The Lord of the Rings

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ralph Bakshi directs. Timothy Galfas behind the camera. Leonard Rosenman scores. Donald W. Ernst cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America, Spain. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $4.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Made its money back 7.6× over at the box office.
• 348 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 4International production across 3 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America, Spain.
• 5Directed by Ralph Bakshi, shot by Timothy Galfas. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Leonard Rosenman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Donald W. Ernst shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Christopher Guard and William Squire and Michael Scholes carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "Fantasy...beyond your imagination.".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0077869 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 11Classified under 14 themes, including "mission", "based on novel or book", "elves", "dwarf".
• 12Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography

Timothy Galfas

Original score

Leonard Rosenman

Editing

Donald W. Ernst

Sound

Bill Mumford

Runtime

132 min · 2h 12m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$4,000,000

Box office

$30,477,175

Return

762% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG

IMDB

The Lord of the Rings (1978) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

48% 🥫 Rotten

Metacritic

51/100

IMDB rating

6.2/10 · 38,775 votes

MPAA

PG

Also by

Ralph Bakshi

• 
  The Heat's Off

  1967 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Traffic Trouble

  1967 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Gadmouse: The Apprentice Good Fairy

  1965 · ★ 9.0
• 
  The Fuz

  1967 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Fancy Plants

  1967 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Dress Reversal

  1965 · ★ 8.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

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Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Lord of the Rings (animated 1978)

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• RealZero2026-04-30
  ★ 6/10

  I actually liked this one more than I assumed from the few things I had seen about it before. Seeing it independent of the Jackson Lord of the Rings movies: First off, being adapted from the books, the story and characters are classic and quite nice. Of course, considering they put two of three LotR book into just about two hours, there's a lot of the story's content missing. But I think the movies does a quite good job, considering that limitation, to show the big, most important parts. The characters look, considering the age of the movie, quite nice, the voice actors do a good job, and several of the drawn backgrounds look really nice. The few calm scenes feel nice as well. The usage of rotoscoped live-action in between looks interesting, certainly an interesting stylistic choice, I personally am not a big fan of the mix of it, though. Especially in the few scenes where drawn and live-action characters are shown together it feels a little uncanny. It's not something that's really bad, though, I personally would just have preferred to stick to the drawn models. Some of the character's movement feels a bit "acted over the top", but even that is kinda entertaining. On the same hand it sadly doesn't offer any really moving or "epic" speeches or emotions, but still, the voice actors do a nice job. So, overall, I think it's not a bad adaption of the two books, again, under the limitation of only having two hours. - Now, of course, in comparison, the Jackson movies are more impressive in every way and I'd certainly go with them. But given time, money and age limitations, this one does a nice job. And it's certainly visible how Jackson was partially inspired by this, and comparing individual scenes, it's nice to see how similar some of them are handled. This movie shows its age, but it's certainly not a bad one. I would've liked to see the third book being adapted like this as well. Sam's still the best buddy!

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• FA

  Fantasy Films

  US

• BA

  Bakshi Productions

  US

• SA

  Saul Zaentz Film Productions

Key crew

• EditorDonald W. Ernst
• ProducerNancy Eichler
• ProducerSaul Zaentz
• NovelJ. R. R. Tolkien
• Assistant DirectorJohn Sparey
• Animation ManagerMicki Zurcher
• Animation ManagerBarry E. Jackson
• Sound Re-Recording MixerBill Mumford
• Sound Re-Recording MixerBob Minkler
• Key AnimationLenord Robinson
• Key AnimationPaul Smith
• Key AnimationHank Tucker
• Key AnimationFrank Gonzales
• Key AnimationCarl Bell
• Key AnimationSteven E. Gordon
• Key AnimationChrystal Russell
• Key AnimationIrven Spence
• Key AnimationEd Wexler
• Key AnimationJesus Cortes
• Key AnimationLillian Evans
• Sound DesignerSam F. Shaw
• Title DesignerWayne Fitzgerald
• Sound Re-Recording MixerBill Varney
• Key AnimationBruce Woodside

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• mission
• based on novel or book
• elves
• dwarf
• troll
• fantasy world
• wizard
• journey
• ring
• hero's journey
• high fantasy
• good versus evil
• animation
• hobbit

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1978-11-15PG

Also known as

International titles

• O arhontas ton daktylidionGR
• Gospodar prstenovaRS
• J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the RingsUS
• O Senhor dos AnéisBR
• The lord of the rings animatedCA
• Ο αρχοντας των δαχτυλιδιωνGR
• El Señor De Los Anillos (Animación) 2 - El Señor De Los AnillosES
• 指輪物語JP
• Господар на прстенитеMK
• 로드 오브 링스KR
• 반지의 제왕KR
• O Senhor dos Anéis - Maratona de 25 anosBR