1978 animated

[Esmerelda the Elf-Girl]

OK, so i know this isnt the movie we're supposed to be talking about here, but last night i rented the 1978 animated version of lotr. ACK! makes me glad that they made the new versions to do justice to the book! i'm sorry if anybody really loved the old version, but I THOUGHT it just didnt capture any of the nobility or magic or excitement or grand scope of the books, really. if you did love it, i'd like to hear what you found captivating about it, really. It's too bad i found it so disagreeable...ANYWAY, i did have a quick question for anyone who's seen this thing: is there some reason for calling saruman "ARUMAN" other than they think we're too stupid to keep him separate from sauron if they call him saruman? lol. i dont know, but it threw me...then sometimes they'd forget and call him saruman after all. Maybe there's a good reason for it...<BR>oh, and did anyone else love the lament for gandalf music by the lothlorien children's choir? sry, i'll stop being mean...the effort was there, but just none of the "meatiness!" <BR>apologies to mr. bakshi, some of his other work was supposed to be really good...!

[Nevtalathiel]

Maybe Aruman was a nickname?

[Tigerlily Gamgee]

They said Saruman some of the time, didn't they? Though I remember them saying Aruman, and I found it to be really annoying.

[Rose Cotton]

I have that movie. I will give you my view of it.<P>The Prologue was good. I think it was a creative way to do it.<P>Gandalf was well drawn. Although whenever he tells storys his eyes start to bulge and you think they're gonna pop out of his head.<P>Bilbo, when Gandalf asked about the ring was realy jumpy. He imedietly jumped on Gandalf.<P>Frodo I think was the best done charicter. Maybe it was because he was the star. He was very well drawn and very well protrayed.<BR>(Though I still like the idea of him having blue eyes)<P>Sam, well, Sam needed a searious make over. I don't understand why they made him look so horrible. His charicter is well done though.<P>Merry and Pippin kind of show up. It's like they have no real meaning to the story. And where did that gitar come from? <P>The black riders are extremly well done. They are realy scary. Though that limp is kinda weird.<P>THEY SKIPED TOM BOMBIDIL!!! He's not a very popular movie charicter.<P>The Bree folk all looked so retarded. Frodo's disapearing act was pritty well done. If you notice when they're trying to escape the common room, if you look at Pippin's face you can tell he's haveing fun geting in trouble.<P>Strider needs pants. No seriously, he looks like he's wearing a skirt. But his charicter is done well.<P>Weathertop was cool. I have no complaints.<P>Won't these movie people ever get it right. They realy like using the wrong person to get Frodo. This time it's Legolas that does it. At least it's better then Arwen. Legolas is very well drawn. My brother didn't like his nose.<P>The flight to the ford was more like a step dance contest between the horses. <P>Sauruman i agree was called Auruman alot. It was very anoying. All i have to say about his is: Wow, pretty colors!<P>The council of Elrond didn't have anything wrong with it.<P>Boromir was more fit for a viking movie. I mean what's with the hat? And the Fur? Isn't it supposed to be warm in Gondor? And he's not wearing pants either.<P>Gimli was cool. Though he looks more like one of Snow White's Dwarfs.<P>Moria was great. Though they make it look like Bill the pony was eaten by the watcher in the water. And the Balrog is weird looking. Other than that it was great.<P>Lorien was pritty well done. Galadriel looked very beautiful. No Presents! They don't even get the cloaks!!! That just isn't right!<P>The breaking of the fellowship was fine. I cheared for Merry and Pippin when they were cutting the Orc's arms off. And Boromir's death was touching.<P>Evaluation to be continued.........

[Esmerelda the Elf-Girl]

Thanks for that nice response. Yeah, actually i see what you mean about a lot of those things...actually the characters weren't so bad, i just keep feeling like it didn't have that same spirit or something. It didnt keep my attention fabulously, but then i will try to be al little less critical and appreciate it for the effort and things that did work.<BR>ANYWAY, i definitely like Frodo, you're right that he was probably the best character. Yes, Sam's ugliness (is that word too crass?) was overdone, Merry and Pip were cute but rather insignificant. Legolas was ok, i really wasnt as traumatized by him as i thought i'd be...all the male elves have kinda 70's hairdoes, which isnt bad but a bit entertaining. (CeLeBoRn) Gimli was ok too, though i kept seeing him as one of the 7 dwarfs; i think it was the hood. And i agree about aragorn and the pants! boromir too! all i could think was come on, boys, put on some pants! doesn't look like a very comfortable way to do battle OR ride a horse! lol the prologue was interesting though...<BR>i guess the only one who really bugged me a lot was aragorn...he was rahther strange. everybody else was ok but a tad watered down (but come on, it's a movie trying to cram everything in one, i think i should be less hard on it)...and i did really like frodo...once he got past jumping up and down upon gandalf's arrival...k, i'll stop rambling now as usual.<BR>OH, but one more thing: treebeard cracks me up...his little haunches and his nose and broccoli head and stuff... sry, i just envisioned him differently, and thought he was VERY strange here. hehe<BR>and somehow, i really dont know why, but all the orcs and bad people reminded me of monty python cartoons...somehow....<BR>all right, im going to go see if i can do something constructive...HA!

ROTFL, though I'm not sure why, your comments all just seem really funny (no offense if they were meant to be serious, I'm kind of in a mood where I'll laugh at anything!)

[The-Elf-Herself]

I have never actually seen the famed 1978 cartoon version of LOTR, but I have seen the cartoon version of the Hobbit. All I can say about that is that for a good part of my life one of the reasons I shunned LOTR was because of that cartoon. The Elves did not look remotely "fair", there was this annoying theme song playing in the background all through the movie, and I thought hobbits had hairy feet, not furry feet in which the fur grew in thick clumps. The only thing redemable was Gollum, he was truly scary.

[Eärendil]

I thought it was quite good when i saw it..lol. But remember I was between 3 and 7 years old the times I saw it! <BR>Amywayz, I have borrowed it from a friend, and will watch it tonight, for the first time in about 10 years... I will probably enjoy it, I mean, it´s LOTR!

[Keeper of the Feet of Melkor]

the old movie was extremely sad...<BR>I thought the part with Galad. dancing around was the worst part...*shudder*

[Nevfeniel]

I don't love the movie, per se, but I did find it <B><I>HIGHLY</I></B> amusing. I didn't understand some. . . okay, ANYthing in that movie. It's good for a laugh, but that's about it.

[Davin]

Gollum I thought was great in The (animated) Hobbit. I laughed alot though, and I also laughed tons when I watched the animated LotR. Some parts I thought were well done, but others made me laugh to death...I laugh at lots of things.

[Raefindel]

I have The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King animated all on DVD.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> is there some reason for calling saruman "ARUMAN" other than they think we're too stupid to keep him separate from Sauron<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Esmerelda the Elf-Girl <P><BR>That bothered me too, Esmarelda. <P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> Strider needs pants. No seriously, he looks like he's wearing a skirt. But his charicter is done well. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Rose Cotton<P>I couldn't agree more, Rose! What's with the "no pants" anyway? I did, however, feel his character was more accurately portrayed than in PJ's. PJ's Aragorn had so little confidence in himself and was too young.<P>Legolas: I liked his voice (provided by Anthony Daniels), but not his "bambi eyes". <P>Gimli: Great.<P>Sam: TOTALLY UGLY! What were they thinking?<P>Frodo: Very well protrayed<P>Backgrounds: almost non-existant- guess they figured you had your own ideas so why be bothered.<P>The fall of Gandalf: I thought they portrayed this much more accurately than PJ's as well, though PJ had a really cool Balrog.

[Birdland]

(Birdie the Oldster steps forward to try to put things in persepective.)<P>I was there in 1978 when Lord of the Rings first appeared in the theatres. It was as eagerly anticipated as Peter Jackson's own version is today. Especially since Ralph Bakshi was considered to be a cutting-edge filmaker in his time, taking animation to a whole 'nother level. <P>But there was much controvery surrounding the production as well. At that time, Bakshi was universally recognized as the film maker who brought the first X-rated animated film to the screen. (The imfamous "Fritz the Cat".) <P>Also, based on Bakshi's last release, "Wizards" (1977. If you can find it, rent it! It was, and still is a cult favorite of mine.) the public was concerned that Bakshi would turn Tolkien's definitely G-rated fantasy into an apocalyptic bloodbath. With maybe some soft porn thrown in for good measure.<P>Well, they were right. He did. Bakshi liked his gore as much as Peter Jackson. (He toned down the porn, though.) But most of the complaints about the "LoTR: Part One" were based on the nuts-and-bolts aspects of the film. Rotoscoping (the filming of actual actors, who were then "covered" by animated characters. First used in the 1930s.) had some decidedly mixed results in the film. To me it's as if the talents of the animators could not match the vision of the director. In particular, I can still remember the eyes of the characters "jiggling" in a most disconcerting fashion.<P>And yes, we all hated Bakshi's version of Sam. It looked like Bakshi hired a Bud Abbot impersonator for the role, then melted him. <P>Anyway, the rest is history. The film was a flop, both with hard-core fans and the general public, and Bakshi could not get the backing to film Part Two. It seems that Lord of the Rings was the death knell for Bakshi as a film maker. He lost all his "cred" as a director and an animator, and now is out of the film making business altogether. <P>Every time I see the animated version at Blockbuster, I reach for it, then cringe away. I'm so afraid that it will be so horribly bad that I will sit there being embarrassed for a director who once was considered a major talent. <P>But I think next time I'll go ahead and get it. If it is as awful as I mis-remember it, I can always pop my P.J. LoTR DVD in to wash away the bad taste.<p>[ August 29, 2002: Message edited by: Birdland ]

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Wow. Poor guy! Well, he should have known better than to make those 800 mistakes.<P>By the way, someone said earlier that Legolas was better than Arwen for saving Frodo but I disagree. At least Arwen stays in Rivendell and it adds to her character. Legolas is from Mirkwood and just arrived in Rivendell for the Council and the Doom and all and......it basically detracts from Legolas.<P>I agree, Sam was a troll.<P>I didn't think Aragorn was too young in PJ's version. He did have Numenorean blood remember. The cartoon Aragorn was also way too ugly to be Aragorn.<P>And what about the pronounciation? SORON? Look it up mate...<P>Apparently the Last Alliance of Men and Elves consisted of 3 men and 2 elves. The battle scenes were HORRIBLY done, you never had a clue what was going on.<P>And that whole Flight to the Ford part lasted for about 2 hours, it dragged on and on...<P>The only bit that was remotely good was when the Orc captain smote Frodo with the spear in Moria. That was quite good.<P>But hey! It's easy to criticize.

[LadyElbereth]

ok, like i have a animated movie of Retun of the King and i was just wondering if this is one of the movies ya'll are talking about. like in the movie i have, they sing!! they sing ALOT! ugh.

[Morquesse]

The reason they pronounced it 'Aruman' is because in the books it says that the 'S' is voiceless, so what did they do? They did not pronounce it at all, so it would not be 'voiced' <BR>I pick up the movie, I put the movie in my VCR, I turn it on, I enjoyed the prologue, I enjoyed Frodo, I enjoyed Gandalf, I am thinking that this could be cute afterall, and than Sam showed up....UGH! <BR>Need I say more?<BR>Anyway, as some wise person said, it is entertaining because it is so bad. <BR>~M

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

There's a particularly scathing review of this film <A HREF="http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/bakshi/bakshi.htm" TARGET=_blank>here</A>. Enjoy.

[gollum*elf*pup]

I thought that movie was just weird, but it did make me laugh. A lot.

[gayare'dion]

i have to see this!

[Gayalondiel]

No-one's added my favorite complaint for this one yet...<P>Seleborn?! come on people, if you were making a film of a book, shouldn't you read the appendices? to paraphrase the great Christopher Lee, if an author goes to the trouble of telling you how to pronounce the words, then you <I>have</I> to pronounce them they way he tells you to.

[Lothiriel Silmarien]

I had to get it. I saw it in stores before the movie came out, so I figured "Hey, it's something LotR, so I might as well get it." <P>I had to turn it off within the first 15 minutes, it was HORRIBLE! (that's just my own opinion, of course) But it was reeeally bad. I decided to give it another shot, so I fastforwarded the really bad scenes (which was almost every one). When Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli were following Merry and Pippin (I don't remember this too well, I saw it almost a year ago) but they had some scene where people or orcs were riding on horses, and it looked so weird! The movie was animated, but the things on the horses were real people. They tried to disguise it to make it look animated.

[Davin]

Ouch. I read that review about the movie.....if I had of made that movie myself, I would be slitting my wrists right now......

[Raefindel]

Well, to be fair, I'm going to add that the animated LOTR had something that PJ's didn't... DIALOGUE!<P>I really missed Strider's "Fat inn-keeper" line in the film. The Animated movie includes that and MANY other favorite lines.

[Craban]

"Gondor has no pants. Gondor needs no pants."<P>Oh, sorry, that crept over from the Pants Game thread.<P>I remember those from when I was a kid. I think it was Rankin-Bass (the same people who did 'The Hobbit,' which was decent) who did the ROTK - that must be where I'm getting my dim memory of an animated Gollum hissing "Dussssssst" and picking up a handful on the edge of Mt. Doom. Scared the *$(%& out of me. Still does. And I still get "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" stuck in my head sometimes.<P>But I thought the Bakshi version was pretty awful. I can't deal with the Bambi eyes and the 70s hairdos, and...and Sam. Augh!<P>It has been a lot of years, though. I want to rent them and watch them again and have a good laugh now that I'm a grownup and my own mental images are more firmly-set, and the PJ version is at least a whole lot better to look at.

[Eruwen]

OMG. I finally last night rented the movie for myself to see how good it was. THe whole time I was watching it, I kapt having to repeat in my mind "It was made in the 70's. Give it some credit. It was probably good back then".<P>I have to say, that was the sorriest animation flim I have ever seen in my life. Actually, I think it would have been alot better if they kept it just with the cartoon characters and not adding all of those freaky colored people in it.<P>And, they should have put more impact on the end of the movie, than on the "flight to the Ford (sp?)" scene. They took about 30 minutes just on that part. They could have at LEAST shown Frodo destroying the ring. <P>And wait a second...<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>I have The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and the Return of the King animated all on DVD.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Raefindel, there is a Return of the King animated? What is it supposed to be? I mean, does it take off from the LOTR animated or just have separate movie by itself. <P>I was wondering cause at the end of LOTR one, it says, "And so ends the war of the ring in Middle Earth." What's the deal?

[Vardadurwen]

I've never seen the actual movie, although one day, while sitting in my basement doing nothing (hehe), my eyes settled on this long blue book that I'd never seen before. So I pick it up and open it up to the first page, adn what is it? It's the book that <I>must</I> have gone along with this movie, by the way you guys are describing everything!<P> Rose Cotton, I laughed my butt off when I read your comments, specifically the ones concerning Sam, Merry and Pippin, Strider, the Bree folk, the flight to the ford and Boromir. Especially Boromir because I saw a picture of him and it's just ridiculous!<P> Anyways, this book was obviously meant for little children or something. It was written very simply and they left a lot of stuff out. Also, it ended about halfway through TTT so I don't have the end part of it, but oh well.<P> But the book itself was pretty hilarious so I really wanna see the movie now!

[Nevfeniel]

Thank heaven this is not what Sean Astin and Elijah Wood look like: Poor Sam. . . What does Rosie see in him?

[Lady_Báin]

Well i saw it pre-Fotr pj style so i thought it was good, but maybe i'm just soft. I am willing to give anyhting LotR a try. <P>alas the three unforgivable traits: the hair the sam and the pantslessness. <p>[ September 07, 2002: Message edited by: Lady_Báin ]

[Birdland]

Nevfeniel - I think Samwise should fire his dentist.

[arelendil]

i can't find the second half was it made??<BR>i do agree they need trousers i think they wanted ballet lessons!!<BR>how about legolas' line when on the mountain that's what i wanted the one when he runs over the snow it's not in any movie!! WHY?!!

[Rose Cotton]

Actually, they were planning on making two movies. The one we've seen and one about the second half of the adventure. They didn't make the second half of the movie cause the first was so bad.<P>I said I would continue my review of the movie a long time ago but I just felt like I critisized it enough. However, months later I'm ready to give my thoughts on the second half.<P>I left off at the breaking of the fellowship. Legolas Gimli and Aragorn are deciding what to do. I feel like Legolas becomes such a pesimist. He's got his arm's crossed and I just don't feel he acted very elvish.<P>Then when they're going after Merry and Pippin they're like running in slow motion. It looks ridicullus. <P>And then they find Pippin's broach. IT'S NOT AN ELVEN BROACH!!! Just a stupid round I don't know what.<P>I did get a kick out of Gimli yelling "I can't run all they way to Isengard!"<P>Then we see Merry and Pippin. They're fine but the orcs just look terrible. And I feel sorry for Eomer. Him and the rider's of Rohan get one of the worst parts in the movie. The riders and the orcs line up facing eachother and then just stare at eathother.<P>Fangorn is pritty good. I don't know what to say about Treebeard though. That's deffinatly NOT how I imagined him. He dosn't look like he can bring down Isengard.<P>Then Legolas Gimli and Aragorn meet the new improved Gandalf. Somehow, horses apper and they get to Edoras in 3 seconds. <P>Theoden just seem really wierd. And we thought Elijah's eyes are big. Just take a look at Eowyn's.<P>When we meet Sam and Frodo they're just at the taming of Smeogol. Gollum. I think he was drunk. I could never belive he was once a hobbit. He's so clumsy too. Not in any way a threat. <P>Helms Deep. It's like the biggest battle in LotR and is totally degraded in this movie. The battleing looks so fake. And then they just stop the movie.