Tim Burton was incorrectly identified as an animator on this movie. However, Ralph Bakshi clarified that Burton only cleaned the dust off animation cels and did not animate any sequences in the film.
Predominantly filmed with live actors in black-and-white and rotoscoped, each animation cel drawn over a film frame of an actor. However, several sequences do not use rotoscoping.
Peter Jackson first encountered The Lord of the Rings via this movie, and some shots in his live-action trilogy were influenced by it. One such shot features Frodo and the other Hobbits hiding from a Black Rider under a big tree root, while the Black Rider stalks above them. In his version of the sequence, Jackson uses a similar shot, although he filmed it from a different angle (in the book, Frodo hid separately from the other Hobbits). A second sequence features the camera slowly revolving around Strider and the Hobbits, who stand in a circle as the Black Riders approach them on Weathertop. In his staging, Jackson also used a similar shot, although his camera was much faster, and Strider is not amongst the Hobbits. A third similarity was the depiction of Gollum losing the Ring in the prologue: both movies show similar events, but the book had no such prologue, and it runs directly counter to Tolkien's scheme for the storyline. Another similarly staged scene is Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn's discovery of Gandalf the White.
Director Ralph Bakshi had originally planned to use music by Led Zeppelin in this movie, but was unable to get the rights. Led Zeppelin band members were known to be fans of the books, with several of their songs, "Misty Mountain Hop", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "The Battle of Evermore", and "Ramble On", referencing imagery and characters from Tolkien's books.
Peter Woodthorpe (Gollum) and Michael Graham Cox (Boromir) played their roles again in the BBC radio dramatization in 1981. The role of Frodo was played by Sir Ian Holm, who appeared as Bilbo in Peter Jackson's movies.