Lord Of The Rings (Animated)

Interesting, thorough, well told! i saw this when i was younger and loved it, i think the animation using real actors in the battle scenes and for the orcs is really effective! When the peter jackson films came along i thought the nazgul were more frightening but apart from that it couldnt best this film for storytelling and identification with the characters. I thought the start of the film telling the story of the rings in animated shadow was chilling and brilliant to watch! A good introduction to Tolkiens work which is much truer to the tone of the book.

I watched this as a kid and really enjoyed it and still do. I thought it had a darker tone than Jackson's films which I really liked and gave it a more fantasy feel. The voices were great including well known actor John Hurt as Aragorn. The character animation is a bit simple but the animation itself is awesome and very detailed and over all still holds up well. I never realised that it didn't have everything in it from Tolkien's books but that was ok because the story flowed well and kept you interested, unlike Jackson's films although brilliantly made dragged on too long and got boring easily. The only thing I didn't really like with the 78 version was the retro-scoping used in it of real people. This was down to limited budget and why the film and story was never finished and ended at the Two Towers. This was a real shame because I thought Bakshi did a great job on it and loved to have seen his version of the ending.
The DVD itself has very little on which is a shame. It would be great to have a commentary from Bakshi himself or maybe a making-of just to reflect on it with other voices who were involved on the feature. Over all its a great version of Tolkien's epic journey even if it does miss stuff out and defiantly worth watching

I remember having this on VHS when i was very very small and used to love watching it even though it scared the pants off me!
I'm very glad to see it available again on DVD and even though it may not live up to the quality of the big budget films or the magic of the books - its still a cartoon i will love to watch again and again as an adult.
Certainly worth a watch and a bargain at the price!

Unfortunately this production ran out of money before they could finish so it only goes to the end of the two towers, but even so its not bad especially given its age.
The use of actual shadowed actors for the fights works quite well with the animated walking scenes, and the plot is far closer to the book than peter jacksons work

This 1970's animation was what I grew up with and I still love it to this day. Shame they ran out of money and the movie comes to an abrupt halt (at the end of the battle of Helms Deep)...anyways still a good movie. Enjoy!