Ralph Bakshi's Lord of The Rings (1978)

Ren and Stimpy of all things led me to this title. Now you may sit and ask yourself, what is it about Ren and Stimpy that leads you to the 1978 animated feature film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings? Well.. when you get to a certain point in your viewing trends, everything you watch builds off of something that you have previously viewed. In Ren and Stimpy's case, the creator John Kricfalusi or John K. as I will continue to refer to him as, (saving me from continually checking to see if I spelled it correctly) once worked and honed his craft under the Ralph Bakshi.

I discovered Bakshi, after watching a few "Featurettes" between YouTube and my Ren and Stimpy DVD's. Bakshi is highly known in the animation world for creating some really phenomenal animated feature films. These films range anywhere from the adult classic "Fritz the Cat" (1972), all the way to the feature being discussed today and beyond. Recently I was able to obtain a copy of "Lord of The Rings" through a lot of VHS tapes my friend let me pick through this week. Also, it is worth mentioning I pulled Bakshi's "Fire and Ice" (1983) from this lot as well. 

This now brings us to our review. Running in at about 130 minutes, I took the film in over the course of two viewing sessions. This was not due to boredom, but due to having places to be. With that being said the film is honestly quite faithful to "The Fellowship of The Ring" as well as "The Two Towers". This is the two novels that the film covers, we are not given the entire trilogy in this film. For those looking for a more complete addition to this, it would not hurt to bookend this title with Rankin Bass' animated features "The Hobbit" (1977) as well as "Return of The King" (1980). I personally was impressed with the animation featured in this film, Orcs and Ring Wraiths are brought to us in stunning detail using a rotoscoping technique that seems to be featured in a good portion of Bakshi's feature animation films. 

Plot moves along similar to Peter Jackson's films, but obviously at a faster clip. After all, we are fitting two films in about 2 hours and 10 minutes. Things that instantly reminded me of Jackson's "Fellowship of The Ring" (2001) was Bilbo's party in the opening minutes of the film. Lines from the book were perfectly placed between this film and Jackson's.  Gandalf and his magic is presented in a style that would bring awe, and excitement to children upon a first viewing. The film closes out following the battle at Helm's Deep. This is where the rotoscoping technique really shines, as we see swords clash in a way that could only be presented in this technique when it comes to an animated feature. Of course there is no way that this could rival Peter Jackson's version, but for 1978 we are given quite a show. 

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is fond of "Lord of The Rings" whether it be in book form or Jackson's films. As a slightly abridged version of the tale, it is a great way to get your Middle Earth fix without having to sit through a day of movies. (Not that a day full of movies is ever a bad thing.) 

Enjoy!