Adaptation Face-Off

The Lord of the Rings Adaptation Face-Off is a lengthy essay written by My Little Raptor. Its purpose is to attempt to definitively prove which of the filmmakers who adapted JRR Tolkien legendary literary work to screen did it best. While the review is one-part-Tongue and Cheek and one-part Caustic Critic with unhealthy doses of Accentuate the Negative, it has maintained itself by being a fairly enjoyable read. The work can be found it here: Adaptation Face-Off It is still a work in-progress. This project is not about telling people that all the adaptations suck or that anyone is stupid for liking any of them. This is all just My Little Raptor's opinion.

This work may contain examples of:

• Accentuate the Negative: Admittely, while the author does admit to several things that Ralph Bakshi and Rannkin-Bass did well, he by large concentrates most of his energy on the negative aspects of their renditions of the book.
• Actually Pretty Funny: when an intended humorous moment actually works.
• Adaptation Decay and Adaptation Distillation: the work goes out of its way to discuss which is which, and why they do or don't work. Crosses with Adaptation-Induced Plothole at times, especially when discussing Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings Part One and Part Two: The Return of the King which give particularly heinous examples.
• Author Appeal: it's made clear from the beginning that the author is a big fan of both JRR Tolkien and Peter Jackson.
• Author Tract: several times.
• Caustic Critic: My Little Raptor is quite harsh in some of his (arguably) deserved criticism of some of the creative choices made by Bakshi and others.
• Continuity Lock Out: at innumerable points in the work this is pointed out as being a huge problem with the two animated adaptations as they often fail to properly explain plot points that are fairly important.
• Deadpan Snarker: just try to read it without hearing this tone when the author isn't ranting.
• Deranged Animation: to quote the text of the work, It should also be noted that the animation while present is hideous.
• Disneyfication: the author mentions that while it happens a lot in the Rankin-Bass version, even Bakshi makes a few decisions akin to this, such as reducing Sam to odious comic relief.
• Eighties Hair: pointed out in Frodo and (S)aruman's case.
• Everything Is Not Better With Sparkles: the overdone displays of magic in the Ralph Bakshi animated The Lord of the Rings-Part One are referred to as proof that illegal substances were used behind the scenes.
• Fan Nickname: dubs thee Saruman as Santaman.
• Ho Yay: In-Universe example includes an instance where the author implies that all heterosexual love interests (Arwen and Rosie) were cut from the film so that Bakshi could insert this.
• Inconsistent Dub: the review discusses the screening which let to the Executive Meddling of changing Saruman's name to Aruman...only to have the characters rever to referring to him as Saruman again half the time.
• Jerkass: in the Bakshi version, My Little Raptor describes how the entire Fellowship treats each other as 'abrasive, disrespect, and unfriendly'.
• Lemony Narrator: shows some signs of this.
• Lighter and Softer: heavily criticizes the Bankin-Bass Return of the King for taking this approach.
• Mistakenly Banned: I, the author, have gotten into some trouble with this paper before. I was accused of trolling and fan hating and was temperarily banned from a forum before everything was cleared up. While it is true that I don't understand why anyone likes Ralph Bakshi's rendition of The Lord of the Rings, I DO NOT hate anyone for it, nor do I think any of you are stupid for liking it. This is not about trolling. This is about expressing my opinion, and nothing more.
• Opinion Myopia: that anyone defends the Bakshi rendition baffles the work's author to no end. Not to the point of fan hating, though.
• Re Cap: reads a lot like something from The Agony Booth.
• Sanity Slippage: a few times when the Adaptation Decay gets so bad that it baffles the author to the point of breaking his brain.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Deconstructed heavily while discussing the Rankin Bass version when the orcs sadly sing "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" as the author disgustedly points out the orcs have a deeply rooted hatred for all other life and as such destroy and ruin all in their path, are masters of physical and psychological torture, and act with the upmost sadistic cruelty towards their enemies.
• Squick: has this reaction to the Bakshi version of Samwise several times. In fact, the author, on no uncertain terms, refers to Sam as an unnatural abomination that Gandalf couldn't curse if he wanted.
• Too Dumb to Live: the author thinks everyone in the Bakshi rendition is this.
• TV Tropes: several terms originating from the site are peppered throughout the essay/review/recap.
• Unreliable Narrator: calls both The Minstrel of Gondor and Gandalf out for this during the entire How We Got Here song at the opening of The Return of the King.