A wonderous animated version of J.R.R. Tolkein’s classic about the magical world of Middle Earth and the adventures of lovable Bilbo Baggins. Featuring the voices of Orson Bean and John Huston. Year: 1977 Director: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr. Starring: Orson Bean, John HustonThe J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy classic set in Middle-earth was adapted into this excellent 1978 animated feature first broadcast on television. Codirectors Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., working from a script by Romeo Muller, are faithful to Tolkien’s story and for that alone they get big points. The vocal cast can’t be improved upon: Orson Bean is perfect as Bilbo Baggins, the timorous hobbit who grows brave on his adventure with the wizard Gandalf (John Huston). Otto Preminger is the voice of Elvenking, Richard Boone is Smaug, Hans Conreid is Thorin, and Brother Theodore is very effective as the weird Gollum. Terrific for kids and adults alike. –Tom Keogh
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March 6, 2010
#1
I saw this movie for the first time when I was about 5 years old. I am 21 now, and seeing this movie even today makes me feel great anxiety. I think this film may be a little too frightening for young children–after all, some scary creature is trying to kill our heroes at every turn. I would hate for any young child to believe any world, even a mythical one, could ever be as scary as Bilbo’s! While I believe this is a good video for older children, instead I recommend they read the book when they are a little older.
March 6, 2010
#2
Never before has such an evil, creepy film crossed my path. Years of psychological treatment have not undone the scarring caused by this movie. I first encountered this movie with its terrifying musical numbers and frightening characters at the tender age of 11 and I still suffer the repercussions of it. I do NOT recommend this film to anyone under the age of 17.
March 7, 2010
#3
I’ll save you the money. But if you like completely horrible interpretations, give a listen to the tune, “Frodo of the Nine Fingers” and hear some hack vibrate through one of the worst ideas for a song in at least a century.
March 7, 2010
#4
I went to my grandmas house and she had rented this for us to watch i thought it would be cool that gollum was in it (since i LOVED gollum in LOTR) but i found this movie very disapointing.
1. the animation is HORRIBLE
2. i was very disapointed with gollum he looked like a frog and a horse mixed together and his voice i couldn’t even understand
3. sometimes it was hard to understand the characters
i found myself wanting to shut this movie off i would have if i were all on my own. Save your money for LOTR it is worth seeing not this. I found it hard to follow who was who. So rent/buy lord of the rings it will be way better then this.
March 7, 2010
#5
While it is difficult to transpose succesfully most books to film, this version fails completely on at least three counts. First, this rendition fails to capture the richness of Tolkien’s images a with the use of 2-D animation and pale, washed out colors.
Second, the interjection of songs that are sophomoric belies the scope of the potnetial audience and misses the essence of the characters.
Third, stick to the story, why do movies change the plot whether it be Dune or Harry Potter?
Separelty, The Lord of the Rings is often erroneously called a trilogy, when it is in fact a single novel, consisting of six books plus appendices, someime published in three volumes. The Hobit was written in 1937. Giving into a desire for more information about hobbits The Lord of the Rings was written in inervals between 1936 to 1949.
Read the book, it much better.