I'm not one of those people that seems to think a Tolkien adaptation should be 100% faithful to the book. However, they just took far too many liberties here. It was probably a bad idea to attempt to adapt this in the first place, doing a favor to Bakshi or not. Most of the characters have changed entirely, and while the "best bits" of the plot are still there, it's almost unrecognizable if you know the story, yet difficult to follow if you are not. (when I was a kid, one of the biggest mysteries was what, exactly, the Phial of Galadriel was) Also annoying is the blatant funny-scary-funny-scary pace the show sets, trying to maintain SOME sense of the book but always retreating way back to keep from scaring the kiddies. (best example - the cool "Samwise the Strong" sequence, where Sam contemplates taking The Ring, followed immediately by the incredibly cutesey "Little Things" sequence as he talks himself out of it) One plus is that it does have some good music, but that's too little too late - and the disco-dancing Orcs are far too much to take. But check out their Hobbit, it's quite good.
Review of The Return of the King
