The Hobbit (1977)

After the fiasco of the Peter Jackson trilogy, I have to say my appreciation for this film has increased substantially. Let me share a few reasons.1) The compacted story - while it could have followed the book a little more closely in the last act, the movie really moves along at a quick pace which won't bore younger viewers. There's only a couple major omissions to the story. Beorn gets cut from the story (much like Tom Bombadil in the Ralph Bakshi LORD OF THE RINGS movie) but it's not much of a loss in my opinion. They did a great job of "trimming the fat" and leaving the viewers at the end hungry for more (hence why I and so many others then went into the much darker and denser LORD OF THE RINGS universe afterward so eagerly).2) Enjoyable for both younger and older viewers - being a fantasy movie, it does have violence on display but manages to neither be graphic nor ridiculously sanitized. None of the dialog feels dumbed down from the book, maintaining its relatively wide vocabulary. This is something most newer fantasy movies fail at; they either have to elevate the violence to levels inappropriate for small kids or they make the narrative so kid-friendly that adults can't connect.3) The spirit of the book maintains - while a lot of the musical numbers may irritate viewers, I have to point out that they were almost all in the actual book. Also if you look at the artwork and character design, it's all based on pre-existing illustrations for the books, very accurately bringing the pages to life.4) The voice cast - remember when animated films would cast for the right voice and not just star recognition value? I actually blame Sean Connery's casting in DRAGONHEART (which was highly publicized) for this. Back when this movie was made, careful effort was made to bring in some of the best voice actors in the business such as Don Messick, Paul Frees, Brother Theodore and actor/director John Huston. Once relatively big-name Richard Boone works perfectly as Smaug, surprisingly enough. Overall the mixture of British and American actors gives it a transatlantic fantasy element that similarly worked well in THE DARK CRYSTAL.Among many other reasons, compared with Jackson, Rankin/Bass were just able to do so much more with so much less.So, to parents out there; do yourself a favor and show this to your kids of any age. It'll get them into fantasy better than anything outside of Ray Harryhausen's creations. In my opinion it's the strongest of Rankin/Bass's output and the most fun (as in least exhausting) of all Tolkien adaptations.

While this movie is a great way to get young children into the Lord of The Rings, anyone older would probably find it disappointing.I love the artwork but the story leaves a lot to be desired.I remember thinking this was great before I had read the book but all these years later it's not so impressive.I honestly don't remember much of the book anymore but it doesn't matter with this movie.It's obvious that they have changed things(it even says "Based On", it doesn't even claim to be true to the book) but the worst part is that they picked the wrong parts to leave out.They tell Bilbo to climb a tree and it cuts to him sleeping in a cave by himself?What??Things like that happen a lot.It doesn't matter if you know the story, if you can pay attention you can see that this is very confusing.They often try to explain the gaps in the following dialogue but that wears thin quickly.The real reason to watch (or not watch) this is because of the music.Everyone I know has always hated it but after not seeing it for years I still remembered a few songs.It's weird that some of the songs seemingly have nothing to do with the movie while others literally describe what we are seeing on screen.Then there's the time that the elves are talking while a song is blasting over them,lol.I do like how they use British slang but no one has an accent, that's brilliant.I just realized that this was made for TV.I never noticed how it breaks before.I have to say considering that, it's a decent movie.Definitely the best made for TV movie I have seen.

If you want to learn "The Hobbit" story in as little time as possible, this is the movie for you. And I'm not ripping on it's length at all, it's length combined with it's animation I think makes a good kids film. Heck, if I hadn't seen this when I was a kid, I don't think I'd be such a big fan of "LOTR" as I am today. There are a few deviations from the book, some good, some bad. I've read the book a couple of times, and I would still rather read the book than see this again. What made "The Hobbit" great to me was that it's length was perfect. It was a book that you could get absorbed into, but you could finish it in a day or two. It wasn't too long and it wasn't too short. I feel like this version is too short. I have seen the Peter Jackson "Hobbit" movies, and I can't say I recommend this over those. To be honest, I've only seen the Peter Jackson "Hobbit" movies once. I'll probably get to those at a later date, but this is a good alternative if you don't have time to read the book.

What I fondly remember is this premiered on Thanksgiving or at best, the day before, but I think it was on Thursday.And it would run incredible lengths, nearly 30 minutes, before it would go to a commercial. It was evenly divided between the commercial breaks like this, long stretches.It was Rankin-Bass artwork and style, but that never bothered me.I would not see this thing again, after the '77 viewing, until I found it on VHS tape and ordered it, nearly 25 years later.Enjoyed it then, enjoy it now.