‘Lord of the Rings’ Anime Movie in the Works From New Line, Warner Animation

[Amadeus Arkham]

‘Lord of the Rings’ Anime Movie in the Works From New Line, Warner Animation Group

Twenty years after making its first journey into the lands created by J.R.R. Tolkien, New Line is returning to the worlds of The Lord of the Rings.

The Warner Bros. movie division, which made the Oscar-winning Rings trilogy and later adapted The Hobbit, has partnered with Warner Animation Group to produce an original anime set in Tolkien’s fantasy world, the companies announced Thursday.

Titled The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, the standalone feature will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama, an anime veteran who last directed Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex TV series, and produced by Joseph Chou. The two have worked on some of the biggest anime franchises over the years including Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya, Ultraman, Appleseed, on top of Ghost in the Shell.

[thwhtGuardian]

I'm not really sure how I feel about this, although with the death of Christopher Tolkien last December I suppose we should all prepare ourselves to see Middle Earth get commercialized like it never has been before.

[AndrewCrossett]

Merciful God, please guard my eyes and ears to prevent me from ever accidentally seeing or hearing any part of these attempts to whore out my favorite work of literature and turn it into a branded commodity for the further enrichment of soulless corporations. Amen.

[WebLurker]

Seems like franchise strip mining, to be honest, but I guess we'll see what the final product is. I'm at least curious about it.

[Frontier]

Well, Kenji Kamiyama has a high pedigree.

[thwhtGuardian]

Well, Kenji Kamiyama has a high pedigree.

Yeah, it could be a lot worse...but by the same token I had hoped that Gorō Miyazaki might have turned in a decent Earthsea movie but that was far from great.

[Jackalope89]

Well, Kenji Kamiyama has a high pedigree.

Some really big titles to his name, no doubt. And seeing the tale of Helm Hammerhand does sound interesting.

[Vakanai]

But I already have The Lord of the Rings animated...

[The Gold Stream]

desu frodo-chan

[Derek Metaltron]

I suppose one advantage of it being animated is that they can include characters from the original films and not worry about the aging thing. Rohan is a great choice for a setting too.

[ChrisIII]

Although not *technically* anime, The Hobbit and Return of the King animated movies were done by Rankin Bass, whose animation was done in large part in Japan.

[AndrewCrossett]

Although not *technically* anime, The Hobbit and Return of the King animated movies were done by Rankin Bass, whose animation was done in large part in Japan.

That Rankin-Bass Hobbit had its problems, one of which was a mostly-American voice cast. (Brother Theodore did a *great* Gollum, though.) The elves looked like Gelflings from The Dark Crystal, and they didn't have the budget to animate big important scenes like the Battle of Five Armies. But it was still a better adaptation of the book than the Peter Jackson one.

Return of the King was terrible, though. Apparently nobody told them this wasn't a kids' story like The Hobbit basically was.

[Frontier]

And the Lord of the Lash says...

[Castle]

Warner Media is clearly confused of what to do with the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises.

[WebLurker]

Warner Media is clearly confused of what to do with the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises.

Why do you say that?