What do you think of the Bakshi cartoon? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Sauron the White · 04-28-2008, 07:20 AM

Mothoron - I have long suspected that the Bakshi film was not a hit was because the visual style was so jarringly inconsistent to the viewer. He tried to combine too many different techniques and it all came out as a mess. While he did rotoscope the main figures to gain a realistic look, his orcs were fuzzy and looked like film negatives. And then he hired some talented painters to do beautiful paintings of buildings like Rivendell but then had other landscape backgrounds which looked fuzzy and badly out of focus. For Bakshi, it was a technique born out of necessity and economics. If it worked, it would have been hailed as the work of an innovator..... (see the recent CLOVERFIELD movie which made a fortune for bad camera work) .... but it simply did not work due to its unevenness.

We would differ greatly on Viggo as Aragorn versus the Bakshi version. I felt Mortensen was nearly perfect in the role and he perfectly captured the right combination a character that both men and women viewers could relate to for completely different reasons. I still think that the Bakshi version only needs the stereotypical headress to be a complete Native American.

I think the human character in the GULLIVERS TRAVELS 1939 by Fleischer - was also completely rotoscoped... and not very well.

04-28-2008, 07:20 AM	#14
Sauron the White Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 903	Mothoron - I have long suspected that the Bakshi film was not a hit was because the visual style was so jarringly inconsistent to the viewer. He tried to combine too many different techniques and it all came out as a mess. While he did rotoscope the main figures to gain a realistic look, his orcs were fuzzy and looked like film negatives. And then he hired some talented painters to do beautiful paintings of buildings like Rivendell but then had other landscape backgrounds which looked fuzzy and badly out of focus. For Bakshi, it was a technique born out of necessity and economics. If it worked, it would have been hailed as the work of an innovator..... (see the recent CLOVERFIELD movie which made a fortune for bad camera work) .... but it simply did not work due to its unevenness. We would differ greatly on Viggo as Aragorn versus the Bakshi version. I felt Mortensen was nearly perfect in the role and he perfectly captured the right combination a character that both men and women viewers could relate to for completely different reasons. I still think that the Bakshi version only needs the stereotypical headress to be a complete Native American. I think the human character in the GULLIVERS TRAVELS 1939 by Fleischer - was also completely rotoscoped... and not very well. Last edited by Sauron the White; 04-28-2008 at 07:23 AM.