DVD Reviews

The Lord of the Rings (1978 Animated Movie) – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 31, 2010, 15:32 GMT

Controversial animator Ralph Bakshi\'s literal adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien\'s classic fantasy trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings", is brought to the screen. An evil sorcerer from a previous era created a magical ring which enables its users to call upon its tremendous powers to rule the world, but it inevitably warps them to evil. It was believed lost, but during a resurgence of magical evil in the world, Bilbo, a simple, ...more

For 23 years, there was one ring to rule them and it was from Ralph Bakshi - who some might call a dark lord, but not me.  In 2001, a hobbit called Peter Jackson made films that would supplant Bakshi’s animated version but it still has a power to charm… as well as frustrate.  

In the history of Middle-Earth, elven smiths forged nineteen rings of power.  These were distributed to mortal men, dwarf lords, and elven kings.  The Dark Lord Sauron learned ring making and fashioned the one ring to rule the other nineteen, enslaving the moral men into monstrous ring wraiths. 

Other men, dwarves, and elves united against Sauron and defeated him.  In the battle, the one ring was lost.  It was found by a hobbit, but the ring’s power deformed him into a creature called Gollum (Peter Woodthorpe).  Further years on, hobbit Bilbo Baggins (Norman Bird) steals the ring from Gollum.  Now the white wizard Gandalf (William Squire) has come to the Shire for Bilbo’s birthday celebration. 

However, his secret mission is to supervise Bilbo passing the ring onto his relation Frodo (Christopher Guard) before he leaves the Shire.  Even more years pass when Gandalf returns to Frodo to reveal the true nature of the ring that Bilbo left him.  Bilbo decides to leave the Shire and is accompanied by his faithful friends Samwise (Michael Scholes), Meriadoc (Simon Chandler), and Peregrin (Dominic Guard). 

Gandalf goes to wizard Saruman (Fraser Kerr) for help but ends up being imprisoned by the turncoat.  The hobbits meet up with the ranger Strider, who is later to be revealed as Aragorn (John Hurt), who becomes their protector.  Eventually, the party will be formed to take the one ring to Mount Doom to return the ring to the fires that forged it and thereby destroying it.

Ralph Bakshi had his work cut out for him.  He decided to adapt the epic novel by J.R.R. Tolkien into an animated film.  Through perseverance and luck he was able to attain the rights to do it.  It turned out to be a blessing and a curse. 

Bakshi’s behind-the-scenes wrangling ended up exhausting him.  He envisioned the film as a “part one” and wanted that included in the title so the audience would realize that this story was to be continued later.  The one major complaint about the film is that it ends just as it is getting started.  It leaves you feeling a bit empty by the time the credits roll. 

The inclusion of “part one” after the title could’ve alleviated some of that, but Bakshi lost to the producers.  By all accounts the film was successful.  It was shot for 4 million and made over 30 million in box office receipts. 

Unfortunately (or fortunately according to your opinion of the film), Bakshi was put out by all the wrangling and never went back to do part two.  That “part two” (Return of the King) would pop up on television in 1980 from Rankin/Bass who had produced the 1977 television version of the Hobbit (they fashioned it as a sequel to the Hobbit instead of a continuation of Bakshi’s film). 

Bakshi also used some cost cutting techniques.  The most complaint might be leveled at rotoscoping.  That is shooting live action footage and then putting the animation on top of that footage.  It looks cheap, especially when you sometimes can see through some of the animation.  What is fully animated in the film actually works pretty well and I’ve always thought that Bakshi did a pretty good job of fitting what he could into the film’s 133 minute running time.  It’s that sudden stop before the credits that is always a let down.

It would take 23 years before the definitive version of Tolkien’s work would be directed by Peter Jackson.  It’s no mistake that the 1978 version is being re-released at the same time as Jackson’s theatrical trilogy.  But up until that point, Bakshi’s vision was the big screen incarnation of Lord of the Rings. 

Bakshi’s version is given a nice new transfer on Blu-ray and the colors pop out at you.  However, also some of those glaring cost saving features, I’m looking at you rotoscoping, also pop out at you.  The content is certainly a mixed bag, but you have to agree that Bakshi did give it a decent try in trying to bring Tolkien to the screen.  

Lord of the Rings is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1).  Special features include a 30 minute (standard definition) look at the career of Ralph Bakshi called Forging through the Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for Lord of the Rings. 

It spans his entire career and doesn’t devote its entire running time to the Lord of the Rings.  That left many of my questions about the film unanswered (some snooping on the web answered most of them though).  

Bakshi’s vision of Lord of the Rings probably caused divides in many discussions about Tolkien’s novels.  It was a valiant try but appeared to have some dents put in the armor by behind-the-scenes troubles.  Not to mention that “sudden stop.” 

I’ll admit an admiration to Bakshi and his film, but Peter Jackson’s vision has supplanted it.  Still nice to have on Blu-ray though.  

Available from April 6 in stores and via Amazon and Amazon UK (import).

Visit the DVD database for more information.