Review of The Lord of the Rings (1978) by Brian C — 15 Oct 2013

Generally faithful to the books, but condensed to a fault; it's not that it cuts too much from the books, but that it tries to include everything. As a result, the pacing is sloppy and unfocused, rapidly checking off plot-point after plot-point in an effort to finish the story within an appropriate running time, and failing on both counts (it's too long and it randomly ends in the middle of The Two Towers).

There is a well-realized atmosphere and strong sense of doom, but the animation is poorly done and downright ugly to look at. Good character moments for fans of the book, and a decent caricature or two, but too many of them for any to be developed in any way beyond that; major characters from the books are reduced to non-speaking background roles.

And don't even get me started on that ungodly little troll that was supposed to pass for Samwise Gamgee... in other words, stick to the Jackson version, or better yet, the books. It isn't completely terrible, but it's far from good.

With two undeniably superior versions of the story available, there's just no real reason to see this version.