70. It Was Like a Looney Tunes Ham!

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Announced three-and-a-half years ago as a fast-tracked theatrical production by Warner Bros., the Kenji Kamiyama-directed anime film resulted from a combination of factors: a desire by the studio to maintain certain rights building off their release of the Peter Jackson-directed theatrical films, an interest in working in the increasingly familiar and popular world of anime well outside of its Japanese origins and the participation of Phillippa Boyens and others from the original Lord of the Rings theatrical trilogy. The resultant fusion, drawing on a story Tolkien including in the appendices to the original book regarding a civil war in Rohan two centuries before the War of the Ring, received a slightly delayed release in December 2024; while it’ll yet take time for any full reputation to take hold, initial opinions – including among your podcast hosts – can best be described as mixed. What story choices were made in terms of expanding on the original Tolkien tale, especially in terms of establishing the character of the otherwise unnamed Héra? How did the production’s decision to adhere closely to the design established in the theatrical films play out, and was there anything positive to be gained from that? Where did the examples of a specifically anime-derived form of staging and presentation occur and how did that impact the overall film? And do we really have to talk about the bumbling page or whoever that was? (Honestly, we didn’t.)

Show Notes.

Jared’s doodle. When carrying out vengeance, be sure to wrap up well.

Nosferatu was indeed seen by all of us. It certainly does look fantastic. 

Remember, you can hear The Greatest Podcast Ever Recorded if you join our Patreon…

…but anyone can hear The Spouter-Inn talk about The Return of the King, and here’s Ned’s bonus episode appearance too!

That Screen Rant report on season three of The Rings of Power. Noted.

“Casual Viewing,” the excellent report on Netflix and streaming’s impact by Will Talvin at N+1.

Jason DeMarco, he’s a good guy! And a music nerd as noted!

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim – there’s a lot of info out there, if you want to delve further.

Kenji Kamiyama absolutely has a major rep, as does Sola Digital Arts. (And if you want to know more about the history of anime…)

Helm Hammerhand – yep, Helm’s Deep is named after him. (Then there’s the unnamed-by-Tolkien daughter…)

Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Luke Pasqualino and Lorraine Ashbourne! They’ve done a lot of things.

Hedda Hopper – a definite presence. (This season of You Must Remember This is excellent.)

Tamora Pierce, if you’d like to learn more.

We did touch on the Japanese connections to the Rankin-Bass productions in our episodes on them.

Rivals, if you’d like to check it out.

Wells for Boys, once again!

If not Korrasami, perhaps Carol.

The Secret of Kells approach would have been interesting!

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