Ralph Bakshi’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’: A Surprising Animated Masterpiece!

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#2 in my ranking of Ralph Bakshi’s filmography.

Initially, I hadn’t paid much attention to Ralph Bakshi’s career because I thought he was struggling in the feature film industry, and I found it regrettable to watch his films. However, my perspective changed significantly as I watched his adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings,” which I had known for a long time but hadn’t seen in a couple of years. To my delight, for about two-thirds of the film, I believed that Bakshi had created something truly good. Although it lost some steam towards the end, there are still enough positive aspects to say that this is undoubtedly his best work so far.

In my opinion, I’ll argue that Ralph Bakshi was an impressive animator for this movie despite my past criticisms of his early works. This production had the largest team of animators he’d ever worked with, around 80, as per IMDB. He entered this project with a clear strategy on which animation techniques to employ. In Wizards, it seemed like he was resorting to cost-cutting methods when budget constraints became apparent. However, for The Lord of the Rings, he had learned and refined rotoscoping techniques and structured the production around them. Despite his overestimation of what could be achieved with rotoscoping, the film’s style becomes more stylistically complex as it progresses deeper into the action.

Besides the issue of Bakshi struggling to construct a cohesive storyline throughout the entire movie, he manages to keep things afloat by closely adhering to the plotline established by J.R.R. Tolkien in his original book. However, he pushes this adaptation to its limits, trying to cram as much content as possible into a two-hour and thirteen-minute runtime. The initial two-thirds of the film predominantly follow “The Fellowship of the Ring,” and it generally succeeds. Given the vast amount of ground covered in just an hour and a half, the characters sometimes feel one-dimensional, which is evident at various points, such as the early scene where Bilbo (Norman Bird) relinquishes the One Ring to Gandalf (William Squire). Up until this point, we have only had minimal exposure to Bilbo, and our introduction to Gandalf occurs in this scene. The emotional impact of this moment feels more like a condensed highlight rather than a fully fleshed-out film scene.

Although I found some instances where Bakshi struggled to capture individual scenes effectively, I was impressed by how these moments came together to create a surprisingly unified whole. For example, when Frodo (Christopher Guard), Sam (Michael Scholes), Merry (Simon Chandler), and Pippin (Dominic Guard) set off towards Bree, the chilling encounter with the solitary Nazgul on the road instilled a palpable sense of fear for their predicament that resonated throughout the film in its portrayal of world-building. Admittedly, the characters of Merry and Pippin could have been more fleshed out, but Bakshi compensated by filling the dialogue with intricate details to add depth to the storyline. Moreover, a delightful moment in Rivendell, where Bilbo (Bilbo Baggins) softly sang a fragment of a song as he bid farewell to Frodo, added an extra layer of poignancy that I found endearing.

The most striking moment in the movie is undeniably the journey to the crossing, where Bakshi’s visual style truly shines. Throughout the film, it’s clear that he heavily relied on rotoscoping to achieve realistic motion, but the main characters were fully animated over this process while the antagonists were given an unnatural look through Xerox rotoscoping. This contrast is particularly noticeable when the Black Rider departs from his roadside encounter, revealing the Xerox rotoscoping beneath his animated hood, which seemed to serve as a disguise for his true form.

The film takes a surrealistic turn following Weathertop, where Frodo finds himself alone on horseback, racing towards Rivendell. The scenery transitions from the real world with more conventional backdrops to the wraith world, characterized by more fantastical designs and live-action footage of stormy skies. This sequence showcases Bakshi’s entire range of animated abilities in perfect harmony.

In the formation of their group, led by Gandalf (brilliantly voiced by John Hurt) and Aragorn, they embark on a journey southwards, although the movie doesn’t provide a map to help viewers understand their location. As they approach Moria, a mysterious figure in the water is brought to life (there’s speculation about whether rotoscoping was used to animate this figure). However, the journey through Moria lacks tension and feels somewhat dull. To be fair, animator Ralph Bakshi wasn’t particularly skilled at building suspense. The climax arrives with the appearance of the Balrog, one of the least effective designs in the film, looking rather comical. It seems they attempted to maintain a consistent style for their villains, given that it’s a costume enhanced by Xerox, but the final result is quite amusing. I believe animating it first and then applying the Xerox process would have been more effective, but that would have required additional resources.

In this animated adaptation, the visual style isn’t always consistent, with some inconsistencies appearing in individual shots that seem to be done on a low budget. For instance, the initial shadow play scene transitions abruptly into an animated shot of the Ring falling from Gollum’s possession, which might suggest that the director struggled to film it live action and could have opted for a larger ring and faster camera instead. The biggest shift occurs when the hobbits reach Bree, where all minor characters are presented in a copied or duplicated style.

After completing “The Fellowship of the Ring”, cost-cutting measures become prevalent. This is evident in the fact that shadows are never cast, and the narrative becomes more concise and abrupt, such as King Theoden being introduced 110 minutes into a 130-minute film. Visually, many elements are duplicated or copied, such as there not being a single fully animated Rider of Rohan. The quality of these copied elements also declines, with whole army shots that are completely still except for a pair of animated spears swinging back and forth. The charm of telling “The Fellowship” gradually fades as “The Two Towers” receives a more abridged retelling.

John Hurt’s performance stands out among the rest, which is an intriguing blend of good and not-so-good elements. Squire’s portrayal of Gandalf feels peculiar due to his excessive use of hand gestures that sometimes seem too dramatic. There are instances where the dialogue seems interrupted, presumably due to recording issues. However, it generally manages to stay coherent.

It’s regrettable that Peter Jackson had to produce two movies based on The Lord of the Rings, and he lacked Saul Zaentz’s backing to market it as the first installment of a larger series more clearly. There’s a subtle hint in the ending suggesting further films, but at the same time indicating completion, which might have been financially justifiable for a sequel. However, Zaentz appears to have disagreed. Perhaps the production was too complicated and disorganized for his liking. Maybe Bakshi was too unpredictable as a director. Regardless of the reasons, I would have loved to see how Bakshi would have tackled The Return of the King – it could have been compelling.

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2025-02-18 00:15