Let’s talk about Ralph Bakshi. He’s essentially the father of American animation for adults, beginning his career by making movies like Fritz the Cat , Heavy Traffic , and Coonskin , all raunchy politically incorrect urban satires. Nevertheless, these movies were fairly well-received for their surreality and unconventional boldness, if vulgar subject matter and unappealing animation. After transitioning to the fantasy genre through an incredibly weird film called Wizards , Bakshi became intent on making an animated film out of one of his favourite books, The Lord of the Rings . The issue being, “a” film singular. Though Bakshi initially wanted to make at least two films, the second never came to fruition, and so he frustratingly wound up adapting The Fellowship of the Ring and half of The Two Towers , without getting to finish the series. But he completed the film regardless, and in 1978 one of Tolkien’s stories hit the big screen for the first time. And while
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