in the book, Sam was tempted by the Ring and his idea of power was filling Mordor with thick & beautiful gardens so that part of this adaptation is actually accurate.
@@carlbumpkin7963 The Peter Jackson films were actually fairly accurate in intertwining the story lines as they happened, instead of Tolkien's separating them out as individual books. They might have fudged things just a little, but overall it gives a reasonable timeline. As opposed to the Rankin/Bass version where Frodo puts on the ring, and he's in the mountain the entire time that it takes for the Battle of Pelennor Fields to end, the council, and the men of the west to travel to the black gate. A ridiculous amount of time!
The vision of a fecund Mordor was actually one of my favorite parts; it’s an interesting take on how the Ring uses the best parts of a person to corrupt them- the pieces of themselves of which they’re most proud, eg Sam’s ability to bring life to things.
Yes they did that right, he was not wearing the ring at the time but it was "calling out" to him to put it on and it showed him how he would be Samwise the Strong and defeat Sauron and make Mordor into a beautiful land full of flowers and beautiful trees. Sam resisted becuase he never had such ambitions and being a simple gardener was enough for him.
All the orc/goblin songs in these movies are deceptively metal. To this day I often get "Fifteen Birds In Five Fir Trees" stuck in my head at the oddest times.
As a child of the 70/80s, this movie (and the R&B Hobbit) was something we watched all the time. "Frodo of the Nine Fingers" and "Where there's a Whip" are fantastic songs and still pop in my head to this day (especially the latter). It's been a few years since I've watched these, it's time to bring out my DVDs and watch them again!
I'll give the Rankin-Bass movie this. They kept Frodo and Sam the focus and adapted parts of their story that Peter Jackson skipped. And I especially love the inclusion of the full confrontation with Gollum on the side of the mountain: Frodo using the Ring to intimidate Gollum and possibly "curse" him to his fate in the fire, and Sam staying behind with the sword while Gollum says his final words. Gollum pleading for pity and his speech about turning into dust is one of the most emotional moments of the book for me. It's like he's given one last chance to reform and it's a heartbreaking moment even though he does still try to get the Ring one more time.
Yep. One of the things that I thought Peter Jackson’s movie lost and that Rankin and Bass did well was tell the story of the relationship between Frodo and Samwise. The Frodo and Sam relationship and how they related to Gollum is my favorite part of the Lord of the Rings.
Animation was done by a Japanese company named Topcraft. When Rankin Bass decided to close, Topcraft's artists were w/o a job so they went and joined a new up company starting up called Studio Ghibli.
As far as it not actually being 2 hours long, it's important to remember that both this and The Hobbit were tv specials. So they were aired in a 2-hour time slot, including commercial breaks.
Yes! I was thinking that too when he pointed that out. The films themselves were 95 ish minutes but because of commercials, he thought of them as "two hour films" as that's how they were sold into their time slots.
That "Frodo of the 9 fingers..." song, to this day, is an earworm that still pops randomly into my head from time to time. I also recall being obsessed with Gollum's design in this and The Hobbit. 😅
This was probably one of my first experiences with The Lord of the Rings or at least this part of the story. "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" was often sung in my family.
I agree. This was the reason I read the books for the first time at 10 years old. We sang "Whip" all the time in our house. And Ian McKellen may be how Gandalf looks, but John Huston will always be how Gandalf sounds. (So much so that I once had to turn off a WWII documentary Huston was narrating because he sounded like Gandalf.)
In my opinion, the music in this version makes it unforgettable. Namely the "Where there's a Whip, there's a way" song. I also like how Sam turns the army of men against the orcs, really shows off the Hobbit wiliness.
I am only three minutes into your video, but I can tell you that I did not find this version forgettable. For the rest of my life, I remember the song, “where there’s a whip there’s a Way.” and I remembered Sam chasing the orcs up the stairs of Cirith Ungol. And I definitely remembered Frodo standing on the edge in the volcano. I guess I would say that this movie formed my early views as to what Hobbits and orcs looked like.
The Rankin & Bass version of The Hobbit and Return of the King, more than anything else, were at the root of my love for Tolkien’s work, and fantasy in general. When we were children, this is what my friends, brother, and I were playing in the backyard, as we had sword fights with sticks and made cloaks out of bath towels. I LOVE these renditions of Tolkien’s work, even if that is largely due to nostalgia. These may not be the “best” adaptations, but they ARE extremely accessible to young children, and they can help plant seeds that eventually grow into a love for fantasy as an adult. I will defend the Rankin & Bass versions with my dying breath. 🗡️🛡️
This movie is a guilty pleasure for me. I recognize that it has flaws (the over-simplified story, the exposition dumps, the lack of Legolas and Gimli, the Witch-king's Skeletor voice). But I love it anyway. This and the Rankin-Bass Hobbit were my introduction to Tolkien and they started a life-long obsession. I find these movies charming. I like the art style and the design choices and I dig the folksy Glenn Yarbrough music. "Where There's a Whip" is an absolute banger. Since I saw the cartoons before reading the books, many of the plot points were spoiled for me. When I finally read LOTR, I knew that Gandalf would come back from the dead, how the Ring would be destroyed, that Aragorn would be king, etc. I knew the beginning of the story and the end but had no idea about the middle (didn't see Bakshi's LOTR until years later). It was a strange way to experience the books for the first time but I had fun filling in the missing pieces.
I did watch this as a kid. Even then I knew it didn't really do justice to the material, but it was fun all the same. I even did the classic 80's kid thing where I recorded it on VHS and then recorded some of the audio (songs) onto a cassette tape with a portable recorder. Watching you crack up at the 'it's easier not to try' was hilarious!
I'll be honest, that duel between Eowyn and The Witch King was THE BEST fantasy duel I ever watched in my childhood. Also those movies gave me nightmares about camping out in the mountains...
Yes, the impression of Eowyn as a lady-warrior was done excellent here. This cartoon stumbled at the recap of all the previous events, but it has some great parts nevertheless.
While I wouldn't recommend this to someone new to LOTR, the film works well as a visual supplement for those already familiar with the story. I really appreciated getting to see a visual depiction of Minas Tirith, Orodruin, etc. (Also, the Grond sequence--which is one of my favorites from the book--is still better than Jackson's version.)
Yeah, even though they skipped directly to ROTK, I supplemented the story from the LOTR trilogy, so it didn't feel like I was missing anything, and it almost felt like it added even more stuff to the story I already knew.
I might disagree. Maybe nowadays, possibly, but the rankin/bass films were my introduction to Tolkien and I rewatched them many times and still sing the songs.
Don't be to hard on this movie. As a kid in 1980 when it came out It was awesome. I still sing "Frodo of the Nine fingers and the ring of doom", and "Where's there's a whip, there's a way, we don't wanna go to war today", to myself from time to time. And I still like it when the Witch King says, "No man may hinder me" instead of no man can kill me and to this day I think if Jackson had used that line in the movies it would have been better. It and the animated Hobbit introduced me to the story and made me want to read the books.
I watched this as a kid (repeatedly, ad infinitum) - it was my very first introduction to Lord of the Rings - and I have deeply fond memories of it. I still find myself singing the songs. I still remember the first time I saw Frodo put on the ring instead of throwing it into the caldera of Doom. It hit so hard, that utter despair. That same moment in the Peter Jackson movie fails to have the emotional weight of my memory of that scene in this version. The other moment I remember best from this film is Eowyn's monologue to the witch king before she slew him. I loved that so much, could quote it from memory. She became a huge heroine to me. I remember watching Peter Jackson's version, in which they left out the monologue in favor of her simply saying "I am no man." And fair enough, she was tired by then. But I missed the heft of the language that I first learned from Rankin and Bass, quoted straight from the book.
The voice of Merry is Casey Kasem, who was also the voice of Shaggy in the original Scoobie Doo cartoon and the host of the “American Top Forty” radio show.
From what I remember, it premiered on TV on a Sunday night. The next day, my only other nerd friend and I hung out on the playground raving about it. And, as one would expect from elementary schoolers, chanting "where there's a whip, there's a way!" throughout recess for the next several weeks. Upon reaching our twenties we formed a band. We are playing next Saturday. You two should come out. I'll put you on the guest list.
When I was a kid, my mom got the VHS for this from the library. When it got to "Where there's a whip, there's a way" I rewound like 10 times and just rewatched it over and over and over
As a child when these came out, I did watch the Rankin Bass and Ralph Bakshi animations as a trilogy and it made sense as a continuing story before I read the books. I loved the song “Where there’s a whip, there’s a way“. The voice cast included the legendary Paul Frees, Casey Kasem and John Stephenson (not Skeletor but voiced characters from The Transformers, GI Joe and The Flintsones).
If only Peter Jackson would have begun the LOTR trilogy with Bilbo, Sam, Gandalf, and Elrond teasing Frodo about his missing ring finger, instead of Galadriel's blabbering.
I remember seeing this as a kid when it came out and then again later in high school. I've always loved that the Witch King of Angmar sounds like a Scooby-Doo villain and that Orson Bean voices both Bilbo and Frodo. My favorite voice actors are John Huston as Gandalf and Casey Kasem as Merry.
Regarding the whole 'It's so easy not to try' thing: I think it's a reference to an early part of Frodo's arc where he doesn't really want to go on the quest at all if he can avoid it. Gandalf and later Elrond make it very clear that, should Frodo take on the quest, the odds will be almost insurmountably stacked against him and all the forces of good, and he will have to endure unspeakable hardship before the end. The lyrics of "It's so easy not to try" speak to how easy it would have been for Frodo to adopt the attitude of his fellow Hobbits that the problems of the world are far away and not his concern, and once he knew how dangerous failure would be, how easy it would have been for him to just sit back and let somebody else solve the problem of the Ring. Admittedly the lyrics aren't really explicit, but in the context of the Lord of the Rings, I always understood them to say "It was the 'easy option' for Frodo to NOT attempt this dangerous mission, but he chose to attempt it anyway'" and that therein lies the nobility of his character. (Hope that made sense!)
Watched it. Forgot about it. Had a reoccurring dream about 9 fingers and a frog. A friend said “Sounds like LOTR”! Gave me the book and the next 35 years I have been a huge fan.
In the mid 1980's TBS aired the Rankin & Bass Hobbit followed by this every Thanksgiving for a few years. They became somewhat of a family tradition, wherein my brother and I would watch The Hobbit and part of ROTK until we left to go to one of our grandparents houses for Thanksgiving dinner. That yearly tradition is the reason I first read The Hobbit when I was 8, without Rankin and Bass I don't know if I would have found my way to Tolkien - or at least wouldn't have found my way to his works as early as I did.
My dad's appreciation for LOTR infected my family. We were read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy yearly (and Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain were my mother's fantasy of choice were read to us with equal love). We watched the Rankin Bass/ Bakshi "trilogy" frequently, as it was a main pick to put on a VHS while doing summer chores (dusting and wiping and lemon pledging all of the shelves and books in the den-library tooks DAAAAAAYS).
Awwwwwww yeah. Raised on the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Prydain. And of course, CS Lewis's Narnia series, John Bellair's The House With a Clock in its Walls, and Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series. My mom read some of those to me before I could read, and before long, I was reading those (and others) to her, particularly during long car rides. It was like books on tape, but I was the tape.
On the 2 hour/97 minute discrepancy: I am 95% sure this was made as a TV movie (I remember seeing it as an ABC Sunday Night Movie), so it's probably a 2 hour movie with commercials when it aired. I have fond memories of this from my childhood, and I have both this and the Rankin-Bass The Hobbit on DVD, and if I remember correctly I bought at least one of them at a nearby supermarket, of all places. And "Where There's a Whip There's a Way" is a great song.
This is one of those movies that would hold tremendous nostalgia for a certain generation. Before Peter Jackson's movies, this and the Bakshi LOTR were basically all that we had, so we held on to it tightly.
I remember watching this and Flight of Dragons in the local library as a child because my family couldn't afford a VCR, to this day if I smell an old book I hear the music from these movies in my mind!
The amount of times I have started singing the "Where theres a whip, theres an way" song from this movie to only have people including my wife stare at me like Im crazy is countless. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Bakshi adapted the first half so they were told to finish it, but as a sequel to the hobbit which is a different style and they start where the book starts so it doesn’t really make sense.
I actually really like Sam's design in this. That cap he has and the flowing cape does make him out to be a touch heroic, it also helps that his face doesn't look too exaggerated. But I guess as they say, the clothes make the man, or in this case, the Hobbit. I also really enjoy that they put in Frodo tapping into Ring-Magic against Gollum, even if the effect used was a little... lacking.
I was 10 when this came out & I remember it fondly. If I watched it all today I know I’d be much closer to your opinion. Still love the ‘where there’s a whip…’ song.
I loved a the music it is one of those old nostalgia movies. Don't remember it well but 30 something years later and I still find myself humming the toons especially there's a whip there's a way and Frodonof the nine fingers.
When Warner Bros released the animated Hobbit movies on DVD, they packaged them like a trilogy, complete with matching box art. Heck they even came in a box set.
Rankin and Bass, both The Hobbit and The Return of the King, was my introduction to Tolkien, and as a small child I loved the movies. Also, some of the things you comment on are things that were more faithful to the books than Peter Jackson movies were, such as the inclusion of the Watchers, the Temptation of Samwise, and the longer version of the dialogue with Gollum on Mount Doom.
"Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" is burnt into my memory from my childhood back when we watched this on TV in 1980. I think it was spring, and just before school ended.
I can't believe you guys just skipped over the most popular bit from this classic: "Where there's a whip, there's a way'. The Internets love this song!
I was born in '81 and remember watching The Hobbit on TV around certain holidays. Years later, when I was about 8 or 9, I watched The Return of the King on those same channels and was just completely lost, had no idea what was going on, and didn't understand why the tone was so much different than The Hobbit. The songs stuck with me, though. I joke with my wife every now and then about Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of DOOM!, and Where There's Whip is just a banger.
I used to have this one on VHS and I watched it a lot. My second favorite adaptation after the Peter Jackson trilogy. Honestly I almost like the moment of Frodo's failure better in this than in the PJ version. Although I do feel like it is only worth watching if you already are familiar with the story leading up to it.
I hope you do the extended versions of The Hobbit trilogy when you cover them. They're not just more interesting scenes but due to the troubled nature of the production, the extended versions are really the more complete films, with many key scenes needing to be cut because they weren't ready for the theatrical release but could be included in the extended version.
@@JonathanRossRogers Have you tried fan edits? On that I really like by Cardinalwest I think it was edits it into one movie that focuses much more on Bilbo. I actually watch that one before I rewatch LotR because I found it so good.
When this movie came out I had already read lotr and the hobbit several times I re-read them every year for a while I was busy adulting, working the evening shift, and missed this. I didn't really think it would be very good. Now I think I need to watch just to hear the killer songs! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
"If you're traumatized just don't think about it!" Cool pond there! I'd absolutely love to see a followup to see what you do with it. In regards to the Hobbit films you could do recaps and analyses that don't rely on clips, which should most likely help with the matter of copyright. Also, daily reminder that it's so easy not to try.
"Can't fit that much story in two hours." "This was actually 97 minutes..." It was really made for TV, so it would be 2 hours with commercials (commercial breaks weren't as long in 1980, haha...) I saw it on TV and when it aired and they had these cool 5-second bumpers during commercial breaks which showed Mount Doom in the background with that deep "bell" toll that was sometimes used in the movie. It was a really cool effect that immediately put you back in the mood of the movie (after watching commercials). I was impressed, but I was also five. For some reason, I have a recollection of the commercial breaks in this movie (possibly because I saw it on TV a few times), and there were spots in this movie where there were hard commercial breaks, but the version that you saw in the clips in this video seemed to be reedited to have smooth dissolves in those parts. 5:11 "You only get to know the name of the film if you watched to this point!" That was also AFTER the first commercial break! I mean, you watched the prelude, then there was a commercial, and when you come back you finally get the title card. And this was made for TV too, they simply chose to do it that way. While I do absolutely, unironically love the soundtrack here, its actual use in the film is just overbearing. But I really love Glenn Yarbarough, especially having listened to him in the Fabulous Limelighters, one of the better 1960s folk music groups.
I watched The Hobbit in the 70s at an outdoor theatre. I loved it and the music so much. We were all so desperate to see more. This movie was the best we could get - and we loved it for every little thing it got right and forgave what it didn’t.
I am actually old enough for this to have been my first introduction to Tolkien. Was 8 when this aired as a "Christmas Eve special" (???) in 1980... then 2 years later, was given The Hobbit as a Christmas present. Got all the way up to Riddles in the Dark when Gollum shows up, and I'm like "Waaaait just a minute, waitaminute--!" Checked the front pages for the list of "other books by..." and found Return of the King. I had totally forgotten the cartoon up until that moment. But I think it's a testament to the strength of LOTR as a story that, even in this truncated form, that cartoon had really whetted my appetite, because from that point on I was OBSESSED with finishing The Hobbit and reading all of the sequels plus the Silmarillion. So all things considered, I'm happy this cartoon got made!
films are a whose who of famous fantasy actors! at 13:10 you can really tell that Casey Kasem did the voice of Merry. He was also the voice of Shaggy from Scooby Doo. John Huston (Maltese Falcon director) voiced Gandalf near perfectly! Brother Theodore as Gollum was definitely interesting; he always is. The Bakshi Film had John Hurt (Olivander) play Aragorn and Anthony Daniels (C3P0) as Legolas!
I like how the Rankin/Bass films and the Bakshi film make a strange trilogy that fallows the typical formula: first film establishment, second film improvement on the material, third film goes off the rails.
Whenever I see the 'Where there's a whip, there's a way' clip, I'm always struck by how non-caring Sam is towards Frodo, lol. Frodo says he can't go on, and Sam just says, "I'd rather be singing a good old hobbit song myself," completely ignoring Frodo's plight.
my siblings and I used to wear pots and pans for helmets, make cardboard armor armor and swords and march around the house singing "Where there's a whip there's a way!"
"Forgettable" works for me because I did see it when it was first broadcast (yeah, I'm old) and I have forgotten pretty much all of it. The only thing I remember is Gandalf suggesting that Hobbits will eventually get taller and intermarry with the Big Folk.
My father is someone who is obsessed with all things Tolkien. So, growing up, besides reading me "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" as my bedtime stories, he also showed me the animated "trilogy" (R & B's Hobbit and Return of the King, and Bakshi's Lord of the Rings), and eventually took a 6/7/8-year-old me yearly to the theater to watch Jackson's live-action adaptations when they first came out. As a kid, I remember not really liking/caring for the Bakshi adaptation and not really knowing why (it was probably all the rotoscoping), but I LOVED the Rankin and Bass adaptations. A lot of the time, I would watch R & B's "The Hobbit" and "The Return of the King" back to back with no problem. As a kid, even though the "Return of the King" skipped over a lot of plot/character details, I could still get into it and had a general idea of what was going on (even though my dad hadn't gotten to those parts of the books and Jackson's RotK hadn't come out yet). For me, the two things that I remember most, are the songs, which I still sing them to this day (now 28), and Sam facing off against the Watchers (which I remember being disappointed that Jackson's RotK didn't have). Overall, I'd say that, despite it's flaws, Rankin and Bass' Return of the King is a good adaptation if you're introducing a child to LotR. It has good animation, memorable songs, and a simplified story that a child can at least have a basic understanding of (although, I'd definitely show them the R & B's Hobbit first and then this movie). When I watch LotR now, I'll just watch Jackson's adaptations (except for the Hobbit, which I'll watch the Rankin and Bass' version) and I'll just listen to the songs/watch clips from Rankin and Bass' RotK off TH-cam when I feel like it.
Roddy McDowall is Sam, in this, also two hours refers to broadcast time. They had to have 20 to 30 minutes of commercials shoved in as it was originally shown on tv .
1986 aged 13, I was frustrated by the way the Bakshi LOTR movie just ended. On holiday in New York (from the UK), this came on in a hotel room when the rest of my family were asleep. For many years, no one I told about the "sequel to the LOTR movie" believed me, as it had literally zero exposure in the UK that I'm aware of.
The best line in R-B: ROTK is from Gandalf and it is not in the book. "Who causes the minutes to fall dead, adding up to no passing hour, bringing no change from day to night?"
in the book, Sam was tempted by the Ring and his idea of power was filling Mordor with thick & beautiful gardens so that part of this adaptation is actually accurate.
@@carlbumpkin7963 No, I think he jus put it on, got bit, and fell.
@@carlbumpkin7963 The Peter Jackson films were actually fairly accurate in intertwining the story lines as they happened, instead of Tolkien's separating them out as individual books. They might have fudged things just a little, but overall it gives a reasonable timeline. As opposed to the Rankin/Bass version where Frodo puts on the ring, and he's in the mountain the entire time that it takes for the Battle of Pelennor Fields to end, the council, and the men of the west to travel to the black gate. A ridiculous amount of time!
@@penultimateh766 No, in the books it was a good while before Sam found him.
The vision of a fecund Mordor was actually one of my favorite parts; it’s an interesting take on how the Ring uses the best parts of a person to corrupt them- the pieces of themselves of which they’re most proud, eg Sam’s ability to bring life to things.
Yes they did that right, he was not wearing the ring at the time but it was "calling out" to him to put it on and it showed him how he would be Samwise the Strong and defeat Sauron and make Mordor into a beautiful land full of flowers and beautiful trees.
Sam resisted becuase he never had such ambitions and being a simple gardener was enough for him.
Say what you want, Where there's a Whip there's a Way is still a banger.
All the orc/goblin songs in these movies are deceptively metal. To this day I often get "Fifteen Birds In Five Fir Trees" stuck in my head at the oddest times.
I saw this movie in a middle school classroom, and that song is the one thing I remember.
@@Tamlinearthly Both are total bangers.
Went and looked it up -- dang that's fantastic.
Definitely the greatest song ever recorded in the criminally under appreciated genre of Orc Disco.
As a child of the 70/80s, this movie (and the R&B Hobbit) was something we watched all the time. "Frodo of the Nine Fingers" and "Where there's a Whip" are fantastic songs and still pop in my head to this day (especially the latter). It's been a few years since I've watched these, it's time to bring out my DVDs and watch them again!
I'll give the Rankin-Bass movie this. They kept Frodo and Sam the focus and adapted parts of their story that Peter Jackson skipped. And I especially love the inclusion of the full confrontation with Gollum on the side of the mountain: Frodo using the Ring to intimidate Gollum and possibly "curse" him to his fate in the fire, and Sam staying behind with the sword while Gollum says his final words. Gollum pleading for pity and his speech about turning into dust is one of the most emotional moments of the book for me. It's like he's given one last chance to reform and it's a heartbreaking moment even though he does still try to get the Ring one more time.
Yep. One of the things that I thought Peter Jackson’s movie lost and that Rankin and Bass did well was tell the story of the relationship between Frodo and Samwise. The Frodo and Sam relationship and how they related to Gollum is my favorite part of the Lord of the Rings.
I will never forget "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" from this movie. Still sing that one when work assigns too much work.
"its so easy not to try" should totally become a meme for shit movies
Reading your name, now I wish we could get a musical version of the Wheel of Time!
Animation was done by a Japanese company named Topcraft. When Rankin Bass decided to close, Topcraft's artists were w/o a job so they went and joined a new up company starting up called Studio Ghibli.
As far as it not actually being 2 hours long, it's important to remember that both this and The Hobbit were tv specials. So they were aired in a 2-hour time slot, including commercial breaks.
Yes! I was thinking that too when he pointed that out. The films themselves were 95 ish minutes but because of commercials, he thought of them as "two hour films" as that's how they were sold into their time slots.
That "Frodo of the 9 fingers..." song, to this day, is an earworm that still pops randomly into my head from time to time. I also recall being obsessed with Gollum's design in this and The Hobbit. 😅
I have the same thing happen to me all the time...
Same, but it's an obnoxious remix. With a hype man, like Lill Wayne.
"Frodo of the 9 fingers (uh!) And the ring of doom (what!?! Yeahah!!!)
Same.
This was probably one of my first experiences with The Lord of the Rings or at least this part of the story. "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" was often sung in my family.
I so love that song! The voice of Tony the Tiger sings in it.
That song was often sung in my family as well 😆
That song is so good, at least something is good in that thing
@@joepike1972Thurl Ravenscroft. He also sang the Grinch song.
I agree. This was the reason I read the books for the first time at 10 years old. We sang "Whip" all the time in our house. And Ian McKellen may be how Gandalf looks, but John Huston will always be how Gandalf sounds. (So much so that I once had to turn off a WWII documentary Huston was narrating because he sounded like Gandalf.)
For all its flaws, I love this version. The artwork, the songs, and the sense of dread they captured that other versions didn’t. Also “GROND!!!”
In my opinion, the music in this version makes it unforgettable. Namely the "Where there's a Whip, there's a way" song. I also like how Sam turns the army of men against the orcs, really shows off the Hobbit wiliness.
I am only three minutes into your video, but I can tell you that I did not find this version forgettable. For the rest of my life, I remember the song, “where there’s a whip there’s a Way.” and I remembered Sam chasing the orcs up the stairs of Cirith Ungol. And I definitely remembered Frodo standing on the edge in the volcano. I guess I would say that this movie formed my early views as to what Hobbits and orcs looked like.
Yeah, there's a lot of things you could call this adaptation but "forgettable" seems a weird choice.
I saw this as a child. It is a vintage gem.
The Rankin & Bass version of The Hobbit and Return of the King, more than anything else, were at the root of my love for Tolkien’s work, and fantasy in general. When we were children, this is what my friends, brother, and I were playing in the backyard, as we had sword fights with sticks and made cloaks out of bath towels.
I LOVE these renditions of Tolkien’s work, even if that is largely due to nostalgia.
These may not be the “best” adaptations, but they ARE extremely accessible to young children, and they can help plant seeds that eventually grow into a love for fantasy as an adult.
I will defend the Rankin & Bass versions with my dying breath. 🗡️🛡️
This movie is a guilty pleasure for me. I recognize that it has flaws (the over-simplified story, the exposition dumps, the lack of Legolas and Gimli, the Witch-king's Skeletor voice). But I love it anyway. This and the Rankin-Bass Hobbit were my introduction to Tolkien and they started a life-long obsession. I find these movies charming. I like the art style and the design choices and I dig the folksy Glenn Yarbrough music. "Where There's a Whip" is an absolute banger.
Since I saw the cartoons before reading the books, many of the plot points were spoiled for me. When I finally read LOTR, I knew that Gandalf would come back from the dead, how the Ring would be destroyed, that Aragorn would be king, etc. I knew the beginning of the story and the end but had no idea about the middle (didn't see Bakshi's LOTR until years later). It was a strange way to experience the books for the first time but I had fun filling in the missing pieces.
Alan Oppenheimer did Skeletor's voice in the He-Man cartoons, but the guy who did the Witch-King's voice was John Stevenson.
Wow, retired from making bombs to do voice work. Amazing.
I just checked IMDb and you're right. Here I always thought Alan did both.
I did watch this as a kid. Even then I knew it didn't really do justice to the material, but it was fun all the same. I even did the classic 80's kid thing where I recorded it on VHS and then recorded some of the audio (songs) onto a cassette tape with a portable recorder. Watching you crack up at the 'it's easier not to try' was hilarious!
A lot of those songs are on TH-cam. I've downloaded them all and they are on my playlist.
SAAAAME. Our VHS tape was in heavy rotation for decades, and it's beyond warped now.
When I was little, my dad read LOTR to me using different voices for all the characters, and Frodo was...Paul McCartney. No joke.
I'll be honest, that duel between Eowyn and The Witch King was THE BEST fantasy duel I ever watched in my childhood. Also those movies gave me nightmares about camping out in the mountains...
Yes, the impression of Eowyn as a lady-warrior was done excellent here. This cartoon stumbled at the recap of all the previous events, but it has some great parts nevertheless.
Saw this when it came out with my friends. The whip song still comes up so many years later .
Where there’s a whip, (crack) there’s a way!
It's been stuck in my head all week!
@@digitalhunter42we don’t wanna go to war today, but the lord of the lash says ‘nay, nay, nay!’”
I loved this cartoon in my youth. Especially songs like "Where there is a whip there is a way".
My mom would sing it when it was time for chores lol
(My Mom's super sweet,she just thought it was funny)
While I wouldn't recommend this to someone new to LOTR, the film works well as a visual supplement for those already familiar with the story. I really appreciated getting to see a visual depiction of Minas Tirith, Orodruin, etc. (Also, the Grond sequence--which is one of my favorites from the book--is still better than Jackson's version.)
Yeah, even though they skipped directly to ROTK, I supplemented the story from the LOTR trilogy, so it didn't feel like I was missing anything, and it almost felt like it added even more stuff to the story I already knew.
I might disagree. Maybe nowadays, possibly, but the rankin/bass films were my introduction to Tolkien and I rewatched them many times and still sing the songs.
I loved this as a kid, but I’d read the books multiple times before, so it was really just a visualization of a story I knew very well.
Don't be to hard on this movie. As a kid in 1980 when it came out It was awesome. I still sing "Frodo of the Nine fingers and the ring of doom", and "Where's there's a whip, there's a way, we don't wanna go to war today", to myself from time to time. And I still like it when the Witch King says, "No man may hinder me" instead of no man can kill me and to this day I think if Jackson had used that line in the movies it would have been better. It and the animated Hobbit introduced me to the story and made me want to read the books.
Well spoken!
I watched this as a kid (repeatedly, ad infinitum) - it was my very first introduction to Lord of the Rings - and I have deeply fond memories of it. I still find myself singing the songs. I still remember the first time I saw Frodo put on the ring instead of throwing it into the caldera of Doom. It hit so hard, that utter despair. That same moment in the Peter Jackson movie fails to have the emotional weight of my memory of that scene in this version. The other moment I remember best from this film is Eowyn's monologue to the witch king before she slew him. I loved that so much, could quote it from memory. She became a huge heroine to me. I remember watching Peter Jackson's version, in which they left out the monologue in favor of her simply saying "I am no man." And fair enough, she was tired by then. But I missed the heft of the language that I first learned from Rankin and Bass, quoted straight from the book.
Yes!
I had the freaking kids book on record version...
The voice of Merry is Casey Kasem, who was also the voice of Shaggy in the original Scoobie Doo cartoon and the host of the “American Top Forty” radio show.
Omg. That is Shaggy. I've seen this a million times and never clocked that.
The music and visuals are so amazing, that even under the bad dialogue, and changes, I still love this movie.
I have a soft spot for this film and I don't know why maybe it's the style ....but the songs are a banger.
It definitely had some charm!
I will never forget the duck sauce.
From what I remember, it premiered on TV on a Sunday night. The next day, my only other nerd friend and I hung out on the playground raving about it. And, as one would expect from elementary schoolers, chanting "where there's a whip, there's a way!" throughout recess for the next several weeks. Upon reaching our twenties we formed a band. We are playing next Saturday. You two should come out. I'll put you on the guest list.
I was totally wanting to hear, “Where there’s a whip, (*crack!*) there’s a way!” 😂 we would definitely sing that a lot in my family growing up, too
Grew up watching this along with the Hobbit. While I remember MUCH about the Hobbit, all I can really recall from this film...are the songs.
I had one of those little kid book and record things from this movie. By the way "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" freaking slaps.
When I was a kid, my mom got the VHS for this from the library. When it got to "Where there's a whip, there's a way" I rewound like 10 times and just rewatched it over and over and over
As a child when these came out, I did watch the Rankin Bass and Ralph Bakshi animations as a trilogy and it made sense as a continuing story before I read the books. I loved the song “Where there’s a whip, there’s a way“.
The voice cast included the legendary Paul Frees, Casey Kasem and John Stephenson (not Skeletor but voiced characters from The Transformers, GI Joe and The Flintsones).
If only Peter Jackson would have begun the LOTR trilogy with Bilbo, Sam, Gandalf, and Elrond teasing Frodo about his missing ring finger, instead of Galadriel's blabbering.
Many a Monday have I found myself trudging to work singing "Where there's a whip, there's a way..." []
I remember seeing this as a kid when it came out and then again later in high school. I've always loved that the Witch King of Angmar sounds like a Scooby-Doo villain and that Orson Bean voices both Bilbo and Frodo. My favorite voice actors are John Huston as Gandalf and Casey Kasem as Merry.
I can't tell if you're joking? You know the Witch King is voiced by the guy who voiced Scooby-Doo, right?
In my childhood, I used to hear Glenn Yarbrough as a member of The Limeliters back in the mid-'60s, so I have a deep love of his voice.
"The water!" You two are adorable.
“Saved by low self-esteem” I love you people.
Regarding the whole 'It's so easy not to try' thing:
I think it's a reference to an early part of Frodo's arc where he doesn't really want to go on the quest at all if he can avoid it. Gandalf and later Elrond make it very clear that, should Frodo take on the quest, the odds will be almost insurmountably stacked against him and all the forces of good, and he will have to endure unspeakable hardship before the end. The lyrics of "It's so easy not to try" speak to how easy it would have been for Frodo to adopt the attitude of his fellow Hobbits that the problems of the world are far away and not his concern, and once he knew how dangerous failure would be, how easy it would have been for him to just sit back and let somebody else solve the problem of the Ring.
Admittedly the lyrics aren't really explicit, but in the context of the Lord of the Rings, I always understood them to say "It was the 'easy option' for Frodo to NOT attempt this dangerous mission, but he chose to attempt it anyway'" and that therein lies the nobility of his character.
(Hope that made sense!)
Yesss, let's gooo!
The only LOTR that actually has the scene of the witch king riding into minas tirith in
Watched it. Forgot about it. Had a reoccurring dream about 9 fingers and a frog.
A friend said “Sounds like LOTR”!
Gave me the book and the next 35 years I have been a huge fan.
In the mid 1980's TBS aired the Rankin & Bass Hobbit followed by this every Thanksgiving for a few years. They became somewhat of a family tradition, wherein my brother and I would watch The Hobbit and part of ROTK until we left to go to one of our grandparents houses for Thanksgiving dinner. That yearly tradition is the reason I first read The Hobbit when I was 8, without Rankin and Bass I don't know if I would have found my way to Tolkien - or at least wouldn't have found my way to his works as early as I did.
Imagine being 13 and having seen the Ralph Bakshie version and waiting, waiting and waiting for the sequel and you get this.
That's BRUTAL
I love the song "Where there's a whip, there is a way" :)
My dad's appreciation for LOTR infected my family. We were read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy yearly (and Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain were my mother's fantasy of choice were read to us with equal love). We watched the Rankin Bass/ Bakshi "trilogy" frequently, as it was a main pick to put on a VHS while doing summer chores (dusting and wiping and lemon pledging all of the shelves and books in the den-library tooks DAAAAAAYS).
I don't know you, but I'm pretty sure I would have been all about hanging out with your family back in the day.
Awwwwwww yeah. Raised on the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Prydain. And of course, CS Lewis's Narnia series, John Bellair's The House With a Clock in its Walls, and
Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series. My mom read some of those to me before I could read, and before long, I was reading those (and others) to her, particularly during long car rides. It was like books on tape, but I was the tape.
On the 2 hour/97 minute discrepancy: I am 95% sure this was made as a TV movie (I remember seeing it as an ABC Sunday Night Movie), so it's probably a 2 hour movie with commercials when it aired.
I have fond memories of this from my childhood, and I have both this and the Rankin-Bass The Hobbit on DVD, and if I remember correctly I bought at least one of them at a nearby supermarket, of all places.
And "Where There's a Whip There's a Way" is a great song.
Thanks. Glad i found you and will be watching more of your work. Keep up the great work!
10:25 "I'm going to need that as my new Ring tone!" Good one!
This and The Hobbit made my childhood an enchanted one. Never knew it was disliked, hated or any of that. That just means more enjoyment for me!
Samwise's fantasies of what he could do with the Ring are very much present in the main text.
This is one of those movies that would hold tremendous nostalgia for a certain generation. Before Peter Jackson's movies, this and the Bakshi LOTR were basically all that we had, so we held on to it tightly.
I remember watching this and Flight of Dragons in the local library as a child because my family couldn't afford a VCR, to this day if I smell an old book I hear the music from these movies in my mind!
The amount of times I have started singing the "Where theres a whip, theres an way" song from this movie to only have people including my wife stare at me like Im crazy is countless. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
As I recall, the vulture-like statues are in the book, and so is Sam's vision of the mega-garden.
Bakshi adapted the first half so they were told to finish it, but as a sequel to the hobbit which is a different style and they start where the book starts so it doesn’t really make sense.
I actually really like Sam's design in this. That cap he has and the flowing cape does make him out to be a touch heroic, it also helps that his face doesn't look too exaggerated. But I guess as they say, the clothes make the man, or in this case, the Hobbit.
I also really enjoy that they put in Frodo tapping into Ring-Magic against Gollum, even if the effect used was a little... lacking.
I was 10 when this came out & I remember it fondly. If I watched it all today I know I’d be much closer to your opinion. Still love the ‘where there’s a whip…’ song.
I loved a the music it is one of those old nostalgia movies. Don't remember it well but 30 something years later and I still find myself humming the toons especially there's a whip there's a way and Frodonof the nine fingers.
The music, and art is amazing
All things considered, the "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" shows that not all orcs were not loyal to Sauron and wanted to just live their lives.
When Warner Bros released the animated Hobbit movies on DVD, they packaged them like a trilogy, complete with matching box art. Heck they even came in a box set.
Rankin and Bass, both The Hobbit and The Return of the King, was my introduction to Tolkien, and as a small child I loved the movies.
Also, some of the things you comment on are things that were more faithful to the books than Peter Jackson movies were, such as the inclusion of the Watchers, the Temptation of Samwise, and the longer version of the dialogue with Gollum on Mount Doom.
"Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" is burnt into my memory from my childhood back when we watched this on TV in 1980. I think it was spring, and just before school ended.
I can't believe you guys just skipped over the most popular bit from this classic: "Where there's a whip, there's a way'. The Internets love this song!
I saw this movie when I was little and the music stuck with me the most.
I was born in '81 and remember watching The Hobbit on TV around certain holidays. Years later, when I was about 8 or 9, I watched The Return of the King on those same channels and was just completely lost, had no idea what was going on, and didn't understand why the tone was so much different than The Hobbit. The songs stuck with me, though. I joke with my wife every now and then about Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of DOOM!, and Where There's Whip is just a banger.
I used to have this one on VHS and I watched it a lot. My second favorite adaptation after the Peter Jackson trilogy. Honestly I almost like the moment of Frodo's failure better in this than in the PJ version. Although I do feel like it is only worth watching if you already are familiar with the story leading up to it.
Where there's a whip *whip*
There's a way
I hope you do the extended versions of The Hobbit trilogy when you cover them.
They're not just more interesting scenes but due to the troubled nature of the production, the extended versions are really the more complete films, with many key scenes needing to be cut because they weren't ready for the theatrical release but could be included in the extended version.
Absolutely! Extended is my favorite
@@Jess_of_the_Shire I will buy the "Its So Easy Not To Try" tshirt if you decide to actually do that
If only there were a release that included those key scenes and excluded the unnecessary ones in the the theatrical releases.
@@JonathanRossRogers Have you tried fan edits? On that I really like by Cardinalwest I think it was edits it into one movie that focuses much more on Bilbo. I actually watch that one before I rewatch LotR because I found it so good.
@@hurinthalion5984 No, I hadn't paid much attention to the Hobbit movies after seeing them in the theater. Do you have a link?
When this movie came out I had already read lotr and the hobbit several times I re-read them every year for a while I was busy adulting, working the evening shift, and missed this. I didn't really think it would be very good. Now I think I need to watch just to hear the killer songs! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The music from this and the Rankin Bass Hobbit take me back to my childhood so hard that it hurts.
Glad you're back!!
It’s easy not to try! Would definitely buy the merch :) thanks for the arm pit shots!
Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch King is FAR superior in this version.
"If you're traumatized just don't think about it!"
Cool pond there! I'd absolutely love to see a followup to see what you do with it. In regards to the Hobbit films you could do recaps and analyses that don't rely on clips, which should most likely help with the matter of copyright. Also, daily reminder that it's so easy not to try.
You guys had me geeking
"Can't fit that much story in two hours."
"This was actually 97 minutes..."
It was really made for TV, so it would be 2 hours with commercials (commercial breaks weren't as long in 1980, haha...)
I saw it on TV and when it aired and they had these cool 5-second bumpers during commercial breaks which showed Mount Doom in the background with that deep "bell" toll that was sometimes used in the movie. It was a really cool effect that immediately put you back in the mood of the movie (after watching commercials). I was impressed, but I was also five.
For some reason, I have a recollection of the commercial breaks in this movie (possibly because I saw it on TV a few times), and there were spots in this movie where there were hard commercial breaks, but the version that you saw in the clips in this video seemed to be reedited to have smooth dissolves in those parts.
5:11 "You only get to know the name of the film if you watched to this point!" That was also AFTER the first commercial break! I mean, you watched the prelude, then there was a commercial, and when you come back you finally get the title card. And this was made for TV too, they simply chose to do it that way.
While I do absolutely, unironically love the soundtrack here, its actual use in the film is just overbearing. But I really love Glenn Yarbarough, especially having listened to him in the Fabulous Limelighters, one of the better 1960s folk music groups.
"Where There's A Whip, There's A Way" has become the standard song for Dark Lord Armies in my gaming group's D&D campaigns. :D
I watched The Hobbit in the 70s at an outdoor theatre. I loved it and the music so much. We were all so desperate to see more. This movie was the best we could get - and we loved it for every little thing it got right and forgave what it didn’t.
"it's so easy not to try" words to live by right there
I am actually old enough for this to have been my first introduction to Tolkien. Was 8 when this aired as a "Christmas Eve special" (???) in 1980... then 2 years later, was given The Hobbit as a Christmas present. Got all the way up to Riddles in the Dark when Gollum shows up, and I'm like "Waaaait just a minute, waitaminute--!" Checked the front pages for the list of "other books by..." and found Return of the King. I had totally forgotten the cartoon up until that moment. But I think it's a testament to the strength of LOTR as a story that, even in this truncated form, that cartoon had really whetted my appetite, because from that point on I was OBSESSED with finishing The Hobbit and reading all of the sequels plus the Silmarillion. So all things considered, I'm happy this cartoon got made!
The Orc whip song is an absolute banger
films are a whose who of famous fantasy actors!
at 13:10 you can really tell that Casey Kasem did the voice of Merry. He was also the voice of Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
John Huston (Maltese Falcon director) voiced Gandalf near perfectly!
Brother Theodore as Gollum was definitely interesting; he always is.
The Bakshi Film had John Hurt (Olivander) play Aragorn and Anthony Daniels (C3P0) as Legolas!
Hot take: Brother Theodore was a better Gollum than Andy Serkis. Best recital of The Time Riddle hands down.
Also the eowyn scene is pretty good.
I like how the Rankin/Bass films and the Bakshi film make a strange trilogy that fallows the typical formula: first film establishment, second film improvement on the material, third film goes off the rails.
Whenever I see the 'Where there's a whip, there's a way' clip, I'm always struck by how non-caring Sam is towards Frodo, lol.
Frodo says he can't go on, and Sam just says, "I'd rather be singing a good old hobbit song myself," completely ignoring Frodo's plight.
my siblings and I used to wear pots and pans for helmets, make cardboard armor armor and swords and march around the house singing "Where there's a whip there's a way!"
"Forgettable" works for me because I did see it when it was first broadcast (yeah, I'm old) and I have forgotten pretty much all of it. The only thing I remember is Gandalf suggesting that Hobbits will eventually get taller and intermarry with the Big Folk.
My father is someone who is obsessed with all things Tolkien. So, growing up, besides reading me "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" as my bedtime stories, he also showed me the animated "trilogy" (R & B's Hobbit and Return of the King, and Bakshi's Lord of the Rings), and eventually took a 6/7/8-year-old me yearly to the theater to watch Jackson's live-action adaptations when they first came out. As a kid, I remember not really liking/caring for the Bakshi adaptation and not really knowing why (it was probably all the rotoscoping), but I LOVED the Rankin and Bass adaptations. A lot of the time, I would watch R & B's "The Hobbit" and "The Return of the King" back to back with no problem. As a kid, even though the "Return of the King" skipped over a lot of plot/character details, I could still get into it and had a general idea of what was going on (even though my dad hadn't gotten to those parts of the books and Jackson's RotK hadn't come out yet). For me, the two things that I remember most, are the songs, which I still sing them to this day (now 28), and Sam facing off against the Watchers (which I remember being disappointed that Jackson's RotK didn't have). Overall, I'd say that, despite it's flaws, Rankin and Bass' Return of the King is a good adaptation if you're introducing a child to LotR. It has good animation, memorable songs, and a simplified story that a child can at least have a basic understanding of (although, I'd definitely show them the R & B's Hobbit first and then this movie).
When I watch LotR now, I'll just watch Jackson's adaptations (except for the Hobbit, which I'll watch the Rankin and Bass' version) and I'll just listen to the songs/watch clips from Rankin and Bass' RotK off TH-cam when I feel like it.
Love your videos. I'm commenting to appease the algorithm gods.
"It's so easy not to try" t-shirt is a must have lol
Shut up and take my money!
It’s my motto
I love this version, as it felt like something I wasn't supposed to see when I was a kid!
I'm actually starting to think I'm in love with this youtuber. Oh lord, she's amazing! By the way, nice video! just as usual
Roddy McDowall is Sam, in this, also two hours refers to broadcast time. They had to have 20 to 30 minutes of commercials shoved in as it was originally shown on tv .
I honestly sing songs from this movie all the time. Frodo of the 9 fingers, Where there's a whip, so many memorable tunes
This whole movie has big "video tape you checked out of the library with your grandparents' energy, which, incidentally, is how I saw it as a kid.
1986 aged 13, I was frustrated by the way the Bakshi LOTR movie just ended. On holiday in New York (from the UK), this came on in a hotel room when the rest of my family were asleep. For many years, no one I told about the "sequel to the LOTR movie" believed me, as it had literally zero exposure in the UK that I'm aware of.
The best line in R-B: ROTK is from Gandalf and it is not in the book. "Who causes the minutes to fall dead, adding up to no passing hour, bringing no change from day to night?"