What do you think of the Bakshi cartoon?

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Mugwump

but our vision of elves today is largely formed by Lord of the Rings, in which Tolkien restored the original ideas of how the "elves of faerie" were portrayed in myth.

Or so he claimed. For an interesting discussion of the differences between Tolkien's Elves and the elves/fairies of traditional folk mythology, see this thread (one of my personal all-times favourites).
Horrible as the Rankin/Bass elves are as depictions of Tolkien's Quendi, their look somehow suggests a glimpse of the dark and malicious side (if not the dangerous beauty) of traditional fairies.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

This is not the thread to debate his statement as far as the books are concerned, but I think it applies to the films in a way: in our minds, we're all better film-makers than Bakshi, so we can flesh out the gaps and smooth out his mistakes while we're watching and still enjoy the show. With a live action movie like PJ's, we don't have that much leeway to exercise our own imagination, we depend more on the film-maker to get it right for us, and are more disappointed if he doesn't. Or that's how it seems to me.

Originally Posted by PrinceOfTheHalflings

The problem is that because PJ is a good film maker, we are not left with much room to imagine our own version. He's already overloaded us with memorable visuals ...

Hardly fair as a criticism, though, is it? I've heard this argument before, and it strikes me as a little, well, perverse almost. However, I'd agree that it probably explains why people spend more time nitpicking the live-action films.

[Mugwump]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Or so he claimed. ... Horrible as the Rankin/Bass elves are as depictions of Tolkien's Quendi, their look somehow suggests a glimpse of the dark and malicious side (if not the dangerous beauty) of traditional fairies.

Yes, the earlier view of faeries did portray "the other" according to the worst instincts of xenophobic racial hatred that came largely from the infusions of Germanic myth into English culture that occurred during the Saxon invasions.

But I was talking of physical characteristics of elves, Tolkien's reversal of the infantilizing of their appearance that occurred during the Victorian era. Before that they at least looked mostly human in size, stature and form.

[Huscarl]

I have always loved this oddly inspiring film- the vivid and almost supernatural imagery it offered, and John Hurt's voice!

Those Ringwraiths were far more sinister than the LoTR trilogy's, IMHO?

This film (especially the last battle), Michael Wood and Excalibur (1981) got me gripped by history!

[alatar]

Couldn't figure out why Peter Jackson's LotR was playing yet again on the TV this weekend. Then I saw an ad, showing that it's being released (or re-released, or re-re-released...I'm already losing count) on Blu-Ray DVD. Then I saw something even more interesting (or scary, depending on your point of view) - the Bakshi version is coming out on DVD and Blu-Ray as well!

You can read a short blurb about it here.

Anyone buying it?

[Inziladun]

I bought the Bakshi cartoon on DVD a few years ago, out of a sense of nostalgia. I see no reason to spend more on the Blu-Ray. I shudder to think what all that rotoscoped animation would look like on High-def.