The Hobbit

Rating:
Summary: The best of the lot...pre-Peter Jackson
Review: In light of Peter Jackson's triple triumph with the Lord of the Rings, much renewed criticism now appears to be surfacing regarding the Ralph Bakhshi and Rankin-Bass cartoon adaptations. While Bakhshi was never able to complete his particular vision and Rankin-Bass only ever adapted "The Hobbit" and "Return of the King," these particular works should at least be evaluated on their own merits.

Rankin-Bass's "The Hobbit" is, for my money, the best of the lot. While it of course simplifies much of the story, the essential elements are all there: Bilbo's professional recruitment by Gandalf and the dwarves, the encounter with the trolls and the acquisition of Sting, Elrond's translation of the moon letters, the run-in with the orcs, the finding of the ring and the riddle-game with Gollum, the dwarves' rescue from the burning tree by the eagles, Gandalf's departure, the spiders of Mirkwood, imprisonment by the wood-elves and Bilbo's unique rescue method, Lake-Town, the opening of the secret door, Bilbo's audience with Smaug, Smaug's raging escape and vengeance upon Lake-Town, the thrush's message to Bard and the slaying of Smaug, Thorin's defiance, the Battle of Five Armies, Thorin's deathbed realization, and Bilbo's return home to publish "There And Back Again." Classic lines like "adventures make one late for dinner," "We hates it forever," "Go now and speed well," and "'till your eyries receive you at the journey's end" are all retained in their proper places. So it's not as though we've been duped into watching a radically different story.

In fact one of the film's greatest strengths is in its faithful adaptation of many of Tolkien's lyrics, to include "The Road Goes Ever Ever On," the elves' "Tra-la-la-lalley" and "Rollin' Down the Hole," the orcs' "You Go, My Lad" and "Fifteen Birds," and the men with "At The Mountain King's Return." The single best song comes right in the prologue, with the dwarves' passionate "Far O'er the Misty Mountains Cold" becoming a recurring musical signature throughout the film. Just as pervasive (unfortunately) is Glenn Yarborough's annoying "The Greatest Adventure" theme song.

Where the Tolkien purists get annoyed is with the omissions and the scaling-down of some story elements. To list a few: the entire "Unexpected Party" chapter is condensed into a single visit, and Gandalf's presentation of Thror's map and key to Thorin is swapped out, to instead take place in the trolls' cave. The Rivendell scenes are over with in less than four minutes. Gollum and Bilbo exchange a whopping 2 riddles each, with the rest of the scene stretched out by creepy music. Beorn is omitted entirely, gone the way of Tom Bombadil --the eagles rescue the dwarves from the burning tree and take them straight to the edge of Mirkwood. The sudden transition from spider-battle to the capture of the dwarves by the wood-elves is awkward and not given much explanation; although voice-overs by Bilbo do help somewhat. Similarly, the "Barrels Out Of Bond" chapter is condensed into a single song, which leads almost without pause straight into the dwarves' washing ashore at Lake-Town. Likewise, Bilbo's only has the one encounter with Smaug, and there is no explanation given for the thrush's ability to be understood by Bard. The Arkenstone subplot is omitted entirely, and only the barest mention of Dain's army's arrival from the Iron Hills is made --casual viewers will likely miss this moment and end up wondering how thirteen dwarves suddenly turned into hundreds. However most of these omissions and condensations are forgivable as they would otherwise slow up the pace of the story and lose the attention of the eight-to-twelve year-old audience for which it is intended.

What is less forgivable are a very few outright plot changes: I never cared for the artists' depiction of the wood-elves --they look very sinister and not at all noble or beautiful. Gandalf gives every indication of having guessed the nature of Bilbo's invisibility almost from the moment Bilbo is reunited with the party after his escape from Gollum. Likewise Gandalf has some very forced added-in lines at the very end of the story that lay the groundwork for Lord of the Rings, suggesting that he already knows full well what the ring is and what is to come. A blatant rewrite comes at the end of the Battle of Five Armies, where Gandalf says only six of the original thirteen dwarves survived --we even see Bombur's death scene! In Tolkien's story, the only casualties of the original thirteen were Thorin, Fili, and Kili. This for me is the most annoying aspect of the film --there was absolutely no reason to have increased the "body count" in this way.

Keeping in mind that Rankin-Bass intended "The Hobbit" for the pre-teen set, this is a perfectly acceptable rendition and I would certainly recommend watching it with your children. Some of the orc (goblin) scenes and certainly Smaug and the spiders might be a little too intense for kids under six, but as with all such films, it should be a parent's judgement call. As a youngster this cartoon was what frankly got me hooked into Tolkien's world, and there is evidence that it is now doing so with some members of the next generation who aren't yet old enough to see the Peter Jackson films. Need more proof? Thanks to this movie, my eight year-old son is now writing himself into Hobbit fan fiction!

Rating:
Summary: My Childhood Introduction to the J.R.R. Tolkien
Review: Bilbo Baggins (voice by Orson Bean) is a small hobbit, happiest when he is sitting at the door of his hobbit hole, smoking his pipe and enjoying the slow-paced life of Hobbiton. But all of this is suddenly changed when the wizard Gandalf (voice by John Huston) appears with a dozen dwarves, headed by Thorin (voice by Hans Conreid). They are there to hire an expert burglar, of which Bilbo is purported to be, but by whom Bilbo really does not know. Before he knows it, Bilbo is on his way to Laketown where the last surviving dragon, Smaug (voice by Richard Boon), watches over the great dwarvish treasure that Thorin is determined to reclaim. Along the way, Bilbo will be forced to battle monstrous trolls, descend into the world of the goblins, escape the clutches of the creature Gollum (voice by Brother Theodore), free his friends from the huge spiders, and eventually steal into the cavern of the great Smaug himself...

I can vividly remember watching this film when I was a child and being absolutely entranced by this fantasy world. I had no idea it was based on a book until I was older and was able to devour Tolkien's books. I admit that the animation style takes a little getting used to, but I thought that it very ably suited the fantasy epic portrayed. All of the voices were perfect for the film and the voice of Gollum is particularly creepy - you can really tell that this creature has lost his sanity just by listening to the voice. I particularly enjoyed the soundtrack where they took care to use songs from the book. These were wonderful and I love that they took the time to put them in. Even though there is quite a bit of violence in the story, the animators took care not to show anything, just showing weird swirls of color and blackouts, I didn't even know that the characters were dying until I watched it when I was older. Still, it is a little too scary for young children to watch, regardless of its cartoon status. As far as the sound quality goes, I would have to agree with other viewers in that it is very poor on this DVD. If you are a fan, it is definitely worth your time to find a used copy of the older VHS version (and pray that Peter Jackson decides to make this film!).

Rating:
Summary: Hobbit Cool
Review: This is a great animated feature that I think very well portrays the story of "The Hobbit", and it's magical lands and people. Some of it, me thinks, was a little cheap at times, but I love it. (especially Bilbo's song, 'The Greatest Adventure')

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Film, DVD Quality Not So Much
Review: I've always enjoyed this version-loved it as a kid, still find it entertaining and nostalgic as an adult. But like many others here, I have to talk about the screwy sound problems this DVD has. You'd think with modern technology and the current LotR interest, they'd do a much better job with this new version, but it's actually inferior to the older ones, mostly due to the absence of a great number of the sound effects. It's as if an entire track is missing, but nobody involved in the production noticed. It's very odd to be watching a scene where something's happening, and you *know* you should be hearing noise, but all there is is silence. Or Bilbo responds to something Thorin has said, only this version doesn't have Thorin's line in it so you don't know what Bilbo's talking about! Also, a large part of Elrond's discussion of the swords is distractingly overlayed with a continuation of an Elf song sung during the previous scene, which was NOT how it was in the original version. I kept expecting him to suddenly turn around and yell, "Will you guys just SHUT UP!"

There are also some visual problems; every once in a while the image darkens for a few moments, and there's noticeable deterioration of the original film stock in a few scenes, smudging and warping, etc.

I can't figure out how all these problems got by WB's quality control. It's really a sub-par effort, something I'd expect from cheapie knock-off tapes, not something issued by WB. If you're thinking of owning this film, try to find an older version, or hope that WB will repair this one and do a reissue at some point.

Rating:
Summary: A new HOBBIT is coming!
Review: For those of you who don't know it,a new version of the book "The Hobbit" is going to be coming to film.WHATS COOL IS THAT PETER JACKSON IS GOING TO DIRECT IT! THE GUY THAT MADE MY LORD OF THE RINGS! He did a wonderful job on it.STUNNING! I can't know what to say sometimes.Ahem I must commennt on this version.
Even though in a few years this one may be outshined,IT Is A CLASSIC!!!!The first movie of the Hobbit.The songs are very pretty.Fun Too.Orcs have loud voices singin' all about horrible things.I wsh there was more songs still in P.J. version.Bilbo does very well and Gandalf too. Smaug is very scary!
At any rate,don't shun this version.There is ALWAYS beauty in animation!

Rating:
Summary: I usually don't care about effects, but they didn't know and
Review: The Hobbit is a poorly drawn together picture. I'm no cheapskater when it comes to movies, but this was really low. The Spider scene was insanely disappointing. And it left out SO MUCH!!! It was loyal to the story, but that's not enough to save this lousuy movie. Hey, is it just me, but when the dwarf was telling his death wish thing, I coulldn't understand him because the background music was so loud. And the lighting sound effects was done by some guy. They were not detailed nor were they down to earth. I hated it.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE IT!
Review: Awesome, one word to describe it. It changed my life. I love it and i watch it with such devotion only second to reading the Bible. I love the 1977 animated classic "the Hobbit: the Clamshell" IT IS A WORK OF RECONDITE GENIUS! I AM FOREVER AMAZED BY THE CLAMSHELL/THE HOBBIT! :) :) :)

Rating:
Summary: Charming but dated
Review: When this originally came out, when I was a kid, I was a huge fan, and I eagerly snapped up the DVD when it was released. While I enjoy "The Lord of the Rings," including the new live action movies, the story of "The Hobbit" has always been nearer and dearer to me.

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, things are better in memory than in reality. Whether it's changing tastes or simply adult eyes, but much of this film is needlessly tame: combat scenes (which are plentiful) mostly consist of repeatedly zooming in on static pictures, instead of showing the heroes and villains swinging their weapons. It's probably partly an economic decision -- it was surely easier to animate this way -- and partly an effort to sanitize the film, but the end result is that this feels like a needlessly G-rated version of what, at worst, is a PG story.

Fun to have, and a nice companion piece to the DVDs of the new movies -- and even after all these years, I enjoy Glen Yarbrough's theme song -- but go into it with your eyes open.

Recommended for fans who never outgrew their love of the "Greatest Adventure" and confirmed Tolkein fans.

Rating:
Summary: TERRIBLE DVD Sound - Avoid the DVD!!
Review: Whether you like the original movie or not, the DVD version's soundtrack is missing a very large number of key elements - the majority of the sound effects, ambient sound backgrounds, some of the music, and even the occaisional bit of dialogue. The result is like watching an unfinished movie with a "temp" audio track. A truly horrendous offense for an animated movie, which depends so much on sound. Do NOT buy the DVD - you're not really getting the movie as advertised.

Rating:
Summary: Something is wrong with the sound
Review: First off, let me say that I'm a big fan of this movie...I grew up with it, and have always loved it. Unfortunately, if you want to experience this movie for yourself you will be better off buying the VHS version. The sound dubbing in the DVD version is inexcusable. There are portions where all of the background sound is missing entirely. The most notable points are during the spider attack in Mirkwood, and inside of Smaug's cave, although after watching this several times I realized that the sound problem was endemic. It made me think that the DVD was cut with a first draft of the sound recording instead of the final draft.

Do not buy this DVD! You will be disappointed, especially if you grew up watching this on TV as a kid (as I did). Buy the VHS tape instead.

WB (or whoever produced this DVD) should be ashamed. I personally think they should be flogged as well.