This review includes full spoilers. Proceed accordingly. For other movie reviews from me, click HERE:
Dusty: Be done with your comments! What else brought you, troll man?
Commenter: Revenge!
Dusty: Revenge?
Commenter: Surely you must realize that your reviewing success has made you some bitter enemies.
Dusty: [evil chuckling] Revenge? You? HA! I am DUSTY! I write when I wish! I blog, blog, BLOG! My spam comments filter is like tenfold shields! My biting witticisms are like swords! My jokes, spears! The shock of my somber eloquence, a thunderbolt! My prose, a hurricane! And my poetry… DEATH! Well? Where are your comments now?
Rating: TV PG
Director: Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.
Writers: Romeo Muller (screenplay), J.R.R. Tolkien (source material)
Stars: Orson Bean, Richard Bone, Hans Conried, John Huston, Jack DeLeon, John Stevenson
Release Date: November 27, 1977
Run time: 1 hour, 18 minutes
THE PLOT:
via wiki:
A hobbit named Bilbo Baggins lives in his hobbit-hole. The wizard Gandalf informs him he is looking for someone to share an adventure, and introduces thirteen dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield. They invite themselves in, eat dinner, and play music. The magic in the music makes Bilbo suddenly long for adventure.
Thorin explains Bilbo is to be a lucky number fourteen for them, and tells how his dwarves were driven out of the Lonely Mountain by the dragon Smaug, who stole their treasure. Gandalf accepts the mission before the hobbit can speak.
The company discovers a camp of three trolls, who capture all but Gandalf and Bilbo. Bilbo hides while Gandalf uses his magic to bring the sunrise, which turns the trolls to stone. In the troll’s cave, Bilbo discovers some stolen treasure, which the dwarves claim. They find two swords, and a dagger for Bilbo. Gandalf shows Thorin a map of the Lonely Mountain and a key, given to him by Thorin’s father Thrain. The map shows a secret passage.
Travelling through the Misty Mountains, everyone but Gandalf are captured by goblins. Gandalf kills the Great Goblin, and the dwarves escape. Bilbo loses the group; he finds an underground lake, where he discovers a ring, and meets the monster Gollum, who hunts him. Bilbo, discovering the ring grants invisibility, follows Gollum to the door, and escapes.
The goblins, riding Wargs, pursue the company into a pine forest, setting it ablaze. The Lord of the Eagles rescues the company, and carries them to Mirkwood; Gandalf leaves. Bilbo and the dwarves are captured by giant spiders, but Bilbo puts on his ring and drives off the spiders with his dagger. The dwarves are apprehended by the wood elves. Bilbo escapes using his ring. After weeks of searching, Bilbo pilfers a sleeping guard’s keys, and floats the dwarves in barrels down the river into Laketown.
The people of Laketown nurse the company back to health. The fourteen reach the Lonely Mountain, and follow the map’s instructions to enter. Bilbo goes in first, and meets Smaug, using the ring to hide. He and Smaug converse; the dragon assumes Bilbo must be a Laketowner. Bilbo discovers a patch of skin on Smaug not covered by protective scales. When Smaug attacks him for stealing, he escapes, mocking the dragon. In a rage, Smaug flies off to take revenge on Laketown. Bilbo sends a thrush to tell Bard about the bare patch, and Bard shoots Smaug with his family’s black arrow. Smaug destroys Laketown in his death throes.
The Dwarves reclaim their treasure, only to find that the Lakemen and the Elves have arrived, wanting recompense for Smaug’s many damages over the years. Thorin refuses to share, and declares war. Bilbo rebukes him, as they are outnumbered; Thorin is angered. Thorin’s cousin, Dain, brings more dwarves. Gandalf arrives, warning that the Goblins are coming. Men, elves, and dwarves unite, and Bilbo uses his ring to hide as battle rages. The Eagles join the fight.
Bilbo finds a wounded Bombur who informs him that the battle has been won. Only seven of the thirteen dwarves are left. Bilbo is led by Gandalf to the dying Thorin, who forgives him. Bilbo accepts two small chests of gold and his dagger as payment. Gandalf escorts him home. Gandalf warns him that the adventure is only just beginning, thanks to the ring he has found.
My Review
I recently had occasion to make my entire family watch the 1977 TV movie adaptation of The Hobbit. When given power over your surroundings, I recommend using them to bring Tolkien into the lives of others. I did not remember that the film was originally a TV movie when we started, but I caught on quickly enough as the story kept delivering the dramatic freeze frame cut-aways indicating to my 20th century born self the now absent presence of a TV commercial break. Overall, my takeaway from the movie is that it’s a mixed bag, but with more good than bad. I enjoyed it a lot as a long-time Tolkien fan, but I suspect anyone not familiar with the source material will not share my enthusiasm to the same degree.
The biggest problem with the movie is the runtime. The filmmakers had to shave a lot of important world-building from the story to get it completed in 80 minutes. The end result was that it very much felt like the first two-thirds of the story was very rushed.
Trolls? Sunlight! Spiders? Sting! Elves? Barrels! It was very rapid-fire. On the other hand, though, the pacing also felt well-suited for a child who might not be quite ready yet for adult oriented world-building. Everything happened too fast to really dwell on it or be frightened by it, but it was dramatic enough to be noticed.
I really enjoyed the animation a lot. Stylistically, it was very dated but in the best possible way. It reminded me a lot of the old animated TV series ‘Thundercats’ and ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ from the mid 1980s. The very feline-looking Smaug was a particular stand-out for me, as were the giant spiders who met their match in Bilbo and his sword Sting. The depiction of Gollum was strange, in my opinion. He was drawn as a somewhat large and frog-looking creature. I think I understand the choice, though. With all of the source material talk about eating Bilbo, and the high likelihood that young children were indeed at home watching this as a TV movie, it probably made more sense to show those kids a talking animal than to force their parents to have a discussion with them about cannibalism.
The voice acting suffered a little bit from the abbreviated runtime for the story. However, Orson Bean as Bilbo and John Huston as Gandalf were both fantastic. Bean’s Bilbo had a self-effacing, brave, and very British way of keeping the story light in its dark moments – very much like Bilbo in the book. Huston’s Gandalf was more stern and grumpy than Ian McKellan’s Gandalf and I think the performance was more book accurate and in keeping with Tolkien’s vision for the character. My only real gripe with the voice acting was in the Riddles in the Dark scene between Bilbo and Gollum. Gollum was very difficult to understand at a time when it was important to understand the words of the riddles he was saying. So… you might want to have captions on for that scene.
Overall, if you’re a fan of the story, I think you’ll enjoy this movie. It’s quick-paced, well animated, and in keeping with the tone of the book, it tells a serious story in a light-hearted way. Even the way it portrays deaths after the Battle of the Five Armies is done with great care and in an easily digestible way. I am glad I rewatched it.
Have you seen The Hobbit? If so, what did you think?