May the hair on his toes never fall off!

Since I missed last weeks article due to neglect and lord of the rings online, this week I've decided to do two movies. One has been a favorite since childhood the other I hadn't seen until recently but they're both connected. The first I had seen on the Disney channel and that in it's self makes this movie different than other movies I've "showcased" I tend to mention obscure or violent movies. But this is far from that. This movie was my first introduction in to what would become one of my favorite, if not my favorite book. I've also already posted a clip of this movie before. The animated Hobbit from 1977 is one of my favorite animated movies. It has that Rank-Bass charm and flare that I love. Even with the Peter Jackson incarnation of middle earth it's hard for me not to picture middle earth as drawn by Rankin-Bass. Since this was a made for tv movie, as far as I know there's no trailer. As cheesy as the music was in this movie, it's fucking awesome.

I've already posted one of my favorite scenes a month or so ago and it's actually easier to find the whole movie on youtube rather than specific scenes.

The second movie is Ralph Bakshi's lord of the rings. Now this is a curious movie indeed. Since the 50's people had been trying to make the lord of the rings in to a movie, including John Boorman of Deliverance, Zardoz and Excalibur fame though his version sounded um fucking crazy. The Beatles even were trying to get their hands on the rights to make the movie but scripting problems made it fall through. Bakshi finally talked a production company in to allowing him to do it, stating he could do it much better in animation. That in it's self caused a lot of uproar because most people don't think the lord of the rings should be animated. But Bakshi, he did what he's famous for, and he rotoscoped. I'm a big Bakshi fan even though I hate rotoscoping, but he can pull it off well in his animations. Lord of the rings is often hit or miss with it's rotoscoping, some scenes are amazing and the attention to detail is awe inspiring, sometimes it's terrible especially the finally scene. But, that scene was paid for out of his own pocket due to under funding by the company. Also, this movie is only half of the entire story, yeah it kind of sucks in that aspect. He wanted dearly to do three movies, but the company wanted him to do one. He talked them in to allowing him to do two. The company also refused title the movie Lord of the rings part 1 as they felt no one would pay to see only half of the story. But because of this alot of people thought they were coming in to the theatre seeing the whole story and leaving pissed as hell. Bakshi just didn't have it in him to finish the other half with the company shitting all over his project and the animation it's self draining him. I really wish he would have been able to finish the story. This film atcually introduced Peter Jackson to the lord of the rings and he homaged some scenes from Bakshi's version in the live action movie, Proudfeet anyone? So as bizarre and weird this version is sometimes, without it Jackson's version would never have been made. I feel it's an awesome addition to the Tolkien media. Though a lot of people would disagree and tell me I'm a fucking idiot for feeling that way. I could also point out to those people that they probably don't know who the fuck Tom Bombadil is, though he wasn't in this version either.
This is the only trailer I can find, kind of goofy

This movie is also hard to find clips of, it's easier just to find the whole damn movie. Most people take clips and put the Jackson audio over it and I dunno how I feel about that.
This clip though I feel shows the good and the bad of this movie animation wise. Also if you're familiar with the books and wondered why Jackson changed this part of it in the movie, he was string influenced by this scene.

and then last but not least this