Long before the widely known Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi ventured into The Lord of the Rings. We follow Frodo Baggins on his journey to Mount Doom to destroy the magic ring. This animated film covers the first part of The Lord of the Rings up to The Return of the King.

It was a hyper-ambitious project that caused quite a bit of controversy, partly due to a misguided marketing approach. As a result, Bakshi could never make parts 2 and 3. Nevertheless, the film received rave reviews from the press and grew into a dormant classic. Moreover, it served as inspiration for Peter Jackson, who famously made the film adaptation decades later. Some images are straight out of Bakshi’s animated film.

The film was made using the ‘rotoscopy’ technique. This involved reenacting the scenes with real actors first, after which these live-action images were converted to drawn images.