Login
My oh my, what could have been when it comes to an animated version of The Lord of the Rings. Has a fantasy property been more perfectly suited to the medium than J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic? It’s a pity that the film which we were dealt is so inept on every conceivable level.
Rumor has it that Walt Disney sought the rights to the property, and just think what his team of animators could have accomplished! With their hyper-detailed scenery and exhaustively detailed character work, Disney could have done the property some justice visually. Instead what we have is a film in which the environs and characters never truly interact with one another. The backgrounds remain still as the wind blows, or snow falls, or any kind of natural occurrence happens, but our characters interact with it. This disconnect becomes more and more distracting as time wears on.
And while other animated films make a point to explore and project their characters inner psychological motivations and emotions, this film is perfectly fine with rendering Frodo a child-like eunuch who is incorruptible and unbelievably dull. In fact, all the hobbits are reduced and simplified to childish ciphers from the more complicated and richly developed originals. The wonder and awe they feel while gazing upon Lothlorien is never felt. The splendid majesty of the Ents is never given full life since the hobbits vacantly clap their hands that the walking/talking tree doesn’t like Orcs. Not only are these characters never given a fully realized animated emotional life, but they’re underwritten and poorly conceived.
The static backgrounds could have been forgiven if some visual invention had been shown in the character details and animations, but they lack any distinct weight or grace of movement. They move along like rubbery dolls in the frame never co-existing successfully with their environments or each other. Think of the way that Treebeard holds Merry and Pippin in his hands but we never really see them in his hands when we see him walking in three-fourths view, but when we see a close-up of his hands there they are sitting and bouncing like small children being told a story that they love.
And the constant use of rotoscoping, if it can really be called that in this film, is a major distraction. Not only does it stick out loudly, but it’s an artistic choice that makes no true sense. It’s overused and never gels with the hand-drawn characters. The Orcs are men in suits who have been filmed in live action, drawn over frame-by-frame, and forced to interact with hand-drawn hobbits. The effect never successfully comes off. It’s always obviously two types of film-making techniques clashing together very loudly. One could say that about the entire film.
With the notable exception of the prologue, which sees black figures moving against a red background and acting out the forging of the ring, Gollum’s origin, and some of the events of The Hobbit before transplanting us in the Shire during Bilbo’s party, none of the film is a successful translation or adaptation of the source material. There’s about two, or more, different kinds of films fighting for dominance. By the end, it’s the audience that they’ve beaten.
