Post by GRWelsh on Apr 26, 2020 10:17:40 GMT -5
I just rewatched this and have a higher opinion now than I used to. I always liked the Rankin Bass versions better, and didn't like the Bakshi movie because it annoyed me that it was incomplete and I didn't like the rotoscope animation and especially thought the solarization used with the orcs and Rohirrim looked muddy and lazy. It was liked half-way between live action and animation, but not either. In retrospect, I see how Bakshi paved the way for the Jackson live action movies by showing it could be done. The Jackson version owes a lot to the Bakshi version. Some scenes, like the hobbits hiding from a black rider on the road, and the black riders in stabbing the beds in the Prancing Pony, are practically lifted from the Bakshi version. The way Smeagol was protrayed, and dramatizing the conflict between Gandalf and Saruman also seem inspired by the Bakshi version. I still don't love this movie -- it has too many errors, like inconsistently referring to Saruman as Aruman and mispronouncing Celeborn's name -- but I no longer hate it. Bakshi wasn't afraid to fail and brought an underground comics sensibility into animation in the 1970's which was a much needed breath of fresh air and contrast from the lackluster Disney movies of that era.
