Movie reviews: Animated Lord of the Rings, Willow and 1980s fantasy films

David Brown

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Dec 30, 2021, 10:08:17 AM12/30/21

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I have been informally continuing an exploration of late 1970s-'80s fantasy films on my blog, and got some new and backlogged material that might be of interest here. First, a review of the animated Lord of the Rings movie.
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/featured-creature-one-that-starred-ewok.html
Second, a review of Willow, which includes an overview of the 1980s fantasy wave. My thesis, which I definitely might expand, is that there were really very few serious/ "straight" sword-and-sorcery fantasy films among them. Of course, this depends both on what you consider S&S and as non-satirical; the one where I will admit I am at a loss is The Dark Crystal. Anyone have their own thoughts and recollections on vintage fantasy films?
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/featured-creature-one-that-starred-ewok.html
David N. Brown
Mesa Arizona

Robert Carnegie

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Dec 30, 2021, 11:37:55 AM12/30/21

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On Thursday, 30 December 2021 at 15:08:17 UTC, David Brown wrote:
> I have been informally continuing an exploration of late 1970s-'80s fantasy films on my blog, and got some new and backlogged material that might be of interest here. First, a review of the animated Lord of the Rings movie.
> https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/featured-creature-one-that-starred-ewok.html

I presume you mean
<https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/animation-defenestration-one-that.html>
"The one that rotoscoped Tolkien"

David Brown

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Dec 30, 2021, 1:02:04 PM12/30/21

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Here's corrected Lord of the Rings link
https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/animation-defenestration-one-that.html

David Brown

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Dec 30, 2021, 1:02:22 PM12/30/21

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Posted my own correction, thank you.

Bice

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Dec 30, 2021, 2:43:47 PM12/30/21

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On Thu, 30 Dec 2021 07:08:14 -0800 (PST), David Brown
<davidn...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I have been informally continuing an exploration of late 1970s-'80s fantasy=
> films on my blog, and got some new and backlogged material that might be o=

>f interest here. First, a review of the animated Lord of the Rings movie.

>https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/featured-creature-one-that-starr=
>ed-ewok.html

Your Lord of the Rings link above points at your Willow review.

My daughter suggested watching the animated Lord of the Rings a couple
days ago - we have it on DVD but haven't watched it since she was a
little kid.

It was better than I remembered. It's not great - there's a lot you
can nitpick about it, and the way it tries to pretend that the story
ends just after Helm's Deep is disappointing. But overall it's not as
terrible as I remembered it being.

It's kind of surprising much Peter Jackson had lifted from the
animated version for his live action movies.

-- Bob

Bice

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Dec 30, 2021, 2:45:16 PM12/30/21

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On Thu, 30 Dec 2021 19:43:23 GMT,
eichlertwothed...@comcast.net (Bice) wrote:

>
>Your Lord of the Rings link above points at your Willow review.

Sorry, I see you posted a correction for that. That's what I get for
not reading the entire thread before responding.

-- Bob

Paul S Person

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Dec 31, 2021, 12:52:06 PM12/31/21

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On Thu, 30 Dec 2021 19:43:23 GMT,
eichlertwothed...@comcast.net (Bice) wrote:

>On Thu, 30 Dec 2021 07:08:14 -0800 (PST), David Brown
><davidn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>I have been informally continuing an exploration of late 1970s-'80s fantasy=
>> films on my blog, and got some new and backlogged material that might be o=
>>f interest here. First, a review of the animated Lord of the Rings movie.
>>https://trendytroodon.blogspot.com/2021/12/featured-creature-one-that-starr=
>>ed-ewok.html
>
>Your Lord of the Rings link above points at your Willow review.
>
>My daughter suggested watching the animated Lord of the Rings a couple
>days ago - we have it on DVD but haven't watched it since she was a
>little kid.
>
>It was better than I remembered. It's not great - there's a lot you
>can nitpick about it, and the way it tries to pretend that the story
>ends just after Helm's Deep is disappointing. But overall it's not as
>terrible as I remembered it being.

It was supposed to be part one of a two-parter.

But the second part never got made.

>It's kind of surprising much Peter Jackson had lifted from the
>animated version for his live action movies.

I had an enjoyable time on another newgroup pointing out those PJ
errors that Bakshi did correctly.

When the Bakshi came out, we heard a lot about Elves and f-stops. The
idea being that that was the difference between Elves and Men: how
much brighter the Elves were.

Then we got a look at Arwen's Big Entrance, where the whole screen
went white, and those comments ... went away.

The irony here is that, IIRC, the screen went white because the extra
actually riding up and dismounting was not wearing the right costume.
It had nothing to do with any theory PJ had about Elves. Oh, well.
--
"I begin to envy Petronius."
"I have envied him long since."