The 1966 Hobbit cartoon

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A 1966 version intended mostly to hold onto the rights for producer William L. Snyder. It is not the story you're familiar with.

 

[Reynard]

That is...something.

 

[Dire Bare]

"People-meat"

That's a phrase that'll stick with ya!

I'm trying to judge it on its own merits, not by how far it stray from the book . . . which is very, very far! But it's tough. This short animation is very, very 60s!!!

Interesting choices! Groans? Grablins? No dwarves? A princess? Goloom? Bilbo sensing that the ring is THE Ring of Power right off? Bilbo the prophesized dragon-slayer? Bilbo marrying the princess?

 

[Dioltach]

It seems to assume that anyone watching knows the story - no explanation of what a Hobbit is, a reference to Hobbiton coming out of the blue, several parts of the adventure stuck in seemingly for no reason except they're in the book - but at the same time it assumes that they'll be OK with the changes.

If the guardsman and Thorin (Torin?) and the Princess fled Dale, why do they need Bilbo and a map to guide them back? What does Bilbo actually do besides conceive of the plan to use the Arkenstone as an arrowhead? What do Thorin and the guardsman do? What does Gandalf do besides excuse himself from the adventure, knowing how dangerous it is?

It seems to me like one of those movies where the writer either thinks they can improve on a masterpiece, or else they have their own story to tell but can't sell it, so they rework it onto an existing story.

That said, I enjoyed the animation.

 

[Dire Bare]

It seems to assume that anyone watching knows the story - no explanation of what a Hobbit is, a reference to Hobbiton coming out of the blue, several parts of the adventure stuck in seemingly for no reason except they're in the book - but at the same time it assumes that they'll be OK with the changes.

If the guardsman and Thorin (Torin?) and the Princess fled Dale, why do they need Bilbo and a map to guide them back? What does Bilbo actually do besides conceive of the plan to use the Arkenstone as an arrowhead? What do Thorin and the guardsman do? What does Gandalf do besides excuse himself from the adventure, knowing how dangerous it is?

It seems to me like one of those movies where the writer either thinks they can improve on a masterpiece, or else they have their own story to tell but can't sell it, so they rework it onto an existing story.

That said, I enjoyed the animation.

I disagree that the short assumes the viewer already knows the story . . . or is trying to tell their own story . . . or is trying to improve upon the story . . . what it does, is takes the original story and reimagines it as a more standard fairy tale story. I feel like the creators didn't trust the audience to enjoy the actual story, and so "simplified" it both to make it shorter and to make it "easier" for a general audience to understand and enjoy. It is not a quality adaptation at all, and not really a quality fantasy short either on it's own.

Some counters to your observations: It doesn't tell you what a hobbit is, other than they live in comfortable holes. But it does SHOW you what a hobbit is. Our heroes don't need a map back to Dale, they need a map to the Lonely Mountain, Slag's lair. Which in this version of the story, isn't necessarily right next to Dale.

Some more observations: There are a lot of elements from the book inexplicably dropped out . . . and other elements included, but seemingly without impact on the story. Why include the guardsman or Thorin? They don't do anything! The princess only serves to shame Bilbo into going, and then marrying him in the end. Gandalf only introduces the Dale folk to Bilbo and weakly tricks or shames Bilbo into going.

Bilbo finds the ring, senses it can help him against Slag . . . but doesn't actually use the ring against the dragon. He somehow invents a giant crossbow? And then shoots the sleeping dragon? I like the Arkenstone being the arrowhead of the enormous crossbow bolt, but . . .

If you try to ignore that this is an adaptation of the book . . . it's just a rather uninteresting fairy tale. None of the characters are interesting, the story isn't interesting, the animation has a certain charm . . . but it is nerdy fun to discuss the differences, the choices made and wonder, "What?!?!"

Although, it would have been fun if Bard's daughter in the movies was named after the princess in this short. I was never able to catch her name though, and don't want to watch it again . . .

 

[Dire Bare]

A 1966 version intended mostly to hold onto the rights for producer William L. Snyder. It is not the story you're familiar with.

While I'm enjoying poking holes in this . . .

Thanks for sharing! I knew this existed, but have never seen it before. And while it objectively pretty awful, it's still fun to watch in a nostalgic and nerdy way.

 

[damiller]

Wow...that is..uhm..erm..from the 60s!

I'm getting rudolf vibes.

 

[Ryujin]

Temu Hobbit.

Sadly, Tolkien was still alive at the time to see it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Interesting choices! Groans? Grablins? No dwarves? A princess? Goloom? Bilbo sensing that the ring is THE Ring of Power right off? Bilbo the prophesized dragon-slayer? Bilbo marrying the princess?

Honestly, the groans aren't a terrible monster. They don't carry quite the baggage of trolls and turning into old gnarled trees when the sun hits them is pretty great, even if it's a riff on the Hobbit trolls turning to stone.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If the guardsman and Thorin (Torin?) and the Princess fled Dale, why do they need Bilbo and a map to guide them back?

They used to take Uber everywhere and don't know their local area as well as they ought to.

What does Bilbo actually do besides conceive of the plan to use the Arkenstone as an arrowhead?

THE PROPHECY!

What does Gandalf do besides excuse himself from the adventure, knowing how dangerous it is?

Pretty consistent with JRRT's Hobbit, then.