The Lord of the Rings

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The Lord of the Rings

PG,

1978,

2h 11m,

Fantasy/

Adventure/

Animation

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Watchlist

Watchlist

48%

46 Reviews

Tomatometer

64%

250,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

48%

Tomatometer

46 Reviews

64%

Popcornmeter

250,000+ Ratings

This animated film by Ralph Bakshi presents the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's renowned fantasy tale. The wise old wizard, Gandalf, entrusts the young hobbit, Frodo, with a magical ring. Soon dark forces are after Frodo, so he must leave his peaceful home and travel to the ominous Mount Doom, where the ring must be destroyed. Accompanied by a trio of hobbit friends, Frodo is also aided by the mysterious Aragorn and other heroic allies.

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Critics Consensus

Ralph Bakshi's valiant attempt at rendering Tolkein's magnum opus in rotoscope never lives up to the grandeur of its source material, with a compressed running time that flattens the sweeping story and experimental animation that is more bizarre than magical.

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Paul Gray

TIME Magazine

Mar 26, 2019

Lacking a firm center in Frodo's story, the film plays itself out as a bewildering parade of elves, dwarves, ores, trolls and talking trees.

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William Thomas

Empire Magazine

Dec 3, 2012

4/5

What most people remember is the mix of the live-action tracing within the traditional animation and just how effectively creepy it managed to be, but for the time this did a pretty good job of adapting the dense novels.

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Dec 3, 2012

It looked terrible then and it still does: cartoon characters move differently from live actors, and the attempt to duplicate natural movement ends in stylistic incoherence.

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Jeff Beck

The Blu Spot

Jul 17, 2025

2.5/5

While it is quite interesting to see an early attempt to bring this beloved classic to the screen, it simply has too many issues holding it back, primarily with its sloppy rotoscoping and the unbalanced nature of its adaptation.

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John Lapsley

The Sun-Herald (Australia)

Nov 16, 2023

2/5

Bakshi's 2.5 hour animation epic has been drowned by its inability to breathe any real identity into the Hobbits, Orcs, Wizards, and Elves, that Tolkien created. The result is an ordeal for the backside.

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

Dec 1, 2022

D

Sheer tedium from start to finish.

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Abraham P

Mar 11, 2019

Much better than the films with Elijah Wood.

Finn M

Jan 11, 2019

Fan of Bakshi's style? You'll appreciate this version. If you're looking for the superior telling of Tolkien's story, though... this ain't it. Personally, I'm down with both Bakshi's and Jackson's versions, but that's because I grew up on Bakshi's films and appreciate his animation style. While this version is highly condensed and an incomplete telling of the story, I think it still does an admirable job of remaining faithful to the books.

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Draco M

Nov 24, 2018

Ralph Bakshi did his best with the resources available to him in the late '70s, the background animation is good and there are a couple of good scenes. Plus, without this movie we likely wouldn't have gotten Peter Jackson's classic live-action trilogy and this movie had the better Frodo because I felt that Elijah Wood's Frodo was a bit too vulnerable. Wish those damn executives left poor Bakshi alone. Why, you ask? The character animation is incomplete, inconsistent and nightmarish to look at. Eww, their faces. The music blares loudly throughout most of the movie. The battle sequences are so confusing it's hard to tell or care who's winning this battle. There are some questionable character designs. Why is Boromir a Viking? John Hurt Aragorn, where are your pants? (speaking of pantsless rotoscoped Bakshi fantasy animation, there's an erectifying movie called Fire & Ice and yes, they remain like that throughout the entire movie since that's standard animation stuff) And last but not least, if you haven't read the books or seen the Jackson trilogy, the movie's confusing as hell. You'd think they'd give us time to get to know these characters a bit more, given the uncharacteristically long runtime for an animated film of over 2 hours. LotR 1978 gets points for effort but my God, is it weak in comparison to the Jackson movies.

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Leia R

Sep 21, 2018

More book accurate and kid friendly than the live action trilogy. However, it is not the full story since they spent their entire budget and then some by the end of the battle of the Hornburg at Helm's Deep. Interesting artistic choices, though it is ultimately the reason the project fell apart as well.

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Kylo S

Sep 7, 2018

An amazing animated adaptation of Lord of the Rings - unfortunately it's only half of the actual story and the sequel was never made! Extremely, EXTREMELY frustrating. Watch at your own peril.

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Finn W

Jul 15, 2018

One ring to rule them all...

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Ralph Bakshi

Director

Christopher Guard

Frodo

William Squire

Gandalf

Michael Scholes

Sam

John Hurt

Aragorn

Simon Chandler

Merry

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Synopsis

This animated film by Ralph Bakshi presents the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's renowned fantasy tale. The wise old wizard, Gandalf, entrusts the young hobbit, Frodo, with a magical ring. Soon dark forces are after Frodo, so he must leave his peaceful home and travel to the ominous Mount Doom, where the ring must be destroyed. Accompanied by a trio of hobbit friends, Frodo is also aided by the mysterious Aragorn and other heroic allies.

Director: Ralph Bakshi
Screenwriter: Chris Conkling, Peter S. Beagle
Rating: PG
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Animation
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2014
Runtime: 2h 11m
Sound Mix: Surround

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