Hi all,

I don't agree with copyright infringement but just thought I'd mention that the full version of the 1977 animated movie adaptation of The Hobbit is on You Tube. I won't post a link here in case I break some forum rule or something but if you search I'm sure you will find it. It might be useful for anyone who hasn't read the book and can't wait until the new film comes out.

It's not that expensive at Amazon
And for the US audience

But nothing beats "Frodoooo of the Nine Fingahs, and the Ring of Doo-ooo-ooom."

LOL

Of course, that was from Rankin-Bass' The Return of the King and it certainly doesn't compare with "Where There's A Whip, There's A Way"!!!

Thanks for the PM, geekdad. Downloaded and converted to MP3. BTW, I deleted my earlier post after getting your post.

I will admit that I have "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" on mp3.

Now, I'm jealous. I want to add it to my Middle-earth RPG mp3 collection! Heck, I want to add several of the Rankin-Bass songs to that collection:

Chip The Glasses, Crack the Plates
Far O'er The Misty Mountains Cold
15 Birds in 5 Fir Trees

I'm hoping that some of these make it into Peter Jackson's films, as well.

No joke, my favorite Tolkien conversion from print is Ralph Bakshi's 1978 THE LORD OF THE RINGS. This definitely puts me in the minority, but I'll take Bakshi's Aragorn over Jackson's any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I still listen to the soundtrack now and again!

I like both movies and soundtracks. I love Rosenman's score when the orcs are attacking Helm's Deep ... the chant is GREAT ... especially considering it's basically the words "Isengard" and "Mordor" combined with gibberish ... including Leonard Rosenman's name backwards! The Mithrandir song is quite good, as well.

In fact, Bakshi's version is the reason I finally READ The Lord of the Rings! You see, I saw the movie in the theatre back in the winter of '78 ... I came out of the theatre after the last showing of the night and it was snowing heavily. It took my parents what seemed like forever to drive home (I was 14) and instead of falling asleep on that drive home, I kept going over in my mind the spectacle of what I'd seen. When I got home I immediately went to my bedroom and began reading the trilogy! I'd tried to read it before, but could never get past that unbelievably looooong, boring first chapter. This time though, I couldn't put the book down! I'd discovered there was so much greatness in it that I'd never gotten to ... I read through the night and finished it that weekend. For over two decades since, I reread the story every winter, sometime between Christmas and New Years. The last time I read it was Y2K ... I now listen to it on audiobook, but more often than once a year ... usually 2 times. And it's all thanks to a wintery night, having seen Ralph Bakshi's movie.

As for Bakshi's Aragorn, I never pictured him wearing a tunic and bare legs ... too original Robin (of Batman fame) for me. And don't get me started on his Boromir!

John Hurt was a fantastic voice for Aragorn, though.

Speaking of voice acting ... John Huston as Gandalf and Ricard Boone as Smaug in The Hobbit were EXCEPTIONAL! Brother Theodore's Gollum still gives me chills when he wails about losing the Ring!