The Return of the King

The Return of the King
DVD cover
Directed by	Jules Bass Arthur Rankin Jr.
Produced by	Jules Bass Masaki Îzuka
Written by	Romeo Muller
Starring	Orson Bean John Huston William Conrad Roddy McDowall Theodore Bikel
Music by	Maury Laws
Distributed by	American Broadcasting Company Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	May 11, 1980
Running time	98 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English

The Return of the King is a 1980 animated musical television special created by Rankin/Bass. The film is an adaptation of the third volume in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and is largely viewed as the unoffical sequel to Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. Rather than picking up where Bakshi's film ended, Rankin/Bass presented The Return of the King more as a sequel to their adaptation of The Hobbit, giving the audience an ultra-brief recap of the events and adapting a few story events from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, while leaving out some major details. The visual style of The Return of the King is largely shared with The Hobbit including, for example, the depiction of battle as a swarm of black dots milling around and quickly covered by huge clouds of dust.

Plot

The film begins with the Bilbo celebrating his 129th birthday in Rivendell. Bilbo is surprised to see that Frodo now has nine fingers as the film flashes back to Sam heading towards Cirith Ungol to rescue Frodo, but not before thinking about claiming the Ring himself. Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith to warn Denethor, the Steward of Gondor, about the upcoming war. Meanwhile, Sam rescues Frodo and they finish their quest at Mount Doom when Gollum accidentally falls into the fire and destroys the Ring. Rohan helps Gondor gain victory in the Pellenor Fields and later Aragorn leads an army to Mordor's Black Gate to buy Frodo time. Months later, Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor. The film concludes back in the present with Frodo agreeing to company Bilbo as they leave Middle-Earth.

Production

Orson Bean returned as the voice of the older Bilbo Baggins, as well as that of the story's hero, Frodo Baggins. John Huston came back as well, as the wizard Gandalf, and co-starring with them were: William Conrad as Denethor, Roddy McDowall as Samwise Gamgee, Theodore Bikel as Aragorn the King himself, and reprising his role of Gollum, Brother Theodore. Rankin/Bass stalwart Paul Frees replaced Cyril Ritchard as the voice of Elrond; Casey Kasem, best known for his role as Shaggy in Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, was Pippin Took with Sonny Melendrez as Merry; Nellie Bellflower as Éowyn; and Glenn Yarbrough returned as principal vocalist, billed here as simply "the Minstrel of Gondor".

Marketing

In the absence of an official sequel to Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings, The Return Of The King has come to be marketed as the final part of a loose animated Tolkien trilogy with The Hobbit as part one and The Lord Of The Rings as part two. The middle film is very different in tone and character design, however, and the final two films do not join up seamlessly as both omit various segments from The Two Towers, most notably regarding the events in Shelob's lair. Other omissions in the Rankin/Bass version include the characters of Gimli, Legolas, and Saruman. Aragorn is present but he has very little dialogue or screentime. Sauron's presence as an animated eye was somewhat similar to his appearance in the Peter Jackson films although limited by 1980s animation. The animated The Return of the King is available on DVD from Warner Bros., both individually and as a "boxed trilogy" with the Rankin/Bass's The Hobbit and Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings.

External links

Middle-earth portal

• The Return of the King at the Internet Movie Database
• The Return of the King at Allmovie
• Screen captures from the CED edition. Also features links to galleries of screen captures from other Tolkien animated films.