Product: The Hobbit [VHS] (1977)
Rating: 3.0
Excellent movie; terrible audio
If it weren't for some issues I had with the audio on this DVD (which I'll get to), I'd be giving "The Hobbit" at least 4.5 stars, which would round up to 5 in any event. This is a fabulous adaptation of the book. Though a few plot elements were necessarily left out, what remains is faithful to the story (except for the physical depiction of the wood elves, but that's another story.) The voice actors are top notch. Sometimes while reading the books, I still can't help but imagine John Huston as Gandalf, Orson Bean as Bilbo, and Brother Theodore as Gollum, they're just so good. I'm a big fan of the music of this movie. Some people have a problem with Glen Yarbrough, but I think his style works just fine here. Admittedly his ballad "The Greatest Adventure" is probably the movie's weakest song, and it permeates the film, but every other song is taken directly from verses in the book. The grim humor of the goblins' songs is particularly fun.But I'm not here for a review. On to the audio problems. Having watched this movie since I was a kid, I'm still able to remember it in great detail. I first noticed something was wrong at about the time Bilbo was battling the spiders in Mirkwood. For some strange reason, after this point certain elements of the audio track are completely missing from this DVD version! Most of the missing audio consists of sound effects and background noises, but sometimes even dialogue falls victim (such as when barrel-riding Bilbo tells the barrel-packaged dwarves to "stop complaining", though we don't hear a peep from them!) The worst instances of audio flaws come during any scenes involving Smaug. The sense that Smaug is a huge, threatening presence is lost without all the various boomings and rumblings that normally attend him. It almost seems as if, aside from the musical score and dialogue, only one sound effect at a time could be represented. Sometimes we hear the fire or hissing drool from Smaug's mouth and nothing else, other times fire is pouring from him without any sound at all because the audio track is focusing on some other point. And imagine my annoyance when the arrows of the Lakemen bounced off Smaug with narry a ping!It's possible that someone unfamiliar to the movie won't even spot any problems, but to those who have seen it even a few times, the audio omissions are glaring and extremely offsetting.You'd do best to purchase "The Hobbit" on VHS. The audio track is completely intact, and you won't be missing out on any special DVD features.