Bakshi had never watched the films, but saw trailers and while he praised the special effects, he said that Jackson "didn't understand" Tolkien and created "special effects garbage" to sell toys, saying his film has "more heart" and that, had he a similar budget, would have made a better film. Bakshi was told the live-action film was derivative of his own, and blamed Jackson for not acknowledging this influence: "Peter Jackson did say that the first film inspired him to go on and do the series, but that happened after I was bitching and moaning to a lot of interviewers that he said at the beginning that he never saw the movie. I thought that was kind of fucked up." Bakshi then said that Jackson mentioned his influence "only once" as "PR bologny". Jackson, who took a fan photograph with Bakshi in 1993, remains puzzled about Bakshi's indignation. In 2015, Bakshi apologized for some of his remarks. Bakshi's animator Mike Ploog praised the live-action film.