The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)

The Lord of the Rings is the title of an animated film produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi, and released to theaters in 1978. It was an adaptation of the first half of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Related Topics:
Animated - Film - Ralph Bakshi - 1978 - J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

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Bakshi's most ambitious effort (and his most famous after his animated adaptation of the underground comic Fritz the Cat), the film was produced by Saul Zaentz's Fantasy Films, but distributed to theaters by United Artists.

Related Topics:
Underground comic - Fritz the Cat - Fantasy Films - United Artists

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Much of the film used live-action footage which was then rotoscoped to produce an animated look. This saved production costs and arguably gave the animated characters a more realistic look. Many of the actors who contributed voices to this production also acted out their parts for rotoscoped scenes. The actions of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins were performed by Billy Barty. Some critics seemed to believe that the sections of the film with rotoscoped animation were inferior in quality to "normal" animated films.

Related Topics:
Rotoscoped - Billy Barty

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Despite criticism, the film was a huge hit, grossing $16 million at the box office (the budget was $8 million), but United Artists, who wrongly believed the film to be a flop, refused to fund a sequel which would have completed Tolkien's story on film.

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In an attempt to "finish" Tolkien's story and make it more complete for audiences, the Rankin-Bass animation studio (fresh on the heels of the success of its previous TV adaptation of The Hobbit) produced an animated TV special based on the final part of The Lord of the Rings. Their adaptation of The Return of the King finished the story and answered most of the questions raised by Bakshi's animated film.

Related Topics:
Rankin-Bass - TV special - Final part - The Return of the King

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However, several unresolved story developments between The Lord of the Rings and The Return of the King were left unresolved, especially the betrayal of Frodo by Gollum, and the attack of Shelob the monster spider-creature.

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Warner Bros. (the rights holder to the post-1974 Rankin-Bass library and most of the Saul Zaentz theatrical backlog) has released The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King on VHS and DVD, both as separate packaged and as a boxed-set "trilogy" of films.

Related Topics:
1974 - VHS - DVD

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Despite the release of Peter Jackson's recent film trilogy based on Tolkien's work, many fans still want Bakshi to complete the story in his own style.

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