Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Lord of the Rings (1978)

Director: Ralph Bakshi

Starring:  Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, Dominic Guard, Norman Bird, Michael Graham Cox, Anthony Daniels, Billy Barty

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Come to Middle-earth, a world beyond the furthest reaches of your imagination.

Plot: A young Hobbit named Frodo (Guard) is thrown on an amazing adventure, when he is appointed the job of destroying the one ring which was created by the dark lord Sauron. He is assigned with warriors including Gandalf (Squire), Aragorn (Hurt) and Boromir (Cox). It's not going to be an easy journey for the Fellowship of the Ring, on the ultimate quest to rid Middle-Earth of all evil.

 

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Oh, yes.

Like THE HOBBIT (1977), this one takes me back to my younger days.  I love the animation.  The roto-scoping looks great and adds an other worldly quality to it, giving it a heightened sense of danger, evil and violence.  The voices were well-cast.  If I could change anything it would be to have Alec Guinness as Gandolf (although Squire sounds like him at times).  THAT would have been neat.  As a STAR WARS (1977) fanatic way back then I was all excited to find Anthony Daniels voicing Legolas.  Leonard Rosenman's score is rousing and complex.  If I didn't know better there are moments where I'd swear it's Alex North (listen to North's score to DRAGONSLAYER (1981) and you'll know what I mean).  It's too bad Bakshi didn't get to complete the story.  Finishing after the battle of Helm's Deep just feels too weird.


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