>Actually Lord of the Rings was done by Ralph Bakshi - a 
>different studio all together. Rankin/Bass did the first
>two installments of the trilogy, The Hobbit and 
>Return of the King. 


Scary, here I am listening to Leonard Nimoy singing The 
Ballad of Bilbo Baggins on the Dr. Demento 30th anniversary 
collection.  ^_^  But anyway, I just wanted to mention that 
The Hobbit is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings.  The Lord 
of the Rings is actually the name of the trilogy of novels 
written by Tolkein, which is made up of The Fellowship of 
the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.  He 
also wrote a book called The Sillmarillion, which covers 
the backstory behind the events that took place in The 
Hobbit and LoTR.

Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings" covers The Fellowship of 
the Ring, and I think part of The Two Towers.  So, 
chronologically speaking, it takes place in between the two 
Rankin/Bass productions.


Jennifer