An Animated Guide to the Book

Rating: 5/10 (8 July 2006)

I would confidently give this movie a rating of 5, being half a movie. I would have to say that it is by no means on par with the unique aspect the book of the Lord of the Rings has over other books, in other words it's a run of the mill reproduction. It fails to contend with other good reproductions however because it failed to keep consistency, and due to the fact that the film had not the time to unfold every tale, it became a blur of emotional actors and wild looking battle scenes. Much like Star Wars.
It is obvious that the creation of the film was indeed a challenge and what not from the point of view of expenses etc. but this does not justify the conversion of what is quite an enjoyable richly written adventure novel into a Geek-Convention compliant film. I do believe that this film has indeed achieved this status, by the will of some ill-minded fool in production.
The reason why I gave this movie 5 and not 0 is because it does in fact (beyond having no plot for those who have not read the book) depict the scenes described in the book in a most masterful manner. If anything, we could omit the entire cast and the music for the sole purpose of having an animated aid in reading the book, perhaps scenes could be used as illustrations.
Beyond the visual excellence however, as stated previously, the film has lost all consistency of plot in it's evolution from the book. The characters' development is unstable, not wholly logical, and the emotions conveyed by the characters are also blurred to a great extent (experiencing every possible emotion in the one scene). In addition I cannot stress the frustration at the weakness of each character, as they moan over everything.
To sum up, this movie has charm and all that pertain to a Hollywood reproduction flick, though it is a poor mark-up on the book. It is however interesting for one who has read the book (the scenes and such), and those of the challenged daytime movie viewers. Verdict, watch while reading the book, with no sound on and perhaps just cutting out the odd scene with the great single-emotion actors such as Orlando Bloom or Elijah Wood.
Enjoy.