The Hobbit

Rankin Bass had some decent to weak film in terms of none-holiday project. Many of them aren’t as big as Rudolph or Frosty or Santa Claus Coming To Town. The 70’s had a major limit for animated TV shows and specials. Then in the late 70’s, many auteur films were made to break the dumb mold that whiny society and/ or executives have made, with films such as George Lucas on Star Wars, Richard Donner on Superman, and for TV is Rankin Bass on The Hobbit.

Gandolf the Gray recruited a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins as the Dwarf’s burglar to steal their own treasure they made. The a dreaded dragon named Smaug ruled the Dwarf kingdom with all of the Dwarfs' treasures. Bilbo would go on a grand adventure with Gandolf, King Thoin Oakenshield and his 12 Dwarfs through the land of Middle Earth.

Along the way, they stumble upon trolls, goblins, spiders, elves, orcs, human, and other creatures that would bite them back in hindsight.

Unless you watched the Peter Jackson remake already, I’m not going to spoil this.

This is a new style for Rankin Bass in terms of non-holiday specials after relying so much on Fairy Tales, cutesy cartoons, and made for another TV show. This is the only Rankin Bass film to win a Peabody Award. The designs are detailed to fit the characters closest in the book of the same name, something that was started with Festival of Family Classic with 20.000 League Under The Sea. Unlike 20,000 League Under The Sea, instead of Mushi Studio, the production was done by Topcraft, who would do the later non-Holiday special with Stingiest Man In Town as the exception, and would later be the production for Miyozaki’s second film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and eventually become Studio Ghibli. The music created a new laid back magical atmosphere to match the tone The Hobbit became and set bar for later fantasy animated films, before Lord of the Ring changed the bar for live-action fantasy. Half of music was sung by Thurl Ravencraft, and the other is Glenn Yarbrough and sometimes  the actors themselves.

Bilbo is a likable wide-eyed character, and Gandalf is mysterious wizard that appears whenever he wants. Smaug is an intimidating dragon with an awesome deep menacing voice and is a unique cat dragon design (?). This leaves me a debate whether the remake of Smaug played by Benedict Cumberbatch is better or not. I'm very split on either one.

Elrond, the half-elven is voiced by Cyril Richardson, who voiced the Sandman from Daydreamer and Emperor Klockenlocken from Emperor’s New Clothing does lend his voice one last time before he died weeks after it was broadcast on TV. It’s interesting how this character started from this version, before Hugo Weaving changed the character with a little more depth as seen in Lord of the Ring.

Hans Confried does great as the Dwarf King. Everyone have a gripe with the dwarfs, and I may have one as well. The dwarfs are mostly useless and forgettable. It was intentional to be influence of Snow White’s Dwarfs, but they are different with the names after their strongest character trait and designs. Most of the dwarfs that aren’t the king are too similar to each other, and only recognized some of their voice actors such as Don Messick, Paul Frees, or John Stephenson, who also voiced Bard the King of the Lake People, and you may later hear as Windcharger in G1 Transformers. There’s the inclusion of Gollum, as he could be considered pointless, but it’s where Bilbo got the One Ring of Power which help Bilbo through his adventure and unintentionally set up for the sequels. It’s very strange that they would design the elves so weird to be a contrast to the elves you would see in Christmas Special, yet they look more like Gollum from the Bakshi and Jackson version than this version’s Gollum, and he looks like frog.

If you’re going to watch the Trilogy of Hobbit remakes by Peter Jackson, you might have more detail, extra characters, too much sidetracks in order to give more “arcs” for the dwarfs and connect characters to the Lord of the Ring films, but for 9 hours around in total. Only watch it if you have the time, and best not watch it in theater when it's rereleased.

What’s interesting thing about the film is it’s technically a remake of the first Hobbit in 1966, brought to you terribly by William Snyder and Gene Deitch; the men that would first doom Tom and Jerry after Hanna Barbera ended their original run. 

If you want to see the shortest version of the story of Hobbit, Rankin Bass’ version is good for you than this 7 minute short. Not the Gene Deitch version though. Their version of the Hobbit is as unique as Knight vs Dragon story can ever go without being Reluctant Dragon. In fact, it was so bad, their contract with J.R.R Tolken’s estate ended quicker than others. This is what happened when you don't follow the simple point and end up making a dreary Arabian Night feel.

Overall, this is a good telling of the Hobbit. This very special film would set the ways Rankin Bass would do their later films to evolve, for better (Last Unicorn) and worst (Rudolph and Frosty in Christmas In July). If you want a funny version, then watch Waxanator’s last Youtube Poop as a Trilogy.

Now we’ll continue after the Hobbits with Lord of the Ring. At least we would if Ralph Bakshi did that film already, including the Two Towers. Instead we’ll be moving onto the sequel of the story that may recap the previous two in their style with The Return of The King.