![]() It’s easy to hate the Rankin/Bass Return of the King. ![]() CRACK LOTR THE RETURN OF KING TM MOVIEA part of the story between where Bakshi’s movie stops and the start of the last third of the novel ended up falling into limbo, which means we wouldn’t see Shelob until The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. Rankin/Bass, looking to repeat the huge success they had with The Hobbit, stepped in to grab the final third of The Lord of the Rings not covered in the theatrical movie, promoting it as a sequel to The Hobbit with no reference to the Bakshi film, and using largely the same crew, cast, and style of the earlier television movie. Even though the film was profitable, United Artists did not move ahead with the finishing sequel. Bakshi wanted the movie released with “Part One” in the title, as he was contracted to do two movies to tell the story, but United Artists didn’t think people would go see a film labeled “Part One.” As Bakshi expected, viewers were furious when the film appeared to stop dead center. In 1978, United Artists released to theaters an animated feature directed by Ralph Bakshi titled The Lord of the Rings, although it only covers half the story. In particular, at least for this article, what about the most unusual of them, The Return of the King, an adaptation of the last third of a novel intended as a sequel to an animated version of the prologue to the novel, and spiritually meant to cover the parts of the story covered in a commercially and stylistically unrelated theatrical movie made in the years between? (Whew! I am the very model of a modern Major General.)įor the benefit of any soul who wandered into this website unfamiliar with these movies, here’s the breakdown: The animation studio Rankin/Bass, responsible for many animated holiday specials such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman, did a traditional cell-animated version of The Hobbit for ABC Television in 1977 ( my review of that here). ![]() With an enormous, epic trilogy of live-action films now behind me - movies which gobbled up money, awards, pop-culture attention, and re-shaped the blockbuster film business - what as a Tolkien fan do I think of the three smaller animated efforts? I was confused but somewhat dazzled by the odd, unfinished The Lord of the Rings film by Ralph Bakshi when it premiered on cable, but it was the 1980 animated television movie The Return of the King that really gave me a sense of what the epic novel was about.Īt some point, a Tolkien fan has to confront these three animated films, their failings and successes, and odd connections to each other. The enormity of The Lord of the Rings was still too far off, but there were movie versions to fill the gap. The moment I was old enough, I read it for myself. At age five, I had my first “Tolkien” experience with the television broadcast of the animated movie The Hobbit from Rankin/Bass. They both knew about the books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (although neither had read them) and told me their pages were filled with dragons and trolls and all sorts of wonderful beasties they showed me the Greg and Tim Hildebrandt calendars to whet my appetite. As a young child, I already loved monsters and tales of fantasy, and my parents were glad to feed my monster obsession. The novel The Lord of the Rings has had an important place in my life even before I actually read it in ninth grade. ![]() “Listen as we speak of the fall of the Lord of Darkness, and the return of a King of Light.” Featuring the Voices of John Huston, Roddy McDowall, Orson Bean, William Conrad, Casey Casem, Theodore Gottlieb, Theodore Bikel, Glenn Yarbrough, Paul Frees Directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. ![]()
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