Production on the second part never commenced as Bakshi cited the troublesome, lengthy production of the 1978 The Lord of the Rings and his realized disinterest in adapting another individual’s narrative. From the results of this blessing emerged a 133-minute animated epic film covering The Fellowship of the Ring and the first half of The Two Towers Bakshi intended to entitle the film The Lord of the Rings Part 1, but distributors United Artists (UA) dissuaded him. But Tolkien’s daughter, Priscilla, contacted Bakshi, telling him how much she enjoyed Wizards (1977) and endowed Bakshi’s project with the Tolkien estate’s blessing. That impossibility first became reality thanks to the vision of animaton director Ralph Bakshi – not, as commonly believed, by Peter Jackson.īakshi, today most famous/infamous for directing Fritz the Cat (1972) – the first animated feature ever to receive an X rating in the United States – probably would have been rejected by Tolkien without hesitation if he was still alive.

Tolkien passed away in 1973 and, with the collapse of Boorman’s plan to adapt all three novels into one film, any adaptation of Tolkien’s Middle-earth epic seemed an impossibility for the time being. Two attempts by director John Boorman and one by The Beatles (who wanted Stanley Kubrick to direct their version I mean, could you imagine John Lennon as Gollum, Paul McCartney as Frodo, George Harrison as Gandalf, and Ringo Starr as Sam?) failed and probably would both have been rejected by Tolkien – who apparently loathed The Beatles and anything rock-and-roll.

Tolkien’s final product, to everyone in Hollywood who dreamed of a possible adaptation to the trilogy, was considered unfilmable.

Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy reflects the twelve years Tolkien spent to write it.

Gollum lord of the rings animated