Old vs. New part 2, Return of the King vs. Return of the King

forget elijah wood, this is how an evil hobbit rolls

Right, now, after horribly ripping off Nostalgia Critics idea, erm I mean, improving upon his idea, now I started to consider he throw out idea at the end of his review, about the two Return of the King movies, which he dismissed right away. So, I figured I might as well try this comparison, and see if I can find something resembling an actual argument out of this. So here we have it, Peter Jackson’s Third Film vs. The animated version by Rakin/Bass. Now the animated one is made by the same company that made the animated adaptation of the Hobbit. And if you remember that, you will also remember it was awful, just painfully bad. So I really expected the worst when I saw the Animated Return of the King. However the animated adaptation has on advantage here, because I did not like Return of the King very much. In terms of loyalty to the original material, I’d rate the trilogy Fellowship Best, then Return of the King, then Two Towers. But in terms of actually enjoyable movies, Two Towers and Return of the King are switched, because of Jackson horrible editing. The entire movie is just focusing on one event for like 5 mins, before cutting to something else, then cutting to something else for another 5 mins, then cutting to something else. There is no build up, and thus very thing feels forced and unenthusiastic, except for the charge of the Riders and Shelob. But everything else was just rushed and simple, that the film wasn’t satisfying. The film was patchwork, badly handled, sloppy; it was just badly edited through and through. No suspense, flat characters, and boring, the film simultaneously suffered from trying to over come the other films in terms of popularity, as well as trying to keep a level sense of consistency. That being said, the film still has a lot of good actors, props, and scenes, even if they are short. So let’s have the face off

Now in Favor of the Peter Jackson film, is far better made, even with the painful editing. The props and sets are extremely awe inspiriting, the fights, until they are cut short that is, are actually pretty cool, and the various scenes are far more impressive. The movie has the advantage of three films to improve character development, and a far larger budget. But I think the animation one actually has a few points on its rival.

Basically, while the animation one is really badly animated and has a lot of absurdly campy dialogue, within a small scale, I actually think it tells a better story, and has more consistent themes. The Jackson version is all over the place trying to cover as much ground as possible, while the animated version focused on a select group of themes and builds off them. The whole concept of “the Elves are leaving to the west and the old age is ending” is actually mentioned early in the film, through songs, and the talks between Bilbo and Frodo, so it doesn’t come out of nowhere to people who haven’t read the books. Also there is a far greater empathizes upon the hobbits, who kind take a back seat in the Jackson version, as they try to get across a hostile and barren wasteland. In the books, the journey of Frodo and Sam is not one of epic adventures or fighting dangerous monsters, but the concept of hope vs. despair as they slowly, every so slowly crawl across the increasingly vile lands of Morder in the vain hope they might evade the Dark Lord’s attention. The journey isn’t glorious, it is hard, painful, and slow, and tiring, with the heroes fighting not against monsters and magic, but starvation and the cold. And while this is kinda glossed over in the Jackson version, it is a major focus of the cartoon, as the hobbits struggle to take another step and not give in to despair.

Also, while the Jackson version certainly covered a lot more information and ground from the book, and they deserve credit for that, the animated version seems to build up upon the plot devices while cutting many of them. For example, the whole aspect of the Ring’s corruption is actually played pretty sinisterly in the animated version, far more so than the Jackson version. Most of the songs are just simply corny, but one called “Bear of the Ring” is actually quite frankly, really sinister, and creepy, and constantly plays when the characters struggle with the ring. Now you’d think this is more blatant and obvious, but let’s compare two scenes. When Sam returns the ring to Frodo and is briefly tempted, he just looks at it, and then turns away. While in the animated cartoon, he has an actual vision (which happens in the book ironically enough), where he, Samwise, is a might general who overthrows the entire army of Morder and destroys the Dark Tower, then he uses his power to turn the vast barren lands into a vast garden and all of the orcs and trolls into animals, seemingly creating a utopia. And when you think about it, that is what the Ring does, it appeals to the ego, to the desire to good, and in doing so, corrupts, Sam using his powers to change both the land and creatures to suit his own whims, the sin of pride, of arrogance, of domination. And the way the power of the rings are shown almost s good, but in a twisted perverse version of the good ideal. And this is what it offers to a gardener, which is actually kinda of horrifying. Again, in the scene when Frodo is finally ultimately corrupted by the ring, in the Jackson version, he just kinda goes “bah, I’m evil now, poof” while in the other version he has a really down right demonic “Fool, I am no the ring’s, the ring is mine” as the evil chorus plays.

That being said, the higher quality of the Jackson film allows its scenes to be more moving and effective. The entire siege of Gondor for example is far better done, even through Faramir’s actor is just…utterly dead emotionally. But Théoden gets a great speech, and the Gandalf is far more impressive. And the final battle at the Black Gate is better, with on exception. In the book and to a lesser extent, the cartoon, the Mouth of Sauron is an ambassador, sent out to parley and the main characters just humiliate him and have him leave in score. But in the live action version (DVD version of course) they lope his head off before he actually does any attack on them. That’s horrible, killing the massager is awful, even if he is literally the high priest of the lord of darkness, the point is you don’t lower yourself to his level (actually lower, Sauron didn’t kill and massagers). Ug. That being said, in terms of characters, the Jackson version trumps the cartoon almost every time, with the exception of Denethor, who was far better acted in the Jackson version, but his insanity seemed to just be him being a nut for its own state, while he s a very complex character in the actual story, and while both versions make him a total loon, the cartoon one at least had more legitimate motivates I felt, or at least better explained ones. Gollum is so much better in the Jackson version and much as I hate to admit it, Sauron is, just because the cartoon version is exactly the same but has a smaller tower, and Gothmog (the tuber orc) was actually pretty cool. But one character I think was mixed on was the Witch King of Angmar. The animation of the character looks pretty silly, and his voice sounds like a broken machine. But despite the narm, the cartoon Witch King actually was more threatening. He has a greater build up, and his lines were just…better. They were lifted pretty much word from word from the book, and that actually make the character more horrifying. And while his voice was annoying, the crackling voice seems more engaged than the deep monotone of the Jackson Witch king, who just didn’t’ seem scary, while the robes worked for the Black Riders, the Witch King needs something more dramatic, more armored, more powerful, and more knightly, IE the one from the other animated LOTRS film. But hey. The orcs and trolls were still based on the silly animations of the hobbit movie, but they were slightly more threatening now, and more fleshed out. Even as all the fighting goes on, there are some bizarre scenes that seem to remind the audience that these orcs still have feelings, in one hallucination of the main characters of a happier land, they invite a pair of orc soldiers over to eat with them, who seem quite happy about the prospect. And later, there is the infamous “When there is a whip, there’s a way song”.

For those who don’t’ know, this is a very retro song where the orcs sing about how they are being lashed and forced to war, and there resentment about being used as battle fodder in the Dark Lord’s armies. And while the scene is pretty silly at first, when you listen to the lyrics, it kinda hits you that most of the orcs are draftees who “We don’t want to go to war today, but the lord of the lash says Nay, Nay, Nay”. This kinda adds a whole new dynamic to the war. Nothing is made out of it, but it is an interesting detail. Speaking of orc songs, “The tower of the teeth” is actually a pretty good war song in terms of intimidating one’s foes “Win the battle, lose the war, choice of evils lie before. If you win, you will lose, choice of evils, you will loose, the choice is yours, retreat”

So in the end, Jackson version wins of course, just because it is better made/better produced. But despite that the other version has some merit, lost within its general bad quality, but it isn’t totally worthless as the Nostalgia Critic has claimed…..thus I prove I’m better….Horary for pettiness.

From

EE