The Hobbit-1977 Animated Version

I watched a movie and it is called The Hobbit, directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr., released in 1977. It stars Orson Bean, Brother Theodore, Richard Boone, John Huston and Hans Conried, to name a few. This is the abridged animated musical version. The story concerns Bilbo Baggins who is enlisted by Gandalf and the Company of Dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield to accompany them as their burgler, “lucky number” back to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their gold. Like I said, it is an abridged version that is only 77 minutes long. That is not to say that it deviates from the source material however. In fact, the opening lines of the movie introducing Hobbits and Bilbo are taken straight from the book. It is a pretty faithful adaptation in that respect, even if it cuts out many of the side stories and rushes through a few moments to get to the end goal of getting to the mountain. There really isnt all that much additional explanations of the seasons or any of that to make the story longer. Some would cry foul on this but I think it works because of that simplicity but still maintaining the heart of the story or core of the story, if you will. The animation style predates the big eyes characters that we later see in other anime movies and in fact, this can be considered an anime movie since the studio that produced it, Topcraft was a precursor to Studio Ghibli that produced some pretty great and well known anime movies themselves. The style lends itself to the nature of the fantasy that is Middle Earth and what fanciful creatures there are in this place. I must say that all of the bad characters, such as the spider of Mirkwood Forest, the trolls, the goblins and the wargs are drawn to a degree that is pretty frightening. Gollum is also quite frightening looking, not at all what Peter Jackson made him up to be. All of the good characters have stern faces, emotive faces and can be frightening at times but are mostly easy to look at, with the exception of the Wood Elves; not sure what happened there. The animation is fluid and though there are some hiccups, overall it looks beautiful, not cheap or rushed. There are some scaling problems during Bilbo and Gollum’s scenes but it should bother too much.

The voice acting is top notch as you might expect. All the actors put so much soul into their performance that you forget that you are watching an animated feature. They even put little extras, like certain intonations/inflections in their voices to really sell a lot of the scenes which, again, adds so much more depth to this movie than being some simple cartoon. Orson Bean plays Bilbo with a wit and a bit tongue in cheek but with bravado, John Huston plays Gandalf, both commanding and nurturing, Richard Boone plays Smaug with a with and bravado that is both deliciously mischievous also very ruthless, Hans Conried plays Thorin as both pompous and heroic, and finally, Brother Theodore plays Gollum with quiet intensity until he notices that his “precious” has gone missing, which will stay with you for long after the movie ends. All of the other characters: additional dwarves, Bard the Guardsman, Elrond, and the Wood Elf King and others, also give the intense performances that you might expect. It might seem over the top or scenery chewing but it works, I think.
The music, adapted by Rankin-Bass is lifted from the book which is one of its best highlights. Additional music was contributed by Glenn Yarbourgh, including the theme song “The Greatest Adventure (The Ballad of the Hobbit)”, sung by Yarbough. Many of the other songs were sung by either Yarbourgh or men and women singers.  You’d think that a folk soundtrack would be kind of out of place but again, it works because of its simplicity and power behind the words and the actions on screen. Trust me when I say that is works as well.
I know a few people who hate this movie, though that might be from other things associated with the 70’s but I feel that it was quite ambitious of Rankin-Bass to attempt to adapt such a famous book in this fashion, because all manner of things could’ve made this bomb, especially with the limited nature of movie to book adaptations. I personally grew up with this movie and it was on a play list all through my childhood and motivated me to read the book when I got to school. I loved seeing the words from the songs on pages and singing them as I read the book. Later in life, I still came back to it, as I do for this review. The more recent adaptations of the Hobbit made me ambivalent because I had such investment in the material, unlike Lord of the Rings before it (which I loved). I saw all Jackson movies and they are hit or miss for me. I already knew the plot and the story so it was like watching another adaptation but not really. I understand that adaptations go with the generations that support it so this 1977 animated version was and is my adaptation. Check it out. It has a different atmosphere and vibe to it, not just 1970’s vibe either, more like a rich story telling vibe that both kids and adults can enjoy. Together.