And now for a brief intermission....

[MLD-Grounds-Keeper-Willie]

i still have the VHS film. Its animated and made by Republic pictures and it's "A Saul Zentz production of a Ralph Bakshi film". It has a beautiful painting of Gandalf holding Glamdring pointing and a shining light is coming from his finger pointing the way. Beneath him are (I think) two hobbits, probably Frodo and Sam. The seem to behold Gandalf great and he almost appears to look as great as Moses or Jesus or Abraham or something, and behind him are clouds. To the left the appear stormy, but to the right, they are bright and show a blue skied backround. Gandalf is pointing to the right. I LOVE IT! This is how I was first introduced to LotR, when I was about nine years old. It only covers the fellowship and half of TTT. I think that they were going to make the second half but ran out of funding or used up their budget. That sucks. And I also have The Return of the King animated movie by WB. I didn't like it as much . Its made by the same people that made the animated movie of The Hobbit. <P>Last Christmas I got the three pack that contained all three of those movies on DVD. I noticed however that The Lord of the Rings by republic Pictures was by WB. Does this mean that WB bought out Republic? Anyways, they actually changed some of the footage. At the end of the WB version, a narrator says,"The forces of darkness were driven forever from the face of Middle-earth by the valiant friends of Frodo. As their gallent battle ended, so too ends the first great tale of the lord of the rings." But in the real republic one, it say something like,"Thus ends the first half of the history of the lord of the rings." I think that's it (I can't use the VCR right now, its broken so I can't check. The WB made it seem like it was the end and everything was fine, but the Republic was more accurate.<P>I like the movie a lot and I still watch it today. Has anyone else seen this movie. I just love it. I think first impressions stick with you a lot and I can see it still today. But anyways, I see some similarities between this film and PJ's. I even think he might have seen this and used it almost as a guide. I could go on for a while but here's two. In the animated, the film goes through FotR and half of TTT, then it would have done the rest but for whatever reasons, it didn't finish. In Pj's, they were going to make it into two movies originally, just like the animated. And in both the animated and Pj's, when the Hobbits are going to leave the Shire, it doesn't go along with the book. They both have it as all four hobbits hiding under the road together. Well does anyone else agree with me? And does anyone else love this movie as much as me?