There is a long history of animated Tolkien films stretching back to the established animation studio Rankin Bass’ animated version of The Hobbit in 1977. This was followed by Ralph Bakshi’s infamous and sadly incomplete 1978 version of The Lord of the Rings, which seemed to inspire Rankin Bass to “complete” it with its own animated version of The Return of the King in 1980. (Younger generations might find it impossible to believe there was nothing else Tolkien related to watch on screen before 2001…) While these versions certainly employ Tolkien’s penchant for inserting songs into the dialogue, they are controversial amongst the current generation of fans for a range of reasons relating from significant departures from the text to animation quality. But much more recently a new animated film has been made, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim in 2024 in a Japanese anime style. It certainly had better production values and animation quality than the older films, but received a mixed reaction from critics and fans. Even so, animation would seem to offer limitless possibilities for exploring the world of Tolkien in many eras without costing $58 Million per episode (with reference to The Lord of the Rings: The rings of Power…) What are your views on using animation to explore Tolkien’s world?