Multimedia

I'm not a collector of multimedia editions of LOTR, but I would be surprised to find any Tolkien collector who didn't own at least a copy of Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy.  These are the items in my collection arranged in order of when I purchased them.

Inglis, Rob. The Fellowship of the Ring. CD-ROM. Vol. 1. The Lord of the Rings. Recorded Books, 1990.  ISBN: 0-7887-8981-3

———. The Two Towers. CD-ROM. Vol. 2. The Lord of the Rings. Recorded Books, 1990.  ISBN: 0-7887-8983-X

———. The Return of the King. CD-ROM. Vol. 3. The Lord of the Rings. Recorded Books, 1990.  ISBN: 0-7887-8984-8

Inglis, Rob. The Hobbit. CD-ROM. Recorded Books, 1991.  ISBN: 0-7887-8982-1

The Fellowship of the Ring, Special Extended DVD Edition. DVD. Vol. 1. The Lord of the Rings. New Line Productions, 2002.  ISBN: 

The Two Towers, Special Extended DVD Edition. DVD. Vol. 2. The Lord of the Rings. New Line Productions, 2003.

The Return of the King, Special Extended DVD Edition. DVD. Vol. 3. The Lord of the Rings. New Line Productions, 2004.

Братство Кольца. DVD. Vol. 1. Властелин Колец. New Line Productions, 2006.

Две Крепости. DVD. Vol. 2. Властелин Колец. New Line Productions, 2006.

Возвращение Короля. DVD. Vol. 3. Властелин Колец. New Line Productions, 2006.

This is the Russian edition that I purchased while living in Ukraine in 2008.  Most international editions cover more than one language and the covers usually change to reflect the language of the country in which they are sold, but that wasn't the case in pre-war Ukraine.  There are subtitles in both Russian and English as well as the English and dubbed Russian audio versions.   Before the war started, Russian was still an acceptable language for DVD sales in Ukraine since most Ukrainians were bilingual.

There are three levels of translation for films in Europe (I've never traveled internationally except to Central and Eastern Europe so I can't speak for other parts of the world):  Subtitles, Simultaneous Translation (where the original English is only slightly muted and the translator speaks over the top of them as in a face-to-face situation), and Dubbing (where the original English is completely replaced with a voice actor or actors trying to mimic the expression and emotion of the English speaker).  This Russian edition is dubbed with multiple voice actors representing the different speaking characters.

While pre-war DVDs only in Russian were common in Ukraine, that was not the case in eastern Europe.  I have a copy of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" that I bought in Poland ("Monty Python i Święty Graal") that includes English, Hungarian, and Russian audio.  The Hungarian is Dubbed with multiple voice actors while the Russian is Simultaneous Translated by a single voice actor.  Subtitles are in English, Dutch, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Slovenian, Swedish, and Turkish.  Even though Polish is represented only with subtitles, the cover is the Polish title of the film for sale in Poland.  The physical disk, however, is labeled only in English and Russian.

There is no standard list of subtitled languages.  A copy of Monty Python's "Life of Brian" that I purchased in Hungary ("Brian Élete"), for example, has audio in English, Hungarian, and German.  Both Hungarian and German are Dubbed with multiple voice actors, the Hungarian cover with a sticker proudly proclaiming "Magyar Szinkronnal!".  Subtitles are in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Swedish, and Turkish.  The physical disk, however, is labeled only in English and Italian.

I'm sure that somewhere there is a PhD whose dissertation was an in-depth analysis of subtitling and dubbing and translating practices of English-languages films in Europe.

The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey, Extended Edition. DVD. Vol. 1. The Hobbit. New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, 2013.

The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug, Extended Edition. DVD. Vol. 2. The Hobbit. New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, 2014.

The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies, Extended Edition. DVD. Vol. 3. The Hobbit. New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, 2015.

Serkis, Andy. The Fellowship of the Ring. CD-ROM. Vol. 1. The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins Publishers, 2021.  ISBN: 978-0-00-848730-0

———. The Two Towers. CD-ROM. Vol. 2. The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins Publishers, 2021.  ISBN: 978-0-00-848731-7

———. The Return of the King. CD-ROM. Vol. 3. The Lord of the Rings. HarperCollins Publishers, 2021.  ISBN: 978-0-00-848732-4

Serkis, Andy. The Hobbit. CD-ROM. HarperCollins Publishers, 2020.  ISBN: 978-0-00-843941-5

Serkis, Andy. The Silmarillion. CD-ROM. HarperCollins Publishers, 2023.  ISBN: 978-0-00-858589-1

And lurking in the corner of one shelf....