To put my thoughts in a nutshell: this film stinks to high heaven. Low production values, poor continuity, sloppy pacing, over-condensed plot, horrible characterization, sometimes manageable, sometimes horrible casting, and the fact that its actually only half-animated make up what's wrong with this film. If Director Ralph Bakshi wasn't even able to afford to make his animated feature...animated! He probably shouldn't even have bothered!
While several of the scenes are word for word from the book, they are soullessly done. A story should have a "soul", if you will, and this film lacked anything of the sort. Which is a huge part of the problem with it. The original books, on the other hand...well, they almost overflowed with the stuff. The author, the esteemed Oxford Professor, J.R.R. Tolkien, spent about twelve years of his life writing them, using a typewriter. He seamlessly spun together a beautiful fabric of a story, using his craftsmanship, his devotion and his love for his work. This brought us "The Lord of the Rings".
Ralph Bakshi merely took the materials he already had and just slapped them on screen with very little care.
After looking through the movie, piece by piece, the two biggest mistakes that Ralph Bakshi made are definitely evident.
Biggest Mistake #One: He tried to do it for too little budget, $8 million. What he was able to do with that little amount is impressive, though, I will admit. On the other hand, being impressive of such a small amount of money, and actually making something that actually is impressive, in and of itself, are two different things. He definitely needed about twice the budget that he had just to get the film fully animated, and even more than that if he wanted to add a little style to the animation.
Biggest Mistake #Two: He tried to fit the entirety of the first two books (about 730 pages total, and in small print) into one two hour and fifteen minute film. This forced drastic cuts all throughout it, especially in the "Two Towers" section, also at which point he'd run out budget for animation for the most part (filming at high contrast and using rotoscoping does not make animation). He was also forced to sacrifice personality and development for most of the characters.
All this led up to a sudden end, in which the narrator announced "to be continued". The film was not officially titled "The Lord of the Rings-Part One", and nothing even hinted that this was merely a part of the story. It is merely titled "The Lord of the Rings", which directly implies that the entire story should have been told in this film. They advertised it that way, and they've kept it that way. In another review, the reviewer who wrote up "Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Ring, Part One: A Critique" on the "Tolkien Sarcasm Page" said, "I'm surprised there weren't any lawsuits." Film Rating: 3/10
While several of the scenes are word for word from the book, they are soullessly done. A story should have a "soul", if you will, and this film lacked anything of the sort. Which is a huge part of the problem with it. The original books, on the other hand...well, they almost overflowed with the stuff. The author, the esteemed Oxford Professor, J.R.R. Tolkien, spent about twelve years of his life writing them, using a typewriter. He seamlessly spun together a beautiful fabric of a story, using his craftsmanship, his devotion and his love for his work. This brought us "The Lord of the Rings".
Ralph Bakshi merely took the materials he already had and just slapped them on screen with very little care.
After looking through the movie, piece by piece, the two biggest mistakes that Ralph Bakshi made are definitely evident.
Biggest Mistake #One: He tried to do it for too little budget, $8 million. What he was able to do with that little amount is impressive, though, I will admit. On the other hand, being impressive of such a small amount of money, and actually making something that actually is impressive, in and of itself, are two different things. He definitely needed about twice the budget that he had just to get the film fully animated, and even more than that if he wanted to add a little style to the animation.
Biggest Mistake #Two: He tried to fit the entirety of the first two books (about 730 pages total, and in small print) into one two hour and fifteen minute film. This forced drastic cuts all throughout it, especially in the "Two Towers" section, also at which point he'd run out budget for animation for the most part (filming at high contrast and using rotoscoping does not make animation). He was also forced to sacrifice personality and development for most of the characters.
All this led up to a sudden end, in which the narrator announced "to be continued". The film was not officially titled "The Lord of the Rings-Part One", and nothing even hinted that this was merely a part of the story. It is merely titled "The Lord of the Rings", which directly implies that the entire story should have been told in this film. They advertised it that way, and they've kept it that way. In another review, the reviewer who wrote up "Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Ring, Part One: A Critique" on the "Tolkien Sarcasm Page" said, "I'm surprised there weren't any lawsuits." Film Rating: 3/10