TGIS: The Lord of the Rings

I think that seeing Peter Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring" was the first time that I truly felt that movie making had entered the future; the first time I actually felt that we had the technology and ability to bring fantasy to life. When it was first announced that he would be making The Lord of the Rings, though, I didn't really get my hopes up. All fantasy movies before had failed rather spectacularly. Only a year earlier, the Dungeons and Dragons movie had been released and while it had decent special effects, it was dragged screaming into the Abyss by a painfully bad plot, poor characterization, and a Wayans brother. This is what we had come to expect, though. Fantasy movies weren't allowed to be good for some reason. And the only movie version of LOTR we had to compare things to was this:

In 1978, Ralph Bakshi released the animated Lord of the Rings (which is really only Fellowship and part of Two Towers).  Looks pretty freakin cool, huh?  Well what you actually got was this:

That's Frodo on the right (really the only character that Bakshi actually captured). On the left are Merry and Pippin, so bland and identical that you never bother to learn to tell them apart.  In the middle is Sam, who looks like he's part of a different freaking species from the Land of Derp. I mean, sure Sam is supposed to be husky and awkward, but he also is supposed to emerge as a hero and ultimately the real strength of the Fellowship. This is really one of the bigger problems for this film. Bakshi's vision is based on the introduction of the character and not what they are supposed to become.

I think this scene of the Bridge of Khazad Dum illustrates more of the flaws.  Here's the Bakshi version.



So we've got Boromir as a ... viking or something? Legolas as the ultra white fairy. Gimli looks less like a dwarf than Boromir does. And Aragorn is a human shaped piece of beef jerky with a sword. These characters are visually unappealing, vocally unpleasant, and just kind of... bleh. They don't really capture the imagination. Oh and the orcs.

Waddup?

Bakshi made use of a technique known as rotoscoping. You film real actors, then trace over them to create animation, which allows for artistically changing reality. You can't argue that it doesn't do a great job of making the orcs look "otherworldly".  It also makes them look like they're from a different freaking movie though.

Then comes the balrog, a flying creature whose only weakness is... falling.  Wait, does that make sense?

Well, flight is a Daily Power and I used it up getting to the bridge...

Anyhow, Gandalf doesn't really shout, but... enunciates? at the balrog in a quavering old man voice that he is the keeper of the secret flame. Then they hit swords together and Gandalf appears to... accidentally break the bridge.  *sigh*

I'm Gandalf the Derp!

The falling flying balrog then whips him immediately in. No suspense. No commanding presence from Gandalf. Just an old man breaking a bridge and getting whipped by a demon. Then Aragorn shoves hobbits around afterward.

I lead by pushing!  Which ironically puts me in back!

There is no sense of pathos or loss after the fall of Gandalf. The only emotion conveyed is anger and frustration. Honestly, this version just leaves you feeling irritated. Though not quite as irritated as the fact that Bakshi wasn't even allowed to complete the series and they pulled in Rankin-Bass to finish it in a totally different animation style.

WTF?  Is this Gandalf the White and the Seven Fucking Dwarfs?

It's good that Bakshi made the 70's version if only to serve as a guidepost for future directors of what not to do. Thankfully, this is all behind us now and we live in a future where Tolkein's story was brought to life in a manner it deserves.  Let us end with the more passionate and genuine balrog scene from Peter Jackson.