I picked up the Bakshi version DVD on sale, too, but it just wasn’t funny. My kid – a major fan of the Jackson LOTR films – was NOT impressed with Pantsless Aragorn, saying he looked like a middle-aged construction worker wearing a Pocahontas wig. And no pants.
…and while I kind of agreed with her, his looks didn’t bother me so much as his voice. John Hurt, a fine British actor with about a zillion credits to his name… only two of which include Winston Smith in the '84 version of “1984”, and the doomed astronaut in the first “Alien” film who has a critter burst through his sternum, voiced Aragorn in the Bakshi version.
…but John Hurt does not sound like a big bluff Ranger kind of guy. He sounds like a thin, reedy-voiced Englishman. Hearing a thin, reedy-voiced Englishman’s voice coming out of this cartoon guy who looked kind of like a belligerent Tonto just… well, it wasn’t QUITE as bad as hearing Shaggy and Scooby up there quoting Tolkien, but it was jarring, certainly…
(My kid’s commentary didn’t stop with Aragorn. Although she’s quite wild about Orlando “Legolas” Bloom, she wasn’t wild about Bakshi’s Legolas, or any of his elves, either. “What’s the deal with the Elf Eyes in this movie?” she asked. “Did they all escape from Area 51, or something? They all have huge eyes. And huge seventies hair.”)
Chris Latta’s name isn’t in the credits, but anyone who sees this video will recognize the Witch King’s voice as the voice of several villains from Scooby Doo and Space Ghost and the Herculoids…
…and that voice was as annoying coming out of the Witch King as it was from any number of sixties bad guys.
Don Messick, maybe. Hell, as far as I can tell, Messick did the voices of the entire Gondorian army…
Well, I can’t blame them. They’re right. Everyone in the Bakshi version DID have huge seventies hair. Hell, even the hobbits are packin’ around these giant John Travolta disco do’s… and yes, Saruman in particular did kind of look like he was in the process of being eaten and digested by a humungous white wig.
Fie! 'Twas Bakshi who gave us Fritz the Cat! 'Twas Bakshi who gave us the first animated Spider-Man! 'Twas Bakshi who gave us such immortal classics as Wizards and Fire and Ice and … uh … aw, you’re right, screw Bakshi.
Bakshi took over SpiderMan after the first season, while not his best work it did have a wierd, creeped-out, gritty 1960’s surealiasm that I was impressed with, considering he spent about 20 bucks to produce each episode and re-cylced alot of footage from Rocket Robin Hood.
I like it even less upon rediscovering it 20 years later. The film has no sense of pacing or timing, and looks cheap.
Watching old Spider-Man cartoons produces a similar sensation. Each episode uses a huge amount of recycled footage. Watching three episodes back to back is almost confusing, due to the sheer amount of recycled footage.
The link Squeegee posted above is very funny, and makes some very good points… in particular, the abundance of huge gestures. Everyone in this movie appears to be on the verge of hysteria much of the time. This may be appropriate for a cartoon… but for a serious non-children’s film?
And while I have tremendous respect for John Hurt, and do not want ANYONE thinkin’ I’m talkin’ bad about this extremely talented man… I sure wouldn’t cast him in any role requiring him to appear on the poster without a shirt, wearing an ammo bandolier, and toting a large automatic weapon. This would not be good casting, unless we’re talkin’ comedy.
…and casting him as Aragorn is not good casting. At least, not the way the character is rendered.
I remember seeing this when I was very, very young. So young, in fact, that I saw it in an establishment of a kind that no longer exists- a video theater. This was after VCRs were invented, but before most people had them. My family and I went to the video store, chose this movie, then rented a small room with a few couches, a television, and a VCR, and watched it.
Even then, even when I had appalling taste and was under the age of ten, I realized that here was a thing that sucked.
I’m pretty sure we’ve got at least one of the cartoon LOTR movies on tape at my parents’ house. I’m not sure which one, but if I get sufficiently bored over Christmas I may have to finally subject myself to it.
Well, of course it has no sense of pacing or timing - it’s adapting the books fairly faithfully. Say what you like about LotR, but when 90% of the journey is accomplished in the first book of a trilogy your pacing is scrwed royally.
As to looking cheap, they ran out of money before it was completed.
