Tolkien in Adaptation: A Turbulent History

Amazon’s Rings of Power is finally out (at least the first three episodes as of this writing) and a fair bit of the controversy that led up to the series’ release has continued. In the midst of this, a lot of people have compared the new Amazon show exclusively to Peter Jackson’s films, ignoring the many other adaptations already in existence. In many cases, people are ignoring the changes that were made in those films as if Rings of Power is the only adaptation to make big changes. Because of this, I thought it would be fun to do a quick overview of a few past adaptations of Tolkien’s work, as several of those have just as much, or in some cases even more, drama and controversy than Rings of Power. It is truly fascinating!

The Hobbit, William L Snyder and Gene Deitch, 1966/67 (timeline slightly unclear)

Starting with the first and most bizarre of them all, many people aren’t aware that this one even exists. It was buried until 2012 when a blog post from writer and director Gene Deitch revealed the story behind this one and the only existing copy was uploaded to YouTube by one of William L Snyder’s kids.

At just under 12 minutes long, this version has Bilbo marrying a princess after going on the journey because of a prophecy. It was the result of a rush job to keep hold of the rights after not managing a full adaptation, and afterward the rights got sold back to Tolkien for $100,000. Snyder kept every cent even though Deitch did all of the work, even having planned out a full film before it was tragically cut down for the rush job. It is available on YouTube, and Dominic Noble does a good job of explaining the story behind the production on his channel as well.

The rushed status of the production shows, as the animation is mostly a camera moving over still images, and it is hard to hear the narrator at points over music and sound effects. It is a truly an odd adaptation with an even more bizarre production story.

The Hobbit, Rankin/Bass, 1977

I have yet to manage to watch this one, I will admit that right off the bat, but I very much want to at some point. This was the second official Tolkien adaptation, and it was animated. This time around, a complete film was developed, with a full cast and animation that looks pretty good from what little I have seen of it. Based on the Wikipedia article, it appears to cover the majority of the book, with only Beorn missing so far as I can see based on memory.

The behind the scenes is, so far as I know, entirely less dramatic than the previous adaptation, with the only sort of “drama” being that this adaptation and its sequel, the animated Return of the King, being frequently mistakenly lumped together with Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings film as a trilogy, even though the Bakshi film was an entirely separate project.

This adaptation is best remembered today as the first well-known and complete adaptation, as well as for influencing Peter Jackson.

The Lord of the Rings, Ralph Bakshi, 1978

I just recently acquired a DVD copy of this, though I have yet to get the chance to sit and watch it. This is animated, like Rankin/Bass’ Hobbit, though, as just stated, is unrelated. It covers Fellowship as well as some parts of The Two Towers, and then ends.

Originally it was meant to be a trilogy, only to have the opposite of the Peter Jackson Hobbit treatment. Budget restraints cut it from a trilogy to a two-parter, and then, after audience disappointment due to the film feeling unfinished (the “Part 1” was left off the title, so there was possibly some confusion) and arguments with producer Saul Zaentz, part two never got made.

There was also plenty of drama with Rankin and Bass, with attempts to stop their version of The Hobbit that came out the year prior, as well as their sequel film of Return of the King. Rankin/Bass had apparently always planned to use Lord of the Rings material to make a sequel to their Hobbit film, but this was obviously also going to create competition for the Bakshi film.

Mick Jagger approached Bakshi to play Frodo in this one. At this point the voices had already been recorded for the film, however, so it didn’t happen, though that could have proven quite interesting.

This adaptation is best known today for being influential on the Jackson films, like its predecessor, as well as for the revolutionary use of rotoscoping.

Return of the King, Rankin/Bass, 1980

Another one I have yet to actually watch, but the behind the scenes gets really fun here in the finale of the Rankin/Bass vs. Ralph Bakshi film feud. This one apparently got slapped with a lawsuit from the Tolkien Estate and Fantasy Films, the production company for the Bakshi film, on account of not having the television rights to the book for the US and Canada. It got settled, however, and the film premiered as a television special, just like The Hobbit before it.

It picks up with Sam rescuing Frodo from Shelob and goes through to the end, with Frodo leaving from the Grey Havens. At 98 minutes, a fair bit appears to be missing, but the general gist of the story seems to be there.

And in the end, the rights to all three animated films all wound up being owned by Warner Brothers, who now markets them as an animated trilogy, which I can only imagine is a true nightmare for Ralph Bakshi after his attempts to stop the Rankin/Bass Return of the King. For a little more info on that and the lawsuit, check here.

This one, so far as I can tell, is best remembered for being bizarre. While I haven’t seen and therefore cannot confirm (and that would be up to personal tastes anyway), that does seem to make sense with how short the runtime is on a Tolkien adaptation that isn’t The Hobbit.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Peter Jackson, 2001–2003

Probably the most well known of the adaptations, this was what got me hooked on Tolkien originally. I was a child when these movies were coming out. I remember being 8 years old and coloring pictures on the floor in the living room and looking up just in time to see the flaming Denethor plummet from the top level of Mina’s Tirith. I’ve probably watched all of these films a million times now, and in extended edition, too (the best way).

Regardless of what people have been saying lately, there are changes from the source material, some of them big. Some are around characterization, such as Aragorn going from ready and willing to a more reluctant king, and some are details like Denethor no longer having a Palantir. Entire characters are cut such as Prince Imrahil, Arwen’s brothers, and Tom Bombadil (resulting in the Barrow Wights sequence being cut) and scenes such as the entire Scouring of the Shire.

Regardless, the music is phenomenal, the cinematography is beautiful, and the cast was perfect. What changes are there work well for adapting a book to a film, for the most part the plot and themes stay the same, and I do consider this trilogy to be the gold standard of cinematic storytelling (Though I do feel for Viggo Mortensen breaking his toe kicking the helmet in The Two Towers).

Would I love to see The Scouring of the Shire on screen? Yes, that would be cool. But where it works in a book, it would feel out of place at the end of a film trilogy after the biggest conflict has been resolved. I understand the choice to cut it here. It would make a pretty good short film on its own, though, I believe. Tom Bombadil would also be fantastic in a short film. I hope to see both on screen sometime.

Lord of the Rings: The Musical, music by A. R. Rahman, Christopher Nightingale and the band Värttinä, and book and lyrics by Matthew Warchus and Shaun McKenna, 2007

The return of Saul Zaentz, the original rights-holder from the 1978 Lord of the Rings. This time, instead of producing a film, he chose to produce a musical adaptation that has gone down as one of the most notorious West End flops. This baby opened in Toronto at 3.5 hours long with a cast of 65 and got nominated for and also won some Dora awards before transferring to London, England, with a bunch of rewrites that cut it down to 3 hours.

I’ve never seen the musical; it closed in London in 2008, the Toronto run was only in 2006, and I was a full province away. I only learned about it 5 years later in 2011/2012 while reading a fanfic that used lyrics from “The Cat and the Moon”, a hobbit drinking song from the musical. But I was hooked the moment I began listening to the songs. I’ve got the London cast recording, I’ve watched every bit of pro-shot and bootlegged footage I can find, and I am eagerly hoping that someday the alleged 2015 world tour will happen. We’re finally getting the Wicked film that was supposed to come out around that time, so surely that means there’s hope for this one too, right?

Anyway, this show could probably have an entire article on its own about what all was going on there. Constant understudy slips from actors getting injured by set pieces (one actor had his leg trapped by a hydraulic lift), a garbled script from trying to condense all three volumes of Lord of the Rings first into 3.5 hours, then only 3 hours (The Jackson trilogy clocks about 12 hours in extended and is STILL missing some things) and in a musical, too. Critics were very divided, and the bad reviews did eventually kill it unfortunately. At one point when I first found this thing’s existence nine years ago, there was a very concise article going into detail on everything, but unfortunately I can no longer find it.

Regardless of the issues, I would still love to see it just for the experience. They went all out in their aims for a mega-musical; it looks beautiful based on what clips are available, and the music is great. Apparently they had hobbits and orcs going through the audience, and some of the magic effects went out to the audience as well. I managed to get a promotional poster from the Toronto production at a convention a couple years ago, and I love it! It’s definitely one of the most unique things in my collection. Should that 2015 world tour ever come about, I know I’ll be first in line for a ticket.

The Hobbit Trilogy, Peter Jackson, 2012–2014

A lot of people hate this adaptation, though I personally really enjoy it. The history behind this one is really interesting, too. It was in lawsuit Hell for about 12–13 years before any actual development could really begin. Peter Jackson was finally announced to be the producer for the film in 2007, but things got slowed down by a lawsuit from the Tolkien Estate in 2008 that was resolved in 2009 (It was over a breach of contract and not receiving enough money from New Line Cinemas for the earlier trilogy).

Despite the ongoing suit, preproduction began in 2008, Guillermo del Toro was brought on to direct, and there would be hours and hours of script writing going on for the next few years as the team kept finding new things in the story to highlight. At the end of May 2010, Guillermo del Toro left production due to delays resulting from MGM’s financial troubles causing scheduling conflicts. Peter Jackson was then in negotiation to direct around June 2010, and in October 2010 it was officially announced that The Hobbit would be going into production with Peter Jackson as director, with the filming beginning in January 2011. (After sorting out an industry dispute in New Zealand, as if this film hadn’t already gone through enough production Hell.)

Anyone who knows anything about filmmaking knows this is a big yikes situation. The original director had just left, and Jackson was now on just three months out from the beginning of filming. Scripts were unfinished. There were no storyboards. Both directors had different visions for the story, though both wanted to make use of the appendices of Lord of the Rings.

While many have been upset about the inclusion of that material as it wasn’t present in the original Hobbit book, I like its inclusion. The Hobbit was written before Tolkien had ever even thought up Lord of the Rings. After publishing The Lord of the Rings, he even went back and retconned the Riddles in the Dark chapter so that Gollum and the ring would better fit into his new story. In a world where most people now know The Lord of the Rings a bit better than The Hobbit, or at the very least know that they’re all connected, having that included makes sense as it helps tie it all together a bit better. There are some things that worked well, others that didn’t work so well, but overall I think the movies were done pretty well considering the production issues and having to film with little to no prep. It’s impressive, and the films are enjoyable, at least to me.

Rings of Power, Amazon Prime Video, Ongoing from 2022

This is the current big controversial one for everyone. Only the first three episodes have released so far, and personally, I’m a big fan. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful, the architectural choices for each location are stunning, and it was particularly exciting to finally see Numenor and how it has been set up to be a clear influence on Gondor (Which will be founded by men of Numenor later in the timeline).

Sure, it has changes; it severely condenses timelines, but a lot of Tolkien’s writing had inconsistencies. He never stopped writing and he changed his mind. With Galadriel in particular, Christopher Tolkien said in Unfinished Tales that “there is no part of the history of Middle-earth more full of problems than the story of Galadriel and Celeborn, and it must be admitted that there are severe inconsistencies ‘embedded in the traditions’; or, to look at the matter from another point of view, that the role and importance of Galadriel only emerged slowly, and that her story underwent continual refashionings.”

Anyway, Amazon only has the rights to the appendices of Lord of the Rings. Not Unfinished Tales, not The Silmarillion, just the appendices. Should they be making a full, five season show with that little source material? Maybe, maybe not, but they got the rights and they are, and so far I believe that it has been a worthy addition to the universe. A lot of those additional writings with the deep lore for Tolkien can be a bit inaccessible the way they’re written, and so far I think this works is a good introduction, the same way that Hamilton and Six are good intros to American and Tudor history. Always accurate to source material? Not necessarily, but it still captures the imagination and for some, it makes you want to dig deeper into that source material. The original lore is there for those who want to explore it, and for those who don’t, they get a fun new show in a universe they enjoy.

Additionally, Tolkien was writing a mythology. Living mythologies in cultures adapt and change overtime. If anything, this is a testament to just how enduring Tolkien’s work is. That people can still connect to it and love it half a century after the author’s death, and find ways to tell new and original stories in the world that he created. It’s not the same sort of adaptation as the Peter Jackson films, or Eragon, or Percy Jackson, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. It’s an original story set during the second age based off of limited source material, and so far I think it works.

I’m happy to admit that I’m really enjoying this show so far. It looks beautiful, the music is beautiful, the cast is doing an amazing job so far — I particularly can’t wait to see more of Disa — and the storylines they have going on so far have me intrigued. It’s exciting to read all of the theories on The Stranger and who Adar might be. I cried with Arondir over the tree. Seeing the set up of Elendil’s family while knowing how that ends gave me more feelings than I expected. Honestly, I really can’t wait to see where they’re going with everything. Whatever the outcome, I know it will be an interesting ride.

Conclusion

In the end, adaptations of Tolkien’s work have always had some form of controversy and/or problems behind the scenes. Rings of Power is just the latest in a long line of interesting adaptation tales. It’s not the first, nor will it be the last. There are also several fan films available online that I haven’t covered, as well as video games, and there is an upcoming animated film called War of the Rohirrim on the horizon for 2024. No matter how Rings of Power turns out in the end, it will certainly be the favorite for someone, and it is truly wonderful how there are so many ways to enjoy the universe Tolkien created, regardless of how messy the process may have been in creating these adaptations. I firmly believe there is something for everyone in this universe, whether it be the original books, with or without the expanded lore, or any number of the different adaptations. Middle Earth is truly a universe that will continue to endure for years to come.