Everything Wrong With Lord of the Rings (1979) in 22 Minutes or Less

Long before Peter Jackson came along, there was a different sort of Lord or the Rings movie. It's animated and weird and skips lots of parts. And it has sins!

Next week: classic '80s sins & really old animation sins.

Remember, no movie is without sin. Which movie's sins should we count next?

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[thathillkid]

Fun fact: When Aragorn tripped on his sword, he actually broke his toes. It was an accident but the animators liked it so much they kept that take in.

[Bookwitchery]

My husband actually proposed to me with The One Ring. He had been planning to take me ring shopping, but when I became pregnant decided that money was better spent on impending baby needs. We both worked at a bookstore at the time, and as the LOTR films were just hitting theaters, we were awash with bookmarks that had The One Ring charms attached. He bought one, and that ring is what he proposed to me with. He passed away unexpectedly in 2018, and that One Ring is just as important to me as my actual wedding ring.

[Durwood]

17:46 You sinned Aragorn tripping over his own sword, but you missed Gandalf flourishing his cloak and getting it awkwardly wrapped around his head.

[SunnyC.D.A]

I love how Gandalf kept throwing gang signs at Pippin while scolding him

[chriss]

I'd like to be in the meeting where they said "how shall we draw Aragorn, heir of Isildur, the great king?" "I know, how about a cave man in a skirt?" "Perfect!"

[seanbordenkircher]

Having never seen this film, I'm really surprised with how many shots were recreated beautifully in the Jackson film, as well as taking care of a few of the plot inconsistencies you mention!

[crabbieappleton]

I've seen this film more than once (though, admittedly, not for decades), but I've never noticed Aragorn tripping over his sword. Brilliant.

[Weeboslav]

I just love how Gandalf half of the time looks like he's drugged out of his mind

[kevinfrushour]

I watched this as a child. I remember saying to my mother after the end "But what about Merry and Pippin?"
My mother (who had read the books) said "Well, they're with Treebeard." as if that was fine.
I couldn't accept that. We still hadn't established that he wasn't going to EAT them or anything.

[hxvdbxe]

''MY ARMOUR!!!)
''rip to poor gandalfs eardrums'' ahaha

[raphaelcalado]

With all the flaws it may have, this movie obviously is a great influence to Peter Jackson. Even considering how the books describes things, many scenes have the same angles and some artistic choices, that only by reading the book, it would be extremely unlikely to both movies have so many scenes as close as they are.

[johnshemenski]

As flawed as this movie is, I absolutely love it. It's almost unbelievable this movie actually got made

[willemverheij]

After seeing Gandalf look like a crazy madman in this movie, I only respect Sir Ian McKellen's portrayal even more.

[ChrisinOSMS]

I got to see this as a bright-eyed 7 year old in theaters, the orc armies scared the mess out of me, but the ring wraith murder of the hobbits in the inn wasn’t such a big deal, we grew up with Buggs Bunny and the Road Runner on Saturday mornings.

[soccerplayah]

I remember growing up my dad was a huge lord of the rings man, and since the hobbit series hasn’t come out yet, everytime we started a new run of the LOTR movies we’d always start with this

[BatCaveOz]

The movie takes an entirely different course if one assumes that the hits from the pipe that Aragorn was taking was DMT.

[justincase]

8:44 again nailed it with Gandolf scolding Frodo for a situation he himself set Frodo out on his own.

[joshualittle]

Another thing I always found intresting about this adaptation is that he is already carrying the broken sword. That whole part where the busted up sword was just sitting in Rivendell is not how it was in the books. Arigorn in fact kept the Narsil in his sight and grasp at all times. When they went into Theodens hall in the book it was Narsil he had to hand over and he was none to happy to do so.

Well still it's interesting to see that Peter Jackson took a lot of ideas from this film. Many scenes are almost equal.

[michaelsoltesz]

I remember this movie from childhood. I had no idea what rotoscoping was back then.

The animation styles are all over the place, but plenty of the orcs and enemies genuinely look pretty scary. The dark pallet and creepy realistic movement.

And then the movie cuts to hilarious or ugly rotoscoping…

Oh well. Makes me appreciate Peter Jackson and his version more. 😏