If there had been any doubt in my mind that Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was a remarkable achievement of film-making, this tepid animated version of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic (or rather, the first two parts of said classic) would have erased it. This "Lord of the Rings" gets it all wrong in as many ways as Jackson got it right, and the result is an overlong, underbaked epic that tests even the most determined patience.
There are few by now who don't know the story--little hobbit gets evil ring and has to toss it in a huge volcano to save the world--which is a good thing, since the screenplay tends to throw plot points and scenes together at random. Looking through the credits, I find that one of the writers was none other than Peter S. Beagle. Peter, what happened? You not only wrote "The Last Unicorn," one of the best fantasy books ever written, but you also converted it into an animated film as touching and beautiful as this one is bland and dreary. Did you panic on being asked to whittle down Tolkien's lengthy prose while still maintaining a sense of dramatic flow and coherency, or were you simply too distracted with other projects to even try? Then there's the animation, which is devoid of any sense of wonder, fear, or basic charm. There's no grandeur or glory, nothing to fire the imagination with its vision of Middle-Earth. It should be noted that although all the characters are rotoscoped (live actors used as models, which the animators draw over), the style of the film is not consistent. The main players look like cartoon characters most of the time, while the extras look like live-action actors (occasionally in gorilla masks) who've been roughly sketched over. Everyone flails their arms and leaps about in a ridiculous manner (sometimes in complete contrast to the emotional content of the scene), as if the live actors were afraid the animators weren't getting enough work. Fight scenes are particularly ludicrous, as it's obvious that much of the "killing" just involves one actor slapping another with the edge of his sword. Three of the characters--Gandalf, (S)Aruman, and Theodin--look so much alike as to make no difference. Legolas is cross-eyed, Boromir looks like a Viking, and the few female characters all have over-large eyes that look drenched in mascara. The voice acting is pretty bland, and inconsistent to boot--Tolkien was a linguist among other things, and was very specific about the pronunciation of Middle-Earth tongues. Bashki was nowhere near as specific. It has been already pointed out how the evil wizard is referred to as both "Saruman" and "Aruman," but in both cases the characters can't seem to decide if the last syllable is pronounced like the word "man" or like the first syllable of "Montana."
The film ends abruptly, as if everyone involved suddenly gave up. Since it took three tries before I could actually sit through the entire movie, I can understand how they felt.
There are few by now who don't know the story--little hobbit gets evil ring and has to toss it in a huge volcano to save the world--which is a good thing, since the screenplay tends to throw plot points and scenes together at random. Looking through the credits, I find that one of the writers was none other than Peter S. Beagle. Peter, what happened? You not only wrote "The Last Unicorn," one of the best fantasy books ever written, but you also converted it into an animated film as touching and beautiful as this one is bland and dreary. Did you panic on being asked to whittle down Tolkien's lengthy prose while still maintaining a sense of dramatic flow and coherency, or were you simply too distracted with other projects to even try? Then there's the animation, which is devoid of any sense of wonder, fear, or basic charm. There's no grandeur or glory, nothing to fire the imagination with its vision of Middle-Earth. It should be noted that although all the characters are rotoscoped (live actors used as models, which the animators draw over), the style of the film is not consistent. The main players look like cartoon characters most of the time, while the extras look like live-action actors (occasionally in gorilla masks) who've been roughly sketched over. Everyone flails their arms and leaps about in a ridiculous manner (sometimes in complete contrast to the emotional content of the scene), as if the live actors were afraid the animators weren't getting enough work. Fight scenes are particularly ludicrous, as it's obvious that much of the "killing" just involves one actor slapping another with the edge of his sword. Three of the characters--Gandalf, (S)Aruman, and Theodin--look so much alike as to make no difference. Legolas is cross-eyed, Boromir looks like a Viking, and the few female characters all have over-large eyes that look drenched in mascara. The voice acting is pretty bland, and inconsistent to boot--Tolkien was a linguist among other things, and was very specific about the pronunciation of Middle-Earth tongues. Bashki was nowhere near as specific. It has been already pointed out how the evil wizard is referred to as both "Saruman" and "Aruman," but in both cases the characters can't seem to decide if the last syllable is pronounced like the word "man" or like the first syllable of "Montana."
The film ends abruptly, as if everyone involved suddenly gave up. Since it took three tries before I could actually sit through the entire movie, I can understand how they felt.