ralph bakshi's lord of the rings (and other adaptation frankensteins)

How did I miss this thread, considering Raposa's genius review of the bollocks that was Bram Stoker's Dracula?

If you watch the early animation and storyboard extras in the P.Jackson DVDs there are some shamefully Bakshi-esque mock-ups populating much of the feature.

You just answered your own ques, Jess: incinerate both, and pray the world will forget

Some things never change.

Holy shit Ralph Bakshi worked on the 60s Spider-Man cartoon?!?! (From IMDB.) I loved those (age 9). I'm so confused...

Also: Bakshi fans should (not) see American Pop, if you're looking for some ROCK AND FUCKING ROLL. (Anyone got a copy of The Proton Pulsator or Baron Von Go-Go lying around?) (To watch?)

You know the Bakshi one is pretty watchable when you use the French language track.

So I had some thoughts

http://thequietus.com/articles/25681-ralph-bakshi-the-lord-of-the-rings-animation-review-anniversary

thanks ned, really enjoyed that! i've seen a lot of takes on bakshi and the other adaptations from around that time but this is the best exploration of their strengths and weaknesses i've read. i've never heard the radio 4 version of LOTR and am eager to check it out now.

have you ever heard this old bbc radio version of the hobbit? not perfect but definitely has its moments. it would have aired when tolkien was still alive, wonder if he had any response to it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(radio_series)

I bought a finished cel of the nazgul from bakshi to hang in my office a couple years back and it's my favorite damn thing

xpost -- I knew of that version but because I've not heard it yet myself, and due to my self-imposed time frame restriction, I decided to leave it out; I don't know of Tolkien's own reaction to it but it's possible I've just missed something somewhere. Anyway, thanks!

And a finished Nazgul cel, now that's a nice thing to have.

Nice piece! I was actually thumbing through my Bakshi book last night, so lame that they couldn't include any of the artwork from LOTR (not sure why)

also wtf I had no idea that was Brother Theodore as the Rankin/Bass Gollum!

xp

Yup, first time I ever heard of him. Deeply inspired casting all around by Rankin/Bass, honestly.

you didn't see him on Letterman in the 80s?

First time = when I saw their Hobbit in 1977, so...

you heard tolkien reading gollum?

https://youtu.be/7VOdv2RE4jg

Yup, love that.

that recording is a thing of beauty, i listened to it on a night drive recently and god what i would pay for a JRRT reading of all the books

hearing the actual voice that JRRT had in mind for gollum as he wrote is kind of mind-blowing, it's not quite what i expected but it totally works

A wonderful (and edifying) read, Ned. I didn't know this thing was a box office hit in the States -- #1 for a couple weekends.

yet its quite close to the radio 4/jackson versions rly? xp

part of me still wishes bakshi had gotten to do a sequel to his crazy version. the scariest parts of his film seem to work best so i figure his version of frodo and sam's journey through mordor would've been...something, at least

Bakshi did scary and crazy very well. Nostalgic and bucolic not so much. There's no way he could've hit all the notes Tolkien does, but even so I definitely wish he had gotten to shoot the whole thing. With Zeppelin music.

being able to first read mordor with dim memories of bakshis flame and shadow was def the way to do it tbh

A wonderful (and edifying) read, Ned.

Thank yer. And yeah, I was a little surprised to realize it was a hit, just not a HIT, post Star Wars. But given Superman was out a couple of weeks later, not surprised that one rather outshone the other in long term memory as well as at the time.

I've still never it all the way through, but one thing that Bakshi gets right that Jackson doesn't is the desolation of Middle Earth. There's an eerie, cavernous quiet to Bakshi's film (at least in the early scenes) that Jackson's is too hung up on "epic" pomp to truly capture.

(looking forward reading Ned's piece, btw)

Nice read. I’m a year younger than Ned and had vivid memories watching the Rankin/Bass “Return of the King” on TV at a young age. It scared/fascinated me right from the jump: the “Frodo of the nine fingers” song and that framing device were very effective on little me.

So call this an update on my Quietus piece there from four years back, or more like an alternate take -- but our podcast has gotten around to tackling this version:

https://www.megaphonic.fm/bythebywater/37