Review of The Hobbit (1977) by Ethan M — 04 Dec 2014

Once upon a time, many years before the Lord of the Rings were a trilogy, there once was an animated Hobbit film which was quickly over looked. Back in 1977, Rankin/Bass created this animated musical television special that was known for their holiday specials using lyrics adapted from the book. I have heard many things about this film, but never got around to watching it until now. The reason is that with the third, and final, Hobbit movie coming out this month it will mark the end of the J.R.R. Tolkien movie franchise that Peter Jackson worked so far in creating. Which is why I believe it was high time I did a countdown review with all of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies from the very first one to its last in a periodical timeline order starting with this one. So let's kick this series of reviews off already starting with this cartoon classic.

The animation in here is pretty good, for seventies standards that is, but the coloring on the characters seemed to be a bit off at times. Take for example the beard on the dwarves and Gandalf, there are scenes where the lines of their faces don't really match up with the color doesn't seem to know where to begin. I was a little disappointed with the other 12 dwarves in here and that is because they all come off as being cowardly. I mean how are you supposed to take back your mountain from a fire breathing dragon if you cannot fight off orcs in a cave? The music is quite poetic, but I can't help but think about Lemmiwinks traveling up Mr. Slave's ass every time this music is being played. The voice acting in here is fairly well done, especially from Smuag & Gollum who both kind of gave me the chills a bit. The battle were a little disappointing, to say the least, because every time one breaks out and someone gets killed the movie makes this odd freeze frame transition where the orcs or spiders just transition wipe out of the screen. Overall, it is an okay cartoon flick for its time and if you have any kids who do not want to sit through nine hours of Peter Jackson's work then this is the film for you and the little ones.