Billy Barty was the model for Bilbo, as well as Frodo and Sam, in the live-action recordings Bakshi used for rotoscoping.

Billy Barty was the model for Sam, as well as Frodo and Bilbo, in the live-action recordings Bakshi used for rotoscoping.

Filmmakers Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson stated that the reason the characters were omitted from their films was because, in their view, he ( Bombadil ) does little to advance the story, and would make their films unnecessarily long.

Beginning his career at the Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher, Bakshi was eventually promoted to director.

In 1987, Bakshi returned to television work, producing the series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which ran for two years before it was canceled due to complaints from a conservative political group over perceived drug references.

Ralph Bakshi was born on October 29, 1938, in Haifa, British Mandate of Palestine ( now Israel ), as a Krymchak Jew.

Bakshi recalled, " All my friends were black, everyone we did business with was black, the school across the street was black.

The racial segregation of local schools meant that the nearest white school was several miles away ; Bakshi obtained his mother's permission to attend the nearby black school with his friends.

Bakshi was the only white student in the classroom.

Fearing that segregated whites would riot if they learned that a white student was attending a black school, the police dragged Bakshi from his classroom.

After participating in a food fight and being caught smoking, Bakshi was sent to the principal's office.

Believing Bakshi was unlikely to prosper at Thomas Jefferson, the principal transferred him to Manhattan's School of Industrial Art.

When Bakshi was 18, his friend Cosmo Anzilotti was hired by the cartoon studio Terrytoons ; Anzilotti recommended Bakshi to the studio's production manager, Frank Schudde.

Bakshi was hired as a cel polisher and commuted four hours each day to the studio, based in suburban New Rochelle.

After a few months, Schudde was surprised that Bakshi was still showing up to work, and promoted him to cel painter.

Bakshi began to practice animating ; to give himself more time, at one point he slipped ten cels he was supposed to work on into the " to-do " pile of a fellow painter, Leo Giuliani.

Bakshi married his first wife, Elaine, when he was 21.

Their son, Mark, was born when Bakshi was 22.

However, Deitch was not convinced that Bakshi had a modern design sensibility.

They were subsequently signed by Warner / Reprise and the band's song " Greedy " was used in the Ralph Bakshi animated movie Cool World.

Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who wrote a check to cover MGM's debt and agreed to fund the $ 8 million budget for the first of what was initially planned as a series of three films, and later negotiated down to two.

William Squire voiced Gandalf in the animated film The Lord of the Rings ( 1978 ) directed by Ralph Bakshi.

Bakshi and his wife had separated by then, giving him the time to animate each short alone.

In 1969, Ralph's Spot was founded as a division of Bakshi Productions to produce commercials for Coca-Cola and Max, the 2000-Year-Old Mouse, a series of educational shorts paid for by Encyclopædia Britannica.

Impressed by Crumb's sharp satire, Bakshi purchased the book and suggested to Krantz that it would work as a film.

Despite receiving financing from other sources, including Saul Zaentz ( who agreed to distribute the soundtrack album on his Fantasy Records label ), the budget was tight enough to exclude pencil tests, so Bakshi had to test the animation by flipping an animator's drawings in his hand before they were inked and painted.

Inspiration for the film came from penny arcades, where Bakshi often played pinball, sometimes accompanied by his 12-year-old son, Mark.

Bakshi has described its vocal style, backed by fast guitar licks, as an " early version of rap ".

Bakshi intended to attack stereotypes by portraying them directly, culling imagery from blackface iconography.

The film's release was delayed by protests from the Congress of Racial Equality, which called Bakshi and his film racist.

After production concluded on Harlem Nights, Bakshi wanted to distinguish himself artistically by producing a film in which live action and animated characters would interact.

" Bakshi was able to acquire the rights to an extensive soundtrack — including songs by Janis Joplin, The Doors, George Gershwin, The Mamas & the Papas, Herbie Hancock, Lou Reed, and Louis Prima — for under $ 1 million.

Bakshi sent Salinger a letter explaining why he should be allowed to adapt the novel ; the writer responded by thanking Bakshi and asserting that the novel was unfit for any medium other than its original form.

Prompted in part by Salinger's letter, Bakshi briefly retired to focus on painting.

Bakshi and Zingarelli began to develop a feature about Hollywood's Golden Age, and Bakshi Productions crewmembers worked on proposed cartoons influenced by pulp fiction.

Following Kricfalusi's advice, Bakshi told Klein to restore the scene, which had been approved by network executives and the CBS standards and practices department.

Bakshi wrote a poem influenced by Jack Kerouac, jazz, the Beat Generation and Brooklyn that served as the narration, which was spoken by Harvey Keitel.

The film's animators were never given a screenplay, and were instead told by Bakshi, " Do a scene that's funny, whatever you want to do!

As of 2009, it is run by Jess Gorell with Edward Bakshi, his son.

The film developed a cult following from repeated airings on HBO and Showtime and the circulation of bootleg VHS copies at comic book conventions booths ( with Ralph Bakshi named as director ).

Spicy City is an animated television series which was created by Ralph Bakshi for HBO.

Discussions involving a series based upon Trey Parker and Matt Stone's video Christmas card, Jesus vs. Santa, led HBO to contact Ralph Bakshi in order to produce the first animated series targeted specifically toward adults.