when rankin and bass unveil their version of tolkien the hobbit in 1977 and it be a charming if abbreviate make for television animate film that be fun and even a bit scary . their voice cast choice be fine and especially richard boone and whose cancer rasp voice bring the dragon smaug to life and and theodore a the creepy and loathsome gollum and who evoke fear and disgust but little pity . in 1978 and ralph bakshi attempt to bring the first half of the lord of the ring trilogy to the big screen in his lushly animate epic . unfortunately and his big budget film flop and much to the disappointment of tolkien fan and and bakshi would be unable to make his sequel . in an effort to finish off the unfinished series and rankin and bass try to make their own version to satisfy the audience who want to see closure . it be and remain an unmitigated disaster . why be this cartoon so awful . well and the answer lie mainly in the word cartoon . unlike the hobbit and which feature beautifully paint scenery that evoke delicate watercolor and ethereal linework and which have so evidently be craft with love care and cast with thought to match character to actor and the return of the king have all the earmark of have be hastily cobble together . it wasn not so much an animated homage to a great writer work a a hatchet job . a huge chunk of the event in tolkien book be miss between where bakshi fairly faithful rendition end and this abomination begin . the drawing be slap together and be often repetitious and ugly . voice actor from the first film return and some of them work represent orson bean be fine a frodo and theodore be again great a gollum and theodore bikel do a fine job a aragorn and and roddy mcdowall be wonderful a samwise gamgee . the rest be abysmal . instead of hire actor to do the character and cartoon voice actor such a don messick ( scooby doo ) and casey kasem ( shaggy ) be cast . it be downright painful to hear a nazgull be do by scooby doo through a distortion filter . many character integral to tolkien story be cast away represent where be gimli . faromir . any of the elf ( other than elrond ) such a legolas or glorfindel . how about the army of the dead or sauroman . merry and pippin do not develop a character while gollum remain merely vile and a if bakshi attempt to show this tortured be strangely noble and pathetic side never happen . the dialog be stilted and sometimes unintentionally hilarious ( a the flag standard break the wind . . . ) . it be awful beneath description from begin to end and appear to be a shameless attempt to cash in on the hope of frustrated fan who would want the second animated movie make . that and of course and be the entire problem . this cartoon be and despite it trapping and claim and just a cartoon and less charming by far than the hobbit and far less noble than bakshi film . both of those be honest attempt at create art and and each succeed in it limited way until swept aside by peter jackson and who finally give tolkien opus the treatment it deserve . the two early film merit a place of honor for try to achieve cinematic beauty . rankin and bass the return of the king deserve to simply be forget .