The Lord of the Rings movie synopsis. A young Hobbit known as Frodo has been thrown on an amazing adventure, when he is appointed the job of destroying the One Ring, which was created by the Dark Lord Sauron. He is assigned with three warriors including Gandelf, Aragorn, and Boromir. But it’s not going to be an easy journey for the Fellowship of the Ring, on the ultimate quest to rid the Middle-earth of all evil.
Controversial animator Ralph Bakshi’s literal adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, is brought to the screen in a reverent, stilted way, with Bakshi forsaking his sharp-edged animated looniness for a rotoscoped dullness. Although the film’s title encompasses the entire Tolkien trilogy, this longish Bakshi feature, in fact, covers only the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, and the first half of the second, The Two Towers.
Given the complexity of the original story line, this unfortunately means that only those intimately familiar with the books will be able to understand what is happening in the movie. In brief, however, an evil sorcerer from a previous era created a magical ring which enables its users to call upon its tremendous powers to rule the world, but it inevitably warps them to evil. It was believed lost, but during a resurgence of magical evil in the world, Bilbo, a simple, plain-spoken hobbit, recovers it from its hiding place. The forces of good give his nephew Frodo the choice to bear the awful burden of the ring to a place where it may be destroyed.
The Lord of the Rings is a 1978 adult animated high fantasy film directed by Ralph Bakshi. It is an adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s high fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, comprising The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) and the first half of The Two Towers (1954). Set in Middle-earth, the film follows a group of hobbits, elves, men, dwarves, and wizards who form a fellowship. They embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring made by the Dark Lord Sauron, and ensure his destruction.
Ralph Bakshi encountered Tolkien’s writing early in his career, and had made several attempts to produce The Lord of the Rings as an animated film before being given funding by producer Saul Zaentz and distributor United Artists. The film is notable for its extensive use of rotoscoping, a technique in which scenes are first shot in live-action, then traced onto animation cels.
It uses a hybrid of traditional cel animation and rotoscoped live action footage. The film features the voices of William Squire, John Hurt, Michael Graham Cox, and Anthony Daniels, and was one of the first animated films to be presented theatrically in the Dolby Stereo sound system. The screenplay was written by Peter S. Beagle, based on an earlier draft by Chris Conkling.
Although Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings was a financial success, it received mixed reactions from critics, and there was no official sequel to cover the remainder of the story. Nonetheless, the film became a cult classic that continued to run as a matinee and a midnight movie for nearly two decades, and was an influence on Peter Jackson’s trilogy, as detailed in the DVD extras of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Directed by: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, Dominic Guard, Michael Graham Cox, Anthony Daniels, David Buck, Anthony Daniels, Philip Stone
Screenplay by: Peter S. Beagle, Chris Conkling
Production Design by: Steven Hahn, Denise O’Dell
Cinematography by: Timothy Galfas
Film Editing by: Donald W. Ernst
Art Direction by: Phil Carroll
Makeup Department: Patricia Messina
Music by: Leonard Rosenman, Paul Kont
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: November 15, 1978
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