Michael A. Martinez After the fiasco of the Peter Jackson trilogy, I have to say my appreciation for this film has increased substantially. Let me share a few reasons.1) The compacted story - while it could have followed the book a little more closely in the last act, the movie really moves along at a quick pace which won't bore younger viewers. There's only a couple major omissions to the story. Beorn gets cut from the story (much like Tom Bombadil in the Ralph Bakshi LORD OF THE RINGS movie) but it's not much of a loss in my opinion. They did a great job of "trimming the fat" and leaving the viewers at the end hungry for more (hence why I and so many others then went into the much darker and denser LORD OF THE RINGS universe afterward so eagerly).2) Enjoyable for both younger and older viewers - being a fantasy movie, it does have violence on display but manages to neither be graphic nor ridiculously sanitized. None of the dialog feels dumbed down from the book, maintaining its relatively wide vocabulary. This is something most newer fantasy movies fail at; they either have to elevate the violence to levels inappropriate for small kids or they make the narrative so kid-friendly that adults can't connect.3) The spirit of the book maintains - while a lot of the musical numbers may irritate viewers, I have to point out that they were almost all in the actual book. Also if you look at the artwork and character design, it's all based on pre-existing illustrations for the books, very accurately bringing the pages to life.4) The voice cast - remember when animated films would cast for the right voice and not just star recognition value? I actually blame Sean Connery's casting in DRAGONHEART (which was highly publicized) for this. Back when this movie was made, careful effort was made to bring in some of the best voice actors in the business such as Don Messick, Paul Frees, Brother Theodore and actor/director John Huston. Once relatively big-name Richard Boone works perfectly as Smaug, surprisingly enough. Overall the mixture of British and American actors gives it a transatlantic fantasy element that similarly worked well in THE DARK CRYSTAL.Among many other reasons, compared with Jackson, Rankin/Bass were just able to do so much more with so much less.So, to parents out there; do yourself a favor and show this to your kids of any age. It'll get them into fantasy better than anything outside of Ray Harryhausen's creations. In my opinion it's the strongest of Rankin/Bass's output and the most fun (as in least exhausting) of all Tolkien adaptations.

andymcgraw-95291 The Hobbit is about Bilbo Baggins and a magical ring that allows the user to disappear when worn. Bilbo is a hobbit which is similar to a human except shorter and they have bigger feet. His ordinary routine is interrupted one day when Gandalf and his companions arrive at his hobbit hole. One of the dwarves asks Bilbo to join them because they need a burglar to steal treasure from Smaug, a dragon. While traveling to Smaug's lair, they are captured several times by various creatures including goblins, spiders, and trolls. It is when the party is captured by the Goblins falling through a moving wall in the back of the cave, being pulled into a large hallway of an even larger part of the same cave, Bilbo stumbles into another part of the cave. Bilbo finds the ring there, in the cave. Gollum, upon Bilbo's escape, shouts accusingly that Bilbo stole it from him. He found it fair and square in the part of the cave where his stumble ended, where Gollum was paddling around in a canoe, eating fish. He leaves. Bilbo then links up with his party again and they continue their journey. Bilbo does make it to Smaug's lair and a Human ends up killing the dragon. This city guard is told where to shoot Smaug by a "fool bird!" He is missing one of his scales. Five armies fight below. When all is said and done, Bilbo makes it back to the Shire, where he lives.

O2D While this movie is a great way to get young children into the Lord of The Rings, anyone older would probably find it disappointing.I love the artwork but the story leaves a lot to be desired.I remember thinking this was great before I had read the book but all these years later it's not so impressive.I honestly don't remember much of the book anymore but it doesn't matter with this movie.It's obvious that they have changed things(it even says "Based On", it doesn't even claim to be true to the book) but the worst part is that they picked the wrong parts to leave out.They tell Bilbo to climb a tree and it cuts to him sleeping in a cave by himself?What??Things like that happen a lot.It doesn't matter if you know the story, if you can pay attention you can see that this is very confusing.They often try to explain the gaps in the following dialogue but that wears thin quickly.The real reason to watch (or not watch) this is because of the music.Everyone I know has always hated it but after not seeing it for years I still remembered a few songs.It's weird that some of the songs seemingly have nothing to do with the movie while others literally describe what we are seeing on screen.Then there's the time that the elves are talking while a song is blasting over them,lol.I do like how they use British slang but no one has an accent, that's brilliant.I just realized that this was made for TV.I never noticed how it breaks before.I have to say considering that, it's a decent movie.Definitely the best made for TV movie I have seen.

zsofikam I have to admit that the dwarfs, with the exception of Thorin, aren't well developed but it's a bit hard to develop individual personalities for 13 dwarfs (although Disney managed with 7). After the group sets out, they find a bunch of trolls (actual trolls, not internet trolls) near a campfire. Bilbo notices the trolls cave, where Thorin finds a pair of swords and comments that they're pretty good as far as troll craftsmanship goes and Gandalf says that that's because they were probably stolen while Bilbo finds a pocketknife. They then travel to Rivendell, where they meet Elrond, who tells them that the swords are called Orchrist the Goblin Cleaver and Glamdring the Foe Hammer. As an added bonus, the elves are still singing in the background. It's surprising that Elrond isn't like "why don't you just shut up!" although that would be extremely out of character for him. Bilbo and the dwarfs trek through the rainy mountains and decide to take shelter in a cave but find themselves surrounded by goblins. Thorin says that they were just taking shelter from the storm and a goblin takes out Orchrist the Goblin Cleaver and says that he's lying because why would he have a sword if they were simply wandering around randomly. This doesn't bode well with the Goblin King, who is about to bite Thorin's head off when Gandalf appears with Glamdring the Foe Hammer, sending the Goblin King floating into oblivion. OK, what is up with that?! I get that Gandalf killed him, but why couldn't they just show that?! Why'd it have to look like he was flushed down the toilet?! Everyone runs, chased by the goblins, who are apparently mad about the puncturing of their helium filled leader while Bilbo falls into a bottomless pit. Gollum looks really amazing. This movie was my introduction to The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. So to sit down in front of a TV to have the goblin scene followed by this bizarre creature who I wasn't even sure at first whether he was male or female, let alone what he was, is exciting. He's curious about Bilbo and challenges him to a game of riddle exchange. They're evenly matched until Bilbo asks what he has in his pocket, which isn't exactly a riddle. I think that Bilbo's encounter with Gollum is the turning point for Bilbo's personal story arc. This is where the timid hobbit of the first half becomes the brave, heroic hobbit of the second half. This isn't just because he finds the ring or survives the encounter with Gollum. Bilbo manages to get out of a terrifying situation-trapped all alone in a maze of goblin-infested tunnels, deep beneath the mountains, far from home-and he does it through his own level-handedness and bravery. Now cut to the goblins singing "15 Birds in 5 Fir Trees". This happens before anyone attacks, before we see any fir trees, before anyone is set on fire. It's like breaking into the "Munchkinland" song while Dorothy's house is still flying around. Gandalf creates his fiery pine-cones of death (is it still a pine-cone if it's from a fir tree?) The goblins set fire to the trees just as the eagles arrive. The eagles take everyone to the edge of Mirkwood and Gandalf leaves but first tells Bilbo to keep a diary of his adventures. While walking through Mirkwood, Bilbo decides to title his story "There And Back Again" even though he hasn't finished the there yet. The dwarfs decide that Bilbo should climb a tree and look around, which he does. He climbs up, sees a herd of butterflies in the sunlight, and starts to tear up. This is a beautiful scene and it really shows how Bilbo has evolved from unwilling to enjoying his journey. Meanwhile, Bilbo wakes up to find himself being attacked by a giant spider, a thing with the body of a spider and the head of Colonel Sanders. Bilbo points his sword at the spider and it dissolves in a swirl. He tells the dwarfs to go to the wood elves' clearing while he fights off the spiders despite the fact that aforementioned clearing hasn't been revealed (must be in a deleted scene). Once Bilbo finds the dwarfs, it turns out that they have been captured. Something I should mention before I go any farther is that the elves are blue! So the smurfs, I mean elves, take the dwarfs and Bilbo back home and Thorin says they were just wandering around randomly but once again this excuse doesn't fly. The elves decide to lock them up until they say what they were actually doing. It turns out that only the dwarfs were actually put in cells while Bilbo is just reduced to wandering around. While the elves are asleep, an invisible Bilbo manages to get the keys to the dwarfs' prison and frees each of them. The dwarfs ride down the river in barrels while Bilbo rides on top of one of them. Since Bilbo is on top of a barrel rather than inside one, he notices that they're approaching both a settlement called Laketown and their destination Lonely Mountain. They then meet Bard the archer and camp out on the mountain for a bit while Bilbo becomes friends with a bird. Thorin uses the key that has been passed down to him and Bilbo goes inside. Smaug asks Bilbo who he is and Bilbo responds by doing some riddling like he did with Gollum. The movie ends with Bilbo and Gandalf returning back to the hobbit hole (I wonder how they got back so fast). Although it's not without it's flaws, this movie is pretty awesome. Gollum is especially well rendered and it uses lots of quotes from the book. It has a special place in my heart.