Lost Bakshi Lord of the Rings footage found

Boing Boing.net ^

[Perdogg]

If you remember the first film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, the 1978 animated version by Ralph Bakshi–the legendary outsider director behind Fritz the Cat, Wizards, American Pop and Fire and Ice–you’ll recall the experience was a mixed bag.

The movie was a dark, moody, oversaturated vision of Tolkien’s world, with stunning design and many memorable scenes. Bakshi used rotoscoping to trace live footage for animation, and posterization to give it a rough, hand-made look. Both techniques allowed many corners to be cut, but at the time, the film’s PR claimed Rings was the “the first movie painting.”

[PLMerite]

I saw Wizards at an impressionable age.

[FreedomPoster]

>>would love to see a John Kricfalusi treatment of “Rings” that would be sick....

Your mind works in weird ways - I like it!

[discostu]

The studio screwed him. They had their plans and they didn’t care what he wanted. It wasn’t just the battle scenes that were rotoscope over live action, that was the whole movie. Bakshi was very fond of that technique and used it a few times.

[Chode]

Sam, You EEEDIOT!!! now that would be funny...

[TheOldLady]

We watched “Fire and Ice” Friday night.

You’re right. It is truly spectacular.

And I really like Arnold Vosloo.

[TheOldLady]

Wow! That was... back yard!

[skinkinthegrass]

:-D

[BlueLancer]

They killed Fritz!
They killed Fritz!
Those lousy ...

[Pan_Yan]

Had my 16 year old watch Wizards with me. He’s still scarred by the experience.

[Pan_Yan]

Wizards - full movie on YouTube

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I remember being very disappointed with the Bakshi version. Haven’t watched it in so long that I don’t remember why.

[tanknetter]

I saw the LOTR in the theaters as a child. It ended abruptly, in the middle of one of the great battle scenes. Then a message was displayed on screen to watch for the sequel, which never came. I had the feeling then and now that Bashki ran out of money and time, anyone could see the battle scenes were just live action with a bit of cartoon paint on them. But that ending, he didn’t even try to wrap up a storyline. And where is that promised sequel?

The Rankin-Bass "Return of the King" was, apparently, the "sequel."

This actually fills in a huge hole in my childhood memories. I remember Rankin-Bass's The Hobbit and Return of the King very well. But looking back I've occasionally wondered why I couldn't recall seeing Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. Its because there weren't any. At least from Rankin-Bass.

[Cheapskate]

PEACE!!!!!!!

[Vanders9]

That is exactly what happened.

I've always thought of Bakshi's effort as a very flawed but very valiant effort. LOTR is not a very easy book to bring to the screen, certainly not with 1970's technology.

[a fool in paradise]

I saw the LOTR in the theaters as a child. It ended abruptly, in the middle of one of the great battle scenes. Then a message was displayed on screen to watch for the sequel, which never came. I had the feeling then and now that Bashki ran out of money and time, anyone could see the battle scenes were just live action with a bit of cartoon paint on them. But that ending, he didn’t even try to wrap up a storyline. And where is that promised sequel?

Rankin & Bass did Return of the King (animated). I think there was a DVD release briefly. I saw it on television in the early 80s once.

[sportutegrl]

Thanks. Its not available on Netflix, but I put it in the saved queue.