original LOTR movie

[morgoth]

Does anyone know how to get a hold of a copy of this? It seems to have been deleted in the UK.

[anduin]

I am assuming you mean the Bakshi version.....try an online auction or a used CD/Video store.

Incidently, when doing a search on Bakshi, this movie popped up: Wizards with Mark Hamill.:lol:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6301801709.01.MZZZZZZZ.gif

[Darth Tater]

I have also had troulbe trying to get my hands on the Bakshi movies. I know they're supposed to be horrible, but I wanna at least see them.

[bmilder]

I rented them from Blockbuster.

[Hernalt]

Is there just one or two vidoes to the Bakshi LOTR partial saga? I've rented a Bakshi production but I don't think it included Battle of the Hornberg. Yet I keep hearing about this Bakshi BoH that looks just like the ""charge"" at the end of MP's Seach For the Holy Grail. I've come out of the closet already - DO INDEED award the Bakshi effort as the.. well, *Effort* that it was. I sure didn't see none of *Your* whiny backends trying a LOTR production! :D hehe! For starters, the faces and expressions were more than adequate for a cartoon.

[bmilder]

Well, I don't remember the company names... but I know one company, I'll call it Company A, did an animated version of The Hobbit. This version was about average in quality, especially considering the nature of that story. Then Company B (I think Bakshi) did "Part I" of LotR, and ended mid-TTT. No second part was ever made by this company. Then Company A made an animated film of RotK. This was odd, because instead of having flashbacks to earlier sections of LotR, the characters in the film remembered scenes from the Hobbit movie, because it was from the same company! This movie wasn't very good either. The second half of The Two Towers has never been covered in any movie so far.

[Eruve]

The Hobbit and ROTK were done by Rankin-Bass for TV. AFAIK, there is only one Bakshi version of LOTR which ends after the Battle of Hornberg. I've never seen a version of it that did not include this battle, since it serves as the climax of the movie. Yes, I have seen the Bakshi movie several times...

[Hernalt]

Thanks, Eruve. I'll be sure to give them another go.

One thing I'm sure of - these old cartoons, no matter how maligned, are going to become cult classics after the movies come out. The EU-TPM phenomena sparked a scrabbling effort to find every last s**** of 'authorized' material. If some of the EU **** is anything to go by, the RankinBass and Bakshi productions will be welcomed with open arms soon enough. Perhaps they'll be released - I'm figuring that I'll personally want the complete box set, if those two companies could come to some agreement. Maybe throw in whatever film clips, behind-the-scenes and commentary that might exist, or perhaps a cameo forward/interview with the original directors. There *Is* gold in them thar hills, and if anyone knows my stance on TPM, they know I am not remotely forgiving.

[bmilder]

Yeah, that's true... I felt compelled to find a copy of The Star Wars Holiday Special even after hearing reports about how awful it was. I bought it, watched it, and determined it was dreadful. But I did want to find that out for myself :p

[anduin]

The only thing remotely worth watching of the SW Holiday Special are the commercials.....and even they are not that good. :P

[Niffiwan]

And ze cartoon! Ze cartoon iz pretty good, from what I have heard.

[anduin]

Ah yes, the cartoon.....Niffy you are right there....the cartoon was pretty good. :)

[etherealunicorn]

For anyone who is interested, the original movies may be purchased from Columbia House Video Club.

[bmilder]

Speaking of the movie, I've downloaded the entire soundtrack from Napster and it's pretty good :) . Hoepfully the new movies will be better though.

[Blazez]

I watch it sometimes when bored or in need of a good laugh. One example of how bad it is: when Gandalf is entering the Golden Hall, he should be in white but is actually coloured as of old! Ridiculus.

I also own the Rankin Bass (or Rank and Crass, as I like to call it) version of The Return of the King (made for ABC, to be exact) which is even worse. The songs are cheesy and very un-Tolkien, and the animation is very bad. I rented the Hobit from blockbuster and because it is a simpler story manages to be a bit better.

One thing I'd like to point out about the Lord of the Rings. A lot of people seem to think that the whole movie is rotoscoped (filming like actors or objects, tracing over them and inserting them in animated backgrounds for more realistic movement). It is not! Only the bad guys are all rotoscoped. On some long or dark shots the heroes are RSed. You can tell when this is done because a black, uneven haze is over their whole form.

[etherealunicorn]

I'm like you, Blazez, I like to pull out the old animated version from time to time and kick back. I could not bring myself to add The Return of the King to my video collection, since I hated it so very much. In my opinion, Eowyn's scene at the Pelennor Fields is the only acceptable one in the whole movie. But I have to admit: in the animated LotR, I love the scene when the Fellowship is trying to get into Moria. Everybody arguing, the hobbits keeping a strict eye on the lake, all the complaints. I watch and ask myself "Now wouldn't it be a real nosebleed to actually have to travel with this bunch? What a treat it would be!(yeah, right).

[bmilder]

And they made Boromir look like a Viking! :lol:

[etherealunicorn]

Yeah, that Viking look was a scream, wasn't it?
:rollin: :lol: Too lame. And all that silly hopping and dancing around and clapping by all the hobbits.

[Yazad]

There were a bunch of things in the Bakshi version which just plain sucked, no doubt about it, but all in all, I still think that it wasn't that bad. I liked the intro a lot, the fall of Boromir was great and the winged Nazgul was wonderful! I liked most of the portrayal of Gandalf, Strider, Theoden, Wormtongue, Elrond, etc. The Flight to the Ford was phenominal, I thought. The Moria scenes were also quite good.

I also think that the score was fabulous and am willing to bet that the new version will probably suck in comparison. I hope it doesn't but if they get John Williams or James Horner, it'll just be another Hollywood score that we've heard over and over again. I'd like to hear something original

And, of course, there were many really less than wonderful parts too. The rotoscoping was silly in a lot of the battle scenes, when the non-essential characters are dim, and up comes Legolas bright as day to run across the screen. I think it became clear at which point the budget ran out.

At any rate, I think it's a nice little adaptation, not definitive by any strech of the imagination, but better than nothing. Hopefully the new films will bury it.