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The Lord of the Rings 1978 : Original Animated Classic

DVD - 2010 DVD Animation Lord, Youth-DVD Books-&-Stories Lord 2 On Shelf No requests on this item Community Rating: 4.4 out of 5

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Call Number: DVD Animation Lord, Youth-DVD Books-&-Stories Lord
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

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Based on the novels "The fellowship of the ring" and "The two towers" by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Videodisc release of the 1978 motion picture.
"Original animated classic"--Container.
Special features: all-new bonus featurette, "Forging through the darkness, the Ralph Bakshi vision for The lord of the rings"; trailers.
Voices: Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, Dominic Guard, Narman Bird, Michael Graham-Cox, Anthony Daniels, David Buck, Peter Woodthorpe.
All the magical adventure of J.R.R. Tolkien's thrilling trilogy comes to life in this brilliantly animated tale of the enchanted land of Middle Earth.
DVD; region 1; standard version, Dolby digital.
Contents: Fellowship of the ring. -- Two towers.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

a better... submitted by lekendrick on September 9, 2011, 4:10pm as far animated fare goes this has a style from Paramount of ABC & later Music Television, nickelodeon & comedy central! Important as to the type fare provided keep a head bangers ball going or appeal dungeons & dragons crowd! Worth a watch in your neon colors if you have them...

Nostalgia and Technical Interest but Read the Book or see Jackson's trilogy submitted by tropology on August 27, 2018, 2:04pm I saw this film in theater when I was a youngster. I remember it much more fondly than it deserves.

The film covers less than two thirds of the trilogy - which was a disappointment then, but even more so now upon rewatching - seeing just how it was ended and what a disservice it does to Tolkien's work.

The animation is interesting in it's use of rotoscope. This gives the proportionality and detail of creatures and characters a higher degree of realism in particular in battle and crowd scenes and certain gestures and postures of individual characters, but does not generally mesh well with the main characters - especially Legolas, Gimli and the Hobbits. Animation elsewhere has tended to rely on stylization to achieve the equivalent emotional and gestural significance. Other uses of rotoscope such as in Linklater aim at a break from realism whereas rotoscope here is seeking greater realism. it runs counter to what we have come to expect from animation, which is interesting to consider.

The screenplay is adapted (among the screenwriters if Peter Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn) and cuts certain characters for brevity and rearranges a bit to provide background.

The film was overly ambitious in attempting to capture the trilogy in one film and the ending is so abrupt it feels like it was not originally intended to end where it did.

If the film simply ended around this point in the plot without declaring an end to the story a lot more could be forgiven.

A film continuation encompassing the third book, Return of the King was later released and was broadcast on television but I've never been able to obtain a copy.



(Note: I've copied my review from the BlueRay page)

Disappointing but still very interesting. submitted by Nehemiah9 on July 21, 2019, 10:54am I wish they had followed the formula that they used to make the Hobbit cartoon from 1977 and made a trilogy of Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King version is the closest to the Hobbit's style but it's not nearly as good. The animated Lord of the Rings covers the first two books roughly and has weird mismatched styles (the previous reviewer above explains all of that). I think I read before that Ralph Bakshi (or was it others involved?) quit before it was finished, giving it the abrupt ending that it has.

Bored of the Rings submitted by tarascon on July 4, 2023, 1:15pm I love Tolkien and first read his trilogy in the Ballantine Books edition around 1970 so when this animated release came out I raced to the theater to see it.

To be blunt (pun intended) I have to say that even though I was really high at the time, I can’t say that a good time was had. Props to Bashki for trying but his vision is merely of historical interest and the movie’s resemblance to LOTR is purely incidental. At best this production deserves credit for its experimental animation.

PS
My review title is from a satirical novel which appeared when I was in high school (c. 1973).

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LANGUAGE OPTIONS
Subtitled for the deaf and hard of hearing.

PUBLISHED
Burbank, CA : Warner Home Video, [2010]
Year Published: 2010
Description: 1 videodisc (133 min.) : sd., col. ; 4 3/4 in.
Language: English
Format: DVD

ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
1419885596
9781419885594

ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Bakshi, Ralph.
Zaentz, Saul.
Conkling, Chris.
Beagle, Peter S.
Guard, Christopher, 1953-
Squire, William, 1916-1989.
Scholes, Michael.
Hurt, John, 1940-2017.
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1892-1973.
United Artists Corporation.
Fantasy Films (Firm)
Warner Home Video (Firm)

SUBJECTS
Baggins, Frodo (Fictitious character)
Middle Earth (Imaginary place) -- Drama.
Fantasy films.
Animated films.
Feature films.
Video recordings for the hearing impaired.