The Hobbit (1977)
Watching some of the earlier animated Tolkien adaptations with some friends, starting with The Hobbit, produced by Rankin/Bass and Japanese studio Topcraft. Which, believe it or not, would later become Studio Ghibli.
This version of The Hobbit is short and cheap but, honestly, not altogether bad. The Hobbit was a short book, and only a fool would ever need more than a couple of hours to adapt it without leaving out anything too important, the movies 80 minutes cover most of it, if in a very simplified, truncated form. Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit leading a quiet, unremarkable life, until a visit from wizard Gandalf and his entourage of 13 dwarves ropes him into an adventure to recover a stolen dwarven treasure from the greedy dragon Smaug.
Hobbit '77 covers all the basic setpieces from the book, the hungry trolls, the underground city of goblins, Gollum, the wood elves, Smaug, the battle of five armies, albeit all in a fairly utilitarian fashion. There's not very much in terms of impressive visual setpieces, the animation is about what you expect from a made for tv production and none of the imagery is quite as evocative as, say, Rankin/Bass's Last Unicorn, which, at least around here, was a bit of a TV classic when I was a kid. What Hobbit '77 has, though, are some weirdly iconic creature designs. Bilbo's encounter with a slippery, amphibian looking Gollum is honestly, the highlight of the movie. Gollum has always been the very definition of a weird little guy and I can confidently say, this is probably the weirdest of a little guy he's ever been. Some other ones, like a bizarre feline looking Smaug and some really odd wood elves fall a bit flat, but their designs are still kinda fun.
It has a lot of weird quirks typical for animated movies of the time. It's a musical, kinda, and all of the songs are quite bad. It's that sort of Donovan/Peter, Paul and Mary sounding cheesy American folk music, and not really a very good version of it. A lot of "this is where you're supposed to cut to commercial break" editing. Very hit and miss voice performances. It's a very American take on Tolkien. Now, I do think that, if there needs to be an American Gandalf, John Huston is actually a very good choice but the only other standout is Otto Preminger playing the king of the Wood Elves with a thick German accent.
Hobbit '77 is not a very good movie, exactly, but it is a rather enjoyable one. For what it lacks in budget or run time, it makes up for in folksy charm and casual weirdness. Both of which, honestly, I think complement what is in essence a light hearted childrens book that only vaguely hints towards the mytho-poetic gravity that Tolkien's more mature stories of Middleearth would take on. It's a quick, fun and amusing watch. And it has a lot of weird little guys. You gotta love some weird little guys in your fantasy movies.
