Rankin Bass' Return of the King.

If I’m going talk about Return of the King, then I must briefly talk about Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Ring. Gandalf the Gray wanted Bilbo’s Ring he got from Gollum to be analyzed by Elrond. Bilbo has gone mad with the ring’s power, as he passes it to his gran nephew, Frodo Baggins. Frodo, Gandalf, and the annoying comic relief Sam“Wise” has journey to the Hidden Valley, where it’s decided for the ring to be destroyed at Mount Doom. Joining the adventure is Aragorn the King, Legolas the Archer Elf, Gimly the Dwarf, Merry and Pippen. They have to deal with Sauruman (or Auruman in Bakshi’s case) and his army of orcs. Gollum return to lead Frodo and Sam to Mount Doom, while the rest of our heroes fight the army of Orcs at Helm’s Deep. Gandalf deals with the Balrog, defeats it, and came back to life as Gandalf the White.

There, that’s as much vague detail I can bring up and save me from their recap. Anyway, here’s The Return of the King!

Bilbo celebrates his 129 birthday with our current cast and actual survivors of “The Hobbit”. Bilbo noticed Frodo last his ring finger as he destroyed the one ring of power. Frodo explains to Bilbo what happens. Most of the recap of The Hobbit and Lord of the Ring was sung by a minstrel Glen Yarbrough. (Yes, the singer. This is a boiling point I’ll pour out in critical point.)

Samwise Gamgee (this time voiced by Roddy McDowell) is rescuing Frodo from the orcs, formerly known as goblins to Bilbo (one of them voiced by Paul Frees). He carries the Ring of Power on the necklace, Bilbo’s sword of The Sting, and the protective cloth.

At the White Tower of Minas Tirith, the war with the Orcs with the king led by Thanador Gandalf and Pippen serve and debate with Denethor with his corrupted choice with the Pelennor; a black orb that can show the future. As soon as the Witch King came, it ended with the dawn. King Theoden gathered their army with Eowyn in disguise and Mary (voiced by Casey Kasem) to meet up with Gandalf. 

Bilbo saves Frodo from the Orcs, and continues with their quest while the Black Riders roam the sky. As soon they get close to Mount Doom, they deal with Gollum from The Hobbit. (Why he’s green instead black might be because some people were offended. It’s making him more frog than usual. Maybe the years go by; he got the green from the Pair of Mounts Nick.)

The battle was finished with Eowyn and Merry defeating The Witch King, as King Aragorn made completely cleared out the remaining army Orcs and assuming trolls from his Black Ships. Is it obvious that Frodo and Sam Wise destroyed the Ring of Power?

If Red Baron is the worst in pacing, Swiss Family Robinson is the worst in interest in character, Tom Sawyer is the worst in setting, and Sleeping Beauty is the worst in lazy design, then Return of the King could be the worst Rankin Bass film in narrative terms. It was common for most Rankin Bass films to have a narrator character to tell the story, and sometimes they don’t. Return of the King has narrator as Gandalf or the other characters to tell their part of the long story, which I wouldn’t mind if it was in a journal just like the Hobbit, but this is a flashback to an epic event the characters went through. It immediately kills any suspense for our main characters that’s in the story. It’s made worst for Frodo since the fate of their land relies on him casting out the ring to the volcano. These kinds of storytelling rarely work in a War or Action story. I keep expecting Daffy Duck asking a question whenever “suspense” happens.

“Did they kill you?! You got killed you, didn't they?!"

-Daffy Duck asking Granny from The Looney Tune show, voiced by the Jeff Bergen

This is part of the reason why the Peter Jackson version worked since it’s a continuation of the films, not a nostalgia story. Unlike The Hobbit, the music can actually harm the film than help it. The songs range from repeating what’s being said to “Where there’s a whip, there’s a way”. Legolas and Gimly are nowhere in this continuation of Lord of the Ring, as Elrond and Aragorn is just there.

There are some good moments in Rankin Bass’ version of Return of the King to prevent it from being an awful animated film.

I like Roddy McDowell as Samwise. He at least he lives up to the name “Wise” than the Bakshi version being a wimp. Anytime other than Lassie Comes Home, Black Hole, Cricket on the Hearth, and maybe Bugs Life would Roddy speak, I would follow him, and Sam Wise has gotten at his bravest, and we actually see much of what he wants with the ring and wonder what happens after the journey. Maybe about too much with Sam given time it takes up in the first act. I could say he’s almost on par with Sean Aston.

It’s interesting that Casey Kasem would make his return appearance after Peter Cottontail. Thanks to him and the twin’s design, I can tell who’s who. I did like Eowyn’s moment when she reveal herself and gotten a little more character than what she got in Bakshi’s Lord of the Ring; which she has nothing said and done. However, because how little they appeared, it doesn’t matter.

In fact, most of the acting, atmosphere, and tone are seriously good. While the story wasn’t following the meaning of epic, and the songs aren’t better, the background music sounds epic as it fit better in a fantasy war. It’s not as epic as Peter Jackson’s version, but I would go with this version of their epic music than the phoned in epic I hear in most Zack Snyder film, TV action shows, and Neo-Saban Era Power Rangers epic whimsically music that kept destroying the emotional tone for the series that will never be on par with Ron Wasserman.

The ending is kind of touching with the realization of fantasy characters fading away with the years slipped away and we depart with characters we have been with since The Hobbit. I’m not going to touch on Frodo and Sam friendship, as it was said to depth/ death with the Lord of the Ring Trilogy.

I don’t see this Return of the King a complete waste of time. For my bladder sakes, this is decent shorter version. It’s hard to tell if it’s on par with The Hobbit. It’s too epic in music and has more than three characters to be invested to ever be worse than Hobbit, but story flowing wise, songs and continuation is what prevents Return of the King to be better than The Hobbit. Basically, they’re almost equals.

Up next is Thanksgiving, as we’ll celebrate with The Mouse On the Mayflower.