L.o.t.r. (1978)

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

I thought I would share this lovely little trailor with you.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3845813769536064190&q=Lord+of+the+Rings+animated

It is quite fun to see what has changed in trailors and not.

[Alcarin]

I hate the Ralph Bakski Film...the animation is very bad and sometimes the storyline ist good :mad: just gimme the normal trilogy

[Farael]

I actually saw some of it on TV.... I couldn't figure out what exactly I was looking at, I believe it was either the Siege of Minas Tirith or Helms Deep, probably Minas Tirith as I think I saw a hobbit there, but then I believe the animated version didn't get that far... all the same, it was... strange.... the characters looked rather funny (and not the good kind of funny) and the "action" was more confusing than anything else I've seen. I'm known to watch/read/listen to anything that has to do with LoTR at least once but I couldnt stand that thing for more than five minutes.

[Alcarin]

That's what i mean.......

[Nogrod]

Well, I'm too old I think, but the few parts with silhouettes were pretty damn working! At least a young lad was taken by them at the time! Meaning the very beginning and the battle at Helm's Deep in the end... and the ringwraiths were more scary in the Bakshi version than in the PJ one. Sorry PJ, you may have the modern technology and all your pixel-twisters, but Bakshi had some pretty good ideas.

No. I'm not defending the cartoon half of the LotR. It was a failure, but...

And my daughters were lured in to the Tolkien world by it, not a bad deed!

[Aiwendil]

I rather like some things about the Bakshi version. In some ways, I like it a lot better than Jackson's. I agree with Nogrod that the Nazgul were much scarier in Bakshi's version. Sure, there were other things that didn't work - the Balrog wasn't great, for instance - but I don't see the movie as a total failure at all. The music was also quite good, though of course the same is certainly true for the Jackson trilogy.

But you're right - trailers have changed quite a bit in the past twenty-five years or so. Interestingly, I think very similar changes have taken place in the world of television commercials; in both cases, the new style could more or less be stated as "cram ten thousand shots (preferably from a moving/shaky camera) into the space of thirty seconds".

[davem]

Its a long time since I saw the Bakshi LotR. I remember having to see it twice at the cinema as the first time the projectionist showed the reels out of sequence. Luckily I knew the story so I wasn't confused like some of the audience!

Interestingly the makers of the BBC radio adaptation which followed a couple of years later used two of the same actors - Peter Woodthorpe reprised his Gollum & Michael Graham Cox his Boromir - both to much greater effect, & certainly the movie seems to have been one of the things that lead to the series being made (other voice actors were, believe it or not, John Hurt as Aragorn & Anthony (C3PO) Daniels as Legolas). I seem to remember liking the movie, & it was nice to see my favourite book enter the consciousness of so many who didn't know it.

Peter Woodthorpe later recalled going to America to promote it & being given a rubber Gollum mask to wear! Bakshi is certainly more faithful in his adaptation than PJ was - though he took some things too literally - I seem to recall Gandalf's words about the Balrog's fall 'breaking the mountainside' being spoken over a flashback which showed the whole mountain collapsing! I have the urge to watch it again just to see how I'd feel now.

Bakshi & Saul Zaentz visited Tolkien's children in England to discuss the movie before making it & they were apparently happy with the character designs. Bakshi certainly wanted to be as faithful as possible to Tolkien's vision - he was appalled when he heard that John Boorman wanted to compress the story into a single movie & he originally wanted to make three movies (primary writer Chris Conkling wrote three seperate screenplays but amalgamated them), but was persuaded to make two at two & a half hours each. He also commented that the production office was receiving around 1500 letters a week from fans telling him he'd 'better get it right!'

[Boo Radley]

Is that Orson Wells doing the voice over? Gotta love those rich tones.

Now, is this the movie that has Genn Yarborough singing? Because as I recall, that turned me right off.

[Thinlómien]

And my daughters were lured in to the Tolkien world by it, not a bad deed!Certainly not! ;)