Product: The Hobbit [VHS] (1977)
Rating: 4.0
The best of the lot...pre-Peter Jackson
In light of Peter Jackson's triple triumph with the Lord of the Rings, much renewed criticism now appears to be surfacing regarding the Ralph Bakhshi and Rankin-Bass cartoon adaptations. While Bakhshi was never able to complete his particular vision and Rankin-Bass only ever adapted "The Hobbit" and "Return of the King," these particular works should at least be evaluated on their own merits.Rankin-Bass's "The Hobbit" is, for my money, the best of the lot. While it of course simplifies much of the story, the essential elements are all there: Bilbo's professional recruitment by Gandalf and the dwarves, the encounter with the trolls and the acquisition of Sting, Elrond's translation of the moon letters, the run-in with the orcs, the finding of the ring and the riddle-game with Gollum, the dwarves' rescue from the burning tree by the eagles, Gandalf's departure, the spiders of Mirkwood, imprisonment by the wood-elves and Bilbo's unique rescue method, Lake-Town, the opening of the secret door, Bilbo's audience with Smaug, Smaug's raging escape and vengeance upon Lake-Town, the thrush's message to Bard and the slaying of Smaug, Thorin's defiance, the Battle of Five Armies, Thorin's deathbed realization, and Bilbo's return home to publish "There And Back Again." Classic lines like "adventures make one late for dinner," "We hates it forever," "Go now and speed well," and "'till your eyries receive you at the journey's end" are all retained in their proper places. So it's not as though we've been duped into watching a radically different story.In fact one of the film's greatest strengths is in its faithful adaptation of many of Tolkien's lyrics, to include "The Road Goes Ever Ever On," the elves' "Tra-la-la-lalley" and "Rollin' Down the Hole," the orcs' "You Go, My Lad" and "Fifteen Birds," and the men with "At The Mountain King's Return." The single best song comes right in the prologue, with the dwarves' passionate "Far O'er the Misty Mountains Cold" becoming a recurring musical signature throughout the film. Just as pervasive (unfortunately) is Glenn Yarborough's annoying "The Greatest Adventure" theme song.Where the Tolkien purists get annoyed is with the omissions and the scaling-down of some story elements. To list a few: the entire "Unexpected Party" chapter is condensed into a single visit, and Gandalf's presentation of Thror's map and key to Thorin is swapped out, to instead take place in the trolls' cave. The Rivendell scenes are over with in less than four minutes. Gollum and Bilbo exchange a whopping 2 riddles each, with the rest of the scene stretched out by creepy music. Beorn is omitted entirely, gone the way of Tom Bombadil --the eagles rescue the dwarves from the burning tree and take them straight to the edge of Mirkwood. The sudden transition from spider-battle to the capture of the dwarves by the wood-elves is awkward and not given much explanation; although voice-overs by Bilbo do help somewhat. Similarly, the "Barrels Out Of Bond" chapter is condensed into a single song, which leads almost without pause straight into the dwarves' washing ashore at Lake-Town. Likewise, Bilbo's only has the one encounter with Smaug, and there is no explanation given for the thrush's ability to be understood by Bard. The Arkenstone subplot is omitted entirely, and only the barest mention of Dain's army's arrival from the Iron Hills is made --casual viewers will likely miss this moment and end up wondering how thirteen dwarves suddenly turned into hundreds. However most of these omissions and condensations are forgivable as they would otherwise slow up the pace of the story and lose the attention of the eight-to-twelve year-old audience for which it is intended.What is less forgivable are a very few outright plot changes: I never cared for the artists' depiction of the wood-elves --they look very sinister and not at all noble or beautiful. Gandalf gives every indication of having guessed the nature of Bilbo's invisibility almost from the moment Bilbo is reunited with the party after his escape from Gollum. Likewise Gandalf has some very forced added-in lines at the very end of the story that lay the groundwork for Lord of the Rings, suggesting that he already knows full well what the ring is and what is to come. A blatant rewrite comes at the end of the Battle of Five Armies, where Gandalf says only six of the original thirteen dwarves survived --we even see Bombur's death scene! In Tolkien's story, the only casualties of the original thirteen were Thorin, Fili, and Kili. This for me is the most annoying aspect of the film --there was absolutely no reason to have increased the "body count" in this way.Keeping in mind that Rankin-Bass intended "The Hobbit" for the pre-teen set, this is a perfectly acceptable rendition and I would certainly recommend watching it with your children. Some of the orc (goblin) scenes and certainly Smaug and the spiders might be a little too intense for kids under six, but as with all such films, it should be a parent's judgement call. As a youngster this cartoon was what frankly got me hooked into Tolkien's world, and there is evidence that it is now doing so with some members of the next generation who aren't yet old enough to see the Peter Jackson films. Need more proof? Thanks to this movie, my eight year-old son is now writing himself into Hobbit fan fiction!