The Lord of the Rings
Directed by Ralph Bakshi
- adventure
- animation
- fantasy
The story
Young Hobbit Frodo Baggins is thrown into an amazing adventure when he's tasked with destroying the One Ring, created by the dark lord Sauron. Frodo must travel in a small fellowship of nine warriors and accomplices. But it won't be an easy journey for the Fellowship of the Ring, on the ultimate quest to rid Middle-earth of evil.
What it’s like
Rotoscoped live-action footage gives this animation a heavy, smeared motion, with characters who move like traced actors against painted backdrops of mud-brown forests, grey stone and smoky firelit dark. The palette is muted earth tones broken by sudden flares of orange and cold blue, and the grain of the image feels like old film stock. Scenes often shift abruptly, and the pacing is brisk and lurching, moving from quiet unease in the Shire to dread on the roads and in the caves. Leonard Rosenman's orchestral score swells with choral touches and folk-tinged melodies, and it fills the gaps where the animation thins out. The intensity is moderate: the Black Riders are menacing, orc attacks bring brief, blunt violence with some falls and wounds, and there is steady fear and shadow, but nothing lingers on gore and there is no sexual content. The mood is wintry and melancholy, with a restless, unfinished quality, since the story stops partway through its larger quest. It suits a grey afternoon or a late evening, and it is best for viewers who enjoy sombre fantasy, rough-edged animation history, or an unpolished take on Tolkien's world rather than a gentle or tidy one.
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