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The Lord of the Rings [VHS]

Christopher Guard (Actor), William Squire (Actor), Ralph Bakshi (Director) Rated:

Format: VHS Tape

4,219 ratings

IMDb6.2/10.0

$16.00

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September 11, 2001

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November 3, 1993

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Lord of the Rings (1978)

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Format	Animated, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
Contributor	Michael Graham Cox, Chris Conkling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Norman Bird, Peter S. Beagle, John Hurt, Donald W. Ernst, Peter Kirby, Saul Zaentz, Peter Woodthorpe, Christopher Guard, William Squire, Timothy Galfas, Ralph Bakshi, David Buck, Simon Chandler, Fraser Kerr, Dominic Guard, Anthony Daniels, Michael Scholes See more
Runtime	2 hours and 12 minutes

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Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.4 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches; 9.6 Ounces
Director ‏ : ‎ Ralph Bakshi
Run time ‏ : ‎ 2 hours and 12 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ November 3, 1993
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ September 29, 2006
Actors ‏ : ‎ Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler
Studio ‏ : ‎ Lions Gate
Producers ‏ : ‎ Saul Zaentz
ASIN ‏ : ‎ 6302906652
Writers ‏ : ‎ Chris Conkling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter S. Beagle

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4,219 ratings

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1 star		2%

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Clarence R

Very good.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 6, 2022

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I first saw this after reading The Hobbit in 1980. It was great then, so I bought it for my kids. TERRIFIC!

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SRFireside

Resoundly imperfect. Undeniably a great work of art. Blu-Ray not remastered, but still looks good

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 27, 2014

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There is considerable controversy over Bakshi's Lord of the Rings. People seem to either love it or hate it, and both with a passion. There is a reason for this. LotR was a grand undertaking in putting to film one of those literary works that many believed to be unfilmable. As a proof of concept the movie was an astounding success. However some of the decisions made in production damaged the artistic consistency of the film. Still Lord of the Rings made a very strong impression on the psyche of Tolkien fans, and has even lent a fair amount of influence on the widely successful Fellowship of the Ring directed by Peter Jackson.

For those of you not familiar with Lord of the Rings this movie retells the first book, Fellowship of the Ring and about half of the second book, The Two Towers, into one film. An evil being of immeasurable power (Sauron) is coming back to lay claim to the lands, and all it needs to secure his dominance is a single ring that holds much of his power. A band of adventurers are tasked to take the ring to the only place they know where it can be destroyed. On top of that a prominent king is about to overthrown by forces aligned with Sauron, which members of the fellowship go to aid. Tolkien's story of the ring is pretty much the definitive blueprint for just about every fantasy setting written about since.

Bakshi's version is a hybrid animated film that is both rotoscoped cell drawn animation and posterized and shaded live footage. The rotoscoped animation in my opinion is right up there among the best. More on the posterization later. Animation helps give Bakshi the ability to put on film those fantasy elements that would simply not look right in a live action setting. Hobbits can be in their proper size and dimension. Fantasy creatures like the Balrog can be realized (and though Bakshi's Balrog looks very different from any other rendition I find it a really cool version of the creature). And in taking the best parts of Tolkien's work for the script you get some eloquent dialog between the characters.

Bakshi made Lord of the Rings with a love of the original books, and was dedicated in making a movie as true to Tolkien's work as possible. Dialog comes straight from the books, as do almost all of the scenes. I say almost because there are a few embellishments put in to either enhance parts of the book that only mentions an event (for dramatic effect) or as a subtle change for aesthetic reasons. The more significant changes really made a difference in terms of that dramatic effect, and can be seen in Jackson's movies as well. For one there is a scene where the Ring Wraiths attempt to assassinate the Hobbits while they sleep to only be tricked by decoys. Another was Boromir's death, where he valiantly tries to protect his comrades against impossible odds. These scenes were only mentioned in the books, but not actually visualized note by note. Not only did Bakshi do a great visualization of these events the exact scenes were adapted to Jackson's movies as well (to great effect). Other changes that both Bakshi and Jackson did (that could be a total coincidence) was to make a scene on Gandalf's capture by Saruman (only mentioned in the book) and change the character that arrives to the rescue with Gandalf to Helm's Deep (Eomir instead of Erkenbrand). Ultimately if you love Jackson's LotR you have to give a not to Bakshi for some of the inspiration.

There are things that Bakshi did in his movies I actually prefer over Jackson's version. Take Galadriel's "test" speech for one. Jackson directed that dialog with a healthy dose of dramatic effect that makes me feel it was way overdone and made the mood artificially heightened. With Bakshi the same speech was more playful with Galadriel in more control of her emotions, thus ended with what feels like a more mature dialog. Other little details come up like Aragorn just feels more regal and commanding in Bakshi's version and the interaction between the hobbits felt more personal without being over dramatic. Also I like Gollum's semi-comical approach with some of the dialog (the sneaking dialog I like best). These are more my preferences, but I wanted to at least point out the things I feel were done right.

So that's what's done right. Now what was done wrong? Mainly the second half of the movie. Remember that posterization process of animation I mentioned earlier? What you essentially get from that is live action footage (actors in period garb and swords and everything) that is colored and textured to look more like it's animation. It's not a bad process, but you already have half the movie done in a different process. When the scenes that show the posterized characters come you see a glaring contrast. Then you start getting complete scenes that are all posterized that just look cheap when compared to the cell animation. You see the cheap masks the actors are wearing to denote they are orcs, and characters who were previously shaded now look totally different. I understand that Bakshi preferred this process because the actor's subtle emotions can be better expressed, but if you ask me the cell drawings even did that better.

Another thing that sticks to my craw are a few of the characters. Boromir for one looks like a freakin' viking. Now don't get me wrong. I can see where that comes from. If you read Tolkien's books there is a lot of Norse references in regards to Boromir's people as well as other nations of men. But at the same time he is supposed to come from one of the largest human kingdoms in the land. I would think they would be beyond furry shorts and horned helmets in that kind of society. Also the non-human characters seem more like background pieces with very little dialog or significant role. This is one thing Jackson really did well in his version.

Finally there is a downside to being completely true to a series of novels, and that is movies can never do what novels do. Sure Bakshi made changes that lent more to the visual impact of a film, but at the same time there were lots of scenes that lacked that kind of focus and seemed to be more focused on going through the motions to get to the next chapter. This is especially true in the last part of the movie where the film seems to just abruptly end with a quick narrative dialog and no real coda or conclusion that felt like the movie is over.

This Blu-Ray is a pretty good transfer, but it is not remastered. There is a good amount of dirt and blemish you can see from the source material. Still the colors are very sharp and the details are far better than any previous release. The Dolby TrueHD surround track is in my opinion flawed. Dialog looks off sometimes and the simulated surround sound is unimpressive. I wish this disc at least had the original stereo English track to make up for it. At least you get this movie in French, Spanish and German. There is one extra on the disc, and that is Forging Through The Darkness. It's an older documentary that runs about a half hour and is in standard definition. It chronicles Bakshi's career as an upstart animator and covers his entire work and not just this film.

I don't think this movie deserves the hate, but I at least understand it. All in all Bakshi's Lord of the Rings is a very worthwhile film that deserves to be noted in the annals of fantasy movies. It is far from perfect, but what it got right it got really right. I would recommend this film mostly to Tolkien fans who have read the books, or at least seen Jackson's trilogy. Those unfamiliar with the content may feel lost for no other reason than those scenes that go through the motions on the second half. This Blu-Ray is the best looking transfer that's out there, and the added documentary make it the most complete collection.

36 people found this helpful

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RDD

A Piece of Cinematic History!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 17, 2020

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Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 film, “The Lord of the Rings,” adapts the first two volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic, covering material from “The Fellowship of the Ring” and “The Two Towers.” The story generally follows Tolkien’s novel, though Bakshi condenses Frodo’s journey from Bag End to Bree. He also blends Glorfindel with Legolas. Unlike the Rankin/Bass adaptation of “The Hobbit,” Bakshi and United Artists intended the film for an adult audience so they do not shy away from violence in the battle scenes or pathos in more emotional moments, like Boromir’s death. John Hurt portrays Aragorn and Anthony Daniels voices Legolas. Though WB acquired the rights to this film alongside the Rankin/Bass pictures, there is a noticeable difference in their production. It works, however, as “The Hobbit” is for younger readers while “Lord of the Rings” is more adult in its tone. Bakshi hoped to make a sequel in order to complete the narrative, but it never happened. The DVD ends with a narrator summarizing, “The forces of darkness were driven forever from the face of Middle-Earth by the valiant friends of Frodo. As their gallant battle ended, so, too, ends the first great tale of The Lord of the Rings.”

The film is very experimental, blending traditional animation with rotoscoping (animation drawn over traditional filming) and some shots that were put through a color filter or exposed differently, similar to color-tinted silent films. This color-tint process creates a high degree of contrast, leaving the figures rather dark at times so that, in their armor, they somewhat resemble the art for Prince Valiant. In terms of technique, the only modern work I could compare it to is Richard Linklater’s 2006 film, “A Scanner Darkly.” One of the bonus features is “Forging Through the Darkness,” a look at Ralph Bakshi’s life as an animator and how his work fit into the animation scene. It points out that Disney, who had traditionally dominated American feature-length animation, was then at its nadir (see the documentary, “Waking Sleeping Beauty”) while connecting Bakshi’s artistic vision to the underground comix scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

16 people found this helpful

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Tabitha

A Classic that went to a Rave

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 18, 2022

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This is a wild visual situation. They did well in cleaving to the most important bits of the story, and it was over all enjoyable.

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G.C.

Overlooked animation classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 20, 2018

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First of all this is not any of the Peter Jackson directed Lord of the Rings films. It is the Ralph Bakshi animation from 1978 that covers the first two books. At the time media criticism of its mix of animation and rotoscoped footage was odds with the audience reaction at the cinema. It has since been popular until overshadowed by the Peter Jackson adaptation.

The media criticism put off the financiers from United Artists, despite it being commercially successful at the box office and subsequently in terms of TV rights and video later one. It was only with Peter Jackson's film that Bakshi's work became overlooked. But even if UA were amenable to making part two, Bakshi was disgusted by the negative experience of working with United Artists. In particular, the deliberately deceptive decision of hiding from audiences that the film was part 1 of a 2 part series. Thus the second part of the film was never made and that's a real shame, when you look at what Bakshi achieved in this film.

What you get is a visual treat with great voice actors and a version of LOTR book 1 and 2 that Jackson borrowed from: not only some shots but in terms of plot interpretation for the first two films (rather than strictly following the books).

One final note: This isn't related to the Rankin/Bass animated films The Hobbit or The Return of The King - aside from the obvious Tolkien link. Rankin/Bass' films are pleasant and not as dark as Bakshi's Lord Of The Rings - but miss a lot of the dramatic impact and flair that Bakshi brought.

13 people found this helpful

Phoexsele

Occasionally effective but essentially misjudged adaptation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 2, 2019

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As a huge fan of the books I rushed to see this on original cinema release. On first viewing I thought this a half decent attempt to portray what was, at the time, practically unfilmable. Today, with the Peter Jackson films behind us, this now looks like an interesting experiment gone wrong. The screenplay hacks out huge amounts of the original storyline, though that is understandable to a certain extent and Jackson did the same. The films biggest failure is its portrayal of the hobbits as village buffoons - Sam is a borderline simpleton - that completely misunderstands Tolkien's intentions. What is effective, and still works, is the rotoscoping which gives characters like the orcs and Ringwraiths a sinister, otherworldly feel. There is an underlying sense of darkness, that is commendable, in what is, essentially a cartoon. Certain scenes, like the Nazgul attack at the Prancing Pony still have impact whereas others seem underwhelming and misjudged. The director, Bakshi, demonstrates a love of the books but not the understanding of characters and events that Jackson does. File under interesting failure.

5 people found this helpful

Mr. B. Frost

Better than Stephen Jackson's version.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 7, 2020

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Yes, there are plenty of flaws with this stunted adaptation, but it feels much more authentic than the Americaned version. I preferred the portrayal of Frodo and Sam. Gollum is excellent. The music is leaps and bounds better than the ponderous, bland treacle that permeates the modern films. It is bold, adventurous and captures the sense of fear and war brilliantly. Just a shame that it finishes so early. Someone should complete it, though I doubt anyone has the skill these days.

7 people found this helpful

Mr. R. W. Graham

Animated Tolkien

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 10, 2022

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A group of Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves and a Wizard must destroy a powerful ring. 70's animated version of J RR Tolkien's classic fantasy novels though this is a condensed version of the first two books in the trilogy, The Fellowship Of The Rings and The Two Towers and while it leaves a lot out it's also surprisingly faithful. Animation is very basic compared to today with a decent voice cast including John Hurt, Christopher Guard and Anthony Daniels. A curiosity for Tolkien fans but nothing more.

Gryptype

Buy you fools!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 12, 2015

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Nerd moment here: I loved this as a child; dark, creepy, a little scary in places. Watching it as an adult I still found it had the same wonderful mix that enthralled me back then. It has many faults and is indeed an unfinished work but there's something about the atmosphere of this version that the Peter Jackson films didn't come close to. That could be nostalgia talking but I think it's a genuinely great realisation of Tolkien's world.

18 people found this helpful

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