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Faithful quite frequently to both the exact letter and the spirit of the novel, this television adaptation from the 70s is a hit and miss affair. One wishes that Rankin-Bass was given as much money as Bakshi in his unsuccessful animated version of The Lord of the Rings. This adaptation shows some visual invention, a certain flair for unique character designs of Tolkein’s beloved characters, but is hampered by a rushed atmosphere and moment of cheap or poor animation.
The orcs look like castoffs from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, and are never given the proper amount of menace or dread in their brief time. Gollum and Smaug are given highly unique, daring and different visual interpretations. Gollum literally given a salamander-frog-sunken humanoid creature design and Smaug is a fearsome dragon with a feline face. But other characters like Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves are just literally picked up from the text descriptions and given life. That is a very good thing since these characters are so obviously described and envisioned.
I enjoyed much of the vocal performances but two particular choices stood out for all the wrong reasons. John Huston’s whiskey-and-molasses southern accent coming out of Gandalf is all wrong. Huston’s voice evokes presence, centeredness and demands attention – all things that Gandalf requires, but Gandalf’s voice should all sound like a Royal Shakespearean Actor booming from the mountain tops. Huston’s voice can’t do that, and something about that wizardry garments, long beard, pointy hat and a drawl doesn’t match. The other one is Otto Preminger as the Elvenking. That heavily Germanic voice coming out of the fey, ethereal looking wood sprite doesn’t sync up correctly either. If it had been a dwarf, goblin, orc or spider, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But a softer, more androgynous voice would have worked better with the overall look.
Overall, The Hobbit prefers to tell the tale less with time and care and more with the songs from the novel. It blasts through the earliest parts of the novel, but that’s understandable. As a made-for-television movie there was only so much space allotted for the running time, I just wish that they were given more time, space and money to make something truly great. This could have been so much better. As is, it’s just pretty good, a little dated but enjoyable.
