What began in 1937 by an English author and scholar, continues to dominate and intrigue the imagination of generations till date. After all these years, J. R. R. Tolkien’s mammoth work – Lord of the Rings, has led to the creation of movies, video games, fanfictions, board games, radio, theatre, and so much more!
While most people remember the movie series by Peter Jackson from the 2000s, a smaller and older subset of the fanbase is aware of the 1978 animation movie adaption by Ralph Bakshi which can be watched on Internet Archive.
AD
It is impossible to not draw parallels between the two productions separated by two decades. Peter Jackson gave us a memorable experience of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit with amazing graphics and slowed storytelling.
However my love for the 70s version stems from the fact that the absence of cutting-edge technology didn’t stop the team from leveraging Rotoscoping -a painstaking animation technique which gives a life-like sensation throughout the movie along with animating drawn characters. It feels differently good, particularly by the audience which is used to watching crisp graphics.
The Lord of the Rings animated movie by Bakshi features some of the beautifully crafted landscapes, particularly about places – Shire, Rivendell, and Lothlórien. It is also interesting to see drawn versions of characters like Gollum and Balrog.
Another takeaway from the 1978 version is how mellow all the male characters are. Over the years, the portrayal of male characters has turned “manlier” which is often interpreted on-screen with louder voices or via doubt-free leadership roles. Bakshi’s version is a lot more real and sensitive.
***
More than one generation is thankful to J. R. R. Tolkien who gave us a sheer volume of fantasy work, and both Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson converted them into movie formats to make it consumable for a larger audience at a given time.
On that note, every great piece of work begins to fade too, and so do the beloved characters. On 20th June 2020, Peter Jackson penned a heartfelt note – The Wonderful Sir Ian Holm upon the passing of Ian Holm who played the character of Bilbo Baggins.
As we remember and rework on the LOTR version produced by Peter Jackson, I hope that we also treasure the time capsule of a work by Ralph Bakshi who poured his heart and soul to bring this epic fantasy into animation.
