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My Opinion on the Bakshi Film
Lan

I really don't agree with David Bass' strong criticism of the
Bakshi cartoon. I saw that cartoon for the first time when I was about ten years old. At that time, I had already read the "Lord of the Rings" books. I must say that I've always liked Bakshi's interpretation of the trilogy. Of course I know that he really made a great amount of changes to Mr. Tolkien's original product, but let's be honest, who but the tolkien-purist really cares whether or not it was Legolas or Glorfindel who found the Hobbits and Strider on their way to Rivendell? See, movies like these are not made for the few detail-crazy people who want to see nothing changed from the original at all.

This movie was made so the mass amounts of people would like it, and that will be the case for Jackson's movies, too, in my opinion. And let's be honest, the mass of the people (even the ones who did read the books) don't care about those minor changes. They want to see a good movie, a movie which moves and excites you. And Bakshi's movies did exactly that to me. I have seen that cartoon many times and liked it every time. Much more important than sticking to the original is catching the mood, the atmosphere of magic and battle, the fear and the hope, the cruelty and the romance in a story. I believe that Bakshi did alright with this, and the biggest of my hopes is that Jackson will even do better.

About that other criticism of the cartoon, I have to say the following: First of all, you can't take any single frame out of any movie and make the character look stupid. And what's wrong with people walking around when they're talking?

If you're interested in reading the original articles by David Bass on the Bakshi films, please follow this link.