Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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El Squibbonator
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Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby El Squibbonator » Thu Jun 10, 2021 7:16 pm

I know what you're thinking, but I'm not talking about the Ralph Bakshi one. This movie was just announced today, and it's being produced by Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. Kenji Kamiyama is scheduled to direct. That fact raises a number of questions. The big one, of course, regards how they're promoting the movie. It's referred to in several articles as an "anime", but it's apparently being produced in-house as a Warner Bros. film, with the only Japanese element being the director himself. 

https://www.polygon.com/movies/22528048 ... ated-movie
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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby pwhodges » Fri Jun 11, 2021 3:11 am

To be clear, it's not another film of Tolkien's story, but a spin-off in the same universe.
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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby FreakyFilmFan4ever » Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:36 am

Neat.

Also, there's a Blade Runner anime in the works?

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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby Zusuchan » Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:50 am

^A Tv show called Blade Runner: Black Lotus, set to be co-directed by Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki. I didn't know about this till now, either.

On the actual announcement itself, I'm not sure if this will be good or bad-guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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Postby El Squibbonator » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:33 pm

What I do wonder, though, is why they're insisting on the "anime" label for it, when it is for all intents and purposes an American animated film.
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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby hui43210 » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:40 pm

View Original PostEl Squibbonator wrote:What I do wonder, though, is why they're insisting on the "anime" label for it, when it is for all intents and purposes an American animated film.


Well, Kenji Kamiyama is directing it, so it's not entirely American. Plus it's being animated by a Japanese anime studio that's only worked in other anime. I'm not sure how you couldn't call it an anime tbh.
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Postby El Squibbonator » Fri Jun 11, 2021 5:52 pm

The director is Japanese and the animation is outsourced to a Japanese studio, yes, but it's actually being funded and produced as a Warner Bros. film, and Warner Bros.-- and American company-- ultimately owns the rights to it. This isn't even the first time this has happened with a Lord of the Rings movie. The 1980 animated adaptation of The Return Of The King had its actual animation done by Toei and Topcraft, but it was officially produced by Rankin-Bass and as such is considered an American film.

For a non-Lord of the Rings-related example of this sort of thing, look at the animated Transformers -- the 1986 one, the one where Optimus Prime dies. It was based on a toy line and TV series whose origins are both Japanese and American, its writing staff and producers were all American, its animation was done in Japan, and its director was Korean. Yet it's still officially considered an American film, not an anime film.
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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby hui43210 » Fri Jun 11, 2021 7:31 pm

Well, people, including Netflix, call the Castlevania cartoon an anime, and Japan had nothing to do with it. I guess people use the label more liberally today than the past.
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Postby El Squibbonator » Fri Jun 11, 2021 7:49 pm

I'm not a big fan of this movement. To me, "anime" will always only refer to works that are 100% Japanese in origin, or are owned by Japanese companies. This has a lot of Japanese involvement, but at the end of the day it's a Warner Bros. movie. It's American.
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Postby movieartman » Fri Jun 11, 2021 10:30 pm

View Original Posthui43210 wrote:Well, people, including Netflix, call the Castlevania cartoon an anime, and Japan had nothing to do with it. I guess people use the label more liberally today than the past.


I think it's primarily to describe the artstyle which is clearly anime-ish for that & Blood of Zeus.

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Postby El Squibbonator » Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:13 am

Which is, of course, an incorrect use of the word. The bigger question, though is whether it's correct to use it for this movie. On the one hand, it's an American production, but on the other hand the director is Japanese and the animation is being done by a Japanese studio.

But regardless of what we call it, the idea of an animated Lord of the Rings movie is definitely an interesting one, and one I'd be down for. I just hope they don't mess it up they way the Ralph Bakshi version did.
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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby pwhodges » Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:54 pm

View Original PostEl Squibbonator wrote:I just hope they don't mess it up they way the Ralph Bakshi version did.

What's to mess up? It's a new side story, not Tolkien.
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Re: Lord of the Rings animated movie!

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Postby Natalie the Cat » Thu Jul 01, 2021 4:32 pm

View Original Postpwhodges wrote:To be clear, it's not another film of Tolkien's story, but a spin-off in the same universe.


That's really rather disappointing. I'd rather see fresh takes on the LOTR main sequence than this spin off stuff.

Edit:

If the movie is being created by a Japanese animation studio and a Japanese direction, I'm cool calling it anime. If a painter is paid by Warner Brothers to paint something, the product is still a painting, it doesn't become a movie because a movie studio provided the money.

Calling it anime is purely a marketing move, though.

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Postby El Squibbonator » Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:34 pm

I sort of think that, like it or not, Peter Jackson basically gave us the definitive adaptation of Tolkein's work. By this I mean that his adaptation is so iconic, and has colored so many people's views of the books (something that, say, Bakshi's version didn't do) that any subsequent adaptation of them will inevitably pale in comparison to it. Better they stick to spinoffs.
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Postby silvermoonlight » Sun Jul 04, 2021 6:43 am

View Original PostEl Squibbonator wrote:(something that, say, Bakshi's version didn't do)


I heard in that version there was a lot of anger towards the hobbit's depiction, and a lot of it at Sam. Though I'm still glad for all his flaws that Bakshi's made that version, as it gave Peter Jackson a stepping stone and meant he didn't repeat Bakshi's pitfalls.

Seeing how Bakshi portrayed the hobbits - as predominantly fat, bumbling, stupid characters - I nearly had a heart attack. Please, God, don't let Peter Jackson approach it this way. I should have had more faith, but it was too early in the process. I wasn't sure what Peter had in mind, and I knew that Bakshi was far from a hack. He had his devotees, and I'm sure he knew the story and felt that his was an entirely appropriate interpretation. Moreover, the animated version had its moments. The ringwraiths, for example, were spectacularly depicted. I could appreciate what Bakshi was trying to do as an animator and a storyteller, but I was concerned mainly with Sam and how he would be portrayed… I wanted Sam to be heroic and strong, to have integrity. He was a gardener, a working-class man… There are probably thirty valid ways to depict the hobbits. But I had my own idea of how I wanted Sam to be perceived, and it was set in concrete. What I had in mind wasn't that... that thing, that animated oaf on the videotape.


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