Word: tolkien
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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...
Lord of The Rings, perhaps more than any other popular work, exists not so much in print as in the imaginations of its readers. Tolkien's world is his world, with its own laws, peoples, history, and time...
...Tolkien leaves his world open to interpretation. He does not dictate the exact appearance of the Black Riders, or the Balrog; he leaves it to us to envision these horrible things in the depths of our own minds. Likewise, each individual has his own Gandalf, his own Frodo, his own Middle Earth...
BAKSHI AND COMPANY must be blatant since they do not reach below the surface of the books to convey what Tolkien was really writing about: The books succeed, despite admittedly two-dimensional characterization and large doses of sword fightin' and horse ridin', because Tolkien subtly leads you into his world and somehow makes you care about what goes on there, makes you afraid of the evil which threatens it, and involves you in the adventures as if you were there. Bakshi's world is merely a cartoon, somehow you can't get around that whether you know the books...
Certainly many will applaud this movie as a daring work. It was always there to be done, one supposes, and there are enough Tolkien freaks around who will plunk money down to see their dream come to life...