The Lord of the Rings: Animated has acquired a recent Blu-ray reprint 15 years after the traditional adaptation first arrived on Blu-ray. The Remastered Deluxe Edition shows in 1080p decision and is accompanied by an interview collection with the director concerning the creation of the movie. You’ll be able to preorder The Lord of the Rings: Animated Remastered Deluxe Edition for $22.49 at Amazon forward of its June 24 launch. Previous to this new printing, the Blu-ray was solely obtainable for an inexpensive worth in case you opted for a region-free imported edition. Amazon additionally has the film on DVD for under 5 bucks.
$22.49 | Releases June 24
The Remastered Deluxe Edition of The Lord of the Rings: Animated originally released on Blu-ray in 2010. Though a DVD edition of the remaster remains to be in print in North America, the Blu-ray version, which is able to look considerably higher on fashionable widescreen TVs, has been out of print domestically for numerous years. Listed here are the important thing technical options discovered on the Blu-ray version:
- 1080p HD decision
- 16 x 9 side ratio (1.85:1)
- Dolby TrueHD English 5.1 Encompass Sound
- Dolby Digital English 5.1
- French 1.0 / Spanish 2.0
- Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
The remaster additionally features a collection of interviews with director Ralph Bakshi titled: Forging Via the Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Imaginative and prescient for The Lord of the Rings.
The animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings launched in theaters in 1978. It grew to become an enormous field workplace success, pulling in north of $32 million–roughly eight instances the manufacturing price. Essential reception was blended, and plenty of LOTR followers have been displeased to be taught the 133-minute movie solely lined The Fellowship of the Ring and a portion of The Two Towers.
Over time, nevertheless, the movie has earned a legion of followers, and it’s now usually considered a cult traditional. The movie has some unbelievable sequences and a few fairly weird moments. In some methods, it jogs my memory of the 1993 live-action Tremendous Mario Bros. film. Each movies take admirable dangers that make it laborious to not recognize the ambition. However LOTR is actually extra trustworthy to the supply materials, and the writing is significantly better. The first couple of drafts have been written by Chris Conkling, however later drafts have been penned by The Last Unicorn author Peter S. Beagle and revised by director Ralph Bakshi.
Bakshi made some attention-grabbing selections with reference to the animation. The finish consequence was a mixture of cel animation and rotoscoping. Many scenes within the film have been first filmed reside after which traced to make it look life like in movement. For an animated movie made in 1978, The Lord of the Rings seems to be fairly nice.
Peter Jackson has said that the animated adaptation was an enormous inspiration for his live-action version of The Lord of the Rings.

Sadly, the animated movie did not obtain a sequel. Animated movies of The Hobbit and The Return of the King have been produced across the identical time, however each of those have been made-for-TV musicals. Each musicals are acceptable for younger audiences, and they’re truly higher than you’d most likely count on. That stated, the musicals weren’t made by the identical staff, so the animation is sort of completely different and never as efficient. Remastered Deluxe Editions of each musicals can be found on DVD. The newest printing of The Hobbit Remastered Deluxe Edition launched final 12 months and is $22.49. The Return of the King’s Remastered Deluxe Edition is discounted to $12.40 at Amazon.
Greater than 40 years handed earlier than the franchise returned to animation with The Warfare of the Rohirrim. Set centuries earlier than Jackson’s movies and based mostly on a bit in The Lord of the Rings’ appendices, the anime launched in theaters final December. It earned blended evaluations and was a field workplace flop. The story and characters are forgettable, but it surely’s nonetheless price anticipating its trendy and infrequently lovely animated sequences. The Warfare of the Rohirrim is up for grabs for $13 on Blu-ray and $20 on 4K Blu-ray.
Try the entire animated motion pictures set in Center-earth beneath.
For the live-action diversifications, together with the current 4K Limited Edition Steelbook releases of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, try our roundup of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Blu-rays and box sets beneath. For display-worthy editions of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit which are additionally very moderately priced, try the 2024 hardcover Collector’s Editions and the Tolkien Illustrated Edition Series.