10-07-99

'78 Bashki Behind the Scenes
Dwane Dipply @ 10:57 pm EST
From Super Spy J

Gandalf/Bilbo


Another sort of obscure thing that you might want to feature as a sort of "blast from the past" item. It's a so-called "photo-roto", a photographic blow-up from motion picture film, showing the live-actors used as animation reference in Ralph Bakshi's adaptation. This example comes from a heated exchange during the coucil of Elrond. I don't know who the performer playing Gandalf is (although note the stylized make-up used to facilitate interpreting the facial features in drawing form), but Bilbo is being played by none other than classic small person actor Billy Barty ("Legend", "Willow", "Under the Rainbow"). An unusual look at the "movie under the paint" as it were, from the much-maligned animated film.