[sportutegrl]

I saw the LOTR in the theaters as a child. It ended abruptly, in the middle of one of the great battle scenes. Then a message was displayed on screen to watch for the sequel, which never came. I had the feeling then and now that Bashki ran out of money and time, anyone could see the battle scenes were just live action with a bit of cartoon paint on them. But that ending, he didn’t even try to wrap up a storyline. And where is that promised sequel?

[discostu]

The studio screwed him. They had their plans and they didn’t care what he wanted. It wasn’t just the battle scenes that were rotoscope over live action, that was the whole movie. Bakshi was very fond of that technique and used it a few times.

[tanknetter]

I saw the LOTR in the theaters as a child. It ended abruptly, in the middle of one of the great battle scenes. Then a message was displayed on screen to watch for the sequel, which never came. I had the feeling then and now that Bashki ran out of money and time, anyone could see the battle scenes were just live action with a bit of cartoon paint on them. But that ending, he didn’t even try to wrap up a storyline. And where is that promised sequel?

The Rankin-Bass "Return of the King" was, apparently, the "sequel."

This actually fills in a huge hole in my childhood memories. I remember Rankin-Bass's The Hobbit and Return of the King very well. But looking back I've occasionally wondered why I couldn't recall seeing Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers. Its because there weren't any. At least from Rankin-Bass.

[Vanders9]

That is exactly what happened.

I've always thought of Bakshi's effort as a very flawed but very valiant effort. LOTR is not a very easy book to bring to the screen, certainly not with 1970's technology.

[a fool in paradise]

I saw the LOTR in the theaters as a child. It ended abruptly, in the middle of one of the great battle scenes. Then a message was displayed on screen to watch for the sequel, which never came. I had the feeling then and now that Bashki ran out of money and time, anyone could see the battle scenes were just live action with a bit of cartoon paint on them. But that ending, he didn’t even try to wrap up a storyline. And where is that promised sequel?

Rankin & Bass did Return of the King (animated). I think there was a DVD release briefly. I saw it on television in the early 80s once.