Critics gave mixed responses to the film, but generally considered it to be a "flawed but inspired interpretation". Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which compiles reviews from a wide range of critics, gave the film a score of 52% based on reviews from 42 critics with the consensus: "Ralph Bakshi's valiant attempt at rendering Tolkien's magnum opus in rotoscope never lives up to the grandeur of its source material, with a compressed running time that flattens the sweeping story and experimental animation that is more bizarre than magical."