So, anyway. Ralph Bakshi is a director who is known primarily for his work in animation. He's notable for, among other things, directing the first X-rated animated film ever made (by MPAA standards, anyway), producing the original Mighty Mouse series, and well...this movie.
Needless to say, we have a very eclectic individual on our hands, folks.
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| "I've come here to tell you...you all suck." |
I'd say "Oh, that's so hackneyed", but this is where every Dungeon Master stole their overarching campaign plot from. It may not be the original artifact of doom story, but it is the template that most such stories follow by now.
However, this is an adaptation, this only covers the first book - The Fellowship of the Ring - and roughly about half of the second book - The Two Towers - in a runtime of just over an hour and a half. It's honestly not too bad a choice, seeing as it manages to tell the story of the first two books fairly well and stops just about where Peter Jackson does with his version of The Two Towers. Peter Jackson has even said that this film served as a great deal of inspiration when he was making his own trilogy for New Line so if you watch this and anything seems oddly familiar stylistically, then that's most likely why.
The film is animated, although it uses rotoscoping in several scenes (real life scenes are shot and then traced over by animators). It's an interest effect to watch and gives a sort of surreal feel to a lot of scenes when compared to the ones that are pure animation. While it does give the movements a more fluid feel to them, looking more realistic (which, given how rotoscoping is done, makes sense), the design choices see almost everything in those scenes with the color turned way, way up to the point where people look like they're covered in multi-colored paint.
It's an odd choice and it really does take you out of some scenes. Of course, I'm sure some art snob on Twitter is going to read this and tell me I just don't understand the genius of it all. Sure.
Also, this has nothing to do with that and I don't often go into this, but the poster is insanely trippy. The scale of things is oddly wrong, but in a way that definitely grasps your attention when you look at it, so kudos there.
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| "The DM says he's grinning...that's bad, right? That's bad." |
Of course, with animation, you have the voice acting to bring life to the characters. Like with The Hobbit last week, some big names were brought in. You have Anthony Daniels as Legolas in a rare non-C-3PO role he's known for. You also have the late, great John Hurt as Aragorn, son of Arathorn!
...and unfortunately, unless you're big into British productions, that's really kind of it.
Not to look down my nose at the rest of the cast, of course. Everyone does a job fairly well besides a few out there line reads, though I credit that more to direction than anything else.
John Hurt in particular is the perfect voice for Aragorn. Of course, saying that John Hurt's voice isn't perfectly iconic is a sin that can never be redeemed, so that's not saying very much. In seriousness, though, he does amazingly well and you can completely believe that this man is a king in disguise.
Apart from that, as I said, The Lord of the Rings covers the first book and most of The Two Towers, and it does them fairly well with only cutting out a little of the fat (things get a little rushed around Edoras and leading into Helm's Deep), much like the Rankin/Bass Hobbit last week. It's pretty good, though the art style might put you off as it has for some. Ralph Bakshi is a quirky one, but I must admit he does pretty well in adaptation.
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| See? It's surreal. |
The Lord of the Rings is brought to us by United Artists and Fantasy Films.
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