<BR> Re: What?</b><br><br> I'm certainly not against a film, but significant diversions from the story will not reflect well on it. I would submit that most people want to see The Lord Of The Rings story on film, and not just something that resembles it but is different in significant and many ways. If Saruman is impaled on a spike at Orthanc, then what of The Scouring Of The Shire? Or if Arwen (as a warrior princess?!?) saves Frodo at the Ford, stands up to the Nazgul (her, not Frodo) before the Flood, and leads an army of Elves to fight at Helm's Deep so she can slay orcs and fight beside her lover, is this still The Lord Of The Rings? An Elvish army fighting with the Rohirrim, whose fear and terror of Elves and the Golden Wood shows explicitly the theme of the estrangement of Elves from Men, and the Fading of all things Elvish from Middle Earth. It is this Autumnal quality which helps make the story what it is, and having an army of Elves fighting with an army of Men, especially Rohirrim, doesn't do much to propel this central theme of LOTR.<br> <br> You know, Bakshi's part one of the LOTR was fairly true to the story. He condensed parts, abridged the story, made action scenes from expository passages, but he made few changes to the story, and none of them significant. The characters were true to the book, as was the story. That it was underfunded, and production cut when he was only half way through the story, wasn't his fault. He was given only $10 million and a year and a half to make the film. Bakshi had no access to digital technology or CGI; every background and character was hand painted, and if he had been given the time and money, every rotoscoped scene would have been completed, along with Parts 2, and 3. If you follow animation, you can see that this is a miniscule budget and a pitiful short time to make a feature film, which left us with those unpainted rotoscoped battle scenes, and half the story. Yet, I enjoyed it when I saw it (non ending not withstanding). People may disagree with some of the drawings, or the look of Borimir, but the characters were realised well and the voice actors were excellent. There is a DVD re-release planned for the film later this year or the next, and I'm buying a copy for my collection.<br> <br> <p></p>
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