Featured CED VideoDisc No. 22 - Fall 2001

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King

This CED feature covers three CED titles- the 1970's animated versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novels about the Hobbits and Middle-earth. This page covers "The Return of the King," while the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are on separate pages.

I've been planning this CED feature for over a year now in anticipation of the release of the first Lord of the Rings movie, but in light of the 9/11 attack, I believe Tolkien's works also serve as an allegory to conditions in this country leading up to the tragedy. America had a false sense of security with its friendly neighbors and geographic isolation, not unlike that of the Hobbits safe in the relative isolation of their Shire with friendly people about, oblivious to the gradually darkening world at large. Well, the Hobbits and their allies rose to the challenge, and we're accomplishing the same thing.

"The Return of the King" is the 1979 animated adaption by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass of the final volume of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. The storyline of "The Return of the King" takes place immediately after "The Two Towers," but a major portion of that volume was left off the animated movie version by Ralph Baskhi that came out the year before in 1978. But if you haven't read the books, it's still easy to follow the storyline due to the lengthy introduction at the start of this adaption, which was originally intended for television.

Tolkien's published "The Return of the King" is divided into two books that largely concern two separate but related storylines which makes adapting them for video or movie viewing difficult. A straight adaption of the published volume would require viewers to step back in time about half-way through to start the second storyline, which works well for reading but probably wouldn't translate effectively to the screen. Rankin/Bass (and my guess the producers of the upcoming movies as well) dealt with this by using a continuous timeline and frequently switching back and forth between the two separate storylines. This technique makes the animated "The Return of the King" seem much more different than it's published counterpart than either of the prior animated adaptations. Tolkien's "The Two Towers" was also split into two separate storylines, but since Ralph Bakshi's animated version dealt mainly with "The Fellowship of the Ring," the effect is not as noticeable.

"The Return of the King" has a similar look and feel to "The Hobbit," which makes sense, that also being a Rankin/Bass TV production. It is also musical, which I think is appropriate, since singing verses appear in the Tolkien books, although you have to imagine the melody for yourself. I even found myself humming the melody to the orc song "Where There's a Whip There's a Way" (at the start of Side 2) after watching the video. My biggest criticism is the character of Aragorn who for the most part just marches slowly around on a horse instead of being the action hero he was in the animated "The Lord of the Rings." Although this fits in somewhat with the book, Aragorn still had some action sequences at the start of "The Return of the King" that were skipped in this video adaption. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this in the live-action movies.

SPOILER ALERT!
The pictures below show most of the characters of "The Return of the Kings" and are intended to loosely review the plot. If you plan to read the books, I recommend not even looking at these pictures beforehand. One of the great things about Tolkien is his ability to evoke images in your mind, which can be spoiled by having a pre-conceived notion of what the character looks like. Clicking on the pictures will bring up pages that provide additional information, like quotes from the book and links to pages concerning those characters in the upcoming live-action movies. The pictures may also be viewed in slide show fashion.

Scenes from The Return of the King

Bilbo's 129th Birthday	Minstrel of Gondor	Tower of Cirith Ungol


Frodo Prisoner	Sam at Mordor	One Ring Found


Sting Found	Ring Tempts Samwise	Barad-dur


Minas Tirith	The Battlement	The White Tower


Orcs and Oliphaunts	Nazgul Aloft	Lord Denethor Despairs


Pippin Gets Help	Gandalf at Battlement	King Theoden


The Red Arrow	Merry Waits	Denethor Holds Palantir


Denethor Sees Defeat	Three Headed Watcher	An Invisible Wall


Phial of Galadriel	Many Dead Orcs	Sam Confronts Orc


Secret Trap Door	Snaga Falls	Frodo Rescued


Frodo Wants Ring	Hobbits As Orcs	Phial Overcomes Watchers


Nazgul Searches	Cross the Bridge	Dispose of Orc Mail


Cross Gorgoroth	Sleeping Hobbits	Join the Orcs


Escape at Crossroads	Battle Ram Grond	Lord of the Nazgul


Gandalf Faces Nazgul	Theoden Arrives	Frodo & Sam Rest


Climb Mount Doom	Gollum Waits	Gollum Attacks


Gollum Subdued	Door of Sammath Naur	Pippin & Merry in Battle


Theoden Falls	Frodo Keeps Ring	Dernhelm Faces Nazgul


Eowyn Revealed	Merry Strikes	Corsairs of Umbar


Flagship Standard	Aragorn Arrives	The Last Debate


March to Mordor	The Black Gate	The Mouth of Sauron


The Eye of Sauron	Gollum Fights for Ring	Gollum Bites


Gollum Teeters	Into the Fire	Mordor Falls


The Eagles Are Coming	Mount Doom Erupts	Eagles Rescue Hobbits


The Return of the King	Eowyn & Faramir	The Grey Havens


Crossing the Sea	Last Glimpse	Back to Hobbiton

Book Chapters from "The Return of the King" and Their CED Start Times
Chapter Title	CED Start Time
Book V, 1. Minas Tirith	Side 1, 21:11
Book V, 2. The Passing of the Grey Company	Skipped
Book V, 3. The Muster of Rohan	Side 1, 23:55
Book V, 4. The Siege of Gondor	Side 1, 22:07 and Side 2, 05:35 (Out of sequence)
Book V, 5. The Ride of the Rohirrim	Side 2, 09:40
Book V, 6. The Battle of the Pelennor Fields	Side 2, 12:49, 21:20, and 25:27
Book V, 7. The Pyre of Denrthor	Side 1, 23:16 (Out of sequence)
Book V, 8. The Houses of Healing	Skipped
Book V, 9. The Last Debate	Side 2, 29:35
Book V, 10. The Black Gate Opens	Side 2, 30:38
Book VI, 1. The Tower of Cirith Ungol	Side 1, 07:43 and 28:20 (Out of sequence)
Book VI, 2. The Land of Shadow	Side 1, 41:33 (Out of sequence)
Book VI, 3. Mount Doom	Side 2, 10:15, 13:01, 23:31, and 34:06
Book VI, 4. The Field of Cormallen	Side 2, 37:19
Book VI, 5. The Steward and the King	Side 2, 39:33
Book VI, 6. Many Partings	Side 1, 01:15 (Out of sequence)
Book VI, 7. Homeward Bound	Skipped
Book VI, 8. The Scouring of the Shire	Skipped
Book VI, 9. The Grey Havens	Side 1, 36:28 and Side 2, 42:00

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King

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