Years ago, I found in the dark recesses of a video store an animated version of the Return of the King. Oh, I was excited and rented it … only to find it was jaw-droppingly dreadful.
I have never seen any references to it anywhere (unlike the Bakshi version of the Fellowship, which does get mentioned from time to time). The release of what promises to be a very good version brings it back to mind …
Has anyone else seen that abomination? Remember the musical numbers? 
Where there’s a whip, there’s a way? That’s from that one, isn’t it?
“Where there’s a whip (crack!), there’s a WAY!” Orcish marching song!
Actually, I didn’t think the Rankin/Bass LOTR material – “The Hobbit” and “Return Of The King” were all that bad. They were obviously aimed at children, but by the same token, in comparison to the horror that was the Ralph Bakshi LOTR, they weren’t bad.
Some people gripe about the fact that they’re musicals. One could also mention that in the trilogy, one character or another is constantly bursting into song or cantus about one ancestor, battle, or hero or another.
Admittedly, stacked up against the current films, they’re kinda ridiculous, but it’s not like anyone’s making me watch 'em at gunpoint…
I actually just rented it a week ago. Not great, but a lot better than the Bakshi abomination which, I am sad to say, I actually own. I was really hoping in RotK, despite the fact that it was done by Rankin & Bass (the guys who did the animated Hobbit), that they would drop those damn songs and that annoying bastard with the warbly voice (“the Greatest Adventur-ur-ur-ur-ur-ur-ure…”…shudder)
…but alas no.
I did like the “Where There’s a Whip” song, though.
That’s the one all right! (And damn infectious and memorable, I might add! ).
Also, “Frodo of the nine fingers … and the ring of DOOM!”. Not as memorable.
I wonder if Jackson had to buy the movie rights off of those other guys. 
I own a copy. For historical interest only. Orson Bean as Frodo? OMG!
I’m off to see the new ROTK now. Bye!
I haven’t seen the animated “Hobbit”, but the animated ROTK is in my opinion in the “so bad that it is actually funny, and so, in a sense, good” category.
It is like seeing the Lord of the Rings made with Keebler elves (as suggested in another thread).
Is that the one where Aragorn seems to be without pants for the entire movie? People of talked about them so much, I kinda want to see them now
(I saw the animated Hobbit and was quite disgusted with it – and I was 12 at the time. I would probably be able to laugh at it a bit more now, I was a rather serious child in some ways.)
And the voices! They were the voice actors from Scooby Doo! Jinkies, Gandalf!
The pantless Aragorn was Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings. Dreadful.
Apparently I’m the only one who loved this version? Wow…
::traipses off singing::
We don’t wanna go to war today…
I liked the R-B Hobbit. The headlight eyes of Smaug, the cartoony goblins…it was really good, if you can divorce it from the more serious epic of LOTR.
But the R-B Return of the King!
o/The Cracks of Doom! (Doom! Doom!) The Cracks of Doom! (Doom! Doom!)o/
I never did understand why they skipped to the end of the series to make their premiere LOTR animated film…
I’d always assumed that RB did Return of the King because Bakshi never got past Helm’s Deep in his movies, and they wanted to finish the job.
I think this is correct.
Thus ensuring that both halves of the epic would be horrible, but in completely different ways!
[Though as a matter of fact, I would give Bakshi some marks for inventiveness, and the ROTK marks for singable ditties. About whips.]
Funny, the songs actually made it more faithful (in one way) to Tolkien than the current adaptation. “Frodo of the nine fingers” is taken verbatim from the text, as well as the “whip” song.
Sadly I saw the animated RotK when I was very young, and the only thing I remembered from it was: the ending. I wish I could have scrubbed the memory from my brain before I read the books.
emarkp, there was no “whip” song in the books. The song was inspired by a speech by an orc “sargent”'s speech to Frodo and Sam as they’re maquerading as orcs. “Where there’s a whip, there’s a will!”
IIRC, Bakshi only secured the rights to the first two books, assuming that once he was 2/3s of the way through, he’d naturally get the rights to the third book. Joke was on him: Rankin/Bass stepped in and bought the rights to the third book.
We don’t wanna go to war today,
But the lord with the lash says, nay nay nay!
We’re gonna march all day, all day, all day.
Where there’s a whip there’s a way.
<Crack!>
I remember it. I wish I didn’t, but I do.
I would like to see Peter Jackson’s version with a pantsless Aragorn, though.
Argh! Apologies for my misremember. And thanks for the correction.
I’ve got an old VHS copy from when my parents taped it off TV in 1986 or so. I can date it by the car commericals. I used to watch it a lot as a kid.
I’m going to see Glen Yarbrough in concert next week, maybe. He sang “The Greatest Adventure” in “The Hobbit,” and was the voice of the minstrel in the Rankin/Bass ROTK.
Glen Yarbrough’s only hit record was “Baby, the Rain Must Fall” in the 1960s. This came from the Steve McQueen/Lee Remick film of the same name. The play it was based on, though, was “The Traveling Lady.” I guess it didn’t seem plausible having tough guy McQueen starring in a movie called “The Traveling Lady.”:eek:
And I say “maybe” because he arrives back in port (Miami) the same day that the concert is scheduled, 400 miles away from the concert location, St Simons, GA.