Great forgetfulness from me,animated film of 1978 was Bakshi's masterwork and it is truly a pity that it has not been followed up,Rosenman's soundtrack is one of 70's best where the techniques of the musical avant-garde integrated with those of the great classical tradition were used effectively
I must say that making the beauty and complexity of the novel on the screen is an arduous undertaking in particular it is very difficult to mark the difference between the first volume, fairytale and similar to "the Hobbit" and the remaining two with a historical and epic tone
I saw the film when it first came out and was puzzled that it ended 2/3 of the way through the book (did they run out of money?) The soundtrack was very good and I snapped up the CD.
unfortunately it did not achieve the commercial success it deserved
I saw the film as a kid and remember it was very, very weird. Mixed live action footage with animation and an incomplete story. What were they thinking? Clearly it ran out of money and the producers didn't care.
Ralph Bakhshi is a great animator neverthless also Jackson's movie cut many important thing as Tumulinande
