[Kransha]

You want my opinion of the cartoon? Well, you asked for it...

Important Stuff Left Out:
1 - The Ring inscription...that's....very...very...important.
2 - THEY NEVER SAY THE RING CAN BE DESTROYED IN MT. DOOM!
3 - The S in Saruman. Who on Arda is Aruman?

Characters Mangled:
1 - Boromir and Sauron were Knights Who Say Ni!
3 - Elrond...was not...an elf...
4 - Saruman 'Aruman' had the voice of a frog
5 - Treebeard looked like a monkey...and he never once said HOOM!
6 - Aragorn had the voice of a gecko.

Additions of EVIL:
1 - The Battle of the Hornburg was apparently made by Sam Peckinpah.
2 - Oh, don't get me started on the music...incidental my eye!
3 - 4 painful words: Milking the Giant Cow
4 - Also, Isildur was turned into a backstabber!
3 - Utter lack of any emotion.

Cartoonstuffs:
Ok, another crucial thing that made me hate this was the constant use of real-footage plastered evilly over cartoon. Like in Bree, cartoon hobbits sitting in a room with stencil realistic full-grown men in bad costumes. Also, half the time, important characters are made 8 times brighter so they'll be seen. Namely all elves have brightness-defect, as does Gandalf, and Theoden once or twice for 'effect.'

I could say more, but I won't.

On the bright side, Gollum and the Ringwaiths weren't at all bad.
If the cartoon inspired you to read the books, good. I'm glad for you. Just because I despise the thing doesn't mean it's all bad.

A poisonous toast to Ralph Bakshi!

P.S. I did like the Rankin-Bass Hobbit. That actually worked very well, except for Gandalf's super-eyebrows and the bloated goblins of Gundabad. Otherwise, I did like that one.