Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4246 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-26
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
French\Italian
English\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround English\Mono French Italian
Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Mono
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Arabic\Bulgarian\Dutch\English\French\German\Italian\Portuguese\Romanian\Spanish

Synopsis
Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's revered Middle-earth saga captures the dark mood of the books extraordinarily well. The film covers the first half of the trilogy--THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and the earlier part of THE TWO TOWERS--as Frodo (voiced by Christopher Guard), the cousin of Bilbo Baggins from THE HOBBIT, is given the all-powerful ring sought by the evil Sauron of Mordor. So begins his adventure, as he must elude Mordor's black riders in an effort to prevent the ring from returning to its owner and thereby signaling the end of Middle-earth. Even with the mighty wizard Gandalf as his ally and faithful friends Merry, Sam, and Pippin by his side, Frodo is still up to his hobbit neck in peril.
Bakshi took a big risk when deciding to direct the beloved Tolkien tale, but the resulting work effectively brings Middle-earth to the screen. Bakshi combines painted live-action footage with various styles of animation to create a very unusual collage-style texture for this film. Viewers should be warned that the story ends rather abruptly, leaving room for a sequel that was, unfortunately, never filmed. Still, for fans of fantasy, this moody, atmospheric version of the novels captures the shadowy hues of Tolkien's work in a way that is unique and worth discovering.

Customer Reviews

proud to be different
some weeks ago i came across the gem for under £2 in a second hand shop, and was both horrified at how such a classic story could be priced so low, and also intrigued at how a much earlier, british director would handle the saga.
firstly, it should be made known that this premake/original is missing the final chapters of "the return of the king", which if you have seen the new movies, matters little anyway.
secondly, for the hardcore readers who expect a word-to-word adaptation, you won't find this either. rather, what i would interpret this film as is this: a fairytale, almost disney-esque telling of quite a violent and adult live-action follow up. rather than except peter jackson's empirical trilogy, that is to say, "the one and only movie adaptation", it is nice to see an alternative, visually inventive and overall more optimistic telling of a milestone in the fantasy genre.
this film does more for adults therefore than the very young, acting as a reminder of the innocence and imagination of yesteryear.

Bored of the Rings....
At first glance, the animation is rather quirky and inspiring. The movement of the characters in particular is the most convincing aspect of the animation, and they've put some effort in there. Some of the character design is a bit off-putting (Boromir looks like a viking! And Gollum is a spud on legs), but for the most part it is acceptable.
The script is problem. Limp and lifeless, the dialogue serves only as exposition and shows very little character depth outside of the two main hobbits. Merry and Pippin might have never been there!
The pace of the film is too fast and the tension that should have been apparent in the first half (based on the first book) is virtually non-existant constantly jumping from scene to scene and setting to setting. You certainly won't get any idea of the geography of Middle-Earth from this version. Oddly, despite the speed of the picture, I was getting bored after an hour....
The voice work is fine, though none of them manage to rescue a dire script.
The second book, The Two Towers, is butchered to death and I doubt many will really understand what is going on.
In all, the animation is nice and the first half just about manages to keep the story in one piece, but the annoying dialogue and direction get in the way (anyone else notice Frodo freely pass the ring to Gandalf in Bilbo's house beside the fire? Didn't seem so concerned then did he?). The music is bland and worthless, but the actors are okay.
Looks fine, but the rest is just a mess....

Not at all bad!
While it's not Peter Jackson's definitive visual offering this is still an interesting curiosity.

Using different animation techniques combined with "live action" elements it takes the trilogies narrative to just after the attack at Helms Deep. It's a pity that there wasn't a sequel to complete the story as I was really getting into it by the end.

Although anyone familiar with Jackson's version will notice where the two differ, characters such as the Orcs (reminded me of psychotic Sand People)and Gollum (Kenneth Williams meets Russell Brand) play along nicely.