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I decided to give this a go seeing as I cannot wait to see the upcoming Peter Jackson versions (two films on one book) of the classic novel. Shockingly, I haven't even read the book but I do intend to before seeing the live-action films. Despite it is a film made for TV, expectations were quite high for this. I did enjoy it a lot and I thought that the story was absolutely amazing with lots of adventure but I think the main weakness that this film has is that it lacked a heart so to speak and felt quite empty on occasions and unrealistic. I even think that this perhaps will be understood by viewers easier than Lord Of The Rings because it is actually quite a basic story and is less complex and maybe even more child-friendly.
Hobbits are simple folk. Small people with hairy feet, they are not cut out for adventure and prefer to laze about and eat. A particular hobbit, Bilbo Baggins (Orson Bean), is taken by surprise one morning when the mighty wizard Gandalf (John Huston) knocks at his door. Soon Bilbo finds himself inducted into a party of dwarves bent on reclaiming their mountain from the deadly fire-breathing dragon, Smaug.
That is pretty much the whole film, to be honest, although Bilbo comes across Gollum and finds the Ring. I guess that is what The Hobbit tells us: the finding of the One Ring by Bilbo and how it was just a random magic ring to him to start with. Despite it is animated and in the late 70s, I didn't like how that was done either. It just seemed really cheesy! I mean, Gollum wasn't really very menacing like he normally is and he looked like a giant frog with no eyes. As far as the actors are concerned, I wasn't familiar with any of the actors that provided their voices in this film except John Huston who was the voice of Gandalf the Grey.
Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin Jr did a decent job with this but this will probably be a piece of crap compared to the upcoming Hobbit films. As I said, I wasn't too keen on the animation but I loved the story and the characters so I'd say the production was at least satisfactory. The script was decent but I think that the script by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Guillermo Del Toro will totally blow it away like Jackson's, Walsh's and Boyens's scripts in Lord Of The Rings did.
Overall, The Hobbit is a fun piece of entertainment that has increased my enthusiasm even more than there already was for the upcoming two films. No, this animated version isn't a masterpiece but it is something that is a bit of fun that is enjoyable at least. I'm half way through my journey to seeing The Hobbit. This one was better than the animated version of The Lord Of The Rings though. Now, I've got to read the book and then I'll be ready to see The Hobbit: Part I and The Hobbit: Part II.
