MY OXFORD YEAR (2025), review
A running commentary, mild rant, and appreciation by Marcel R. Bülles aka the Tolkienist I was born to do a review of this particular romantic comedy. I will tell you why. I have...
Category: Films
The Travelling Tolkienist: The fan screening of “War of the Rohirrim” in Lucerne, Switzerland, was a blast
This is a report of my fairly spontaneous visit to an absolutely lovely event in Lucerne: the fan screening of Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim in Switzerland’s most popular museum,...
New Tolkien documentary coming Dec 5th – I’m in it!
Tolkien – Die wahre Geschichte der Ringe is a multi-station public broadcasting cooperation between Arte, ZDF, and phoenix. In its about ninety minutes of runtime directors Jean-Christoph Caron (head of documentaries with ZDF/ARTE)...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 7: What Changed with Peter Jackson?
Part 6 | Part 5 | Part 4 | Part 3 | Part 2 | Part 1 This series has looked at 10 adaptations of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit that...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 6: The Hobbits (1993, directed by Timo Torikka)
Hobitit, a nine-episode miniseries released on Finnish TV, is probably the most difficult of these media to find—at least through legitimate methods like streaming or DVD. Which is a shame because it’s perhaps...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 5: The Russian Adaptations
Russia had a particularly passionate interest in The Lord of the Rings even before a full translation of the book became available in the 1990s. There were three adaptions (completed and otherwise) of...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 4: The Lord of the Rings (1978, Directed by Ralph Bakshi)
Note: For more on the famous alleged Tolkien quote on the poster for the 1978 Lord of the Rings movie, check out this post. Ralph Bakshi holds a curious place in animation, because...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 3: The Rankin-Bass Adaptations
While Rankin-Bass is best-known to American audiences for their Christmas TV special Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, the company also produced a number of traditional animation films. Fantasy film experts may remember their adaption...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 2: Lord of the Rings (1971, directed by Bo Hansson)
Fans of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit frequently mention Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 movie or the Rankin-Bass 1977 The Hobbit (both of which will be discussed later in this series). Since...
Tolkien Before Jackson Part 1: Intro and The Hobbit (1966)
The release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy changed how viewers and critics see fantasy films, leading many to unearth prior adaptations of Tolkien to see how they compare. In the...
How I learned to stop worrying and love the adaptation
There are few things in life that elicit a simultaneous sense of excitement and fear quite like the announcement that one of your favourite books is about to be adapted for the screen....
Rankin/ Bass Productions’ “The Hobbit” and “Return of the King” remastered – a review of “The Hobbit”
uly 22, 2014 sees the release of digitally remastered versions of Rankin/Bass Productions’ animated television specials “The Hobbit” and “The Return of the King”. Time to reevaluate how films brought Tolkien’s worlds to...