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Was browsing the $7.50 DVD bin at Walmart yesterday and found a copy of the Ralph Bakshi version of LOTR. Since I hadn't seen it since its theatrical release in 1978, I succumbed to impulse and bought it.
Just finished watching it and OMFG that was bad! Much worse than I remembered.
As you probably know, virtually the entire movie was rotoscoped. Live actors were filmed and then animated over. The resulting animated characters' motions are very realistic. Almost TOO realistic. We're used to animated characters' movements being very stylized, idealized. Seeing cartoons moving so realistically seems somehow "wrong" (although rotoscoping has been used in the past to excellent effect, the application has been necessarily limited).
I can't remember ever seeing another animated film so astonishingly devoid of visual imagination. One or two scenes were very similar in execution to the Peter Jackson production (most notibly the scene on the road, with the Hobbits hiding from the Ring Wraith), and a few scenes had interesting backgrounds. Otherwise there was virtually nothing memorable in the art direction.
The movie was so lacking in emotional nuance that it may well have been produced by a bunch of Vulcans. By the end of the movie I didn't care whether Helm's Deep survived the Ork attack or whether Frodo reached Mount Doom or whether any of the other characters lived or died.
The only truely interesting character in the film was Gollum, who again bore a striking resemblance to the character in the Peter Jackson production. A few extra seconds were spent at the beginning to show how he came to posess the ring and why he kept referring to it as his "birthday present." But even that wasn't enough to make me care.
I encourage you all to check your local Walmart's budget DVD bin and add this movie to your collection. Put it on your shelf next to "Hercules In New York" and "Monkeybone" and those others you never watch because it's just too painful!
And stay tuned for updates on the long-rumored DVD release of Ralph Bakshi's far-superior "Wizards."
Kevin
Just finished watching it and OMFG that was bad! Much worse than I remembered.
As you probably know, virtually the entire movie was rotoscoped. Live actors were filmed and then animated over. The resulting animated characters' motions are very realistic. Almost TOO realistic. We're used to animated characters' movements being very stylized, idealized. Seeing cartoons moving so realistically seems somehow "wrong" (although rotoscoping has been used in the past to excellent effect, the application has been necessarily limited).
I can't remember ever seeing another animated film so astonishingly devoid of visual imagination. One or two scenes were very similar in execution to the Peter Jackson production (most notibly the scene on the road, with the Hobbits hiding from the Ring Wraith), and a few scenes had interesting backgrounds. Otherwise there was virtually nothing memorable in the art direction.
The movie was so lacking in emotional nuance that it may well have been produced by a bunch of Vulcans. By the end of the movie I didn't care whether Helm's Deep survived the Ork attack or whether Frodo reached Mount Doom or whether any of the other characters lived or died.
The only truely interesting character in the film was Gollum, who again bore a striking resemblance to the character in the Peter Jackson production. A few extra seconds were spent at the beginning to show how he came to posess the ring and why he kept referring to it as his "birthday present." But even that wasn't enough to make me care.
I encourage you all to check your local Walmart's budget DVD bin and add this movie to your collection. Put it on your shelf next to "Hercules In New York" and "Monkeybone" and those others you never watch because it's just too painful!
And stay tuned for updates on the long-rumored DVD release of Ralph Bakshi's far-superior "Wizards."
Kevin
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