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Fifteen years after it was originally released on Blu-ray, the 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Ringsis getting a reprint. Director Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings is being re-released via a Remastered Deluxe Edition Blu-ray in 1080p resolution. The movie, based on the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien books, was directed by Bakshi, with the screenplay coming from Chris Conkling and Peter S. Beagle.

The Blu-ray is available for pre-order on Amazon for $22.49 and will be officially released on June 24. The reprint will also include an interview series with Bakshi in which he discusses the making of the film. Before this reprinting, the animated The Lord of the Rings was only available on Blu-ray via a region-free imported edition. The movie is also available on DVD in a remastered deluxe edition for only $5 on Amazon.

What Does the Blu-Ray Include?

The Remastered Deluxe Edition of the iconic animated...

Ahead of the theatrical premiere of the new animated The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Max will be streaming another animated Middle-earth film. Collider reports that legendary animator, filmmaker and painter Ralph Bakshis 1978 animated The Lord of the Rings will begin streaming on Max starting on Dec. 1.

Bakshi directed the 1978 classic as well as 1977s Wizards. Maxs addition of The Lord of the Rings animated movie to its platform marks the first time its been available to stream. Previously, the movie was only available for rent or purchase on digital platforms like Prime Video.

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The Lord of the Rings animated movie features the voices of John Hurt as Aragorn and Anthony Daniels,...

Understandably overshadowed by Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning live action trilogy, Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a decidedly weird beast. There’s no faulting the ambition involved – Bakshi, screenwriters Peter S. Beagle and Chris Conkling and the crew of animators do an admirable job of squeezing the first half of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy epic into one flick.

Related: 10 Underrated Lord of The Rings Characters

But the film’s inconsistent visual style, hammy voice acting and disregard for the finer details of Tolkien’s mythos drag it down. Nevertheless, there’s also no denying that Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings gets more right than he and his team get credit for. Indeed, his spin on the source material is occasionally more faithful to the Middle-earth canon than Jackson’s movies. Don’t believe us? Read on, as we highlight 10 ways the animated Lord of the Rings...

Chicago – Last week we covered the highly anticipated Blu-ray release of “Lord of the Rings” and even had a chat with Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop about the Best Picture-winning film from director Peter Jackson. There may be a few fans of that series out there who don’t know that Jackson, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, and Ian McKellen weren’t the first to go to Middle Earth. Ralph Bakshi went there over three decades ago and his animated “Lord of the Rings” is now on Blu-ray for the first time.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

Watching it now, Bakshi’s “Lord of the Rings” feels like an interesting historical relic but you really have to put yourself in the shoes of a 1978 movie goer to thoroughly appreciate it. Animation for adults wasn’t nearly as common as it is now (this is even pre-“Heavy Metal”). Bakshi had broken ground in that...

Ralph Bakshi has been a visionary filmmaker and animator, whose ambitions always seemed larger than his talent. After cutting his teeth at Terry Toons, he talked his way into running Paramount’s dying animation arm before moving on to work such as the ABC Saturday morning Spider-Man series. He finally gained recognition when he set out to make feature-length films, beginning with the X-rated Fritz the Cat.

Bakshi’s tastes have always run towards edgy fare and he’s produced animated film son subjects Walt Disney or Don Bluth would never have approached, such as American Pop and Hey Good Lookin’ and for that he deserves credit. Unfortunately, in just about every case, the projects have been flawed, largely because not enough money was spent on the animation or the story so they never felt finished.

In the 1970s Bakshi was in the right place at the right time when...