Word: bakshi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...took Ralph Bakshi, Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle (a Tolkien biographer) to show me what people who don't like Tolkien see when they read his books: A world of ludicrous little people, pedantic wizards and interminable sword and sorcery cliches. Conkling and Beagle have a great burden to bear for their treacherous adaptation of Tolkien's story, but the truly responsible party is Bakshi...
...longtime Tolkien addict himself, Director Ralph Bakshi knew these dangers; he also knew that the task of translating this ring-cycle to the screen had stymied some of the most formidable names in Hollywood, including Walt Disney, and still he plunged ahead. Bakshi brought to this project none of the brass and sass that animated his earlier cartoon features including the X-rated Fritz the Cat and the jive-talking Heavy Traffic. If reverence had wings, his new picture would fly. The fact that it hobbles simply proves again that the road to Mordor is paved with good intentions...
...Apocalypse rested in their hands. The hobbit Frodo Baggins is an ordinary creature with hairy toes suddenly charged with a task that will decide the battle between good and evil in his world. This elemental quest is what the whole fantasy boils down to and percolates up from. Bakshi tries to strike the same balance between the personal and universal, but in a fraction of the time at Tolkien's disposal and using images, not chapters. Visually, the two scales do not mix, and, as might be expected, the big swallows the small...
...Some of Bakshi's spectacle is truly opulent. In the opening sequence, the forging of the evil ring that Frodo must return and destroy is an abstract symphony of blacks and blazing reds. The ring-wraiths who pursue Frodo are inky phantoms on horseback and lurching deformities on foot. The action flows across backdrops that are both eye-boggling and wildly diverse. Bakshi has suggested the range and variety of Middle-earth geography by displaying a scrapbook filled with conflicting styles. Those who enjoy humming the scenery can forget the plot and go on a spree of influence hunting...
...foreground constantly throngs with figures, and this is where trouble begins. To achieve such massed scenes, next to impossible in normal animation, Bakshi first created a live-action film and then had the cartoon traced over it, virtually frame by frame. The technique allows for large-scale battles and much hacking and hewing, as well as some distracting side effects. When the crowds are especially dense or the action swift, the superimposed cartoon fades to a sketchy approximation. The live actor-models flicker like ghosts behind a thin wash of color, and the viewer feels an urge to apply...