This animated The Lord of the Rings has a distinctive tension between painterly fantasy design and movement derived from live performance. The result can make its world feel both monumental and eerily familiar. Its compression of a large journey gives special weight to landscapes, crowds and the contrast between a small traveler and an organized power. Watch the changes of visual texture, especially when ordinary companionship gives way to battle or menace. This entry concerns the animated film rather than the later live action trilogy.