Lord of the Rings concept art. Balrog by Ralph Bakshi.
Lord of the Rings concept art. Balrog by Ralph Bakshi.
If you’ve ever watched Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 cult animation of The Lord of the Rings, you’ll undoubtedly vividly recall the scene of the confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog in Moria.

The lion-headed creature with the body of an ape, butterfly wings plus a whip and flaming sword remains one of the classic renditions of Tolkien’s monster — whether for better or worse is up to you.

If you haven’t seen it before, or would like to refresh your memory, just check the clip below. Continue reading “Ralph Bakshi’s son restores deleted Lord of the Rings footage”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

Screen Shot 2013-08-03 at 2.13.13 PMAfter seeing Geoff Boucher at Entertainment Weekly start a Twitter hashtag earlier this month called “Great Moments in Fake Hall H history” TORn staffer Justin wondered what a similar series based around The Hobbit animated movies of the ’70s would have looked like. Here are his thoughts.


 

Continue reading “Fake moments in Comic-con Hall H – the 1970s LOTR and Hobbit”

Ralph Bakshi, creator of the 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings, is using Kickstarter to raise funds for his latest film — Last Days of Coney Island. With 58 hours to go (at time of writing), the film is less than $4,000 short of its $165,000 target.

Bakshi describes it as an animated cop, mafia, horror movie set in the 1960s in Coney Island, with political overtones both realistic and outrageous. Actor Matthew Modine, himself a longtime Bakshi fan, has been cast in the film’s lead role.

In my films I have always discussed America: who we are, what we are, for better and worse, and the ridiculous. I’m here on Kickstarter asking for your support for my newest project, Last Days of Coney Island.

It takes place in a 1960s Coney Island populated with crooked cops, broken hearts, jaded strippers, and singers.

The stories take place on and around Coney’s garish, freaky midways and in it’s dark alleyways. They discuss America: Kennedy’s assassination, the mafia, Bobby Dylan, Vietnam, Dick Tracy, Miss America, and more.

[Donate via Kickstarter]

This week on TORn Tuesdays we were joined by animation legend John K., creator of Ren & Stimpy who is currently working on a new cartoon “Cans Without Labels.” Here he talks about working with Hobbit animation pioneer Ralph Bakshi, breaking into the business, and the inspiration behind his many famous characters. Remember the amazing toy LOG or Powdered Toast Man? Watch the entire interview with John Kricfalusi on YouTube and support his new show on Kickstarter!

Our good friend and unabashed Tolkien geek Colleen Doran sends this in: Hi guys. You may have missed this look at the unpublished concept art for Ralph Bakshi’s 1970’s era Lord of the Rings animated film. More..


Things are moving in the Hobbit world; there are rumors afoot of castings, contracts, scripts and even start dates. It’s all very exciting and if you were at TORn’s panels at DragonCon this year, you were prepared for it!

Yes, TheOneRing.net was present again this year at one of the world’s biggest fan-based convention. Staffers from TORn ran a table over the course of the weekend, where we had the great pleasure of chatting to fans, meeting regular TORn visitors, catching up with old friends and faithful supporters, and introducing newbies to the joys of the website. Over the four days of the convention we gave out freebies, distributed candy to those brave enough to answer Tolkien trivia, sold t-shirts to help keep the website attending conventions and events, and provided the fun of the ‘Don’t you know you’re [sic] Sam?’ photo opportunity! Apologies Samwise fans, but we decapitated Sam in a hobbit standee, so folks could pose with their head in his place; and all kinds of aliens, cartoon characters, heroes and villains stepped up over the weekend to
offer to ‘share the load…’ For images from the weekend click here. Lots more written details after the break! Continue reading “The official ‘DragonCon 2010’ report (and photos!)”