Voices of Orson Bean, John Huston, Hans Conried, and Richard Boone
Directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass
Music by Maury Laws; Lyrics by Jules Bass and J.R Tolkien
As we prepare for the release of another Lord of the Rings live-action film later this year (and I re-read the book The Hobbit), we take a look at the two Rankin-Bass animated musical versions of these much-loved fantasy novels. Rankin was a fan of the books and spent three million making this as close to the actual book as they could get away with in prime-time in the late 70's. It debuted as a Thanksgiving special on NBC that year and was popular enough for them to consider a sequel. How does the first full-length adaptation of a Lord of the Rings novel look today? Let's begin with Bilbo (Bean) in his hobbit hole about to receive thirteen very unexpected visitors and find out...
The Story: The last thing Bilbo expects is for twelve dwarfs and the wizard Gandalf (Huston) to turn up on his doorstep and invite him on an adventure. They're traveling to the Lonely Mountain to retrieve their treasure from the dragon Smaug (Boone) and want Bilbo to be their stealthy burglar. Bilbo would really rather stay home, but Gandalf persuades him.
Bilbo wishes he'd stayed home when they encounter goblins who try to eat them, wolf-like monsters called Wargs who chase them up trees, and a strange little creature called Gollum who hides a certain ring. Bilbo uses the ring to escape and save the dwarfs from many dangers. He even manages to find the treasure and Smaug's weak spot. However, the dragon destroys the surrounding town, and the dwarfs won't share the treasure, inciting a war.
The Animation: That three million dollars shows in sketchy, earthy artwork that is far and above what Rankin-Bass/Topcraft was doing in their holiday specials at this point. It's not nearly as frightening or uncanny valley as the rotoscoping seen in Ralph Bakshki's Lord of the Rings, but it moves too stiffly to be Disney's best, and some of the special effects with the spiders and the dragon are a little cheap. Still, there's some nice work here, from Gollum's expressions to the bright red all around when Smaug decimates Laketown.
The Song and Dance: This was always by far my favorite of the three Lord of the Rings animated films. Folksy comedian Bean is a charming Bilbo, equally capable of fleeing war and goblins and outwitting Gollum. For some reason, we have two well-known directors doing voices here. John Huston is a wonderfully gravely and grave Gandalf, while Otto Preminger is the elf king. Conried does well as grouchy Thorin, head of the dwarfs, too. Also, kudos for most of the songs being fairly accurate adaptations of the ones in the book, word for word.
Favorite Number: The only fully original song featured in the film is "The Greatest Adventure," heard in the opening and closing performed by folk singer Glenn Yarbrough. The dwarfs sing about "That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates" at their impromptu party in his hobbit hole during the opening. The chorus sings as they travel "Under the Lonely Mountain." Later, we hear them perform "The Barrel Song" and "The Mountain King's Return." Yarbrough gets "Roads," "The Roads Goes Ever On and On," "In the Valley Ha! Ha!," and "Old Fat Spider." "Down, Down to Goblin Town" and "Funny Little Things" are performed by a goblin chorus when they capture the dwarfs and Bilbo.
Trivia: Animator Gene Deitch did an earlier Hobbit animated short in 1966, but it has very little in common with the original book or later feature-length films.
What I Don't Like: Fans and scholars of Tolkien's work have long complained about everything they cut out to make this more family and TV-friendly, from Bilbo stealing a family treasure of Thorin's and handing it to the elves to Bilbo getting knocked out and missing the entire war instead of protesting it and hiding. Several characters are missing too, notably Beorn, who shelters the group early in the book and gives them directions to the mountain.
The Big Finale: A great introduction to Tolkien's work and fantasy in general for families with elementary-school age kids who can handle some of the darker elements.
Home Media: The DVDs are rare and expensive online. You're better off streaming this one.
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