Lord of the Rings was released in 1978
After the Hobbit came Lord of the Rings, and in 1978 Bakshi Productions gave us their animated rendition of the J R R Tolkien saga. The task was daunting for Bakshi, who had wanted to do this since he first read the book. Tolkien’s classic was just too well loved and well known to screw up, and some people thought the task impossible. It took a visit to the Tolkien estate and many rewrites to get the story acceptably condensed for an animated presentation, but it was supposed to include two films. Bakshi had even been the one to suggest to Distributor United Artists that Tolkien’s The Hobbit be made as a prequel.
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Using his pioneered rotoscoping technique to overlay animation on real actors footage, the Lord of the Rings took two years in production. It was supposed to have a sequel to tell the whole story. Something readers of Tolkien’s trilogy would completely understand and accept. But Bakshi lost his battle to label the production “part one”, because producers were worried that nobody would pay twice to see the full movie, (evidently they never read the 3 part novel). Ultimately that decision angered viewers who expected the whole Lord of the Rings saga. To make matters worse, while Bakshi was in production of the sequel, Rankin-Bass (who did the cartoon prequel the Hobbit) were given the go ahead to produce the end of the Lord of the Rings saga, Return of the King. Not much later funding was pulled from Bakshi’s project and the second part of The Lord of the Rings was never made.
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Ultimately though Bakshi’s contribution inspired the live action trilogy of recent times. And he was happy that he kept his promise to Tolkien’s daughter to keep true to Tolkien’s vision. And I think he can take solace how these inspirations have led countless new readers to pick up Tolkien’s treasured Lord of the Rings and read it for themselves.
