Fellowship of the Donut

[Bothead]

This is a Simpsons parody of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. It has a few bits from the Special Edition DVD but not all of them. That's all I can think of now, so sit back and (hopefully) enjoy.

[Stretch_Dude]

You think you could reformat this into a file with better margins? I positively can't stand these super-wide TXT things...such an annoyance.

(I was wondering when someone was going to do a LOTR parody...)

[Bothead]

Sorry, this is my first time doing this. I think if you download it the super-wide text will be easier to read (if anybody can tell me how to sort this out, please tell me).

[gkscotty]

Yes, if people download the file and open it in notepad or something similar they can turn on text wrapping. Alternately you could save the file as an RTF or HTML format - all systems should be able to read those formats.

As for the fic itself, I havn't had time to finish it, but what I've seen has been okay. I do think that perhaps you have been sticking too close to the actual script of the film too much - when you have deviations, they're excellent. (like the Nazgul falling from their horses) Also, I have a problem with your casting - you're casting the same character in multiple roles and it proves a bit of a distraction to be honest. The most glaring example is casting Homer both as Bilbo and Aragorn. I'm sure that makes for an interesting council of Elrond... IMO in this fic Homer makes a much better Bilbo than he does an Aragorn. I don't think your casting has been quite right in many cases, sadly. (for example, casting two boys and two adults as the hobbits makes little sense. Casting another two boys as Merry and Pippin would make more sense - or even two girls. Lisa's gotta be in there somewhere. :-) ) But it does have enough jokes that are funny, so that's okay.

Once I find time to finish it, I may re-evaluate it.

[Tibor]

Reformatted and attached here.

[Bothead]

Thanks for reformatting it. I decided not to have Lisa in it because I have her as Eowyn in the next one. I should have put a bit more thought for the casting of some characters. Hopefully the next one willl be easier.

[c_nordlander]

Steve largely said it.

If this is your first script, I won't be too harsh on it. It's better than my first script, for one. Plenty of witty lines and nice parody, it even reminded me of "Bart Wars" in places (and that is quite the compliment). The personalities of the main characters provided funny contrast against the original story.

My favourite bits: the Ringwraiths falling off their horses, the whole flight from Weathertop to Rivendell ("It'll just give him a slow, painful death"), Orcs, Goblins, Muppets, and the battle between Abedolf and Buruman.

However, it seems to follow too close to the film, and *only* the film. Whatever happened to the greatest moments of the book? Like Tom Bombadil... that would have given nice occasions for parody. Evil willow trees? Barrow wights? And I sort of got the feeling that you had Marge rescuing Bart, not because it's in character for her (though I can picture her doing it), but because you had to have an Arwen parody saving the day. Whatever happened to Glorfindel? OK, I'm nitpicking, I just have a problem with the way the film seems to be upstaging the books among fans. Also, far too many lines were hardly even changed. I even saw the word "ring" instead of "donut" in a place (though you may have meant that as a joke. If so, it was rather funny.) And... putting a donut in an envelope? Really?

However, like Steve, my main beef is with the casting. Let me put this concisely and kindly.

1) When I first saw that Smithers was Sauron, I thought: "Ah! Silmarillion reference! He's the servant of Mr Burns, a. k. a. Morgoth!" (OK, so Morgoth isn't in the trilogy, but then, neither is Sauron.) Then I found out you had cast Mr Burns as Saruman. I mean... why? I don't care whether you follow the book canon or the simplified film one, but Sauron is definitely the guy in charge.

2) Don't cast the same character in two main roles. Just *don't*. How can Homer be both Bilbo and Aragorn? Did he sing about Eärendil in a duet with himself? OK, seriously. People will notice that kind of thing. Casting Moe as both Barliman and Legolas wasn't that bad. In fact, I felt rather happy to see him as the Beau with the Bow.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why you changed the names of the characters, but not those of the places.

Still, I want you to keep writing this. You're on to something. As Steve said, you're at your best when you depart from the script, so you can afford to do that more often. And, IMHO, acknowledging the books sometime wouldn't hurt. But I look forward to the next part of the trilogy.

[Bothead]

Thanks for the review. I'm really relieved about it. The script is a parody of just the film (but it would of been a good idea to have Bombidil in it). I knew the casting would be a difficult thing to do. Hopefully it will be less of a problem in the next script. If the script reminded you of Bart Wars then that's probably because it was the script that inspired me to do this (If somebody done a Simpsons version of one of the best works in sci-fi, then why not do one of one of the best works of fantasy). Here's hoping the next one will be good.

[maitra]

Amazing. I commend you for your dedication, just for this, and I'm now wondering if I would be bothered enough to write something so extensive! The whole LOTR movie! Wow! Crazy! I think you have put a whole heap of effort and time into this. *awe and wonder*

I haven't got round to finishing this script, but it seems excellent so far. Just when I read it, there are lots of parallels to the original movie. I agree with Scythe, there are just so many good oppurtunities for satire! Of course, I felt the original movie had cut out lots of my favourite parts in the book, and, I reckon it would be free to add things you felt were left out in the movie. Of course, sometimes, if that happened, the whole movie wouldn't make sense .... I just think you should feel free to do whatever you like with a script, but not rely so heavily on the original movie (yet keep the main plot). Then again, if my sister did this, uugh ......

I love some of the gags placed here! Of course, you added a Simpon flare to it, that was good. I think, great work, and I am really looking forward to the next 2 exciting trilogies!

Ok, you probably want me out of here, so I'll just be leaving now ...

maitra