Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings may have had its faults—I admit I’ve been afraid to see it since it’s realease—but to my eight year old self, the gritty hybrid of drawing and live was a dark and fantastic view of the world. I had loved the kinder gentler Rankin/Bass Hobbit at seven and was ready to see the world as a riskier almost-real place. Now, Ralph Bakshi has been generously showing off various bits of production on on his Facebook page. I may still be wary of watching the movie again but it’s a real kick to see behind the real-life work that went into the production.
Irene Gallo is the Art Director for Tor Books.
There’s a lot of hate for this version, but aside from the fact that it stopped halfway through the book, I loved it. Then again, I saw it when I was in my teens and at the height of my LOTR’s fanaticism, and only watched it once or twice since. I’ve always been a Bakshi fan.
I do love the movies as well, but there are a few things I prefered about the Bakshi version (I loved that Aragorn wasn’t a doubting pretty boy – the hardened rough ranger fit my idea of Aragorn far more than Viggo Mortensen did.)
Irene,
This is wonderful stuff, thanks for pointing it out. I do, admittedly, have an affection for the Bakshi films, having seen them at a young age which helped spawn my love of fantasy. I still see the images and hear the music and voices of his film, even amid the many flaws.
Thanks,
Jay
I’ve never understood the hatred for this film (other than, as shellywb notes, for the fact that it stopped halfway). The visual technique is spectacular and powerful, and like no other major release I am aware of.
I recently dug it up and re-watched it, after having seen it only once, at its original release. I loved it again, and kept wishing for the second half.
Viva Bakshi!
I’ve got a handful of original cells from Bakshi’s LotR… A Gandalf, a Frodo and a Sam. I’m not a big fan of the rotoscope & xerox look of some of Bakshi’s work, but the character designs were good.
I’m very torn on this one; I quite enjoyed it, while at the same time finding myself in a love/hate feud over the rotoscoped visuals.
OH! This looks really interesting! I want to see more.
Going to risk a flamewar by admitting that I’ve always preferred Peter Woodthorpe’s performance as Gollum in this film to Andy Serkis.
On another note, I’ve always laughed at this. Glad to see it’s still kicking around. http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/bakshi/bakshi.htm
It is a version that is truly alien and yet familiar. By using the rotoscope technique the film manages to give a lifelike movement to the characters while shadowing them in a way that makes them mysterious and unkonwable.
It is honestly a magnificent work with the major downfall that Mr. Bakshi was not granted the opportunity to finish the series.
It is worse for being half done than being rotoscoped.
However, if you want to avoid nightmares then avoid Wizards.
It has a horrible brilliance.
There are some aspects to the Bakahi adaptation I like better than the Peter Jackson version. I think the major downfall was lack of funding from what I have read.
@7 mutantalbinocrocodile:
“Going to risk a flamewar by admitting that I’ve always preferred Peter Woodthorpe’s performance as Gollum in this film to Andy Serkis.”
That’s okay. I prefer Brother Theodore’s performance as Gollum from the Rankin/Bass stuff to Serkis, great though Serkis is.
Peter Woodthorpe went to play Gollum again in the BBC adaptation that those of us who have heard it keep banging on about.
Besides the fact the movie was stupefyingly boring and did not finish the story as implied in the title, what I didn’t like about Bakshi’s LOTR was that the hobbits were hideous. It’s startling to hear of “incredible concept art” with regard to the movie that made Bilbo such an ugly little bugger. But I guess the backgrounds were OK.
Back in 1979 *I would have been 11 years old living in Mountain View, Ca* , there actually was a paperback sized book of The Lord Of The Rings movie, all pictures from the movie. I can’t remembe what bookstore I was at it was also the same day that I discovered The Silmarillion. the previous two years, I had watched the Rankin/Bass version of the excellent, The Hobbit and in 1976 I had discovered the book, The Hobbit, because of accidentally hearing an old interview of The Beatles’, Ringo Starr, what his favorite book was. I had no idea what the heck is a hobbit. A very weird word to me, at that time.