Where is Ralph Bakshi now, and what project is he working on? This is the guy who did Lord of the Rings Part I (the animated version) and Cool World. I always hated the fact that he stopped LotR right in the thick of the “Helm’s Deep” battle and never returned to Tolkien’s masterpiece. What gives? Did he get sick and die or something?
Here is his newest project
Well, IIRC, Bakshi decided to release his version of LotR in two installments, but the first was a major box office flop. Ergo, the second half never got the green light.
As to what he’s doing now, I’ve no idea.
The last news I heard about him was back when Jackson’s Fellowship was being made. Bakshi claimed he still owned the film rights and was going to sue.
The film didn’t make money, and the studio wouldn’t agree to a sequel. Bakshi’s still alive, and is working on the film “The Last Days of Coney Island”.
I’ll bet he died a little inside when he saw how succesful Peter Jackson was.
I think Bakshi was unlucky. He didn’t have enough money, and computer effects were very limited when he was filming.
I was a member of the Tolkien Society and got to see a preview of Bakshi’s film. When an Elf appeared to help the Aragorn and the hobbits as they approached Rivendell, I still remember the ironic cheer that went up when the Elf said ‘I am Legolas’!
Wow, I hadn’t thought about Bakshi in years… When I was a kid, Wizards was one of my favorite movies.
Off to Amazon, to see if it’s out on DVD yet.
It is. And it hasn’t aged well.
The last I saw Ralph Bashki was on an episode of the God-awful Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, doing the voice of a laid-back fireman befriending the two boys and also playing Ralph Kramden in a wraparound to same episode.
I hadn’t bothered to start a thread about it, but the other week I discovered a Bakshi work I’d never known about:
Coonskin :eek:
I would politely describe it as “an animated blaxploitation parody of the Uncle Remus stories”. Bakshi has never been shy about his depiction of black caricatures, and Coonskin cranks it up to the max.
And this is seldom more evident than my old-time favorite Fritz the Cat which I saw in various altered states at many a midnight showing
Which is ironic, considering he blatantly ripped off Vaughn Bode’s Junkwaffle comics when he made Wizards. (I have Wizards on DVD, and I agree that it didn’t age well.)
Correction: Junkwaffel.
Push You Down writes:
> Bakshi claimed he still owned the film rights and was going to sue.
Bakshi never owned the film rights. They have been owned solely by Saul Zaentz (who produced both the Bakshi and the Jackson versions) since the early 1970’s. A producer bought the movie and TV rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from Tolkien for about $250,000 in 1968. (Yes, bought them lock, stock, and barrel, not just an option on them. Until the copyright on these books runs out, no one else can make a film from them.) The rights then were sold a couple more times as a couple of producers successsively bought the rights, decided that they couldn’t make a film from these books, and sold them to someone else. Zaentz bought the rights in the early 1970’s and had Bakshi make a film. Two decades later he had Jackson make another set of movies. Zaentz has made something like $250 million from the film rights, far more than either Jackson or Bakshi (and something like a thousand times as much as the Tolkien estate has made from selling the film rights).
I quite liked Coonskin aka Street Fight.
Bakshi makes an appearance in the excellent documentary Frazetta: Painting with Fire, where he trades semi-ribald stories with Frank Frazetta.
Also for a while he was selling stuff on ebay, and may still - been a while since I checked.
May I add my enthusiastic recommendation for the Frazetta documentary- it surfaces almost monthly on Independent Film Channel.
Btw, I also recommend the Bakshi-Frazetta collaboration FIRE AND ICE.
I never liked Bakshi. His stuff always felt mean-spirited and stupid. I knew he was going to screw up LOTR when he got picked to do the movie. I was right.
Fuck Bakshi. Fuck him for his Lord of the Rings. :mad:
[ul]
[li]Fuck the roto-scoped, red-filtered, Sleestak/sand people looking orcs.[/li][li]Fuck the Anthony Daniels (C3PO) voiced, ultra-effete Legolas.[/li][li]Fuck the Buddy Hackett look-alike Bilbo.[/li][li]Fuck the mini-skirted Aragorn.[/li][/ul]
OTOH, the orchestral score was very good. 
Preach it OneCentStamp!
And Fuck Ralph Bakshi for his lobotomized Down’s syndrome Sam Gamgee.
And fuck him for his constant waving and nodding hobbits.
And fuck him for his “17 years pass in ultra fast forward”.
And fuck him for his half hour of Frodo wandering around in a LSD haze being chased by the Black Riders.
And fuck him for his rotoscoped actors floating on a yellow background “Prancing Pony” scene.
Surprisingly, non-macho John Hurt pulled off his voicework as the ultrabutch Aragorn. Who’d a thunk it?