The Hobbit

[Aquadementia]

The Hobbit
The greatest fantasy epic of our time

http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/movie/coverv/52/183552.jpg


Cartoon Network Primier: May 16, 2004
US Primier: 1977
Directed by: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.
Starring: John Huston as Gandalf, Otto Premiger as Elvenking, Orson Bean as Bilbo



Summery:
The 1977 made for tv adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's tale of Bilbo Baggins, who was an unassuming hobbit living a life of peace and comfort. Then along came the wizard Gandalf with a band of homeless dwarves in need of a thief to compleat their party. Their quest is to reclaim a lost treasure from the most powerful dragon Smaug. Along the way he out smarts trolls, goblins, wolves, giant spiders and discovers a magic ring that leads to another well know and epic adventure.



Comments:
This is a classic work by Bass and Rankin. A bright spot in animation from an otherwise dismal decade. This toon lead directly to reading JRR Tolkien, then somehow, playing Dungeons & Dragons. You could say it ruined my life. I'm thrilled to see it again after all these years.

EDIT: This post has been heavily edited to more closely conform to talkback standards.

[Elf]

I saw this back in eighth grade, and it's just a horrible adaptation. Can't wait for PJ to make the live-action version.

[James Bester]

this show embarasses gollum! his looks, the voice! this gives gollum a bad name!

[Chris Wood]

I saw this back in eighth grade, and it's just a horrible adaptation. Can't wait for PJ to make the live-action version.
??? Sacrilege! It rocks!! Sure it's targeting a somewhat young audience, but that's only natural since The Hobbit is a children's book. It does a great job of telling the story, and some of the art design is fantastic.

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.
The chances, the changes are all yours to make.
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

[Obi]

I'm actually really liking this so far, even if it is a bit rushed...but that's sort of expected.



The theme song nearly kills it on various occassions though.

[Nin-Nin69]

I'd watch this over that Scarecrow movie any day. :rolleyes:

[Aquadementia]

I'm glad to have seen this again.
Yes, the singing is kind of sappy and the animation doesn't look so fresh, but there is a lot of good here.
John Huston as Gandalf was vary good.
I like the big mouthed goblins, and their songs weren't so bad.
Smog! cooool.
Bringing down Smog with the black arrow. Cooool.
Actually, I prefer this design of this Gollum. The one from the movies just creeps me out. The movie Gollum may be more representative of a hobbit becoming possessed. But I think if PJ does make the Hobbit, he should soften him up so kids don't get freaked out.

I see lord of the rings is coming next week. I'm not such a big fan of that one.

[James Bester]

it was actually an okay movie, except for the gollum part.

[PeppeRaskell1]

The PJ LotR Gollum creeps me out, too.

Anybody know when or if they're showing Return of the King? (Rankin/Bass's, not PJ's!) I can hardly wait to hear Glenn Yarbrough (the Minstrel) sing :

Frodo of the Nine Fingers
And the Ring of Doom
Why does he have nine fingers?
Where is the Ring of Doom?

[James Bester]

apparently they're showing the whole trilogy next sunday.

[Charlie]

I'm at to where Gollum is introduced. The music is incredibly cheesey (especially the ones with lyrics), and the animation isn't the best, but I have to say, I'm really enjoying this. I can't help but smile at it. :D

Good choice for voice actors too. Hell even Gollum isn't too bad, abid sounding and looking pretty goofy.

[Elf]

Okay, I admit Desslar, I was joking, this thing was actually not bad. But not my taste.

But what I can't get over is that when goblins are slained, they vanish. What's up with that? They atleast should've lied on the floor.

[Skeeter]

The PJ LotR Gollum creeps me out, too.

Anybody know when or if they're showing Return of the King? (Rankin/Bass's, not PJ's!) I can hardly wait to hear Glenn Yarbrough (the Minstrel) sing :

Frodo of the Nine Fingers
And the Ring of Doom
Why does he have nine fingers?
Where is the Ring of Doom?
I forget the time, but I do know that the date is May 30. I know because it's listed on TVNow's monthly schedule for Roddy McDowall (who did the voice of Samwise).

[Chris Wood]

Okay, I admit Desslar, I was joking, this thing was actually not bad. But not my taste.

But what I can't get over is that when goblins are slained, they vanish. What's up with that? They atleast should've lied on the floor.
I admit it's not perfect. However the point you mention was probably necessary to get the film on TV. Restrictions on violence in TV animation in the 70s was severe. They probably couldn't have gotten away with showing Orcs getting slashed and stabbed.

I wished they could have shown (much) more of the final battle, but I suppose censorship/budget/time constraints got the better of them.


Hey, check this out. Having just watched The Hobbit, take a look at the opening credits of Thundercats (also produced by Rankin/Bass). About halfway through we see a group shot of several villains, and in the foreground is a monster who looks extremely similar to the Orcs in the Hobbit! Too bad he wasn't a major character. I wonder if Lion-O is supposed to be Aragorn?

[shogunthethird]

sure the animation and character designs may not have been up to the standards of PJ's magnum hobbitus but then this movie pre-dates it by at least 20 years and I liked his version of Gollum, the little freak was supposed to inspire feelings of pity and revulsion and as for a live-action Hobbit I can only hope it's at least as good as this version

[Lord Dalek]

I wonder if Lion-O is supposed to be Aragorn?Sword of Anduril, give me sight beyond sight! *just had to get it out of my system*

Anyone who thought The Hobbit was both corny and incomplete are definetly NOT going to enjoy Bakshi's LOTR and the Rankin-Bass ROTK. And Gollum actually was that loathsome in the book.

[Delthayre]

Sword of Anduril, give me sight beyond sight! *just had to get it out of my system*

Anyone who thought The Hobbit was both corny and incomplete are definetly NOT going to enjoy Bakshi's LOTR and the Rankin-Bass ROTK. And Gollum actually was that loathsome in the book.
I think all of the attempted animated adaptations of the Tolkien books are screechingly wretched. The Hobbit is modestly faithful, but uninspiring and silly. The Bakshi LotR is lifeless and the Rankin-Bass RotK is just ridiculous. It mixes being a lousy adaptation with just being incredibly dumb. I did enjoy watching it, but that was because I was making fun of it a la MST3k. I mean... "Where there's a Whip there's a Way"...

[Lord Dalek]

I think all of the attempted animated adaptations of the Tolkien books are screechingly wretched. The Hobbit is modestly faithful, but uninspiring and silly. The Bakshi LotR is lifeless and the Rankin-Bass RotK is just ridiculous. It mixes being a lousy adaptation with just being incredibly dumb. I did enjoy watching it, but that was because I was making fun of it a la MST3k. I mean... "Where there's a Whip there's a Way"...You know Delthayre, it was a children's book. And such silly dialogue fits perfectly in that respect.

[Delthayre]

You know Delthayre, it was a children's book. And such silly dialogue fits perfectly in that respect.
Well, the standards of what consitutes a children's book have fallen with time. The age group it originally target can scarcely been cajoled to even pick up a novel without a teacher putting the sword of Damocles over their heads.

And it wasn't the dialogue that was silly. The book's dialogue isn't particularly silly, just somewhat selectively naive. My complaint is the execution. Bilbo's running around breathily hollering, "sting! STING!" is just dumb. And Smaug's visual rendering is dissapointing to say the least.

[Chris Wood]

[Delthayre]I think all of the attempted animated adaptations of the Tolkien books are screechingly wretched. The Hobbit is modestly faithful, but uninspiring and silly. The Bakshi LotR is lifeless and the Rankin-Bass RotK is just ridiculous. It mixes being a lousy adaptation with just being incredibly dumb. I did enjoy watching it, but that was because I was making fun of it a la MST3k. I mean... Well, let's see:

The Hobbit:
This is a great adaptation. Very faithful to the text, great voice acting, excellent art design, decent animation for its time, and so help me lots of catchy songs.

Lord of the Rings (Bakshi):
As said above, this is rather lifeless and drab next to the Rankin/Bass productions. The art design is boring and cliched (giant viking horns on Boromir???), the pace is quite uneven, and the rotoscoping looks appallingly fake. Not to mention that the film is unable to finish the story (although this wasn't Bakshi's fault). For the most part though it is very faithful to the book.

Return of the King (R/B):
This one has been altered from the book a lot more than the Hobbit, but most of it is still quite accurate. Unfortunately there is a bit too much material to cover as bits of the first two books are crammed in as well. Still, like the Hobbit the art design is beautiful and it's quite charismatic.


"Where there's a Whip there's a Way"...
Is that song sweet or what? I wish they'd put out a soundtrack album.

[D.Shaffer]

"Win the battle, lose the war,
Choise of evils lie beneath your feat!
Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!"

I'm one of the few people on earth who actually LIKED the music from the R-K tolkien adaptations I think. (And I LOVE that one)

However, going back to the Hobbit. Something a lot of people tend to gloss over is that those songs WERE in the ORIGINAL book :) Granted, they rearranged the lyrics some (And just got rid of entire stanzas), and I highly doubt those are the melodies Tolkien had in mind, but you can find every song in the book, somewhere.

[Chris Wood]

I'm one of the few people on earth who actually LIKED the music from the R-K tolkien adaptations I think. (And I LOVE that one)
.
You're not the only one.

We don't wanna go to war today,
But the lord of the lash says nay, nay, nay!
We're gonna march all day, all day, all day,
Cause where there's a whip, there's a way.

Great tune. I'd like to hear someone like Metallica cover it.

[Bakasama]

I have the MP3 of that and there's a heavy hint of disco in one part. Strangely enough, that song somehow doesn't fit in the most but it's the best song RK's Return of the King offers.

If you're wondering what if Lord of the Ring was anime, RK gives a good idea what it would look like.

[Chris Wood]

[Bakasama]I have the MP3 of that and there's a heavy hint of disco in one part. Strangely enough, that song somehow doesn't fit in the most but it's the best song RK's Return of the King offers.
Yes, there is a jarring bit of disco in there, but it's still the most rocking song of the two films. Overall the Hobbit songs are much stronger though.


If you're wondering what if Lord of the Ring was anime, RK gives a good idea what it would look like.

Indeed, since the animation was done by Toei. While the animation itself is a bit basic, the art design is superb. The characters look great (Smaug!) and the backgrounds are fantastic. At some points the films are impressively dark and atmospheric.

[Mystic Shadow]

You guys know ther'es already a Talkback right. And it's against the rules for someone other than a Mod to post a Talkback.

[Aquadementia]

This is not a Lord of the Rings talk back.
This is about "The Hobbit" which aired a week prior.

If you haven't seen "The Hobbit" please don't be turned off by the LOTR cartoons, they are vary different things.

Frankly, I started the tread because of my total surprise when I changed the channel and saw The Hobbit playing. A quick search of Toon Zone shockingly revealed no appropriate thread to post to. It even slipped past "CN Premieres: May."

I admit to being hasty putting out the original post without following the proper talkback structure. I just wanted to let people know, then get to watching it myself.
But I think maybe post #1 is a mess and should be cleaned up.

Sorry for any confusion.

[Bakasama]

You guys know ther'es already a Talkback right. And it's against the rules for someone other than a Mod to post a Talkback.

Uh, it's something of an unwritten rule that if a mod can't make a talkback for some reason, any poster can just make one up.

[Chris Wood]

You guys know ther'es already a Talkback right. And it's against the rules for someone other than a Mod to post a Talkback.
An unauthorized Hobbit thread???!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Think of the children!


Since it's rumored that Jackson may do The Hobbit, what do you think about him directing a new animated Hobbit with Disney or Pixar?

[Elf]

An unauthorized Hobbit thread???!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Think of the children!


Since it's rumored that Jackson may do The Hobbit, what do you think about him directing a new animated Hobbit with Disney or Pixar?
That would be cool. I also like to see the Lord of the Rings animated by Gainex(I wish).

[Bakasama]

An unauthorized Hobbit thread???!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Think of the children!


Since it's rumored that Jackson may do The Hobbit, what do you think about him directing a new animated Hobbit with Disney or Pixar?

I don't think Disney can do it because the Tolkien Estate won't allow that to happen.

[Elf]

I don't think Disney can do it because the Tolkien Estate won't allow that to happen.
Some part of me wishes that Chris Tolkien should die and give his inheritance to his son.

[Prism]

Heh,I loved The Hobbit when it first aired and still like it to this day. The animation quality was good considering that it was the 70s and the songs were entertaining. And it was aired for primetime, meaning that the violence level was higher then if it had been on Saturday Morning. All in all, I'd say that it's a classic.