Incorrect. The voiceover says something like “Thus ends part one of Lord of the Rings.” A part two was definitely implied.
As far as the tree root scene goes, I’m betting that there was artwork done before that. But I also have a distinct memory that that’s how it was described in the book. I had that scene in my head for years before I saw Bakshi’s version.
And I thought Bakshi’s conception was brilliant. I liked it. Yes, I’m one of the three that did.
Am I the only person in the world that noticed that Leonard Rosenman reused part of his LOTR score in Star Trek IV?
I’ve seen some of the Bakshi interviews where he talks about LotR – I know I read the Onion AV Club one – and there are a couple of places in there where he says people told him that Jackson’s movie is more focused on special effects and what not. As someone else said in this thread in nearly the same words, it really comes off as sour grapes.
Bakshi’s movie actually scared me away from Tolkien for about ten years. But now that I know and love the book it’s really quite MSTable.
That’s very interesting - is there any possibility (since it was, after all, a voiceover) that the film was re-edited after the initial theatrical release? I won’t swear to the full accuracy of my quotation, but I’m rather confident that when I saw it there was no implication of a part two. Again, perhaps I missed something: but I rather distinctly remember being irritated that apparently Bakshi had thought this was an adequate ending.
It’s difficult to read Bakshi’s words and come way with any impression other than that he has emotional or psychological problems of some kind. The comment about Jackson changing Tolkein’s words is plainly bizarre; I read “The Lord of the Rings” and I am quite sure there’s no musical number in it called “Where There’s a Whip There’s a Way.” His I-can’t-believe-they-did-it-without-my-permission bit is just weird.
Bakshi - let’s be quite honest - is not a particularly talented filmmaker. You can’t watch stuff like “Cool World” or his “Lord of the Rings” and reasonably conclude that the man knows much about anything. But a cult following seems to have given him some sort of delusional ego complex.
While I agree with your assessment of Bakshi’s talent, Where There’s a Whip There’s a Way can’t be laid at his feet. That little . . . divertissment appeared in the second half of LOTR produced by Rankin-Bass when it became clear there would be nothing else coming from Bakshi.
Actually, that’s from Rankin-Bass’s attempt to finish the story after Bakshi dropped the ball. It wasn’t very good, but at least it was easier on the eyes than Bakshi’s semi-animated abortion. Bakshi’s, IIRC, doesn’t have any musical numbers.
I’ve seen others make that mistake. My theory is (and I’ve heard others here state it first), that Bakshi’s version is so bad, everyone sunconciously attributes every sucky thing connected to LOTR with it. I expect that ina few years, the least-beloved part’s of PJ’s trilogy will have sucked into Bakshi’s black hole of suck.
It almost did to me. I saw one of the animated versions of The Hobbit as a child-although it could have been Rankin-Bass, I doubt if I’ll ever know)-and I was seriously turned off of Tolkien until I saw the Jackson movies. REFUSED to read him.
And now I curse Bakshi for doing so, because I truly, truly loved that book.
(Unless, of course the version I saw was Rankin-Bass’s, in which case, well, who cares, they both suck).
I believe they were showing the Bakshi version of Cartoon Network recently. I caught a few scenes. Awful, awful film. I think his elves were the influence for Stephen Spielberg’s “Gremlins”. It was truly cringe worthy. In fact, I think if Mike and the 'Bots had had to watch this, they would have said, “Screw it, the Mads won.”
Speaking of Rankin-Bass…how do THEY feel about Jackson’s version of Return of the King? Do they feel slighted like Bakshi, or are they too embarassed to admit their film even exists?
Come to think, I can’t recall a single “homage” to the Rankin-Bass film; at least Jackson put in two for Bakshi.
Sorry, Guin. Maybe some of the more hardcore Simpsons fans can help. I don’t have a definitive cite, although I’ve read it in many sources, and the Usenet Simpsons archive (http://www.snpp.com/guides/lisa-3.html, about halfway down the page) mentions this factoid.
Actually, Guin, you will. Because one of the things that the SDMB is all about is being a place where EVERY STINKING BIT of knowledge that has ever lodged in your brain will be useful to someone. So I’m here to tell you that the animated version of The Hobbit, featuring the voice talents of Orson Bean, as Bilbo Baggins; Hans Conried, as Thorin Oakenshield; and Paul Frees, as probably an assload of other characters, was produced by Rankin-Bass.
I was not enthusiastic about seeing it upon its initial release; however, I did like it well enough to let it be Michaela’s introduction to Tolkien (although, what with being produced by R-B, I did feel a bit cheated by the lack of Animagic[sup]TM[/sup] characters proceeding jerkily across the screen).
While I guess I’m on record as hating Ralph Bakshi, I don’t really see how Comic Book Guy is based on him, and this sounds to me like urban myth. I scoured the web and found this mentioned a thousand times but only as a truth-by-assertion statement, which suggests that one person said it and it got spread from there.
Comic Book Guy is pretty much the ultimately stereotypical 80’s nerd, the guy who knows every line of dialogue in “Wrath of Khan” (Best. Trek. Movie. Ever.) and has educated opinions on who would win in a fight between Wolverine and Spider-Man, but is not so smooth with the ladies. Every single bit of his character is drawn straight from the kid you knew in Grade 7 who played a lot of Mechwarrior and D&D and cried when he was hit with the dodgeball. You don’t need Ralph Bakshi to create CBG.
Bakshi’s elves were like gremlins? Are you sure you’re talking about Bakshi? Are you sure you’re not thinking of Rankin’s/Bass’s elves, of which the elf king talks like a certain California governator? Let me guess – you probably think that Bakshi’s Gollum looked like a big frog, right?
This makes me wonder how much flak Bakshi unfairly gets for the folly that is R/B.
Personally, I’d pit Bakshi’s Galadrial against Cate Blanchett any day.
But no matter how educated ones opinions are, we will never, ever live to see a consensus on who would win in a fight between the Enterprise and a Star Destroyer.
