Before Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi brought J.R.R. Tolkien's sprawling fantasy-adventure to the big screen in a film that combined traditional cel animation with live-action reference footage. Independently produced by Saul Zaentz, The Lord of the Rings is an ambitious adult epic from an era when animation was considered kid stuff—and it's all done without computers or Pixar-level budgets. Although a bit primitive by today's standards—with battle scenes resembling Xerox art (a result of solarizing live-action film to look like drawings)—it's also dark and fantastical with a sophisticated sensibility rare in animated movies of its day (Bakshi's “rotoscope” process, in which characters are drawn over filmed actors, creates an unusually fluid and expressive style). This relatively low-budget effort covers about half of the trilogy (an announced follow-up never found funding) in just over two hours, and while it doesn't come close to achieving the scale of Jackson's monumental version, this LOTR is still intelligently scripted, handsomely directed (with memorable and dramatic imagery—Jackson later quoted a few of Bakshi's shots), and unflaggingly faithful (within the technical limitations of the time) to the source material. Newly remastered for DVD and Blu-ray, these releases reveal the dirt and grit and imperfections of the original, but the colors are rich and the mastering looks accurate. Extras include the new half-hour documentary “Forging Through the Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for The Lord of the Rings,” tracing Bakshi's career and looking at the unusual production techniques he used here (the Blu-ray release also features bonus DVD and digital copies of the film). Recommended. (S. Axmaker)
The Lord of the Rings: Original Animated Classic
Warner, 133 min., PG, DVD: $19.98, Blu-ray: $29.99 Volume 25, Issue 3
The Lord of the Rings: Original Animated Classic
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