Bakshi went to England to recruit a voice cast from the BBC Drama Repertory Company, including Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, Anthony Daniels, and John Hurt. Bakshi then shot character actors playing to the recording in empty soundstages, and later rotoscoped the performances. Bakshi later regretted his use of the rotoscoping technique, stating that he made a mistake by tracing the source footage rather than using it as a guide. Live-action footage for crowd scenes was shot in Death Valley and in Spain. To cut ballooning costs, cinematographer Timothy Galfas suggested solarizing the crowd scenes, to create a pseudo-animated look. Animation was done in the United States by Bakshi's studio, and Bakshi's request for three additional months to edit the film was turned down, and he had only four weeks left to cut the film, of which little was reportedly left on the cutting room floor. The whole project from pitch to release lasted about two years. At this time, Arthur Krim resigned from United Artists and was replaced by Andy Albeck, who objected to marketing the film as the first of two parts. After test screenings, it was decided to switch the other of the last two sequences, so that the film wouldn't end on the cliffhanger of Frodo and Sam being led into a trap by Gollum. "The Lord of the Rings" was released without any indication that a second part would follow, in spite of Bakshi's objections. Rated PG, "The Lord of the Rings" was the longest animated film made at the time, and cost $8–12 million to produce, grossing $30.5 million at the box office. Film critic Leonard Maltin said that it was one of only two major commercial successes in Bakshi's career, the other being "Fritz the Cat". However, the sum did not encourage the studio with the prospect of a sequel, and merchandise and VHS sales weren't promising. While the film won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival, critical reaction was mixed, with Roger Ebert calling Bakshi's effort a "mixed blessing" and "an entirely respectable, occasionally impressive job ... [which] still falls far short of the charm and sweep of the original story." Peter Jackson recalls the film's second half as "incoherent" and confusing. Some B-roll footage was shot for the sequel, and Bakshi began working on a script and he and Zaentz attempted to stop Rankin and Bass from airing the "Lord of the Rings" television special in order to avoid overlap with their film.