What do you think of the Bakshi cartoon?

[Elemmakil]

Originally Posted by SteamChip

Lets put it this way, If I had a little bit of cash, I would buy up the Bakshi film, knock off the last minute or so then finish it with another 90 minutes.

Of course Id have to revoice some of the dialogue, actors dying and so forth to have the new sound fit in with continuing characters with what went on before. But as far as the animation, characters, men without pants, barbie Gladreal, etc I’d keep it as faithful as possible to the original, warts and for continuity. It’s Lord of the Rings and no one else at the time was ambitious enough to take on that project.

Actually, I've given thought to something like this. Setting aside issues of copyright, etc., I wonder how hard it would be using modern computers and editing software to do what SteamChip suggests? In other words, it could almost be something someone does as a hobby in their spare time, rather than a huge dedicated project, requiring a massive investment in personnel, time, and resources.

For example, wouldn't some sort of graphics software allow one to correct such things as Aragorn's pantlessness, Saruman's weird robe, Boromir's horned helmet, etc.? Likewise, with sound editing, even using the existing dialogue, it ought to be possible to splice in or otherwise correct little things like "Aruman" or Boromir's pronunciation of MI-NUS Tirith.

Going beyond this, is it technically possible to take, say, simple film footage of individuals doing a scene, and use graphics software to overlay the animation characters over the actors? I ask because this would point the way to filming whole new scenes as SteamChip posted. One could recruit interested individuals from anywhere in the world to send in even camera phone footage to use as a basis for the animation.

Or even going well beyond this - rather than merely finishing the movie, one could add in missing scenes that fans have griped about for years, such as the Old Forest, Bombadil, and the Barrow Downs, among others. Remember that such would be an individual fan project, and need not be dumbed down to cater to the lowest denominator. The only stumbling blocks I foresee here are having to redo the voice acting throughout (for continuity), and any background music (though for the latter, were I in a particularly "pirate" mood, I'd go ahead and take anything whether from the original Bakshi movie, PJ's flicks, or even other music by, say, Enya, that would fit into the mood of the scene)

Now, I do not know if what I suggest is necessarily technically possible in the manner I outline above, and would need input from others far more knowledgeable about these things, but given the raw computing power that exists today (considering that what we currently have in a laptop vastly exceeds in power what NASA filled rooms with back when the Bakshi movie was released) coupled with the straightforward animation (as opposed to say Pixar style high end animation) it seems hard to believe that it couldn't be done...

Just a thought I've had for a number of years, now.