This dark and strange animated telling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings by director Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, American Pop, Wizards, Cool World) has been released to coincide with Blu-ray release of Peter Jackson ‘s live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It’s a bit creepy, has a unique visual style and, being the first official LOTR film, certainly helped to set the tone for future adaptations. You definitelyneed to watch this (with an open mind)…

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LotRO) received its first official expansion pack today (November 18, 2008) in the form of Mines of Moria. Now available across both Europe and North America for Windows PCs, the expansion boasts large dwarven environments to explore as well as several additional updates to the core game.

As seen in the Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Moria – or Khazad-dûm to give it its dwarven name – is a massive underground complex located underneath the Misty Mountains of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. In the LotRO expansion it will play host to hundreds of new quests to complete and foes to battle.

As well as marking the beginning of the game’s second volume…