The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) [DVD] [1978]

I originally saw this film in the big cinema when I was in my younger years. There was nothing like this film around at the time of its release. I enjoyed it immensely then as I do now in 2024 definitely one of my favourite movies.

I love real life mixed with animation I find the dark riders sound and look more frightening than Peter Jackson's version although Peter Jackson did a good job on the trilogy.

Too much space to offer so little. The text on the work of Ralph Bakshi is too little illustrated with unpublished material. We would want it anymore. For a gift that would be more beautiful.Good quality DVD for the film included.

The whole family watched this many times forty five years ago, enjoyed it then and still enjoying it now, it's a shame they couldn't finish the whole film off and make the return of the king in animation

A great version of Lord of the Rings, a pity they never followed up with the end of the saga. This is a great movie but leaves you hanging as it does not finish the story as there was never a follow up movie. It basically covers the first two books. That being said it is a good movie and I enjoyed it the same as I did when I was young.

It is a fun cartoon, but it was always just the first half of the story. Made in the 70's so good for its time. I've always loved it, but it's for youngsters really and nothing like the Peter Jackson epics. But true to the story and interesting presentation of the wraiths etc.

This is one of those films that the cliché "a flawed masterpiece" was invented for. Released in 1978, this was an (overly?) ambitious attempt to animate Tolkein's epic fantasy bestseller. Director Ralph Bakshi had a reputation as a bit of an iconoclast, determined to free the art of animation from the banal schmaltz that Disney had become, and make it a credible medium for adult audiences rather than just pap for kids. Long before CGI animation was a possibility, his Lord of the Rings was very innovative technically in filming large amounts of real live action and then rotoscoping this frame by frame into the animated backgrounds. This does result in some excellent fluid motion for characters, particularly in the battle scenes, and the best bits (for instance, Nazgul on horseback) look stunning. However many of the other animated characters are less successful, the hobbits looking rather 'cartoony' and as for Legolas, I laughed out loud when I saw him! And the balrog is just ahine! The backgrounds are often beautifully detailed by may remind you a little too much of Yes albums covers :)The voice acting is also 'good in parts' but overall seems a little nondescript, with too many samey English accents from character to character. The orchestral score does the film no favours in my opinion, generally being rather uninspired, and the sound design is also rather undeveloped for a fantasy film like this.The pacing of the story is rather uneven too, some sequences seem rather drawn out, others whizz by in jump cuts (with, inevitably, some bits of the book omitted - poor old Tom Bombadil!). The greatest flaw of all, of course, is that the film stops in the bloody middle of the story! Apparently the director wanted to put it out as "Lord of the Rings Part 1", but bizarrely the studio vetoed this, claiming it would put people off wanting to see the film (?!) Of course, what happened was that cinema goers at the time almost unanimously felt duped when the film "ended half way". In any case, despite the film making a healthy box office profit, Part 2 was never made.Anyways - so much for the film itself, what about the BluRay? Well, that too is a little flawed. It's clearly made from a print, and is full of speckles and dirt from all that rotoscoping and compositing. Clearly, doing a frame-by-frame restoration from the original negatives so as to fix all these would be insanely expensive, so its not entirely surprising that it wasn't been attempted. Nonetheless, the phrase "this high resolution presentation may reveal limitations of the original source materials" certain applies here. I would have thought they could at least have stabilised some of the film wobble in places, but no. The 5.1 sound mix is rather tame too, although the dialogue is always clear. As a bonus feature, there's a fairly engaging half-hour documentary about Ralph Bakshi that sheds a fair amount of light on how and why the film looks the way it does.All in all, if you like Tolkein and/or animation, this film certainly has some flashes of brilliance. Indeed, you may well spot certain shots which were homaged almost exactly by Peter Jackson in his film version (and also in HTV's 1980s TV adaption of Robin of Sherwood, for those who remember 'The Swords of Wayland'). I'm happy to own a copy, but much as its best bits deserve praise, it's hard not to come away with a shopping list of things about it that you think could've been done better! Ultimately that's as much a testament to the breadth and depth of vision in Tolkein's original book as anything else.

This is a precursor to Pete Jackson’s movies

Mi aspettavo di trovre la copertina mostrata in foto invece è arrivato in veste ridisegnata, avrei preferito la prima. L'ho acquistato usato a circa 5 euro, comprese le spese di spedizione; spedizione un po' lenta (ha impiegato il doppio del tempo previsto) ma arrivato in ottime condizioni. Per chi, come me, si è avvicinato al mondo di Tolkien guardando il film di Jackson, troverà questo film un po' concitato e sbrigativo, ma sarà divertente individuare le scene che Jackson ha copiato nei suoi film. In fine considero questo liguaggio di animazione molto scenografico e favolistico, penso che invecchiando sia migliorato.

昔映画館で観て、レーザーディスク時代は売り切れで買えず、長年入手できる時を待っていました。原作とはストーリーが違いますが、このアニメーションが好きです。

Ce film est bilingue ! Heureuse surprise !

Commande livrée dans les délais prévus, parfait !

Dvd che ha viaggiato molto e spesso succede che la custodia arrivi crepata. L’ ho sostituita con una nuova e ora va molto meglio