Animation Defenestration: The one that put Tolkien on TV

 

 

Title: Return of the King

What Year?: 1979 (copyright)/ 1980 (broadcast date)

Classification: Runnerup/ Weird Sequel

Rating: What The Hell??? (2/4)

 

I have often commented how much randomness goes into my movie reviews, especially in the fairly frequent event that my original plans go completely and hilariously wrong. How it happens varies. Most often, I don’t get to something within the timeframe set by my already flexible “rules”. Sometimes, a movie just doesn’t give me the right material to work with, at least without further thought. And now and then, I have a movie that goes back in the “maybe” pile simply because I’m not sure where it goes among my various features. This time around, I have a trifecta, one movie that fell through and another that I figured on taking more time to evaluate, and because I run by OCD or not at all, I’m reviewing the latter. I present Return of the King, an animated fantasy TV movie based on the Lord of the Rings, and of all the things you wouldn’t expect, you can start with an orc musical number.

Our story begins with our familiar Hobbit heroes recounting the destruction of the One Ring by Nine-Fingered Frodo in the courts of the elves. We then get dropped right into the final act, with Frodo captured by the orcs, Sam in possession of the Ring, and Merry and Pippin in the midst of the war between the free kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan and the vast armies of Sauron and his general the Witch King. Sam makes a perilous decision to free Frodo before continuing their journey to destroy the Ring, while the hobbits join the climactic battle at the gates of Minas Tirith. Of course, the good guys win, for the time being, but Frodo and Sam must still evade the orcs and Gollum to reach Mount Doom, and the greatest threat of all is the corrupting power of the Ring!

The Return of the King was an animated fantasy TV movie by Rankin Bass, based on the book and series by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was presented by Rankin Bass as a planned follow-up to the earlier TV movie The Hobbit, aired in 1977 by NBC. The release of the second film was challenged in court by the makers of Ralph Bakshi’s 1978  Lord of the Rings, possibly based in part on suspicions that it was instead intended as an unauthorized sequel to that film. Orson Bean returned as the voice of Bilbo and also Frodo, with John Huston as Gandalf and Roddy McDowall (see The Black Hole) as Sam. The film originally aired in May 1980 on ABC. It is believed to have been first released on VHS in 1991. In some cases, the Rankin Bass films have been sold and promoted as a “trilogy” with Bakshi’s film, though both parties had publicly agreed that their works were independent and otherwise unrelated. Return of the King is currently available on disc, but not in digital formats.

For my experiences, this is a movie I first encountered as a tape on video store shelves that I never picked up. At that point, I had seen Bakshi’s LotR (dear Logos, Bakshi) and knew of The Hobbit, and with that context in mind, it really didn’t seem that interesting. I picked up the trail again when I started reviewing both animated and live-action films from the late ‘70s to mid-80s boomlet (see The Black Cauldron, Willow, Dragonslayer, etc, etc). Once I looked up a few clips, I very quickly admitted that I would be reviewing this one sooner or later, but I held out quite a while to see if I could get out of paying to buy a disc. I finally ordered it with bonus points in the last week, while I already had other things on my plate. Once I watched it, I knew I had the winner… sort of.

Moving forward, the one thing that stands out from the beginning right to the end is that this movie manages to come closer to Tolkien’s storytelling style than any other adaptation that has come to my attention. What’s debatable, unfortunately, is whether this is entirely a good thing. The movie bombards the viewer with the same songs, retold tales and in-universe mythology you would get in the books, and it works in long stretches. It’s a bit thin to sustain the story, however, especially with so much of trilogy told in flashbacks and passing references if at all. (And how did we never get an animated Shelob???) Then there are choices that are just odd. This shows especially in the efforts to portray the influence of the Ring, which can at least be said to “work”. Even more problematic are the Nazgul, a common denominator with the Bakshi version. Here, the Witch King is faithful to Tolkien’s vision, if you can get past the inexplicable voicework, but the rest of the crew are incompatible and simply goofy. In my further opinion, the Pegasus-like steeds we see most of the time are better than the pterosaur monster used in the big battle.

Meanwhile, what really keeps the movie a mixed bag is the uneven use and development of the characters. There’s little to complain about with Sam and Frodo, who remain the focus of the story. Gollum is quite possibly the most compelling and flat-out best of all, as pitiful yet treacherous in his brief appearances as Serkis’ incarnation was over two movies. There’s also more attention given to some of the lesser villains, like the Watchers and the Mouth of Sauron. Far too many others, however, only appear because key events require them, egregiously Eowyn, who as far as I can tell gets absolutely no screen time before the showdown with the Witch King. Even Merry and Pippin don’t have much of an arc beyond that of bystanders. (Then there’s the easy joke when they complain about stench…) At the most fundamental level, this simply won’t make any sense if you haven’t read the books, an issue that shows especially in the opening escape from Cirith Ungol.

With that said, the “one scene” is truly the one to rule them all, and it somehow failed to come to my attention before I watched the whole thing all the way through. While Frodo and Sam are resting after their breakout, a column of orcs pass by and soon pick them up as presumed deserters. Up to this point, these have already been an intriguing take on the race, which as per my previous rants are almost always misunderstood. Here, there is at least some balance. They don’t look too threatening, or even much bigger than the hobbits, yet there are glimpses of the intelligence and intrigues manifested in the book. Now, they are heard singing a gloomy marching song that quickly becomes catchy. It practically puts them in a sympathetic light as they complain about being forced to march to war whether they like it or not, with the surreal chorus, “Where there’s a whip, there’s a way!” We get a further sense of the orcs’ point of view when the group runs into a column of Sauron’s human allies, who show more contempt for them than their enemies ever do. It all goes downhill from there, without diminishing the buildup. It’s an intriguing scene done well, which the movie could certainly have used more of.

In closing, this is one time I don’t feel a need to comment on the rating, This was easily among the most improbable experiments of the vintage fantasy wave, and by any standard the most ill-advised. What gets it above the lowest rating is that, for all its limitations, it still succeeds far more than it has any right to. What keeps it from going much higher is the unavoidable sense of disappointment that this wasn’t developed into a full treatment of the series. The real bottom line for both versions of the books is that they were films for the wrong time. The fantasy wave of the time was driven by interest from studios more than success with audiences, and one more movie wasn’t going to change that. What we have left is a film to appreciate for what it is, which is by all means good enough. And with that, I’m done.