Alternative adaptations of LoTR and TH

Not seen that and pretty sure the ole crabbit meter couldn't cope if I ever did. I also read his review of Bakshi's version- harsher than mine- but then he was also taking the easy option of swiping at the visuals and the 70's attempt and combining live action and animation (and in fairness done with todays technology it would look very different)- thats like shooting fish in a barrel.

Reviewing the animated movies in general is like shooting fish in a barrel. That review cracked me up; I'll have to read his Bakshi review later and see how it compares to the one on Tolkien Sarcasm.

Sat down and listened to the BBC radio adaptation while I was eating breakfast this morning. Haven't listened to it for ages and I had almost forgotten how good it is! We've had so many newcomers since we last discussed this adaptation, so I can only recommend all of you who haven't heard it, talk to Petty (you still got them on the Skydrive, right?) and start downloading the first part

Sadly they are there no longer Ringdrotten- I had to make space for the HD edits.

I dont like the opening of the radio plays, the Black Riders are too polite and rational sounding, and I could do with a different choice of singing style for the eagles but apart from that they are a pretty damn good adaptation overall. And miles ahead of PJ's.

Not very fond of the beginning myself, but I just skipped that. Like you said, the rest is ace

I just listened to a few minutes of the BBC version. I seem to remember somewhere Petty said he preferred the Gollum on BBC to Serkis, claiming there was more depth of feeling. In my ears it's overdone, and the BBC version sounds more like Marvin the Paranoid Android than Gollum to me.

Dont know how far youve listend but the clincher for me is the Dead Marshes.

Ha! I knew there was a thread somewhere talking about the radio plays. And youre still wrong Halfwise even all these months later!!

He's not you know.

Yep, to my ears the Gollum in the movies was pitch perfect. And being that I'm critical of so much else in the movies you know I'm not being a PJ lover. I liked the extrapolated bipolar scenes too.

i hate the smimplification of the haracter to good Gollum/bad Smeagol

Did you ever listen to the dead marshes section of the radio play?- its one of the best examples of how much more pity and sadness, and edge, that version has over Serkis flatter 2D interpretation.

I too hate it when people smimplify the haracters of both good Gollum and bad Smeagol, Petty!

Im drunk already! Bound to be th eodd error creeps in...

Actually, you almost create a new language when you spell tings drunkenly, Petty. Let me try:

Yo uare a blith eringid ot, Pet tytyr ant!

I've just discovered our first Forumshire dialect.

I'm starting a new thread.... sorry.... I'm start ingane wthread!

If you're not feeling the burn I think u should evade prey while holding free weights or treading water in place at stoplights

NEWSFLASH


Sure you have, Ally, but I suspect it's pure teenage angst.


Lesbo Proudfoot
Editor
The Archet Bugle

How can a newspaper have a newsflash Leslie

It's Lesbo, thanks --- and we're talking about The Archet Bugle, a trendsetting Journal ---- not some Scottish oily rag...

Ah yes the Bugle is setting a trend alright, a suspious, dubious trend however.

You haven;'ta answered my question

BREAKING NEWS - PRIMITIVE BACKWATER DISCOVERED

It seems there is still one place in Forumshire that the Digital Age hasn't reached, a primitive backwater by all accounts called Whales!

Lesbo Proudfoot
Shocked Editor
The Archet Bugle

Whales? as in sea mammal whales?

Whales in the west of Forumshire.... Where Ally comes from. By the coast where you can see whales from the hinterland. It's how Whales and the Whelsh got their names. It's in the Forumshire Encyclopedia somewhere. You must get a copy, Mrs Figg.

This I think these provide a good argument for why Lord of the Rings should be made as a tv series- you just cant get the sort of depth of character and interaction into a film you can in a serial-





I also cant resit putting some of the soundtrack by Stephen Oliver here- as most of it I really like-




O Lorien! The Winter comes,
the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream,
the River flows away.
upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined
the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing,
what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back
across so wide a Sea?


From dark Dunharrow in the dim morning
with thane and captain rode Thengel's son:
to Edoras he came, the ancient halls
of the mark-wardens mist-enshrouded;
golden timbers were in gloom mantled.
Farewell he bade to his free people,
hearth and high-seat, and the hallowed places,
where long he had feasted ere the light faded.
Forth rode the king, fear behind him,
fate before him. Fealty kept he;
oaths he had taken, all fulfilled them.
Forth rode Theoden. Five nights and days
east and onward rode the Eorlingas
through Folde and Fenmarch and the Firienwood,
six thousand spears to Sunlending,
Mundburg the mighty under Mindolluin,
Sea-kings' city in the South-kingdom
foe beleagured, fire encircled.
Doom drove them on. Darkness took them,
horse and horsemen; hoofbeats afar
sank into silence: so the songs tell us.


We come, we come with roll of drum
We come, we come with horn and drum:
To Isengard! Though Isengard be ringed
and barred with doors of stone;
Though Isengard be stong and hard,
as cold as stone and bare as bone,

We go, we go, we go to war,
to hew the stone and break the door;
For bole and bough are burning now,
the furnace roars - we go to war!

To land of gloom with tramp of doom,
with roll of drum, we come, we come;
To Isengard with doom we come!
With doom we come, with doom we come!


We heard of the horns in the hills ringing,
the swords shining in the South-kingdom.
Steeds went striding to the stoningland
as wind in the morning. War was kindled.
There Theoden fell, Thengling mighty,
to his golden halls and green pastures
in the Northern fields never returning,
high lord of the host. Harding and Guthlaf,
Dunhere and Deorwine, doughty Grimbold,
Herefara and Herubrand, Horn and Fastred,
fought and fell there in a far country:
in the mounds of Mundburg under mould they lie
with their league-fellows, lords of Gondor.
Neither Hirluin the Fair to the hills by the sea,
nor Forlong the old to the flowering vales
ever, to Arnach, to his own country
returned in triumph; nor the tall bowmen,
Derufin and Duilin, to their dark waters,
meres of Morthond under mountain-shadows.
Death in the morning and at the day's ending
lords took and lowly. Long now they sleep
under grass in Gondor by the Great River.
Grey now as tears, gleaming silver,
red then it rolled, roaring water:
foam dyed with blood flamed at sunset;
as beacons mountains burned at evening;
red fell the dew in Rammas Echor.


Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing:
The last whose realm was fair and free
Between the mountains and the sea.

His sword was long, his lance was keen.
His shining helm afar was seen.
The countless stars of heaven's field
Were mirrored in his silver shield.

But long ago he rode away,
And where he dwelleth none can say.
For into darkness fell his star;
In Mordor, where the shadows are.


Learn now the Lore of Living Creatures!
First name the four, the free peoples:
Eldest of all, the elf-children;
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;
Ent the earthborn, old as mountains;
Man the mortal, master of horses:
Beaver the builder, buck the leaper,
Bear bee-hunter, boar the fighter;
Hound is hungry, hare is fearful,
Eagle in eyrie, ox in pasture,
Hart horn-crownéd; hawk is swiftest,
Swan the whitest, serpent coldest...

When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream, and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is fair!

When Spring is come to garth and field, and corn is in the blade;
When blossom like a shining snow is on the orchard laid;
When shower and Sun upon the Earth with fragrance fill the air,
I'll linger here, and will not come, because my land is fair.

When Summer lies upon the world, and in a noon of gold
Beneath the roof of sleeping leaves the dreams of trees unfold;
When woodland halls arae green and cool, and wind is in the West,
Come back to me! Come back to me, and say my land is best!

When Summer warms the hanging fruit and burns the berry brown;
When Straw is gold, and ear is white, and harvest comes to town;
When honey spills, and apple swells, though wind be in the West,
I'll linger here beneath the Sun, because my land is best!

When Winter comes, the winter wild that hill and wood shall slay;
When trees shall fall and starless night devour the sunless day;
When wind is in the deadly East, then in the bitter rain
I'll look for thee, and call to thee; I'll come to thee again!

When Winter comes, and singing ends; when darkness falls at last;
When broken is the barren bough, and light and labour past;
I'll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again:
Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!

Together we will take the road that leads into the West,
And far away will find a land where both our hearts may rest.


Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar,
I'll find the heavens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-earth at last.
I see the Star above my mast!

Now those voices sound better! (not glorfindel or the nazgul though). A bit too fast for my tastes, but otherwise they seem to match the characters better than the bakshi voices.

I like the shadowfax, march of the ents and farewell to Frodo themes, the rest sound too conventionally orchestral to me; pulls me back to our own world too much. Some of the voice work is very dated to mid 20th century, much like the 70's haircuts in Star Wars.