At some point in my elementary school life, one of my teachers wheeled in a TV, cut the lights, and put on the Rankin/Bass animated adaptation of The Hobbit.
My eyes widened, and I was hooked.
I knew wizards, but this was my first introduction to a fantasy world full of goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, and deadly giant spiders. Complete with magic swords to wield, riddles to solve, and dragons to slay, The Hobbit kept me stuck to the chair from start to finish (probably a relief for my teacher).
With HBO Max currently streaming The Hobbit, I wondered if this adaptation had any merit outside my childhood nostalgia.
Best-known for their “animagic” stop-motion productions, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Frosty the Snowman, animators Rankin/Bass teamed up with Japanese company Topcraft to adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit as an animated musical television special.
The movie had a $3 million budget, and its creators pledged not to add anything outside of the original work.
First aired on NBC in 1977, the film currently sits at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 65% audience score – pointing to generally favorable reviews.
So is The Hobbit 1977 a good movie?
The Hobbit 1977’s Plot:
The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins’s journey from a humble, bumbling homebody into a quick-witted, daring burglar. It’s the precursor to the fabled Lord of the Rings trilogy.
When Gandalf the Wizard (John Huston) and dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield (Hans Conried) present Bilbo Baggins (Orson Bean) with an opportunity to join their quest to free Lonely Mountain from the evil dragon Smaug (Richard Boone), Bilbo accepts.
With his 13 dwarven companions, Bilbo embarks on a journey that will take the party across the worlds of Middle Earth, battling dangerous creatures and discovering magical objects along the way.
Will Bilbo and his party recover the treasure from Smaug?
The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:
- John Huston– Gandalf / Narrator
- Cyril Ritchard – Elrond
- Otto Preminger – The Elvenking
- Brother Theodore – Gollum
- Paul Frees – Bombur, Troll #1
- Jack DeLeon – Dwalin, Fíli, Kíli, Óin, Glóin, Ori, Nori, Bifur, Bofur, Troll #2
- John Stephenson – Dori, Bard, Great Goblin
- Don Messick – Balin, Goblin, Lord of the Eagles, Troll #3
- Glenn Yarbrough – The Balladeer
- Thurl Ravenscroft – Goblin (singing voice), Background voice
The Good Things:
Visual Style and Animation, +6 Points
The animated format has benefits.
The look of The Hobbit draws heavily on the work of Arthur Rackham, giving it a fairyland, water-colored aesthetic. The bright colors and blocky style birth a whimsical Middle Earth, where even the monsters look more misguided miscreants than hardcore baddies.
The character design is fun, from pointy-nosed Gandalf to the wrinkly old dwarves.
One neat trick is Bilbo seems to have larger eyes than the other characters, intentionally or unintentionally. This gives him a bit of wide-eyed wonder on his journey from the Shire to Lonely Mountain.
Characters are depicted in delightful and otherworldly proportions to each other that are hard to execute in live action. With actors, it would be near impossible to mimic rail-thin, skinny wood elf bodies or the tubby shapes of the goblins, with their short limbs and pudgy bellies (this can be done with CGI, but it will probably look like crap and cost a fortune).
It’s a unique, playful look of a world where the swords are sharp, but you don’t see them cut anything.
A fun fact here: Topcraft, the Japanese animation studio working with Rankin/Bass, would disband in 1985, and some of its employees joined at-the-time new, now legendary company Studio Ghibli. You wouldn’t say this film has that Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki charm to it, but it’s got something of its own.
Riddletime with Gollum and Smaug, +4 Points
Bilbo’s riddle games with Gollum and the confrontation with Smaug are the highlights of this film.
I love this savage version of Gollum. In The Hobbit 1977, he’s a strange frog thing rather than the obsequious fawning shrimp in the Peter Jackson live-action adaptations (hold your rotten tomatoes: I’m okay with it for THAT version).
This Gollum is less desperate and more mad and frantic, more aggressive. This Gollum isn’t just ready to play games and covet the ring – he’s full-on ready to eat Bilbo!
Gollum’s confusion and constant asides to “my precious” are intact. His voice actor, comedian Brother Theodore, has gone for a rasping and gravelly voice, with erratic speech patterns that rise and fall in dramatic volume.
Watch Gollum enough, and you’ll start imitating him at home for fun.
Smaug has searchlights for eyes and a fragile ego. He’s a mighty dragon, but a bit of a red mangy one, a crass old evil with fangs and an underbite. His treasure is strewn about him, and he’s happy to rest on his ill-gotten laurels.
Voiced by a cranky-sounding Richard Boone, Smaug moves from a state of bemusement to violent rage in a fun interplay with Bilbo.
In confronting Smaug, Bilbo’s bravery is the peak of his character development. He’s left the comforts of the Shire to face down the legendary dragon, and Smaug’s character design and voice acting make the moment memorable.
Glenn Yarbough’s The Greatest Adventure and Other Songs, +2 Points
This is “a musical adventure,” and many songs pepper the work. The music brings more of the book’s spirit into the adaptation since the songs are based on or inspired by the lyrics of Tolkien.
Unless it’s a musical, singing in live-action is too playful for me to take the work seriously. But alongside the animated look and feel, the music in The Hobbit blends in seamlessly.
There is one original song composed for the film, The Greatest Adventure, sung by Glenn Yarbough. It’s tacky and lame, especially with the way Yarbough warbles/yodles his voice, but set in this vintage movie, it fits in nicely. It’s like a baby swaddle or a cup of hot chocolate by a bit of fire back in the Shire.
The Not-As-Good Things:
Characters Still In Development, -2 Points
There aren’t exactly Pixar movie moments here that will make you giggle or sob, and the story doesn’t invest much in character change for the dwarves or Gandalf.
Bilbo’s story arc, in which he begins to enjoy the adventure and gets braver and more capable as the story goes on, is acceptable. He and Thorin have friction that reaches a moving reconciliation by the movie’s end. Still, Gandalf and the other characters end the film about how they started.
It’s not quite enough, even for the breezy family adaptation it was aiming for.
Unsatisfying Action, -2 Points
The Hobbit doesn’t show violence directly. Whenever a character strikes a foe with a sword, there’s a spinny animated effect and maybe a sad squeal, and they’re dispatched.
Since this tale is told with virtually no visible violence, the battle of the five armies is about as brief as it gets, practically off-screen.
But if you continue to think of this as the Bilbo movie, it makes a lot more sense and is something you can get past.
Should I Watch The Hobbit 1977?
Total Arbitrary Points Score: 8 Points
With its watercolor backdrops, sing-song nature, and retro animation style, the Rankin/Bass animated adaptation of The Hobbit is a children’s classic but one many adults may still enjoy, even without the nostalgia factor.
Rather than the all-action, all-you-can-eat dramatic Peter Jackson 500+ minutes long trilogy, this version of The Hobbit is a happy comfort watch that will clock in under an hour and a half.
It’s not a film that will move you to tears or feature edge-of-your-seat action, but there’s a good time to be had here by all.
So, if you want to enjoy a vintage animated classic or introduce a new generation to the fantasy genre, here’s a near-scare-free introduction, my precious.
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Disclaimer:
This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources, like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.
Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.
