Product Description

Animated versions of three Tolkien classics: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9594 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2001-12-11
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Animated, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Georgian, Thai
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .55 pounds
• Running time: 308 minutes

Features

• Animated versions of three Tolkienics: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN Rating: NR Age: 085392633128 UPC: 085392633128 Manufacturer No: 26331

Amazon.com
The Hobbit
The J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy classic set in Middle-earth was adapted into this excellent 1978 animated feature first broadcast on television. Codirectors Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., working from a script by Romeo Muller, are faithful to Tolkien's story and for that alone they get big points. The vocal cast can't be improved upon: Orson Bean is perfect as Bilbo Baggins, the timorous hobbit who grows brave on his adventure with the wizard Gandalf (John Huston). Otto Preminger is the voice of Elvenking, Richard Boone is Smaug, Hans Conried is Thorin, and Brother Theodore is very effective as the weird Gollum. Terrific for kids and adults alike. --Tom Keogh

The Lord of the Rings
Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson's live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious 1978 production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien's trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo's inheritance of the One Ring of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf's triumph over the evil army of Orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Roseman's accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosphere that Bakshi's animation creates and sustains. Bakshi's lamentable decision to combine traditional cel animation with "rotoscoped" (i.e., meticulously traced) live-action footage is jarringly distracting and aesthetically disastrous, but when judged by its narrative content, this Lord of the Rings deserves more credit than it typically receives. --Jeff Shannon

The Return of the King
The creative team behind 1978's impressive animation feature based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit returns with this 1980 entry drawn from Tolkien's famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's good work all around, and not at all the kind of feature-length cartoon that reduces good books to treacle. Orson Bean returns as the voice of Bilbo Baggins as well as that of the trilogy's hero, Frodo. John Huston is commanding again as the voice of the wizard Gandalf, and also in the vocal cast are William Conrad, Paul Frees, and Roddy McDowall. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

The path to Tolkien
I might feel differently if I had not grown up watching these films, but I will never know. The Rankin/Bass specials were something I always looked forward to watching on television, and the Ralph Bakshi "Lord of the Rings" was one of the first films I ever saw in the theatre. I loved them then. I love them now.

Watching them now, I think that the quality still holds up. Rankin/Bass are not masters of fluid, perfect animation. More than anything, they are stylists who achieved the highest quality they could within budget limitations. "The Hobbit" is the best of the bunch, using dialog and story from the book. The background paintings are beautiful, and the whole production has a hand-crafted feel to it that is far more charming than bigger-budget animation. "Return of the King" suffers from the poor casting choices for Merry and Pippin. The best scenes are Frodo and Sam in Mordor. The songs are memorable in both productions, and I dare you not to hum "Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom" or "Where theres a Whip, theres a Way."

Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings" has suffered most through the passage of time. His experimental animation does not go over well with viewers used to "Toy Story" and "Akira." Personally, I find his vision of the story to be equal parts charming and creepy. He also took dialog from the books, to great effect. His Dark Riders are terrifying, as is his Balrog. It is unfortunate that he was not able to complete the second half as planned.

Considering that the audience for these productions are children, and with the understanding that adapting a novel is difficult, I think both the Rankin/Bass and Bakshi versions hold up well. Watching these as a child got me interested in the books, and didn't color my enjoyment of them at all. That's a good recommendation.

Worth Having
If for no other reason than "completing a media collection", these 3 DVDs are worth owning by fans of LOTR that love the story, but haven't gone over the deep end in terms of what they deem "worthy" renderings of Tolkien's work.
The Hobbit is probably the best of the three, though inexplicably is missing about a third of the sound effect work from the broadcast version - most notably Bilbo slaying the spiders, and Smaug's blasts of fire. Weird. Anyway, with the remarkable cast of voices it stands well on it's own. IMHO, Brother Theodore's version of Gollum's voice is probably the best there will ever be. Great for kids, fun for adults who remember.
Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings" was perhaps over ambitious - some of the rotoscoped scenes drive me nuts - but some things he did very very well. The relationships between the fellowship are completely believable. The black riders are spooky as it gets, and his version of Galadriel's pool/test are right on the money. All in all, I still like pulling it out on a dark pre-snowy autumn night.
Return of the King - this one's an oddity. I agree with some other reviewers here, it's treated like The Hobbit, but it's so dark that it almost gets funny in places. Roddy McDowell is over-the-top big time, painting Sam much harsher than the books, and much is glossed over for time constraints. Though,it too, has it's moments.
Over all, the Rankin Bass offerings are beautiful to look at...the backgrounds are breathtaking - water colors brought to life.
None of these three films are perfect, but given the fact that no major studio would touch any of 'em, _and_ the fact that over 1200 pages of story are being crammed into under 4 hours of movie, I find them mostly satisfying versions of LOTR, and find myself watching them more than I expected to.

Anime + Lord of the Rings = Success!
The Rankin/Bass (The people who brought you Thundercats) versions of "The Hobbit" and "Return of The King" are extremely well done and all three films are BEAUTIFULLY restored for DVD! It's too bad it took the release of the Peter Jackson live-action versions to get these beautiful pieces of anime onto DVD but as long as it happened I guess it's all right even though it reeks of band-wagon capitalism. The Bakshi version of Lord of The Rings (Based on "Fellowship of The Ring" and portions of the "Two Towers") is also well done but the animation ranges from cheesy to beautiful and is uneven. I never connected with this middle film even though I appreciate it. It just lacked the organic and emotional feel and cleanliness of the first and the last one. For great battle scenes and images of Minos Tyrith, the third disc has to be seen to be believed! Full of singing and light, these discs straddle the line between kid and adult entertainment like a razor blade. It's really a shame they never put out a good CD compilation of the soundtracks to the first film and the last film (Kind of like the Less Than Zero orchestral score!) because the vocal and instrumental pieces are really beautiful!