The Lord of the Rings

Despite being a household name now, many believed J R. R Tolkien’s iconic fantasy story, The Lord of the Rings, was impossible to translate into film. Although this mindset would be dashed later on by Peter Jackson with his critically acclaimed and publicly adored film trilogy (which helped reshape how fantasy as a genre was tolerated by the mass public and presented in film) a majority of people didn’t believe that the story of the one ring and a small hobbit’s journey to destroy it, would work in a cinematic format due to how expansive and grand the story was, especially during a time when fantasy was not taken seriously as a film genre. While Jackson would prove this wrong, a small, animated feature of said story directed by notoriously unique and risqué animator, Ralph Bakshi, also made its own attempt in 1978 to adapt the story, and without realizing it, became the reason Jackson decided to make his films in the first place.

In the world of Middle-Earth,  a young hobbit named Frodo (voiced by Christopher Guard) is thrown into an adventure much grander than he is when a wizard named Gandalf (voiced by William Squire) informs him that the ring that was given to him by his uncle Bilbo (voiced by Norman Bird) is actually the One Ring, the most powerful in a set of nine rings forged for men, dwarfs and elves. This one in particular was created by the Dark Lord Sauron, who wished to conquer Middle Earth centuries prior and, after suffering a seemingly permanent defeat, is now trying to reclaim his prize in order to once again attempt to conquer all. Now in danger and already been stalked by Sauron’s forces, Gandalf informs Frodo that he must travel to Mount Doom in order to destroy the ring to prevent it from falling into Sauron’s clutches, which would bring about the end of Middle Earth. Frodo along with his hobbit friends Sam, Merry and Pippin (voiced by Michael Scholes, Simon Chandler, and Dominic Guard) set out on their journey joined by Gandalf, human warriors Aragorn and Boromir (voiced by John Hurt and Michael Graham Cox), Elvin warrior Legolas (voiced by Anthony Daniels) and a dwarf named Gimli (voiced by David Back) to destroy the ring and prevent Sauron’s ascension.

Being the first filmed version of the iconic tale, this animated movie managed to do well financially but received mixed reception from critics and was hated by fans of the source material, starting off the cinematic legacy of this story in a confused and muddled manner. While certainly not perfect, rough around the edges in parts, and not as strong as what would come later, the passion and creative thinking that went into this movie is warranting of at least some recognition.

With hindsight, this film has a lot of issues on the surface that would obviously plague any film trying to adapt a book to the screen. While most novels have a slightly elongated script that would require more than one film to contain every detail, Tolkien’s tale is gargantuan enough to last several films alone, so the idea of structuring a single film (not even one over three hours in length) to tell the entire story seems baffling and almost a little ridiculous. What hinders the film even more was that it technically was only a Part I (only telling the story of The Fellowship of the Ring and most of The Two Towers), which made fans extremely angry, feeling like it was cheating them out of the full story by not telling them it was a split situation (which Bakshi agreed with, but wasn’t allowed to change things as the producers didn’t feel like people would pay to see only part of a movie). All these issues meant it had a lot of pressure on its shoulders, and some of said pressure left a few noticeable scars on the project. Understandably, the movie is very fast paced, not allowing for many moments to sit and relax as it’s constantly needing to move the journey along in order to fit everything in this tight package. It sadly results in many moments feeling less important than they should, but one of the benefits to this mindset is that nothing feels like wasted time.

Because everything featured has to have a purpose, it means that even though the movie is going at 1000% every second, it leaves no room for secondary focus, and everything portrayed in the screenplay written by Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle is engaging and incredibly faithful to the source material. It was a requirement Bakshi stated that it should be as close to the written word and descriptions as possible, so the structure of the story, the characters, and the atmosphere feels very in line with the books, resulting in a scale that feels reasonably epic and effectively grizzly despite its low budget and animated format. It’s not talking down to its audience just because it’s animated (for the most part outside of a few hoaky drawings and forceful comedic relief), it just uses the art-form to portray this story in a much more unique manner (enhancing certain aspects rather than hindering them) and while the ending is definitely not fulfilling and clearly stops at a bad point, everything leading up to it feels well-made and handled respectably.

The characters try their best to be fleshed out roles, but due to the rushed pacing, there’s little time for them to be more than tools to keep movie the story forward, meaning that a few of them aren’t able to leave an impression and will only work for die-hard fans who have a past connection with them. These issues mainly fall on roles like Merry, Pippin, Legolas, Gimli, Gollum, and Saruman, all of whom are portrayed and voiced perfectly serviceably, but lack an identity and feel like side characters in a game where their powers are what make them distinct rather than their personality, and while this doesn’t severely hinder the film as they still act out their parts in the film nicely, it is a slight distraction considering they should feel like critical players.

Thankfully the rest of the cast are given ample screentime, and are handled quite well, but this also comes with its fair share of faults. Sam, for example, is a really annoying character who only exists for comic relief (almost feels like an insult against the Jackson portrayal), and Gandalf’s sage mentality and spiritual presence is portrayed well, but is matched with an odd delivery, over-the-top animation and writing that feels strangely over-dramatic even for him. Frodo as a lead is handled decently enough, with Christopher Guard doing a good job capturing a young but still mature voice and brings enough agency and personal determination to make him arguably a better iteration than the one in the Jackson films, who was played a little too vulnerable and useless. Aragorn is actually done really well, with John Hurt doing as usual a fantastic job with the voice, capturing the ranger side but also the kingly side to the character as well. It’s clear what someone like Jackson would see in this version, and he definitely had more time to flesh these characters out in a way that allowed their personalities to be more defined, so while this version can offer some solid takes on these iconic characters, it’s no contest which has the better overall roster.

The animation for this film is one of its most stand out parts, not just because of the fact that it’s animated in the first place, but because it’s a very abstractly animated film with a variety of different styles and tones. There are times when the odd styling comes across as awkward and maybe not the most professional looking, but there are other times where not only is the animation quite interesting and captures the spirit and feel of the scene quite well, but it allows the film to have its own unique identity without it losing track of its key directive. The characters are designed in a very memorable manner that contains a hint of a realism but still feels distinctly fantasy. Bakshi is known for his oddball animation that was more heavily aimed towards adults in tone, topic, and presentation, allowing this movie an atmosphere that wasn’t toned-down and could feature some gore and creepy imagery.

It also has the benefit of not needing to be restricted to one specific style the entire way through, allowing for a multitude of looks that feel inspired by the atmosphere that this world and these select scenes create. When in calmer areas, it can look smooth and like a Disney picture, in more dangerous areas, it can have harsh colors and deep black brush strokes, and in more fantastical and otherworldly areas, it can look abstract and without proper form. It’s not going to work for everybody, but it is interesting none the less, and the rotoscope during some of the action allows for more of a physical, girthy and gritty feeling behind the slashes and hacks. Filming these fight scenes with rotoscope rather than traditionally animating it was seen as a smart choice to limit costing issues and allowed the complex movements of real-life to be emulated into the drawn style very nicely, it feels like it was a good decision.

This animated version of The Lord of the Rings is not perfect by any means, and the Jackson films do handle the story of Tolkien far more traditionally and with great mainstream appeal, but something about this little picture is rustically charming and still feels worth checking out. Considering it was what convinced Peter Jackson to read the books, maybe it can operate like that for other people as well, acting as a nice palette taster for the stories and a window into the universe, whereas the Jackson trilogy can offer more of a cinematic showcase. It’s certainly flawed and doesn’t hold a candle to the other versions, but on its own, it tells the story perfectly well, is entirely its own thing (which is no surprise given who directed it) and has distinct elements that really are worth admiring like the creative animation and more intense atmosphere. Whether you’re a hard-core book purist, a ”Jackson-forever” kind of person, or someone who’s willing to give anything a shot, try this one out and all the while ponder what would have happened if the original idea for this film (which involved the Beatles and Mick Jagger) would have been like instead.