Sunday, January 6, 2013

The Return of the King (1980)

Directors: Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin Jr.

Starring: Orson Bean, Theodore Bikel, William Conrad, John Huston, Roddy McDowall, Brother Theodore, Paul Frees, Don Messick, John Stephenson, Casey Kasem, Sony Melendrez, Nellie Bellflower, Glenn Yarbrough

More info: IMDb


Plot: Two Hobbits struggle to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom while their friends desperately fight evil Lord Sauron's forces in a final battle.

 

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Probably.

Well, I watched this one last night for the very first time after revisiting (decades past the previous views) THE HOBBIT (1977) and THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1978).  Now I don't know if it's because I didn't catch this flick thirty years ago or if it was the last movie I watched after a long, hard day of trying to play catch up writing reviews for this blog (oh, the agony I suffer) or if maybe TRotK isn't nearly as good as the other two films.  I'm guessing it's the latter but I will give this one another shot sometime down the road.  The voice casting is good and it's nice to have John Huston back as Gandolf.  I don't think I've mentioned here how much love and respect I have for Paul Frees.  Look up his bio somewhere and you'll be impressed as hell.  This guy did everything and he was so good at it, too.  Anyway, the songs from THE HOBBIT never bothered me but they do here.  "Where there's a whip...there's a way."  Really?  WTF?  I guess I'll have to take the cheesy with the good.  It's interesting seeing these three films after the Peter Jackson ones and seeing little bits and pieces that he took inspiration from.  It shows the true fanboy in the guy and I respect that.

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