Long ago, in the days when disco ruled the Earth and Dungeons and Dragons was in its first edition, there was a Hobbit movie. Before Harry Potter, before World of Warcraft, before Game of Thrones, before Shwarzenegger’s furry Conan Speedo, before even Hawk the Slayer, there was The Hobbit. A simpler Hobbit. A cartoon Hobbit. A Hobbit that wasn’t stretched out into a butt-numbingly long trilogy. Rankin/Bass’ 1977 TV movie version of The Hobbit is… well, we’ll get to that. But first and foremost, it was the many adult geeks, myself included, were first introduced to Middle Earth. My parents rented this on VHS, and it blew my mind when I was six.
It was, shall we say, a product of its time. Being a TV cartoon from the seventies, it looks a bit creaky nowadays, but I still find kind of charming. I was sick for the better part of two days this week, and spent a fair amount of time slurking down lemon tea and watching movies, including The Hobbit. Surprisingly, after all these years, it’s not wholly awful.
More after the jump.
Fantasy today, as witnessed by Jackson’s extending a straightforward children’s book into three films, is a big and thumpy affair. Worlds, and the fate thereof, always hang in the balance. There’s a time and place for big, world shattering epics, but Hobbit ’77 isn’t about the fate of Middle Earth. It’s about Bilbo. He goes off on an adventure, partakes of some derring-do, comes home, and is a better person for it. It’s there-and-back-again in the classic sense, and in that way it’s actually very true to the book. The voice acting (with the notable exception of Smaug) is also excellent, particularly John Huston as Gandalf.
As fond as I am of the movie, though, it has problems. There’s a gigantic continuity error where characters refer to a scene with wood elves (spoilers: this fantasy story has wood elves in it) that was clearly omitted, and the animation is kind of choppy at times. Also, Smaug has a weirdly distracting cowboy voice. That, and any enjoyment you may derive from this artifact of the Carter administration is going to hinge on your tolerance of painfully precious seventies era folk ballads.
So, Hobbit ’77 is delightful, especially in its smallness. It’s focused and to-the-point in a way that Jackson’s Hobbit (haven’t seen it yet- I’m not fan enough for midnight showings) probably isn’t. Just… keep in mind that it’s a cartoon from the seventies. It goes down a bit better with an assist from some Dwarven ale or Shire pipe weed to get you in the spirit of things.
There were elements of the cartoon version of Return of the King that I thought were much more focused and representative of the book than Jackson’s. It was excruciatingly cheese ball at times, but it really handled Sam and Frodo’s struggle through Mordor well, and they actually got Gollum’s character right…although his look and voice kinda sucked.
@Spindles: I just always liked that “Where there’s a whip there’s a way” song the orcs had.
WHAT? Smaug’s voice was the best part of the movie! He scared the crap out of my when I was six! I was expecting the dragon to roar and that Bilbo would get through by tricking it. Just a dumb animal, right?
Instead it sounded like it was just about to lose it’s patience with all these idiots and said “I can SMELL you.” Mind blown!
I want that as a ring tone, now. “I can SMELL you.”
I’ve seen/heard the word “precious” used as a pejorative a few times recently, and I’m a little confused about it. Does it mean juvenile, but not in the crude sense that booger jokes are juvenile? I saw a tweet that said something like “_____ is more precious than Zoey Deschanel at a thrift store.” That doesn’t seem that juvenile, since as a child there was little else I hated more than a thrift/antique store.
Also, Gollum’s voice (Brother Theodore) was much better in the cartoon. I can’t stand the voice they use in Peter Jackson’s.
I love this cartoon. I have it on VHS, and have watched it a lot. I still dig the music. For some reason I never watched the LOTR cartoons! I should get on that…
That’s funny. I too loved this as a child and too watched this on a sick day recently for the first time since said childhood.
I was thoroughly disappointed. 🙁
Can we just fucking read the book? Yes, let’s.
I could never make it through the theme song…