Of course, with the film ending at the midpoint of the story, there's a vast disappointment built in. If only John Hurt weren't too old to play Aragorn I love his voice. However, Gandalf is excellent, and most of the rest of the voicework is excellent.

It's also annoying that Boromir is a bloody stage viking, and irritable from the start. If only the dratted writers had managed to remember Saruman's name-he's frequently referred to as Aruman, a decision probably made to make him more distinct from similarly-named Sauron it took me a second viewing before I was certain I hadn't misheard it. Nothing critical is truly lost here, and although I have minor quibbles about some of the changes, I'm generally pretty happy with it.

In film, you trade that for visuals and sound that convey the same elements in a different way. In books you have room to include the references to the larger world of the Elves and Middle-Earth's vast history. We compress a few characters, such as revising Legolas as one of Elrond's household and an old friend of Aragorn's, but that's a rather wise decision for film. We lose little bits here and there, minor details such as the Old Forest and Tom Bombadil, the Gaffer and the Sackville-Bagginses. As for the adaptation of the story, it's actually quite good. The same technique that makes wraiths spooky and otherworldly doesn't fare so well in the Prancing Pony. However, it is so drastically overused-possibly as a money-saving technique-that it detracts from the overall effect. The much-maligned rotoscoping actually works pretty well, especially with the Ringwraiths, and the opening narration. It gets major points for innovative and careful camera work, applying cinematic techniques with relative success. As an animated film from 1978, this is pretty good-generally well above the standard of the days when Disney hadn't done anything good in years (and Tolkien cared little for Disney anyway).

Lord of the rings 1977 gollum