord Of The Rings, released in 1978 is a groundbreaking animated film by Ralph Bakshi, and even served as an inspiration to the Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings films. The Lord of the Rings, which Bakshi wanted to release as The Lord Of The Rings pt 1, but the film company was convinced that no one would pay to see only half of a movie, caused a lot of film goers to be confused, as they were expecting the whole story to be told in the film (I admit I was one of those when I first saw this as a kid). This film tells an abridged version of The Fellowship of the Rings and the first half of The Two Towers. Okay so I said that it is an abridged version, but I want to explain that a bit. This is the closest adaptation to the Lord Of The Rings, yet to be made, Bakshi and company added nothing to the story (unlike Peter Jackson), and they only cut out what was necessary to tell the film in the most efficient way, so yes much of Frodo leaving the Shire was reduced, which was also the case in Peter Jackson's version, as were the chapters of Tom Bombadil and the Baron Weights. Also Glorfindel became Legolas so he again is erased from a film adaptation, I feel like Glorfindel and Tom Bombadil never get any love by film makers. A few other things were cut for pacing, and just overall streamlining to tell the most story in the least amount of time. In much less time this film tells the story of the first book and a half of the Lord of the Rings, more accurately than Peter Jackson does in nearly 6 hours worth of his films. This in my opinion is the truest and the best adaptation of the Lord Of The Rings to date. Sadly the second half was never made, though Rankin/Bass did wrap it up with the Return of the King, which was in a totally different animation style, and much more family friendly. That brings me to my next point, this might be an animated film, but this is not a cartoon, this is not a kids film. Ralph Bakshi is known for doing more adult animation, and some of the greatest animated films of all-time at that which also include classics like Fire and Ice, and Wizards. For this film he uses rotoscoping animation, which is where first it is filmed in live action, and then the live action is traced frame by frame into animation. Companies like Disney would then take that and make it exaggerated and cartoon looking, but with Bakshi and his animation team they gave it a darker realistic look. By the way this film is fucking dark, there is blood spraying, and blood red back lighting with silhouetted characters. The Orcs look nightmarish, realistic and terrifying. Some critics actually stated that the level of violence in the film, had them leaving the theater feeling ill. Other types of animation were also mixed in, creating the world of Tolkien as I saw it in my head when I read the books. Though yes, there is a bit of whimsiness to the hobbits, The Lord Of The Rings, is not an easy book to read, it is dark, it is violent, it is a story of a small group of good, the pure hearted hobbits up against the most dark oppressively evil that the world could imagine, and this film creates that juxtaposition of good and evil more than any other adaptation to this date. The Peter Jackson versions honestly are almost too clean and polished, this version is dirty, dark, bloody, and sometimes unsettling. This film actually borders on being a horror story at times, and not just high fantasy, and I feel that is true of Tolkien's original work as well. I watched this so many times on VHS as a kid that the tape started to wear out, I had memorized lines and scenes from it, this film really impacted me very deeply, and changed forever the way that I would view animation. I fucking hate Disney cartoon films, they are bullshit, they are lies, they paint this false image of the world that the corporations try to feed down our throat, you will not see the Lion King, Alladin, Little Mermaid, or any of that tripe bullshit in my reviews (though the video games that Capcom did of those for the NES are all amazing). After watching the Lord of the Rings, and seeing that animation did not have to be this happy there is no real danger in the world that a little song can't fix crap, that animation could be dark, it could be scary, it could be nasty, my view of what an animated film could be forever changed, when I saw Wizards, Heavy Metal, and Fire and Ice I saw real animated films, not this crap that they push on kids. I as a kid wanted to see horror, I wanted to see dark fantasy. There is a reason I love artists like Louis Royo, or Boris Vajello, I like the graphic art, the I see beauty in the dark art, I see empowerment when the hero faces real hopelessness, and when it actually feels like good might not win, because a hero who had to go through real hell, who almost didn't make it, is so much more inspiring than the hero who was never in real danger. I am not a fan of cartoons and comic books, I like graphic novels and adult animated films. But that is just my rant on this. This film still holds up today as one of the most amazing animated films of all times, the techniques used here have never truly been replicated in any film since. The team of animators on this project are all amazing (one of which would go on to be a famous director by the name of Tim Burton). From a technical perspective this film, though flawed is nearly as perfect as an animated film can be. The voice actors were all amazing, some of which would go on to reprise their roles on the BBC radio play of the Lord Of The Rings. This is one of the best looking films of all time, and will always stand up as in my opinion not only one of the greatest films of all time, but also one of the most important, because of the chances that it took, and how it would forever change what we viewed an animated film could look like. Never has an animated film risen to be its equal, though Wizards is pretty damn close. Now I got to say here, yes I hold this style of animated film in very high regards, but there is also a great beauty in Japanese animated films too, which also don't seem to fall in line with the shitty american cartoon crap, but we shall talk more about how amazing anime movies are in another review, I just wanted to point out here that, I am not saying anything negative about anime, as it is also one of my favourite types of animation, I just don't want you (the reader) to understand that I do appreciate art and animation of many types, and other than Disney and kiddie cartoons I am a huge fan of animation. I also want to take a moment to discuss the score for this film. Bakshi originally wanted to use some Led Zepplin songs, which would have been pretty cool, however it was decided to have an original more orchestral score instead, and I agree that this was a very good move. The music in this film, to me, defines the music of the Lord Of The Rings, when I read the books I hear this music playing. The music is iconic, and moving, and fits the film perfectly. This might actually be one of my favourite original film scores I have ever heard. Leonard Rosenman's score is absolutely amazing. Rosenman did win a Golden Globe for the score, even though some critics actually bashed his score. Okay before I wrap this up, let me say this, critics are assholes, me included at times, no doubt. The critic's views on this film are dramatically mixed. Some like myself loving it and praising it for how amazing it is, some cry about how dark and violent it was, others complained that it was incomplete (which if Bakshi had his way would have been clear that it wasn't meant to be the whole story), other's cried about how if you haven't read the books it wouldn't make sense. So take every review with a grain of salt, mine included. I am just sharing with you my thoughts and impressions, with a few bits of interesting facts thrown in. I will die on the hill arguing that this is the greatest animated film of all time, and that the music is pure magic, and that this is also the best adaptation of the Lord of the Rings yet, if you disagree, that's cool, but this is something that I am very passionate about. Would I recommend this film? Yes, absolutely to every adult and mature kid I would recommend this film. This is a must see. Everyone should read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, and then follow them up with the animated films by Ranken/Bass and Ralph Bakshi, then follow those up with the Peter Jackson films. They are all must sees and they are all amazing works in their own right. There is a solid reason that as a kid I wore out two copies of this film, and was very excited to find it on DVD (now I just need the animated Return Of The King to finish off my collection, I used to own it on VHS too).