# Abandoned film series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2008, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975 "2008-01-02T08:48:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/21 "2008-01-02T15:46:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Long before Peter Jackson completed the entire trilogy, there was an animated version of LoTR that covered Fellowship and part of Two Towers. > > Visually speaking it was pretty nifty, since a lot of the animation was done by combining regular animation with live footage that was painted over (the look is very much like A Scanner Darkly, which used the same concept). > > I have to admit, it wasn’t much good, or at least it wasn’t when I saw it at 16 right after finishing the books. I guess that explains why there was no Part 2. 😛 I was a big fan of Ralph Bakshi, but I was severely disappointed by his Lord of the Rings movie. Its very literal rotoscoping really killed it. The film is pretty decent when it’s pure animation with little or no rotoscoping (the Hobbiton Birthday Party. The Flying Nazgul, Fangorn), but it’s pretty awful when it looks more like a colorized black and white film than animation. What’s the point? Particularly annoying was the Balrog – a scene I’d really wanted to see. They gave us a painfully obvious _Guy in a Balrog Suit_, rotoscoped! GaaaaaH! It’s the Worst of All Possible Worlds. They recut the film between the first and second times I saw it (I’m a masochist) – the orders of the scenes were different between its first showing i n New York and the version I saw later. For some reason, Rank and Base, who made the TV version of **The Hobbit** , felt compelled to take up the slack, and made a TV-movie version of **The Return of the King** that pretty much took up where Bakshi had left it, giving you the whole story in animation. Yecch. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/22 "2008-01-02T15:56:31Z")
[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin] Oz? [/QUOTE] Which Oz? There’ve been a number of film adaptations, including one from 1910 that spawned a few sequels. MGM never to the best of my knowledge had any intention of making a sequel to its Oz film, although it was involved in the eventual sequel (1985’s Return to Oz) by Disney. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/23 "2008-01-02T15:58:30Z")
Cecil B. DeMille’s _The Ten Commandments_ stopped, jarringly, in the middle of the Book of Exodus. Come on, man, there’s a lot of Old Testament left! I’m still waiting for Charleton Heston to star in an epic film adaptation of the Book of Numbers, complete with two hours of begats and detailed counts of oxen and donkeys. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/24 "2008-01-02T16:00:38Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I was a big fan of Ralph Bakshi, but I was severely disappointed by his Lord of the Rings movie. Its very literal rotoscoping really killed it. The film is pretty decent when it’s pure animation with little or no rotoscoping (the Hobbiton Birthday Party. The Flying Nazgul, Fangorn), but it’s pretty awful when it looks more like a colorized black and white film than animation. What’s the point? Particularly annoying was the Balrog – a scene I’d really wanted to see. They gave us a painfully obvious _Guy in a Balrog Suit_, rotoscoped! GaaaaaH! It’s the Worst of All Possible Worlds. [/QUOTE] The worst was Saruman’s army of Uruk-Hai. They looked like a bunch of leftover [Sand People](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tuskenraider.jpg) from _Star Wars_ and [Sleestaks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Land_of_the_Lost_%281974%29_-_Sleestak.jpg) from _Land of the Lost_…with a heavy red filter added. Triple lame. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/25 "2008-01-02T16:22:09Z")
The Stargate series was supposed to continue with what then became Independence Day, so I’m guessing we might not see another. A TV series spin-off is still possible, but it always seemed liked they’d milked that one a bit too much for anyone to stump up money to see more of it in the cinema. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/26 "2008-01-02T18:43:22Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] For some reason, Rank and Base [/QUOTE] Rankin/Bass. The company that also did all the stop motion Christmas special like Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/27 "2008-01-02T19:02:45Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] I agree. The first Fletch book was a perfect screenplay (it’s almost all dialog) and all they had to do was shoot what MacDonald had written and they’d have a fine film. [/QUOTE] There has been an adaption of “Fletch Won” in the works for years with everyone from Kevin Smith to Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence attached. Zach Braff had been attached to star, but has dropped out. Here’s [a brief rundown of what’s going on with it from Wiki.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletch_Won_%28film%29#Sequel_and_prequel) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/28 "2008-01-02T19:03:24Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > : > > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > > > > For some reason, Rank and Base > > Rankin/Bass. The company that also did all the stop motion Christmas special like Rudolph and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. **Whooooosh!** .. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/29 "2008-01-02T19:10:14Z")
As one of the few people to enjoy [Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/), it’s a bit disappointing to realize there won’t be any more. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/30 "2008-01-02T19:13:54Z")
I’m bummed that Lars Von Trier didn’t get to complete the third series of [_The Kingdom_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_%28TV_miniseries%29). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/31 "2008-01-02T19:42:49Z")
[QUOTE=Ponder Stibbons] As one of the few people to enjoy [Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/), it’s a bit disappointing to realize there won’t be any more. [/QUOTE] I’m with you, it seems to require a special type of geek to enjoy that movie. You have to like classic Sci-Fi from the 30s and 40s. Love little tidbits like the story about the Empire State Building being used for Dirigibles and all the other dated Sci-Fi themes reminiscent of EE Doc Smith, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs mixed up. I was about the only one I know that really enjoyed the film. Even liking the film, I still hated Gwyneth Paltrow’s character. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/32 "2008-01-02T19:50:53Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I was a big fan of Ralph Bakshi, but I was severely disappointed by his Lord of the Rings movie. [/QUOTE] Yes, it sucked but I want to grab the mike and just say something right now. Ralph Bakshi’s Aragorn as voiced by John Hurt was twice the man and ten times the ranger than the Aragorn Vigo Mortensen managed to portray. On a recent comparison viewing, it may be the only superiority between the films, but I will stand by it. ---
**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/33 "2008-01-02T19:51:27Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] I’m with you, it seems to require a special type of geek to enjoy that movie. You have to like classic Sci-Fi from the 30s and 40s. Love little tidbits like the story about the Empire State Building being used for Dirigibles and all the other dated Sci-Fi themes reminiscent of EE Doc Smith, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs mixed up. I was about the only one I know that really enjoyed the film. Even liking the film, I still hated Gwyneth Paltrow’s character. Jim [/QUOTE] I really liked it, but I think that it spent far too little time on those actual elements that made it cool. Instead, about 80% of the movie consisted of them crawling around in the jungle and so on, with a mere 20% devoted to the amazing art deco stuff. It felt like a sequel where they feel like they have to shake things up and break the formula. See also: _The Incredibles_ ---
**Author:** ![MonaLizaT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@MonaLizaT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonaLizaT)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/34 "2008-01-02T21:38:11Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Is it possible I’m the first person to mention _Buckaroo Banzai_? [/QUOTE] And I thought that my friend Chrissy and I were the only ones that were looking forward to the sequel. Perfect Tommy…mmmmmmmm 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/35 "2008-01-02T21:46:49Z")
[QUOTE=MonaLizaT] And I thought that my friend Chrissy and I were the only ones that were looking forward to the sequel. [/QUOTE] Sequel? What about _pre_quels? By my count, there are seven dimensions across which the titular hero presumably had adventures on his way to the 8th, and AFAIK we have no movies to show for it. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/36 "2008-01-02T21:50:07Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] I remember that they thought V.I. Warshawski was going to be a franchise. [/QUOTE] You’re shitting me. … I wonder, honestly, if we’re going to get all seven “Narnia” movies. The first one was good, but a bit uninspired, and I have a feeling it’ll run out of steam. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/37 "2008-01-02T21:56:23Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] You’re shitting me. … I wonder, honestly, if we’re going to get all seven “Narnia” movies. The first one was good, but a bit uninspired, and I have a feeling it’ll run out of steam. [/QUOTE] Depends on how this one does. I think the promos of the “adult hero” might help sell more tickets than Narnia did. I enjoyed the first movie far more than I expected, I thought they did a good job. Maybe Prince Caspian will help them tap more into the giant Lord of the Rings movie going base then the 4 kids and a talking lion did. I am basing this on the previews I have seen. I think this is the marketing hope. Jim ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/38 "2008-01-02T21:58:17Z")
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen made all of one (bad) film. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/39 "2008-01-02T21:59:34Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Maybe Prince Caspian will help them tap more into the giant Lord of the Rings movie going base then the 4 kids and a talking lion did. [/QUOTE] Well, they better find _something_, because the talking lion is, IIRC, the only character who appears in all seven books. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975/40 "2008-01-02T22:34:21Z")
[QUOTE=VCO3] See also: _The Incredibles_ [/QUOTE] Yes, see them also indeed. Why did we not see more of this wonderful family? The end of the film seemed to suggest a franchise or at least a sequel, but here we are 3-4 years later and nothing is apparent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abandoned-film-series/431975.md?page=3)