January 28th, 2010 -- Written by Rodney
This is the OTHER ring to rule them all. Long before cinemaphiles were treated to the big screen live action adaptation of the classic Lord of the Rings, there was an animated feature that desperately tried to capture the imagination of JRR Tolkien to the screen. And from what I recall it did a pretty good job at it!
Well that classic animated feature is being remastered, and re-released on DVD and Bluray this April.
Journey back into the world of Hobbits, Humans, Elves and Dwarves in the all-new The Lord of the Rings Remastered Deluxe Edition coming April 6, 2010 from Warner Home Video. This original animated classic from acclaimed director Ralph Bakshi and Academy Award Winning producer, Saul Zaentz, has been remastered with pristine New Dolby 5.1 audio and picture quality and will be distributed as a single disc DVD and Blu-ray combo which features a Blu-ray, DVD and bonus digital copy. The film will also be available for Digital Download. This film is rated PG.
The deluxe edition also features a never-before-seen, 30-minute in-depth interview with legendary director Ralph Bakshi entitled
Forging Through The Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for The Lord Of The Rings. This special feature explores his concept for creating an
illustrated film, his pioneering rotoscoping process, and inspirations for his visual storytelling.
This was likely my first exposure to all things Lord of the Rings. I watched this animated classic on the movie channel in my youth, and later never managed to locate it on alternative media.
So its all pretty blurry to me, but I recall watching it with wonder. It wasn’t until later when I reached the comprehension level to actually READ the Lord of the Rings books, and of course remained a loyal fan ever since.
I will be anticipating this release to relive those early fanboy days of wonder.
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have only seen the hobbit one hope this is just as good. I will have to buy this one when it comes out because I want to introduce my 5 yr old to the world that captured my imagination as a child.
I remeber this well as a child, and also rented it in 2001 after watching Peter Jackson’s “Fellowship of the Rings” (probably the last VHS I ever watched)
It is pretty cool, so I recomend checking it out. Very creative. Only downside it that the story takes you from Fellowship through Two Towers (sort of) however, “Return” was left out for a sperate release in the style of the original animated “Hobbit.”
If you are a Tolkien purest, this stayed closer to the book than Peter Jackson did. (if that is important to you)
Phoenix
I haven’t seen it before, but that’s cool. Maybe I’ll put that on my list
These films are bloody horrible. Thank God Jackson came around.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
There is no “films” to speak of here, this isn’t related to the Hobbit animated film at all.
This was actually pretty damn good, the only problem being, as mentioned, it only goes just past Helm’s Deep.
I feel sorry for Bashki as he got screwed over pretty badly. The project was supposed to be 2 films, but despite the 1st being a commercial success, the studio nixed the 2nd part. His movie does lack in places (ie: too much poor quality rotoscoped animation), but it still manages to capture the story quite well IMO.
A re-mastered edition will be sweet, and happily sit beside my LOTR extended editions =D
It would be worth the effort of buying it if they’d actually finished telling the entire story, if I recall this film ends just after the battle of Helsm Deep.
It’s been a while so I might be wrong, but being an incomplete telling of LoTR it’s not worth watching.
You’re correct Pedro; it doesn’t cover the whole story. As I stated above, Bakshi was supposed to split the story over two parts, but the studio pulled the pin on the second installment.
It’s a shame because I liked this version, I prefer Peter Jackson’s 3 films now but I did like this one at the time.
Would have been nice to see it complete.
And also it’ll teach me to read all the replies here first in future!
:)
This was my introduction to Tolkien and reading and loving LOTR and fantasy books, so it holds a special place in my heart. I remember watching it 3x in the theaters in one day.
It is sad that the 2nd movie was never completed though I heard it went into production. I think someone told me he saw a clip of Aragorn leading the army of the dead - and this was a few years after this film showed and he was someone that never read the books.
I never cared for Bakshi’s version but if this remastering makes others happy, that’s cool.
As a kid teenager this was my first introduction into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien and I am thankful for that.
I don’t own a Blu-Ray player yet, so I havent even purchased any DVDs in a year or more waiting for the eventual moment I do switch over to Blu-Ray.
I’ll probably just do a home rental on this as usual.