I am 53. I did grow up with it. My favorite moment is from the sequel tv special. The orcs are marching along singing "We Don't wanna gonto work today, but the lord of the lash says nay nay nay. We're gonna march all day all day all day. Where there's a whip there's a way." I have randomly started singing this in many inappropriate times and places ever since I first heard it.
I'm right there with you! "Where there's a whip there's a way... left, right..." I also kind of love the tune they have for "The Road Goes Ever On and On" better than the official one.
53 here also. This one and "15 birds in 5 Fir trees, their tails were fanned, by a fiery breeze" are my favs. The orcs had the best music! I listen to metal now...is there a connection? hmmmm
This is based on the *original* version of the book, before Tolkien made the revisions to make it more in line with events of LOTR. Gandalf's lines at the end aside. This version always struck me as the last gasp of the hippie ownership of Tolkien. It's very pastoral and trippy, with backgrounds that wouldn't look out of place on a Led Zeppelin album. We were deep in Star Wars mania when this debuted (1977 was ground zero for many a burgeoning young nerd), we were on the cusp of the explosion of epic fantasy (Sword of Shannara was published the same year), and D&D was about to explode into the mainstream, which meant Tolkien was about to be embraced by the masses. No doubt helped by how many of us watched this and immediately demanded our parents buy as the book.
My understanding was that in the original version of the book, Gollum was less hostile, played the riddle game straight, and gave Bilbo the ring as a prize for winning. I won't pretend to have read that version myself, but I'm not clear what you're talking about here? In what way does this line up with the original vs the later edit?
A minor point. I believe the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were already popular, and were having a 60s/70s resurgence before the 1977 movie. See, for example, songs by Led Zeppelin (Ramble On, Misty Mountain Hop, Battle of Evermore), Rush (Rivendell, The Necromancer), Black Sabbath (The Wizard), and Leonard Nimoy (The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins).
@@richarddoan9172 I think those were more cases of popular bands referencing Tolkien more than instances of Tolkien himself being popular. Led Zeppelin and Rush have a lot more non-Tolkien content than songs that reference him.
The animation in this IS gorgeous, it was animated in Japan so it's technically an Anime, though obviously it was an American production. The guy that voiced Gollum is Brother Theodore and his is my favorite voice for Gollum. Brother Theodore really brings out a sort of insanity I love.
Brother Theodore is underrated as Gollum. I really liked how in the 1980 animated Return of the King he balanced the strange slimy otherworldly aspect of Gollum with the more sympathetic pitiable side.
I LOVE this version. The music goes through my mind quite often. I first saw this when I was maybe 7? Mid 80s. And it's what got me to read The Hobbit. I've been a huge fanatic ever since!
The first time I watched this movie I was 4 years old and at my grandparents' house. When Gollum appeared, I was so frightened that I began crying and my parents had to take me home! But a year later, it became my absolute favorite film. I still think it's beautiful and emotional. They obviously had to trim down the story, but I think they did so deftly. This movie inspired a love of LotR and a love of nature in me.
I liked the Peter Jackstand version of LOR, but this was my childhood introduction to Tolkien and I liked it many times better than the Jackstand hobbit.
The Hobbit has my favorite description of Elrond: "In those days of our tale, there were still some people who had both elves and heroes of the North for ancestors and Elrond, the master of the house, was their chief. He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves and as kind as summer."
This is still the best filmed adaptation of the book. When I introduce people to the lord of the rings, I recommend they watch this first I especially like that in this the dwarves shown as the really are, greedy arrogant clueless old men wrapped up in the fantasy of their own entitlement who blunder their way from one mess to another, utterly unprepared for any reality that doesn't fall in line with their delusions of grandeur. Overall what makes this the best adaptation is that the hobbit was a children's book and this is a children's movie and that sensibility is preserved
Sure, and indistinguishable horde of antisemitic stereotypes that aren't even characters in their own right, just set dressing in Bilbo's light hearted romp through middle earth (oh, people died? well it wasn't Bilbo, so who cares, right kids?), are better than a band of real people who are complicated and varied with an empathisable goal that get's tragically twisted. Yes, this is the better adaption of the book, but that's just a rather damning indictment of the BOOK, not the Jackson version.
You and the above account only mention the negative qualities mentioned, but they were also touted as honorable, skilled warriors and artisans, etc. They are generally shown to be good, likable people. @@mousinge
One of the biggest sins (besides having the dwarves be brave and try to "fight" Smaug) that awful trilogy made, was literally robbing Bilbo of his one truly heroic moment in the story. Instead of having him be the one to save the dwarves from the Mirkwood Spiders, randomly elves show up and do so instead. Really lame.
@@mousinge 1. The book is a damn masterpiece. And 2. Get out of here with that "antisemetic" crap. Dwarves, in the mythologies they originate from (which had nothing whatsoever to do with Jews or any other humans), were notoriously stingy and greedy miners and shrewd craftsmen. And the Dwarves in The Hobbit ARE both obsessed with reclaiming their treasure (moreso than their old home), to a fault, and ARE quite cowardly, refusing more than once to help Bilbo, or send him in to dangers they aren't willing to face themselves. They only show bravery at the end, with a dwarf army showing up to back them, when it comes to fighting for their treasure horde against elves and men. They have some honor, they're hardly BAD people. But they're definitely flawed, and not at all heroic. Which is the irony of the story in the first place: that a tiny hobbit, who has no desire for treasure or adventure, just a quiet life in his little town, is forced to become a brave hero, going on a grand adventure full of danger and wonder. Because Bilbo IS the main character of the story, not the dwarves.
I get annoyed by the refrain so many people make , "why don't they have the eagles come get them...". The eagles aren't running a taxi service, they don't jump up just because Gandalf snaps his fingers, they don't serve him. Furthermore, the eagles aren't necessarily friendly to everyone, most men fear them. Gandalf helped Gwahir so he has the eagle's goodwill but that's not something to squander.
I am about to turn 50 this weekend, and I can safely say that the Gollum from this film still gives me the absolute willies. The Orc songs still slap as hard as when i first heard them in the early 80s. For kids of my generation this is a classic.
The reason this is the best version is that they didn't change any of the motivations of the characters. It wasn't "What would a hobbit in 2023 (or 1977) do if he was forced to become a thief and had his home invaded by 13 dwarves and a wizzard.
I wouldn't say the Jackson changed the motivations of characters as gave them ones to begin with. The only clear motivations any of them have in this are greed and "a Wizard was shouting at me".
I actually think that it's a pretty good, overly straightforward adaptation of the book. I much prefer it to PEter Jackson's versions weirdly. It's just a sort of 7/10 across the board, nothing crazy. Also, Down Down to Goblin Town...
My favorite part of the music was realizing that the bass voice in the goblin songs was provided by Thurl Ravenscroft… better known as Tony The Tiger 😊
I grew up watching this on laser disk at my elementary school. I’m not actually that old but the player would get wheeled into the classroom when we had a substitute and needed to fill some time. I have so much nostalgia and love for this adaptation
We watched this so many times as kids in the 80s. Had the LP record too. Dad read us the book when I was five or six and after that I read it on my own pretty much annually. I also listened to the BBC audio version incessantly. The best thing about the animated movie in my opinion was the scene with Gollum and the songs. We always paused the video right when he was shrieking in rage at his loss… funny expressions. Roads go ever on was one of my favorite songs for years
There are few rabbit holes deeper than that of Hobbit Fan Edits that try to match the book(s). Many great editors have tried. M4, Maple Films, etc. However, there is one edit I consider the *quintessential* edit. “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again,” by ‘The Hobbit Fan Editor’ On top of the extensive trimming and re-editing to remove Peter Jackson’s fluff, much effort went into *reinserting* ideas and concepts that *didn’t* make it to the films. It is a spectacle to behold imho.
This was my intro to Tolkien. Saw it when it was on TV. Then somehow ended up with a tape of it. It's pretty impressive but it plays very well as an audio only media. To this day THAT'S the voice I hear when I recite Gandalf lines in my head.
As far as Bilbo's likability, I agree that Martin Freeman was better. He knocked it out of the park in that role. The "Riddles in the Dark" scene is the best part of the whole PJ trilogy. Unfortunately the live action films were changed into "Grumpy Dwarf wants Revenge and his Nephew is in a Love Triangle." This film, while imperfect (or at least dated), is the best on-screen version of the story I have seen. A lot of the stuff like the "spinning down the drain" was done to de-emphasize the fact that folks and critters were getting straight up killed.
The way the cartoon makers disguised the killing is remarkable. Everyone understands what's going on, and it's rather unique way of showing death in animation.
One of the best summaries of Jackson's Hobbit Trilogy I've come across, though Martin Freeman's Hobbit struck no sparks for me either. He wasn't actively unlikable, he was just a bit 'meh'.
Is "Grumpy Dwarf wants Revenge and his Nephew is in a Love Triangle" not better than "The Dwarves are all greedy useless cowards. Which one's Thorin's Nephew, you ask? Why would you care which one's THORIN, let alone any of the others?"
This was basically my introduction to all things fantasy. I think my dad gave it to me at some point like, "You might like this." I love this adaptation both for nostalgia and even just as a representation of The Hobbit. I don't mind the removal of Beorn. I truly love the music and the animation style. I'd definitely encourage checking out The Last Unicorn, also by Rankin and Bass, that was another staple of my childhood. Very fun times!
This was a great TV movie. As a child, it made me fall in love with the sword and sorcerer.. I can still as an adult ( 55years old) watch this today. I have shared it with my children and they enjoy it as well..
That's not a stretch. This is better than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Trilogy by far. I couldn't even finish watching that wretched bloated fan service filled Mario jumping spectacle of a trilogy. I saw the first part in the theater and decided I wasn't interested in more but then the second part came on TV and I decided I would give it another chance. I turned off during the barrel ride sequence. Absolute garbage.
It is, by far. But that's also not hard, considering those films (needlessly and greedily stretched out to a trilogy), was so full of made up fluff it was sickening. Like literally 50%, at least, of what is shown on screen in those movies, isn't in the book at all. And not a single bit of the made up nonsense, IMO, was a worthwhile addition. It was literally just padding to make 3 films, so they could make 3 times the money.
In the original story, of all the hobbits in Hobbiton, Bilbo would have been *the most likely* to leave town. Since Hobbits are famous for being homebodies. Also, as a hobbit his sent would be unknown to Smaug and he'd have no overt / blind loyalty to get in the way of his judgment. I loved this movie when it came out (yes, I'm that old) and I still love it today. It's from the same animation house that would go on to give us "the Last Unicorn" and "The THUNDERCATS".
This was adapted for children. That's why this has so many moments of Bilbo spelling things out so obviously. The soundtrack rocks, and this Gollum is my favorite. I love how he does the riddles. There's also a lot left out that is explained in the books, like the whole way Bilbo was introduced to the dwarves, and Beorn, who was a bear, NOT a stupid werewolf. Also, notice that the dwarves aren't a clown show. Once you read the book, you'll realize that the hobbit trilogy was basically trashed so they could stretch it out.
I first saw this when I was a child when it aired on tv. Pretty sure it was a rerun. I've this version of The Hobbit has always had a special place in my heart, and always will.
this film is honestly my favourite tolkien based movie. i borrowed it from a local public library when i was like 5-6 years old, and after that i borrowed it every month or two for over a decade. at least until they got rid of it when they removed their VHS tapes. the music is my favourite part, something about the style and melodies just resonates with something, i still remember all the songs perfectly. the whole riddles in the dark sequence is the best part of the movie for me. it was just so eerie and tense, and you get that soft voice singing one of the riddles echoing in the caverns. i get chills just thinking about the scene, it just hits all the right notes, emotions, and style for me
This was thoroughly enchanting watching it as a child. It opened the door to a world of adventure that I have never shut. Bilbo was an everyman thrust into adventure. From that point of view, he’s just dealing as best he can under the circumstances. I’m not fond of the portrayal of the elves, but I did like Gollum. He was a kind of generic bogeyman meant merely to frighten. Readers wouldn’t learn his full story until years later. As a children’s movie, though, this was top notch. It might have skipped some incidents, but it was a remarkably faithful adaptation and that’s a rarity in the art form. One of my favorite fantasy films ever. People can gripe about anything, but there’s more here to like than not and it was the gateway to the novel for a whole generation. Remember, too, that in the Hobbit, the ring was merely of invisibility. It wouldn’t acquire the character of the One Ring until the Lord of the Rings, so it was a lighter hearted affair despite its darker moments. As others have noted, the film was based on the original edition of the Hobbit, which was a more childish book. It was later revised to be closer in character and tone with LOTR. A fun popcorn flick for sure.
I watched The Hobbit when it came out, I was 14, and it suffered from one big issue. It was done for the 70s audience so it had to be one hour to fit in the time slot and couldn't be two parts. No 70s audience was going to sit through a 2 hour children's show and no TV company was going to gamble on the audience tuning in the next week for the 2nd half. I think a 2 hour "true to the original story" animated version would go over really well now.
As it is, this version is pretty damn true to the original story. It barely alters anything, and includes almost every major element from the book. A longer version that included everything would be wonderful. But for what they had to work with back then, this film was actually pretty amazing.
You could say that this movie, among other events, changed my life. I had no idea what I really wanted to do with my life, so I took a job that I disliked from my first day but stayed bc I felt it was what I deserved for my indecisiveness. For three years, I was tired, stressed, depressed, and angry. Then, on a whim, I bought a copy of The Hobbit cartoon since it was one of my favorite movies as a child and I hadn't seen it in close to 20 years. As soon as the song "The Greatest Adventure" played in the opening credits, I was crying bc I was basically being Bilbo without a journey bc I was afraid of failing to be more like who I felt I was. I finally started applying to schools and jobs to get out of that place of disappointment and guilt. It's been a long 10 years since I left that job, and while the road has been far from smooth, I'm glad that 4 year-old me was wise enough to make my future self remember this movie and to move along the path to get where I am today.
I was 12 when this aired and checked the book out of the library the next day. After, I read TLoTR. This is intended for children just as the book was. It’s important to remember that this book was written for his boys. I suggest this any time someone expresses interest in watching “The Hobbit.” It is far better than the Jackson Hobbit trilogy.
Ill be honest. By far a better adaptation than what was made recently. Ill go back to this version everytime then go into the LOTR live action films. Gollums voice and look tripped me out as a little kid. This whole movie did.
I would have been just less than five years old when this movie was released, and I know I saw it in the 1970s, and being a fantasy nerd/D&D player with my friends and family, we all watched in many times in the 80s and even through the 90s. I still have this on DVD and have seen that a few more times this millennia, and I think its about time I watch it again! I love the artwork in this film. The water color backgrounds and design of the characters, are so beautiful. Likewise, I love the music. The worse part, and I don't even find it that bad, just of their time, is that the actual animation isn't always smooth, and some of the stylization is a bit silly (like your comment about how gravity works, or the spiders dying by kaleidoscope). It's fine, especially when you consider this is meant to be a children's story. Glad you and your friend enjoyed the movie, too!
The vibrato singer is Glenn Yarbrough, a folk singer from Milwaukee Wisconsin. As folk singers go, he's pretty famous - I'd recommend downloading an album or two if you like folk music at all.
I had a 2 disc vinyl box set version of this before VHS was available. I wore out the needle on my family record console stereo. I have the whole thing memorized. Later that year I blew out the speakers playing the Star Wars soundtrack at full blast. 1977 was a good year. The Silmarillion came out then too and the story of Turin Turumbar was as equally exciting as the hobbit. My 4th grade teacher read it to us in class for story hour over the course of days. Needless to say, Middle Earth has been a huge part of my life ever since. Thanks for this reaction
When I was going to see the Hobbit movies in theaters, I distinctly remember saying to my dad that I hoped they would do frog-like Gollum from this, rather than Jackson's interpretation in LotR (though I probably didn't realize PJ was behind both trilogies, if I knew who he was at all at that age). To this day I imagine the whole section with the goblins and Gollum in a way that is very heavily inspired by this adaptation, though I barely remember the film now; the goblin's song in particular is still awesome and pops into my head unprompted with some regularity. If I remember anything from this well it's the music, I love seeing people put lots of care into the songs from the books; that you sing your own interpretations of these songs whenever they come up is one of my favorite things about your channel by the way, it's beautiful!
I like that introduction song after the dwarf visit, where Bilbo is dreaming of himself being the king under the mountain. The lyrics and music really set the mood, and the scene is unqiue in its' way. Most of the songs in this cartoon are beautiful, of course.
I love this version. We had it on vhs, and my dad watched it with us kids, so I grew up with it despite being born 27 years after its release. I _was_ scared of gollum as a kid, but now that im older I can really appreciate this film, its art, and ive always loved its music. You guys would totally love the Rankin Bass RotK.
The animated Hobbit movie was a childhood favorite of mine and my only exposure to Tolkien prior to seeing Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. I loved it and enjoyed seeing the similarities on screen.
This was my favorite movie for a long time growing up. Before I saw the movie, we had a big record of it with a cartoon book that a kid could follow along. Also, it was nice that you got a good soundtrack for it with some extra effects. For some reason when it came out on dvd, the chains sound from the 'Down Down to Goblintown' were omitted, along with some of the effects against the spiders. Glad you appreciated it a bit.
Hi PTH! The most perfect adaptation I've yet seen of The Hobbit was this adorable stage show that toured around a couple decades ago. It was Peter Jackson-aware, but not overblown - in fact, all of its acting and sets were very much rooted in small theatre rather than big splashy production. But I seem to remember that they may have gotten a little visual and audio effects help from the team at Weta. That's not to compare it to the LOTR PJ trilogy - but it still felt like the most authentic version of the story, bar reading the actual book.
The movie was directed by Rankin and Bass, who up to this point had made mostly just holiday specials, and to this day are more well known for Christmas Specials like Rudolf, Frosty, Drummer Boy, and many many many Santa movies. The animation house they went to was a Japanese one, and not only would make The Hobbit and Return of the King (after the Ralph Bakshi movie failed to finish The Lord of the Rings), but they would go on to make several other specials and movies with Rankin/Bass, but also did several shows including Thunder Cats, and Silver Hawks, but also would make more native shows/movies in Japan, and were given the OK to make little back ground mentions of their English work, including an add sign that had a Thunder Cat in it on Bubblegum Crisis. In the 90's the American side of the studio got bought by Disney and used for their cheap sequels before disbanding in the early 2000's, the Japanese side of the studio would mostly join with Studio Ghibli after making Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki's break out directorial film. As a kid, I only ever knew this flim, and was my main in for fantasy and magic, and things of the like. It wasn't until I was about 11 or 12 that I found out about Lord of the Rings, and in particular saw the Return of the King film, and the Ralph Bakshi film that more or less takes place between films. Of interesting note, Ralph Bakshi was a big pusher of rotoscoping, which is more or less tracing live actors for animation, which helps with the realistic look and movement to animation, while trying to help make it faster, and easier to make. All his monsters, and most of his action moments in Lord of the Rings are all rotoscope. Making a very uncanny valley effect when the monsters are on screen, kind helps with the creepyness of them I feel. As for Return of the King I quite like it, it very much fallows the same methods of The Hobbit, don't add BS, just use what we can, and cut the rest for time. The music is still good as well, a lot of the same artists.
Remember who this was for, it was on TV for kids. Thus spinning for dying, and yhey had to chop down for allowed time. They put a lot of heart into it, snd was 10x better than the Peter Jackson adaptation. And it captured Bilbos growth, the theme of focusing on building bridges to others and sharing versus covering and selfishly withholding. Id put above other kids oriented specials being produced at rhe time or in general. This was the era of Star Wars Holiday specials, as abother famous example. I actually respect this one as lot and watched it with my young kids around 5. They loved it just like they enjoyed watching Avatar the Last Aur Bender.
I’m an older millennial who will be 40 this year. I grew up with this as a periodic rerun on cable. It was my first introduction to the Legendarium and I will love it forever for that reason. I have always loved that Bass and Rankin fantasy movie style of this film, RotK, the Last Unicorn, and the forgotten gem the Flight of Dragons. The designs for the spiders, goblins, and Gollum legitimately freaked me out on my first viewing and stuck with me forever. Another bit that stuck with me was the badass Black Arrow speech. Watching it now just reminds me of how badly the Jackson trilogy whiffed that scene in its adaptation… or lack there of as it were.
I grew up watching this on VHS like 5 times a week. Then Fellowship came out, I was not taken to the theatre to see it (I was 6-8, dont worry I was taken to the other movies and my father was chewed out by random soccer moms for it.) But I saw it on DvD. I fell alseep while Smaug was burning lake town, then I woke up in the middle of Bilbo's party speech. Half awake I muttered that I had been watching a movie first, then focused and asked "Bilbo?" And thats when I learned there was a sequal to my favorite story
My Mom rented this movie and showed it to me when I was 6. She saw it on TV when it came out and still claims it’s the best Hobbit related movie. She also had a 45 rpm record with the songs from the movie on it. Also, the way Gollum was depicted in this movie was how I default pictured him until the Peter Jackson films came out.
I do believe this movie was my introduction to the world of Tolkien. When I was a kid it would sometimes randomly come on the Disney channel on weekends for no apparent reason and you better believe I stopped everything to sit and watch it if I could. It's admittedly a bit rough for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that adapting a book like the Hobbit to film is going to be awkward no matter your circumstances, but it's fun and has a sweet sincerity to it (and it's short). And the music is amazing. Funny enough, my next experience with Tolkien was being in the sixth grade and my social studies teacher reading the book aloud to us. SS was kinda the throwaway class then and our teacher was elderly and on the verge of retirement anyways, so he decided to spend part of the year just reading The Hobbit to us. You'd think getting a bunch of sixth graders to sit and listen to a book would be impossible, but I remember the room being dead silent as he read. It's wild to think back on.
I was sixteen when this was first broadcast on TV and I loved it! It was my introduction to Tolkien. We found the books at our local department store and I read them every fall until Sir Peter's LOTR came out. I am sorry to say that this cartoon was much better than Del Toro's Hobbit.
I love this movie. I didn’t see it growing up and instead watched it for the first time as an adult. The music, animation, and story are great and I love that it’s a neat 80 minutes long making it a good pick to rewatch, yet at no point does it seem rushed. I had no idea it was animated by people that went on to make Studio Ghibli but that’s not surprising because I was thoroughly impressed and charmed by their work here. I was about to be so mad if you didn’t like it. The soundtrack is short and well produced too-great lofi vibes.
I must admit I have a big bias to The Hobbit. I was 5 and was going in an out of the hospital do to being sick (was later diagnosed with Childhood Leukemia. I was up stairs sick in bed and wanted attention because everyone was down stairs so my mom came up and tossed a book on my bed. The Hobbit. Although was not able to read much of it at the time I loved the maps, ruins and picture. Was so intrigued by it. Just before I was hospitalized again I saw this version of the Hobbit and well fell in love with JRR Tolkien. Was always my dream to see Tolkien's work come to the big screen so Jackson's version was a dream come true but this will always have a place in my heart and soul.
As someone who watched this as a kid when it came out, my two cents is that any critique of this film needs to keep in mind that it was created to be a kids movie by 1970's standards and created with 1970's animation technology. A lot of the cheesy dialogue that was criticized was put in there as the only way to tell the audience what was going on in a short period of time. For instance, the need to explain the "moon letters" was for the audience's benefit, and especially for the children who would not have been able to figure this out. The same goes for the black arrow dialogue. And yes, a lot was left out, but considering they had to condense the book to one hour, such sacrifices had to be made. Sad, but reality. I loved the music and the songs and how they integrated it into the film. The one thing I didn't like was how they animated the elves. It was weird reading the book The Hobbit after watching this animation and discovering that the elves wee fair beings, beautiful in appearance, and all that! I would like to ask the animators why they uglified the elves, especially the wood elves(!). Oh, how they showed Bilbo as transparent rather than invisible when he put the ring on was because the animators obviously wanted the audience to see Bilbo. We were used to such in animation back then (ever see Space Ghost and how the characters looked when they made themselves invisible?).
My uncle made me a VHS of all the animated movies when I was a kid, and I wore that tape out. I liked the hobbit and the return of the king animation style way more than the two towers. The music for the Hobbit was great.
I'm 47 years old. The librarian at my school made my class watch this movie when I was in 5th grade, probably about 10 or 11 years old. This movie is what made me want to read the books! Love it!❤
The reason enemies do that spinning thing when they die is the film was created as a movie of the week for broadcast on US television (CBS) in the late 1970s. This was the same era when CBS heavily edited the old Warner Brothers cartoons to remove violence (which made half the gags completely impossible to understand.) Broadcast standards of the time did not allow violence to be shown to children, especially violence causing death. The animators were not permitted to show the enemies being slashed or stabbed, so the whole spinning thing was really the only thing the animators could do to indicate that the enemies were dying without showing any blood or gore. BTW: I am 55. I watched The Hobbit when it played on CBS in 1977 when I was nine. We lived in Northern Ontario and only had three local channels, one of them being French, but we had recently gotten cable TV, giving us an incredible seven channels! 😃
I was 12 when this came on TV. As soon as it was over I went to my brother's room and got the dog eared Ballentine copy of the Fellowship from his bookshelf and began reading it that night.
I was 20 when this came out. Had read the trilogy 5 times by then . Read the Hobbit twice. Was starting the silmarillion then. The cartoon was a novelty to me but nothing like the books. At that time the Hildebrand brothers were putting out calendars. Their illustrations were fantastic.
5:40 based on the Silmarillion, kinda checks out actually, Elves are very much associated with stars, and putting more detail into the way they're drawn to depict that they're more refined than the other races kinda works too.
They went a bit literal with Elrond’s crown having gems like stars light. And did not seem to realize the Mirkwood elves were the same species as Elrond.
i was born in '77 so i grew up watching this version of The Hobbit and absolutely loved it as a child. i haven't actually watched it as an adult...maybe i should.
This was a nice suprise to see in my feed as I just watched this version for the first time a few nights ago. Great video as usual, I always enjoy your reactions together!
The adaptation I grew up on was the 1979 'Minds Eye' radio adaptation (though the tapes we had of it were slightly abbreviated compared to the version I've found online since). For me - their tune for "Over the misty mountains cold" is unambiguously the correct one. I heartily recommend tracking that one down if possible.
I'm 55 and this was amazing to me as a child! It's not fair to compare this to modern adaptations. Back the there was the book or this. I had not yet discovered the book, so this was my introduction to Tolkien. It was the first layer that all the other adaptations built upon. A bit corny now, but very dear to my heart. I am sure I would still enjoy it!❤
I grew up with this adaptation (I’m 50) and I’m not sure it holds up all that well. However, I am still friends with my best friend from kindergarten, and when we go on outdoor adventures , one of us will occasionally bust out “ the greatest adventure is what lies ahead”.
I watch ed this a million times when I was younger and also when I was a teen and twenty year old. I liked the whole thing. So did we all. My friend used to have Gollum from this on her screensaver.
Outside of the books, this was my first encounter with media based on Tolkien, and I’m very fond of it. And I’m happy that, unlike some other things I feel nostalgia for, it’s actually not half bad.
I've always assumed the proportionally large hands on Bilbo in this rendition were down to the animators modeling hobbits on people with Disproportionate Dwarfism, specifically Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Congenita. I think Warwick Davis might be a famous example of a person with it. Not that that has any significant bearing on this video, just thought of it when y'all mentioned Bilbo's hands toward the beginning. FWIW: after years and years of watching this myself as a kid, and then hearing it from the other room/back of the van while my kids watch it, I'm in love with the soundtrack now. I really didn't as a kid, but I love it now.
I grew up with this movie and is still one of my favorites of all time. The soundtrack was written/performed by Glenn Yarborough who died in 2016 Funny thing about the map is the animation confused the runes meant to be moon letters, though the script says “this hand points through these runes” when none are there and the actual moon letters are visible. Also in the official art of the cover for the vinyl soundtrack, Smaug is green and Bilbo’s design is a bit different. They also released an illustrated copy of The Hobbit using the art from this movie. In that they actually have Beorn
When this was remastered for DVD, they cut out most of the incidental sounds, which made this movie come alive. There were deep growls and grunts of Smaug, the rattling of coins. It lost a dimension.
This Cartoon was my introduction into J.R.R. Tolkien. Saw it when I was like 8 or 9 years old and then came across the book in my schools library in seventh grade years later. Was the 1st book that I read for fun and not for school work...lead me to reading the whole Lord of the rings Trilogy. Bought and read them again when I was in the Marines and the Peter Jackson movie trilogy came out was I was in so I read the Silmarillion as well. Been infested for awhile lol.
I absolutely adore this movie. My dad showed it to me when I was around 5 or 6 and I loved it so much that he started reading the book to me at bedtime. This movie was the thing that got me into Tolkien and fantasy in general. To me this movie is perfect.
I had thought it had something to do with Bilbo's mother Belladonna being a Took and Tooks are bold; but apparently Gandalf never does explain picking Bilbo beyond a dragon would not recognize a hobbit's scent. But I recall in the Peter Jackson version Galadriel asks Gandalf and Gandalf says Bilbo gives him courage. And I think that is apt since Bilbo isn't courageous but only ever distracts his terror with Gandalf's advice to heart to iterate his favorite pleasant things, a hankerchief, a pipe loaded with weed, his garden at twilight. I think Gandalf knows his advice is pretty inadequate but it happens to apply well to hobbits as they are frankly materialists, particularly those as acquisitive as to have the name "Baggins". Any pessimism can be dispelled by the consolation of having once owned the means of consolation, that means, comfort. One odd aspect of this is that Bilbo only takes enough of his 1/13 share of a mountain of gold his pony could carry; a true materialist would simply buy all of the horses and wagons in Laketown to carry the arkenstone which he should have kept and at least a bit more gold; these two small bags barely last to pass on a few coins onto Frodo. Of course a mithral shirt was worth the whole Shire, plus Sting, plus a map drawn by Thorin's grandfather which I imagined Dain would have wanted, being also a grandchild of that worthy.
I originally watched this version of The Hobbit when it originally aired, back in 77’. It was and is still one of my favorite movies out there. It also got me interested in reading the books, which as a kid I wasn’t too interested in reading, and this movie was one of the few that sparked an interest in me to read, and see how the movie and book are different. Plus I was heavily into Sci-Fi movies and this movie inspired me to get into Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons.
your story is a parallel to mine, as I wanted to read the Tolkien books after seeing this on TV and I reread each volume more than once and picked up the Silmarillion when it was new on the shelves as well. When Dungeons and Dragons appeared on the scene I couldn't resist...
I am 53. I did grow up with it. My favorite moment is from the sequel tv special. The orcs are marching along singing "We Don't wanna gonto work today, but the lord of the lash says nay nay nay. We're gonna march all day all day all day. Where there's a whip there's a way." I have randomly started singing this in many inappropriate times and places ever since I first heard it.
I'm right there with you! "Where there's a whip there's a way... left, right..." I also kind of love the tune they have for "The Road Goes Ever On and On" better than the official one.
53 here also. This one and "15 birds in 5 Fir trees, their tails were fanned, by a fiery breeze" are my favs. The orcs had the best music! I listen to metal now...is there a connection? hmmmm
🎶Where there’s a whip there’s a way… hey hey 🎶
That’s the only version that got the watchers right. I still love it.
Wait… was it work? I always heard it as “We don’t wanna go to war today…”
This is based on the *original* version of the book, before Tolkien made the revisions to make it more in line with events of LOTR. Gandalf's lines at the end aside.
This version always struck me as the last gasp of the hippie ownership of Tolkien. It's very pastoral and trippy, with backgrounds that wouldn't look out of place on a Led Zeppelin album. We were deep in Star Wars mania when this debuted (1977 was ground zero for many a burgeoning young nerd), we were on the cusp of the explosion of epic fantasy (Sword of Shannara was published the same year), and D&D was about to explode into the mainstream, which meant Tolkien was about to be embraced by the masses. No doubt helped by how many of us watched this and immediately demanded our parents buy as the book.
My understanding was that in the original version of the book, Gollum was less hostile, played the riddle game straight, and gave Bilbo the ring as a prize for winning. I won't pretend to have read that version myself, but I'm not clear what you're talking about here? In what way does this line up with the original vs the later edit?
A minor point. I believe the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were already popular, and were having a 60s/70s resurgence before the 1977 movie. See, for example, songs by Led Zeppelin (Ramble On, Misty Mountain Hop, Battle of Evermore), Rush (Rivendell, The Necromancer), Black Sabbath (The Wizard), and Leonard Nimoy (The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins).
@@richarddoan9172 I think those were more cases of popular bands referencing Tolkien more than instances of Tolkien himself being popular. Led Zeppelin and Rush have a lot more non-Tolkien content than songs that reference him.
58 here, had already read the book. Have had the vinyl box set for years. This was indeed released at an opportune time. I was a DM by 79.
My mother already owned the book...she got it from a children's literature class in college.
The animation in this IS gorgeous, it was animated in Japan so it's technically an Anime, though obviously it was an American production. The guy that voiced Gollum is Brother Theodore and his is my favorite voice for Gollum. Brother Theodore really brings out a sort of insanity I love.
The art studio that worked on this eventually became Studio Ghibli.
@@papabearlives9995 Amazing, isn't it?
Brother Theodore is underrated as Gollum. I really liked how in the 1980 animated Return of the King he balanced the strange slimy otherworldly aspect of Gollum with the more sympathetic pitiable side.
@@Strideo1Oh, agreed! 10,000%! He did all that all while maintaining that underlying insanity of his. The guy was amazing.
For 1977 it IS great. Mostly held back by whatever TV or sound system most people had for VHS. Sad the original audio was destroyed by a fire.
I LOVE this version. The music goes through my mind quite often. I first saw this when I was maybe 7? Mid 80s. And it's what got me to read The Hobbit. I've been a huge fanatic ever since!
The first time I watched this movie I was 4 years old and at my grandparents' house. When Gollum appeared, I was so frightened that I began crying and my parents had to take me home! But a year later, it became my absolute favorite film. I still think it's beautiful and emotional. They obviously had to trim down the story, but I think they did so deftly. This movie inspired a love of LotR and a love of nature in me.
I liked the Peter Jackstand version of LOR, but this was my childhood introduction to Tolkien and I liked it many times better than the Jackstand hobbit.
Elrond is accurate. He's described as being crowned with a ring of stars. The interpretation of that is pretty cool in my eyes.
The Hobbit has my favorite description of Elrond:
"In those days of our tale, there were still some people who had both elves and heroes of the North for ancestors and Elrond, the master of the house, was their chief. He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves and as kind as summer."
I would argue the beard though. Don't think he had one.
This is still the best filmed adaptation of the book.
When I introduce people to the lord of the rings, I recommend they watch this first
I especially like that in this the dwarves shown as the really are, greedy arrogant clueless old men wrapped up in the fantasy of their own entitlement who blunder their way from one mess to another, utterly unprepared for any reality that doesn't fall in line with their delusions of grandeur.
Overall what makes this the best adaptation is that the hobbit was a children's book and this is a children's movie and that sensibility is preserved
Sure, and indistinguishable horde of antisemitic stereotypes that aren't even characters in their own right, just set dressing in Bilbo's light hearted romp through middle earth (oh, people died? well it wasn't Bilbo, so who cares, right kids?), are better than a band of real people who are complicated and varied with an empathisable goal that get's tragically twisted.
Yes, this is the better adaption of the book, but that's just a rather damning indictment of the BOOK, not the Jackson version.
You and the above account only mention the negative qualities mentioned, but they were also touted as honorable, skilled warriors and artisans, etc. They are generally shown to be good, likable people. @@mousinge
One of the biggest sins (besides having the dwarves be brave and try to "fight" Smaug) that awful trilogy made, was literally robbing Bilbo of his one truly heroic moment in the story. Instead of having him be the one to save the dwarves from the Mirkwood Spiders, randomly elves show up and do so instead. Really lame.
@@mousinge 1. The book is a damn masterpiece. And 2. Get out of here with that "antisemetic" crap. Dwarves, in the mythologies they originate from (which had nothing whatsoever to do with Jews or any other humans), were notoriously stingy and greedy miners and shrewd craftsmen. And the Dwarves in The Hobbit ARE both obsessed with reclaiming their treasure (moreso than their old home), to a fault, and ARE quite cowardly, refusing more than once to help Bilbo, or send him in to dangers they aren't willing to face themselves.
They only show bravery at the end, with a dwarf army showing up to back them, when it comes to fighting for their treasure horde against elves and men. They have some honor, they're hardly BAD people. But they're definitely flawed, and not at all heroic. Which is the irony of the story in the first place: that a tiny hobbit, who has no desire for treasure or adventure, just a quiet life in his little town, is forced to become a brave hero, going on a grand adventure full of danger and wonder. Because Bilbo IS the main character of the story, not the dwarves.
I get annoyed by the refrain so many people make , "why don't they have the eagles come get them...". The eagles aren't running a taxi service, they don't jump up just because Gandalf snaps his fingers, they don't serve him. Furthermore, the eagles aren't necessarily friendly to everyone, most men fear them. Gandalf helped Gwahir so he has the eagle's goodwill but that's not something to squander.
Also, they are both servants of Manwë.
I am about to turn 50 this weekend, and I can safely say that the Gollum from this film still gives me the absolute willies. The Orc songs still slap as hard as when i first heard them in the early 80s. For kids of my generation this is a classic.
I saw this as a child and it was my first introduction to Tolkien and have been a fan ever since! It will always have a special place in my heart!
Same
The reason this is the best version is that they didn't change any of the motivations of the characters. It wasn't "What would a hobbit in 2023 (or 1977) do if he was forced to become a thief and had his home invaded by 13 dwarves and a wizzard.
I wouldn't say the Jackson changed the motivations of characters as gave them ones to begin with. The only clear motivations any of them have in this are greed and "a Wizard was shouting at me".
I actually think that it's a pretty good, overly straightforward adaptation of the book. I much prefer it to PEter Jackson's versions weirdly. It's just a sort of 7/10 across the board, nothing crazy. Also, Down Down to Goblin Town...
The Black Crack
Here down in the valley
It's not weird to prefer RB Hobbit to PJ Hobbit. I was so disgusted with PJH2 that I didn't even bother to watch PJH3.
My favorite part of the music was realizing that the bass voice in the goblin songs was provided by Thurl Ravenscroft… better known as Tony The Tiger 😊
That's awesome 😆 or should I say "grrrrreat!"
I grew up watching this on laser disk at my elementary school. I’m not actually that old but the player would get wheeled into the classroom when we had a substitute and needed to fill some time. I have so much nostalgia and love for this adaptation
We watched this so many times as kids in the 80s. Had the LP record too. Dad read us the book when I was five or six and after that I read it on my own pretty much annually. I also listened to the BBC audio version incessantly. The best thing about the animated movie in my opinion was the scene with Gollum and the songs. We always paused the video right when he was shrieking in rage at his loss… funny expressions. Roads go ever on was one of my favorite songs for years
I still have my LP. This was one of my favorite movies as a kid and I still listen to the soundtrack from time to time.
There are few rabbit holes deeper than that of Hobbit Fan Edits that try to match the book(s). Many great editors have tried. M4, Maple Films, etc. However, there is one edit I consider the *quintessential* edit.
“The Hobbit, or There and Back Again,” by ‘The Hobbit Fan Editor’
On top of the extensive trimming and re-editing to remove Peter Jackson’s fluff, much effort went into *reinserting* ideas and concepts that *didn’t* make it to the films.
It is a spectacle to behold imho.
I was unaware this was even a thing. 🤯 people do edits of the PJ hobbit trilogy to make it match the books more closely?? 😱
Where can I watch it?
The goblins were great singers in this movie. "Down, down to goblin town" & "Fifteen birds in five fir trees!" They rocked!
This and Bakshi's Lord of the Rings was my introduction to Middle Earth so they hold a really special place in my heart
the art is fantastic in this, really cool designs.
Glen Yarborough did some of the music. The greatest adventure was one of them. I loved this movie when I was a kid. Apparently nothing's changed.
This was my intro to Tolkien. Saw it when it was on TV. Then somehow ended up with a tape of it. It's pretty impressive but it plays very well as an audio only media. To this day THAT'S the voice I hear when I recite Gandalf lines in my head.
"Hear Hear!"
I was 11 in 1977, and being a major Tolkien fan it was wonderful to see the Hobbit come to life.
As far as Bilbo's likability, I agree that Martin Freeman was better. He knocked it out of the park in that role. The "Riddles in the Dark" scene is the best part of the whole PJ trilogy. Unfortunately the live action films were changed into "Grumpy Dwarf wants Revenge and his Nephew is in a Love Triangle." This film, while imperfect (or at least dated), is the best on-screen version of the story I have seen. A lot of the stuff like the "spinning down the drain" was done to de-emphasize the fact that folks and critters were getting straight up killed.
Yes, G rated made for TV kid's fare dictated it.
Martin Freeman had 0 development.
The way the cartoon makers disguised the killing is remarkable. Everyone understands what's going on, and it's rather unique way of showing death in animation.
One of the best summaries of Jackson's Hobbit Trilogy I've come across, though Martin Freeman's Hobbit struck no sparks for me either. He wasn't actively unlikable, he was just a bit 'meh'.
Is "Grumpy Dwarf wants Revenge and his Nephew is in a Love Triangle" not better than "The Dwarves are all greedy useless cowards. Which one's Thorin's Nephew, you ask? Why would you care which one's THORIN, let alone any of the others?"
This was basically my introduction to all things fantasy. I think my dad gave it to me at some point like, "You might like this." I love this adaptation both for nostalgia and even just as a representation of The Hobbit. I don't mind the removal of Beorn. I truly love the music and the animation style. I'd definitely encourage checking out The Last Unicorn, also by Rankin and Bass, that was another staple of my childhood. Very fun times!
That one's dark. But yeah, really good in the same way as the Hobbit.
This was a great TV movie. As a child, it made me fall in love with the sword and sorcerer.. I can still as an adult ( 55years old) watch this today. I have shared it with my children and they enjoy it as well..
I'd go so far as to say that it's better than Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy in totality
100%.
That's not a stretch. This is better than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Trilogy by far.
I couldn't even finish watching that wretched bloated fan service filled Mario jumping spectacle of a trilogy. I saw the first part in the theater and decided I wasn't interested in more but then the second part came on TV and I decided I would give it another chance. I turned off during the barrel ride sequence. Absolute garbage.
easily
It is, by far. But that's also not hard, considering those films (needlessly and greedily stretched out to a trilogy), was so full of made up fluff it was sickening. Like literally 50%, at least, of what is shown on screen in those movies, isn't in the book at all. And not a single bit of the made up nonsense, IMO, was a worthwhile addition. It was literally just padding to make 3 films, so they could make 3 times the money.
In the original story, of all the hobbits in Hobbiton, Bilbo would have been *the most likely* to leave town. Since Hobbits are famous for being homebodies.
Also, as a hobbit his sent would be unknown to Smaug and he'd have no overt / blind loyalty to get in the way of his judgment.
I loved this movie when it came out (yes, I'm that old) and I still love it today.
It's from the same animation house that would go on to give us "the Last Unicorn" and "The THUNDERCATS".
Smaug's boast in this is one of my favorite things in cinema ever
This was adapted for children. That's why this has so many moments of Bilbo spelling things out so obviously. The soundtrack rocks, and this Gollum is my favorite. I love how he does the riddles. There's also a lot left out that is explained in the books, like the whole way Bilbo was introduced to the dwarves, and Beorn, who was a bear, NOT a stupid werewolf. Also, notice that the dwarves aren't a clown show.
Once you read the book, you'll realize that the hobbit trilogy was basically trashed so they could stretch it out.
You know she’s already read the book, right?
To be perfectly fair, Tolkien literally wrote the book for his kids, so it was intended as a "children's story" to begin with.
I first saw this when I was a child when it aired on tv. Pretty sure it was a rerun.
I've this version of The Hobbit has always had a special place in my heart, and always will.
this film is honestly my favourite tolkien based movie. i borrowed it from a local public library when i was like 5-6 years old, and after that i borrowed it every month or two for over a decade. at least until they got rid of it when they removed their VHS tapes. the music is my favourite part, something about the style and melodies just resonates with something, i still remember all the songs perfectly. the whole riddles in the dark sequence is the best part of the movie for me. it was just so eerie and tense, and you get that soft voice singing one of the riddles echoing in the caverns. i get chills just thinking about the scene, it just hits all the right notes, emotions, and style for me
This was thoroughly enchanting watching it as a child. It opened the door to a world of adventure that I have never shut. Bilbo was an everyman thrust into adventure. From that point of view, he’s just dealing as best he can under the circumstances. I’m not fond of the portrayal of the elves, but I did like Gollum. He was a kind of generic bogeyman meant merely to frighten. Readers wouldn’t learn his full story until years later. As a children’s movie, though, this was top notch. It might have skipped some incidents, but it was a remarkably faithful adaptation and that’s a rarity in the art form. One of my favorite fantasy films ever. People can gripe about anything, but there’s more here to like than not and it was the gateway to the novel for a whole generation. Remember, too, that in the Hobbit, the ring was merely of invisibility. It wouldn’t acquire the character of the One Ring until the Lord of the Rings, so it was a lighter hearted affair despite its darker moments. As others have noted, the film was based on the original edition of the Hobbit, which was a more childish book. It was later revised to be closer in character and tone with LOTR. A fun popcorn flick for sure.
I watched The Hobbit when it came out, I was 14, and it suffered from one big issue. It was done for the 70s audience so it had to be one hour to fit in the time slot and couldn't be two parts. No 70s audience was going to sit through a 2 hour children's show and no TV company was going to gamble on the audience tuning in the next week for the 2nd half. I think a 2 hour "true to the original story" animated version would go over really well now.
As it is, this version is pretty damn true to the original story. It barely alters anything, and includes almost every major element from the book. A longer version that included everything would be wonderful. But for what they had to work with back then, this film was actually pretty amazing.
I love how Peter Jackson reference the songs by making his blunt the knives and Misty Mountains referential without sounding like a copy or rip off
The "What are moon letters?" line is a literary tool used by writer to explain their mcguffins/ Duex ex Machinas.
You could say that this movie, among other events, changed my life. I had no idea what I really wanted to do with my life, so I took a job that I disliked from my first day but stayed bc I felt it was what I deserved for my indecisiveness. For three years, I was tired, stressed, depressed, and angry. Then, on a whim, I bought a copy of The Hobbit cartoon since it was one of my favorite movies as a child and I hadn't seen it in close to 20 years. As soon as the song "The Greatest Adventure" played in the opening credits, I was crying bc I was basically being Bilbo without a journey bc I was afraid of failing to be more like who I felt I was. I finally started applying to schools and jobs to get out of that place of disappointment and guilt. It's been a long 10 years since I left that job, and while the road has been far from smooth, I'm glad that 4 year-old me was wise enough to make my future self remember this movie and to move along the path to get where I am today.
I was 12 when this aired and checked the book out of the library the next day. After, I read TLoTR. This is intended for children just as the book was. It’s important to remember that this book was written for his boys. I suggest this any time someone expresses interest in watching “The Hobbit.” It is far better than the Jackson Hobbit trilogy.
Ill be honest. By far a better adaptation than what was made recently. Ill go back to this version everytime then go into the LOTR live action films. Gollums voice and look tripped me out as a little kid. This whole movie did.
I would have been just less than five years old when this movie was released, and I know I saw it in the 1970s, and being a fantasy nerd/D&D player with my friends and family, we all watched in many times in the 80s and even through the 90s. I still have this on DVD and have seen that a few more times this millennia, and I think its about time I watch it again!
I love the artwork in this film. The water color backgrounds and design of the characters, are so beautiful. Likewise, I love the music. The worse part, and I don't even find it that bad, just of their time, is that the actual animation isn't always smooth, and some of the stylization is a bit silly (like your comment about how gravity works, or the spiders dying by kaleidoscope). It's fine, especially when you consider this is meant to be a children's story.
Glad you and your friend enjoyed the movie, too!
I grew up watching the Hobbit when it first came out on TV. I own it now along with the other two animated features that they made.
Favorite line:
Bilbo saying,
“Whatever are…
…runes?”
i love that old cartoon so much. goood stuff. glad to know it's appreciated by others!!
The vibrato singer is Glenn Yarbrough, a folk singer from Milwaukee Wisconsin. As folk singers go, he's pretty famous - I'd recommend downloading an album or two if you like folk music at all.
I had a 2 disc vinyl box set version of this before VHS was available. I wore out the needle on my family record console stereo. I have the whole thing memorized. Later that year I blew out the speakers playing the Star Wars soundtrack at full blast. 1977 was a good year. The Silmarillion came out then too and the story of Turin Turumbar was as equally exciting as the hobbit. My 4th grade teacher read it to us in class for story hour over the course of days. Needless to say, Middle Earth has been a huge part of my life ever since. Thanks for this reaction
Always loved *Smaug with Snarf's face.*
This cartoon has a special place in my heart.
I'm 54; this is what introduced me to Tolkien and ... well, I love it still. I read the books immediately after this and I've never looked back.
When I was going to see the Hobbit movies in theaters, I distinctly remember saying to my dad that I hoped they would do frog-like Gollum from this, rather than Jackson's interpretation in LotR (though I probably didn't realize PJ was behind both trilogies, if I knew who he was at all at that age). To this day I imagine the whole section with the goblins and Gollum in a way that is very heavily inspired by this adaptation, though I barely remember the film now; the goblin's song in particular is still awesome and pops into my head unprompted with some regularity.
If I remember anything from this well it's the music, I love seeing people put lots of care into the songs from the books; that you sing your own interpretations of these songs whenever they come up is one of my favorite things about your channel by the way, it's beautiful!
This movie was my first introduction to Tolkien- a childhood favorite, and Bilbo was my hero.
I'm 52, and this is one of my favorite movies of all time. Watched it every year on Thanksgiving growing up.
I like that introduction song after the dwarf visit, where Bilbo is dreaming of himself being the king under the mountain. The lyrics and music really set the mood, and the scene is unqiue in its' way. Most of the songs in this cartoon are beautiful, of course.
I love this version. We had it on vhs, and my dad watched it with us kids, so I grew up with it despite being born 27 years after its release. I _was_ scared of gollum as a kid, but now that im older I can really appreciate this film, its art, and ive always loved its music. You guys would totally love the Rankin Bass RotK.
The animated Hobbit movie was a childhood favorite of mine and my only exposure to Tolkien prior to seeing Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. I loved it and enjoyed seeing the similarities on screen.
This was my favorite movie for a long time growing up. Before I saw the movie, we had a big record of it with a cartoon book that a kid could follow along. Also, it was nice that you got a good soundtrack for it with some extra effects. For some reason when it came out on dvd, the chains sound from the 'Down Down to Goblintown' were omitted, along with some of the effects against the spiders. Glad you appreciated it a bit.
Hi PTH! The most perfect adaptation I've yet seen of The Hobbit was this adorable stage show that toured around a couple decades ago. It was Peter Jackson-aware, but not overblown - in fact, all of its acting and sets were very much rooted in small theatre rather than big splashy production. But I seem to remember that they may have gotten a little visual and audio effects help from the team at Weta. That's not to compare it to the LOTR PJ trilogy - but it still felt like the most authentic version of the story, bar reading the actual book.
The movie was directed by Rankin and Bass, who up to this point had made mostly just holiday specials, and to this day are more well known for Christmas Specials like Rudolf, Frosty, Drummer Boy, and many many many Santa movies. The animation house they went to was a Japanese one, and not only would make The Hobbit and Return of the King (after the Ralph Bakshi movie failed to finish The Lord of the Rings), but they would go on to make several other specials and movies with Rankin/Bass, but also did several shows including Thunder Cats, and Silver Hawks, but also would make more native shows/movies in Japan, and were given the OK to make little back ground mentions of their English work, including an add sign that had a Thunder Cat in it on Bubblegum Crisis. In the 90's the American side of the studio got bought by Disney and used for their cheap sequels before disbanding in the early 2000's, the Japanese side of the studio would mostly join with Studio Ghibli after making Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki's break out directorial film.
As a kid, I only ever knew this flim, and was my main in for fantasy and magic, and things of the like. It wasn't until I was about 11 or 12 that I found out about Lord of the Rings, and in particular saw the Return of the King film, and the Ralph Bakshi film that more or less takes place between films. Of interesting note, Ralph Bakshi was a big pusher of rotoscoping, which is more or less tracing live actors for animation, which helps with the realistic look and movement to animation, while trying to help make it faster, and easier to make. All his monsters, and most of his action moments in Lord of the Rings are all rotoscope. Making a very uncanny valley effect when the monsters are on screen, kind helps with the creepyness of them I feel. As for Return of the King I quite like it, it very much fallows the same methods of The Hobbit, don't add BS, just use what we can, and cut the rest for time. The music is still good as well, a lot of the same artists.
This will always be in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. I bet I've seen it 20 times or more.
The music in this movie is so wonderful
Remember who this was for, it was on TV for kids. Thus spinning for dying, and yhey had to chop down for allowed time. They put a lot of heart into it, snd was 10x better than the Peter Jackson adaptation. And it captured Bilbos growth, the theme of focusing on building bridges to others and sharing versus covering and selfishly withholding. Id put above other kids oriented specials being produced at rhe time or in general. This was the era of Star Wars Holiday specials, as abother famous example. I actually respect this one as lot and watched it with my young kids around 5. They loved it just like they enjoyed watching Avatar the Last Aur Bender.
I’m an older millennial who will be 40 this year. I grew up with this as a periodic rerun on cable. It was my first introduction to the Legendarium and I will love it forever for that reason.
I have always loved that Bass and Rankin fantasy movie style of this film, RotK, the Last Unicorn, and the forgotten gem the Flight of Dragons. The designs for the spiders, goblins, and Gollum legitimately freaked me out on my first viewing and stuck with me forever. Another bit that stuck with me was the badass Black Arrow speech. Watching it now just reminds me of how badly the Jackson trilogy whiffed that scene in its adaptation… or lack there of as it were.
I grew up watching this on VHS like 5 times a week. Then Fellowship came out, I was not taken to the theatre to see it (I was 6-8, dont worry I was taken to the other movies and my father was chewed out by random soccer moms for it.) But I saw it on DvD. I fell alseep while Smaug was burning lake town, then I woke up in the middle of Bilbo's party speech. Half awake I muttered that I had been watching a movie first, then focused and asked "Bilbo?" And thats when I learned there was a sequal to my favorite story
My Mom rented this movie and showed it to me when I was 6. She saw it on TV when it came out and still claims it’s the best Hobbit related movie. She also had a 45 rpm record with the songs from the movie on it.
Also, the way Gollum was depicted in this movie was how I default pictured him until the Peter Jackson films came out.
I do believe this movie was my introduction to the world of Tolkien. When I was a kid it would sometimes randomly come on the Disney channel on weekends for no apparent reason and you better believe I stopped everything to sit and watch it if I could. It's admittedly a bit rough for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that adapting a book like the Hobbit to film is going to be awkward no matter your circumstances, but it's fun and has a sweet sincerity to it (and it's short). And the music is amazing.
Funny enough, my next experience with Tolkien was being in the sixth grade and my social studies teacher reading the book aloud to us. SS was kinda the throwaway class then and our teacher was elderly and on the verge of retirement anyways, so he decided to spend part of the year just reading The Hobbit to us. You'd think getting a bunch of sixth graders to sit and listen to a book would be impossible, but I remember the room being dead silent as he read. It's wild to think back on.
I was sixteen when this was first broadcast on TV and I loved it! It was my introduction to Tolkien. We found the books at our local department store and I read them every fall until Sir Peter's LOTR came out. I am sorry to say that this cartoon was much better than Del Toro's Hobbit.
I love this movie. I didn’t see it growing up and instead watched it for the first time as an adult. The music, animation, and story are great and I love that it’s a neat 80 minutes long making it a good pick to rewatch, yet at no point does it seem rushed. I had no idea it was animated by people that went on to make Studio Ghibli but that’s not surprising because I was thoroughly impressed and charmed by their work here. I was about to be so mad if you didn’t like it. The soundtrack is short and well produced too-great lofi vibes.
I must admit I have a big bias to The Hobbit. I was 5 and was going in an out of the hospital do to being sick (was later diagnosed with Childhood Leukemia. I was up stairs sick in bed and wanted attention because everyone was down stairs so my mom came up and tossed a book on my bed. The Hobbit. Although was not able to read much of it at the time I loved the maps, ruins and picture. Was so intrigued by it. Just before I was hospitalized again I saw this version of the Hobbit and well fell in love with JRR Tolkien. Was always my dream to see Tolkien's work come to the big screen so Jackson's version was a dream come true but this will always have a place in my heart and soul.
As someone who watched this as a kid when it came out, my two cents is that any critique of this film needs to keep in mind that it was created to be a kids movie by 1970's standards and created with 1970's animation technology. A lot of the cheesy dialogue that was criticized was put in there as the only way to tell the audience what was going on in a short period of time. For instance, the need to explain the "moon letters" was for the audience's benefit, and especially for the children who would not have been able to figure this out. The same goes for the black arrow dialogue.
And yes, a lot was left out, but considering they had to condense the book to one hour, such sacrifices had to be made. Sad, but reality.
I loved the music and the songs and how they integrated it into the film.
The one thing I didn't like was how they animated the elves. It was weird reading the book The Hobbit after watching this animation and discovering that the elves wee fair beings, beautiful in appearance, and all that! I would like to ask the animators why they uglified the elves, especially the wood elves(!).
Oh, how they showed Bilbo as transparent rather than invisible when he put the ring on was because the animators obviously wanted the audience to see Bilbo. We were used to such in animation back then (ever see Space Ghost and how the characters looked when they made themselves invisible?).
Hey it’s Ranken Bass everyone loved them and couldn’t wait for them to be shown
each year
"You're a burglar, burgle something"
I remember having the exact same reaction when I was a kid in the 80s.
My uncle made me a VHS of all the animated movies when I was a kid, and I wore that tape out. I liked the hobbit and the return of the king animation style way more than the two towers. The music for the Hobbit was great.
I'm 47 years old. The librarian at my school made my class watch this movie when I was in 5th grade, probably about 10 or 11 years old. This movie is what made me want to read the books! Love it!❤
The reason enemies do that spinning thing when they die is the film was created as a movie of the week for broadcast on US television (CBS) in the late 1970s. This was the same era when CBS heavily edited the old Warner Brothers cartoons to remove violence (which made half the gags completely impossible to understand.) Broadcast standards of the time did not allow violence to be shown to children, especially violence causing death. The animators were not permitted to show the enemies being slashed or stabbed, so the whole spinning thing was really the only thing the animators could do to indicate that the enemies were dying without showing any blood or gore.
BTW: I am 55. I watched The Hobbit when it played on CBS in 1977 when I was nine. We lived in Northern Ontario and only had three local channels, one of them being French, but we had recently gotten cable TV, giving us an incredible seven channels! 😃
I was 12 when this came on TV. As soon as it was over I went to my brother's room and got the dog eared Ballentine copy of the Fellowship from his bookshelf and began reading it that night.
I was 20 when this came out. Had read the trilogy 5 times by then . Read the Hobbit twice. Was starting the silmarillion then. The cartoon was a novelty to me but nothing like the books. At that time the Hildebrand brothers were putting out calendars. Their illustrations were fantastic.
5:40 based on the Silmarillion, kinda checks out actually, Elves are very much associated with stars, and putting more detail into the way they're drawn to depict that they're more refined than the other races kinda works too.
This film introduced me to fantasy as a child and means a lot to me.
Just found your video on the Soviet LOTR. Haha. Awesome channel guys!
They went a bit literal with Elrond’s crown having gems like stars light. And did not seem to realize the Mirkwood elves were the same species as Elrond.
i was born in '77 so i grew up watching this version of The Hobbit and absolutely loved it as a child. i haven't actually watched it as an adult...maybe i should.
This was a nice suprise to see in my feed as I just watched this version for the first time a few nights ago. Great video as usual, I always enjoy your reactions together!
I hope you enjoyed your watch through! It was a ton of fun
The adaptation I grew up on was the 1979 'Minds Eye' radio adaptation (though the tapes we had of it were slightly abbreviated compared to the version I've found online since). For me - their tune for "Over the misty mountains cold" is unambiguously the correct one. I heartily recommend tracking that one down if possible.
I'm 55 and this was amazing to me as a child! It's not fair to compare this to modern adaptations. Back the there was the book or this. I had not yet discovered the book, so this was my introduction to Tolkien. It was the first layer that all the other adaptations built upon. A bit corny now, but very dear to my heart. I am sure I would still enjoy it!❤
My sister and I rented the VHS of this movie many times when we'd go to Hollywood Video on Fridays.
I have the two-record vinyl recording of this with the read-along book. I'm going to read/listen to it with my granddaughter when she's ready.
I grew up with this adaptation (I’m 50) and I’m not sure it holds up all that well. However, I am still friends with my best friend from kindergarten, and when we go on outdoor adventures , one of us will occasionally bust out “ the greatest adventure is what lies ahead”.
I watch ed this a million times when I was younger and also when I was a teen and twenty year old. I liked the whole thing. So did we all. My friend used to have Gollum from this on her screensaver.
My introduction to tolkien. I was 12 perfect age for it, it was also the year of the first star wars movie. A magical time.
Outside of the books, this was my first encounter with media based on Tolkien, and I’m very fond of it. And I’m happy that, unlike some other things I feel nostalgia for, it’s actually not half bad.
I've always assumed the proportionally large hands on Bilbo in this rendition were down to the animators modeling hobbits on people with Disproportionate Dwarfism, specifically Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Congenita. I think Warwick Davis might be a famous example of a person with it.
Not that that has any significant bearing on this video, just thought of it when y'all mentioned Bilbo's hands toward the beginning.
FWIW: after years and years of watching this myself as a kid, and then hearing it from the other room/back of the van while my kids watch it, I'm in love with the soundtrack now. I really didn't as a kid, but I love it now.
I grew up with this movie and is still one of my favorites of all time.
The soundtrack was written/performed by Glenn Yarborough who died in 2016
Funny thing about the map is the animation confused the runes meant to be moon letters, though the script says “this hand points through these runes” when none are there and the actual moon letters are visible.
Also in the official art of the cover for the vinyl soundtrack, Smaug is green and Bilbo’s design is a bit different.
They also released an illustrated copy of The Hobbit using the art from this movie. In that they actually have Beorn
In DnD term, Gandalf is the player that can’t make every session, but wants a valid reason for their character’s disappearance.
5:20 literally me. I will go wild for any map.
When this was remastered for DVD, they cut out most of the incidental sounds, which made this movie come alive. There were deep growls and grunts of Smaug, the rattling of coins. It lost a dimension.
I grew up with this as the hobbit movie. My favorite memory, weird as it is, is that most of the dwarves didn’t survive the battle. Was realistic.
This Cartoon was my introduction into J.R.R. Tolkien. Saw it when I was like 8 or 9 years old and then came across the book in my schools library in seventh grade years later. Was the 1st book that I read for fun and not for school work...lead me to reading the whole Lord of the rings Trilogy. Bought and read them again when I was in the Marines and the Peter Jackson movie trilogy came out was I was in so I read the Silmarillion as well. Been infested for awhile lol.
I absolutely adore this movie. My dad showed it to me when I was around 5 or 6 and I loved it so much that he started reading the book to me at bedtime. This movie was the thing that got me into Tolkien and fantasy in general. To me this movie is perfect.
I had thought it had something to do with Bilbo's mother Belladonna being a Took and Tooks are bold; but apparently Gandalf never does explain picking Bilbo beyond a dragon would not recognize a hobbit's scent. But I recall in the Peter Jackson version Galadriel asks Gandalf and Gandalf says Bilbo gives him courage. And I think that is apt since Bilbo isn't courageous but only ever distracts his terror with Gandalf's advice to heart to iterate his favorite pleasant things, a hankerchief, a pipe loaded with weed, his garden at twilight. I think Gandalf knows his advice is pretty inadequate but it happens to apply well to hobbits as they are frankly materialists, particularly those as acquisitive as to have the name "Baggins". Any pessimism can be dispelled by the consolation of having once owned the means of consolation, that means, comfort.
One odd aspect of this is that Bilbo only takes enough of his 1/13 share of a mountain of gold his pony could carry; a true materialist would simply buy all of the horses and wagons in Laketown to carry the arkenstone which he should have kept and at least a bit more gold; these two small bags barely last to pass on a few coins onto Frodo. Of course a mithral shirt was worth the whole Shire, plus Sting, plus a map drawn by Thorin's grandfather which I imagined Dain would have wanted, being also a grandchild of that worthy.
Fun fact: The voice of Bilbo is Orson Bean, who played Loren Bray on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.
These songs live rent free in my heart forever
I can’t believe you got Orson Wells to react to this with you.
I originally watched this version of The Hobbit when it originally aired, back in 77’. It was and is still one of my favorite movies out there. It also got me interested in reading the books, which as a kid I wasn’t too interested in reading, and this movie was one of the few that sparked an interest in me to read, and see how the movie and book are different. Plus I was heavily into Sci-Fi movies and this movie inspired me to get into Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons.
your story is a parallel to mine, as I wanted to read the Tolkien books after seeing this on TV and I reread each volume more than once and picked up the Silmarillion when it was new on the shelves as well. When Dungeons and Dragons appeared on the scene I couldn't resist...