Animated Evil

I just got this urge to watch the Lord Of The Rings movies. Problem is I at the moment don't possess any of them so I went online checking out the prices to get all three (seriously, you must have all three and preferably in the extended version, otherwise what's the point?). So after a 5-minute search on the Swedish sites I realized that I would have to sell my organs to afford them. The movies cost over 300 SEK per movie. For the rest of the worlds that something like above $ 33 per movie. Despair struck me, but I didn't lose hope as I'm citizen of the marvelous European Union (you can guess my political alignment when it comes to the EU by now so this wording shouldn't be so surprising for you) which means that I have the possibility to gain access to in theory 27 different markets all regulated from Brussels. So I went over to the British Amazon and what do you get? All 3 movies + 2 extra movies for just around £ 30, which in SEK is just around 300. A real bargain. The 2 other movies was Kelly's Heroes and the Animated Lord of the Rings.

So, now I have to wait a couple of days and that won't do. So it's out on Youtube to see the animated movies The Hobbit and The Return of the King. And my god, it's laughable. Great understand for why it didn't get a wider audience. It's horrible. And worst thing is that I try to defend them as it is inspired by Tolkien. The animation is OK for The Hobbit, but when they use the same for The Return of the King which follows the other animated Lord of the Ring it's just wrong. Overall I'm giving The Hobbit a lot more slack as it covers most thing and the stile is lighter which follows the mood of the book. But still the whole thing feels rushed and many things doesn't add up. And the songs, my god, are music wise horrible to the mood they tried to set. Lyrics is taken from the book so nothing there, but when the goblins/orcs begin singing nicely how they gonna burn the dwarfs, Bilbo and Gandalf in a tree it's wrong. They also cut out Beorn from it even though he is a central character in the way that he alone turned the tide of the battle in the end and send the enemies fleeing. And then we have the elven king of Mirkwood, a freaking ugly elf of some kind who looks like this:

And who is the father of this:Notice the resemblance? I was thinking of getting a picture of Orlando Bloom, but that would have been unjust to the king (lets see if something will happen now). Also he speak with some kind of German accent and due to his behavior he feels like a Nazi. At least it's watchable to some degree. Compared to the other one at least.

The Return of the King was a disaster. Voice acting horrible, song numbers giving this movie the feel of a constant LSD trip to hell. The story goes forward, back ,stops and forward again without a coherent time line. If you haven't read the book you don't know who is who, where they are or what they are doing. Of course they have some redeeming factors, ONE. But it's a good one. For your modern fans, when Samwise Gamgee runs up stairs to the tower to save Frodo at Cirith Ungol and are faced with three orcs he begins making sounds and using his 2 daggers and create this huge shadow that intimidates the orcs until he show up. A good comedic scene in Peter Jacksons movie. In this movie Sam stumbles upon a orc guard that prepares to attack. Sam grabs the ring and somehow it projects a vision of this elven warrior that brings doom to them. I love that thought. The ring doesn't only makes you invisible, it also gives you the power of domination. That's what they desired all of those who failed. I never thought about that before but it is so obvious now. Really, how practical is an invisibility ring against the dark forces which people like Boromir talked about? Bad thing is that I had to sit thru that movie to understand it even though I have read all Tolkien Middle-Earth books to realize the true power of the ring. Late shall the sinner awaken.