Question About Animated RETURN OF THE KING DVD Menu (not the one you're expecting!) (1 Viewer)

[Travis Brashear]

I've searched the archives for word of this and, while I've found a good deal of discussion about the fact that the RETURN OF THE KING DVD features the identical chapter listing as the one found on the animated LORD OF THE RINGS disc, I haven't located any mention of my issue, which is this: does the main menu for RETURN OF THE KING play any background music, as can be found on the menus for THE HOBBIT and LotR? My RotK menu is silent, which is rather incongruous with the other two titles' menus and, small issue though it admittedly is, it concerns me that this means that I may have a defective disc. Can anyone confirm whether or not their RotK DVD plays music over the main menu? Thanks in advance...

 

[Michael Fennessy]

This may sound stupid, but are you from the future?
Mike

 

[Travis Brashear]

It does sound stupid because, if I gather correctly, you believe I refer to New Line's live-action LORD OF THE RINGS films directed by Peter Jackson, of which only the first chapter has seen release to date. However, I made it quite clear I was referring to Warner Bros.' ANIMATED versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's tales, released in the late 1970s. If you weren't aware of these cartoons, at least the mention of THE HOBBIT should have tipped you off to the fact that I wasn't referring to the new live-actions films, which only deal with the LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy proper. No biggie, though...so can anyone else legitimately help, please?

 

[JeffMuller]

Otherwise, how is the ROTK disc? I don't think I ever even saw the original. From the cover, it's certainly not animation like LOTR.

 

[SeanMc]

No the menu has no background music

 

[Travis Brashear]

I grew up with the Rankin/Bass productions of THE HOBBIT and THE RETURN OF THE KING, and still hold them close to my heart, even though they are a little sugar-coated, and understandably gloss over much of the dense material in the books with their truncated runtimes. Conversely, though, I find that the artistic vision of these little forgotten gems actually exceeds Peter Jackson's fine live action versions upon occasion--take note, no matter how cool Jackson's vision of Gollum proves to be in THE TWO TOWERS, it won't begin to touch the ultimate bad-assosity ( ) of the Rankin/Bass realization, voiced by Brother Theodore in a timbre which still raises the hackles on the back of my neck!--and though the animation is less avant garde than 1978's THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I actually consider it more unique and imaginative in design.
Both of the DVDs are bare-bones, but as an owner of the previous hideous VHS versions, they are still quite nice. The prints (especially for THE HOBBIT) are occasionally dirty, and the color and contrast can sometimes waver, but for forgotten, 25 year-old cartoons, what we get is more than adequate and sometimes, like in comparing how the DVD of RETURN OF THE KING perfectly handles the opening sequence of saturated reds vs. the abhorrently muddied VHS, even a bit spectacular. Worth your time, if you're still in touch with your inner child...

 

[Travis Brashear]

SeanMc...hmm, how strange...but thanks--good to know...

 

[jeff lam]

I thought the whole trilogy was on the animated LOTR. Was ROTK a seperate disc? I know the Hobbit was seperate but I thought The animated LOTR had all three chapters in the one 2hr animated feature. I have not seen it but plan to soon. Just wondering if I will be missing something by just watching the animated LOTR by itself.

 

[Travis Brashear]

I just found this from the RETURN OF THE KING review at DVDAngle:
The Return Of The King features the same run of the mill interface as the previous two DVD's. The main menu features the cover art of the box set to orchestral score music, but the rest of the menus are totally silent, with no animation or transitions present anywhere.
Well, this pretty well flies in the face of SeanMc's and my observations!

I sure would like to get to the bottom of this...any other confirmations/refutations...?
Jeff, no, the Bakshi animated LORD OF THE RINGS only covers THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and about half of THE TWO TOWERS. A couple of years later, THE HOBBIT's creative team of Rankin/Bass returned to finish up the saga, inexplicably picking up at the start of the novel to RETURN OF THE KING, rather than finishing up with the sequences from THE TWO TOWERS Bakshi was unable to complete, making for a rather jarring leap from one film to the other...

 

[Jesse Skeen]

My CED videodisc of this doesn't even HAVE a main menu!

 

[Sean Bryan]

Just wondering if I will be missing something by just watching the animated LOTR by itself.

If you DO watch it, you'll only be missing a good movie. No offense to those who like (eek!) the Bashki animated version, many (certainly not all) find it to be quite horrible.
It's actually an interesting example of how you can be truer to the original source material (in some parts) yet not come as close to capturing the "spirit" of the novels as a film that made more deviations, yet captured the tone and spirit of the novel (ie: Jackson's FOTR).
A gay, bumbling Sam?
Gandalf's constantly waving, crazy arms?
Aruman?
A native American Aragorn? (and a hideously ugly one at that)
Orc that looks like Sand people from Star Wars?
It had been a few years since I read The Lord of the Rings last fall and I was getting anxious for the new films, so I rented Bashki's LOTR. When I watched it, I had such a yucky, disappointed feeling. It was just bad. And boring! Yet, it followed the story I remembered relatively closely. Was this story just not as good a story as I remembered? Thankfully, I sat through Jackson's FOTR with a big smile on my face! But now when I think of Bashki's version, I just cringe.
Again, no offense to someone if they grew up watching this and liked it. But I just wanted to warn those who haven't seen it and were thinking of buying it. Do yourself a favor and RENT it first.

 

[Eric F]

Thank you Sean for adding a bash to a thread about DVD features. I happen to like all 3 of the animated DVDs, and while you might not, it gets very tiring when people criticize stuff all the time.

"A gay, bumbling Sam?"

You know this how, exactly? Did you ask him? Does he say he's gay? Did you talk to Bakshi about this?

"Gandalf's constantly waving, crazy arms?"

Didn't notice.

"Aruman?"

So what.

"A native American Aragorn? (and a hideously ugly one at that)"

And who's to say what color they were? Who's to say what any of them were except for Tolkien? Aragorn was not supposed to be the prettiest character in the novel, and the character is based loosely on Lancelot, who also was not supposed to be very good looking, but focused on inner strength. Remember that line about "feeleing foul and looking fair"?

Orc that looks like Sand people from Star Wars?

Your take on it again. None of these things detract from my enjoyment of the film.

 

[Travis Brashear]

...yes, yes, but about that menu again...

 

[Jeremy Conrad]

I love the Rankin/Bass productions.

The 1978 LOTR makes me physically ill when I watch it. I don't know why though.