[Chancellen the True]

I understand the purist's view when it comes to the animated movies; but I'm an artist and a RPGer, and I see things a little differently. Lets start with The Hobbit. It was a made for TV movie and quite a bold move for a network to produce an animated feature. Besides from some BBC radio stuff, this was THE FIRST "view" of Tolkien's work that the general public saw. Another thing to remember is that it was made for children. You have to remember also that it was made in '77. Everything was hand drawn, frame by frame, NO COMPUTERS! The artwork was quite good. If you look in the credits, the voice actor's list is impressive. My favorite is Richard Boone (Paladin, Have Gun, Will Travel [great show]), as Smaug. The "christmas lights" around Elrond's head are ioun stones, magical stones that have powers. Middle Earth is a "fantasy" realm, so some artistic license must be given, especially with animation. When we read the books, we each have our own visual interpitation of what we read. No person's vision is completely right or wrong.<P>The animated LOTR movie has it's good points and it's bad points; but since most of the bad points have been stomped into the dirt, I'll try and make some good points. Before I get into what I like, I must say that I hate the butchering that was done. I understand that you have to leave out pieces of the story sometimes, but what was done here is inexcusable. I did not like the way they drew the main characters, both in style and in form. They really suffered when compared to some of the lush backrounds. I doubt that Aragorn was so ugly, but John Hurt did a great job with the voice. Everyone's facial expressions were hard to understand. Boromir's voice and size and strength was right on the money. In the book he was supposed to be different than Faramir, not the same. They outfitted Boromir strangely, he was a prince and it should have showed. I loved the way they portrayed the orcs. The animation over film effect was cool in the large battle scenes. The animation in general really improved as the movie went along. The Nazgul were well done as well. They were tall, dark and terrible. My only gripe was the lack of a pronounced crown on the witch king. The portrayal of Galadriel was the best part of the movie for me.<P>I guess I see fantasy different than most folks. I feel that the new movies missed on some points. I doubt it's the movie's fault, It's just that I see things differently than the people involved. The elves were way to plain, they should look half divine, not like a guy I saw on the bus the other day. I understand what most of you are saying about these movies; but remember, other people envision what they read differently than you and that a lot of hard work went into making those films. Don't forget, they were all hand drawn, no CGI.<P>Oh, I forgot to mention TROTK. There's not much to say, I can't even defend this one. The whip song is a sentamental favorite of mine. You just have to mention it to me and it starts all over again in my head. One small point, hearing Roddy McDowell recite Tolkien dramaticly was pretty cool. Thanks