So, will Peter Jackson's upcoming Hobbit trilogy be better than his Lord of the Rings movies? Hard to say, but you know what the new trilogy will be better than? Every Hobbit adaptation up 'till this point. For such a famous, well-liked book, The Hobbit's transition to other media has been pretty dire up until now.
Hit the jump for five The Hobbit adaptations that Peter Jackson can't help but beat...
The Hobbit (1966 short cartoon)
If you're five minutes in and waiting for this cartoon to actually become "animated", well, it never happens. Still, crudely drawn images all the way through folks. Although I do kind of dig the hipstery looking Bilbo in this version.
The Hobbit (1977 TV movie)
Up until now, this is the Hobbit adaptation most people would be familiar with -- which is kind of sad. The Hobbit deserves better than a Rankin-Bass TV special. The art style is weird, the animation is iffy and even at a mere hour-and-a-half it feels like it moves at a snail's pace. I wasn't the most discerning kid (my favourite movie until I was around 14 was All Dogs Go to Heaven) but even I knew this was a pretty junky adaptation.
The Hobbit (1982 text adventure)
Okay, this was actually a pretty good game, but it was still a mostly graphics-less adventure game. Surely Peter Jackson can outdo an early-80s text adventure.
The Hobbit (1985 Russian movie)
Yes, somehow the Soviets got the rights to make a Hobbit movie back in the mid-80s. Actually, I'm pretty certain they didn't get the rights and were just all...
"Copyrights? We don't know what those are. Too busy polishing our ICBMs."
...and just went ahead and made a Hobbit movie starring some fat guy and a glitter-afroed Gandalf. I do think the unibrow on Gollum is a good call though.
The Hobbit (2003 video game)
So, it's 2003, the Lord of the Rings movies are huge, but you can't get the LoTR license. What do you do? You pump out a mediocre Hobbit game instead!
Since this was 2003 and Batman: Arkham Asylum hadn't shown up yet to revive the licensed game scene, The Hobbit is of course a platformer/action thing, that's as bland and cookie-cutter as possible in every facet.
So there you go. Believe it or not, up until now these Hobbit adaptations were the cream of the crop. Unless it comes out that watching movies at 48 frames-per-second somehow gives you herpes, I'm pretty sure Peter Jackson has "best Hobbit adaptation" on lock.
"Wow. Yikes. Clearly we're trying way too hard Peter. I'm just gonna sit here smoking my silly pipe for the rest of the shoot..."
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You will not besmirch the Rankin-Bass animated special! It was a huge part of my childhood, has the best Gollum, and inspired not one, but two (that I know of), South Park episodes.
Besmirch it I will! Gollum looked like a frog!
Brother Theodore’s voice > Andy Serkis’ voice.
its ok Nate. I think you’re just not sure what bilbo baggins hates.
Ralph Bakshi is a legend who’s work would influence almost every working animator today dammit. Fire and Ice, Wizards, American Pop. He even won a Golden Gryphon for those Lord of the Rings features. He was also a pioneer in adult oriented animation, his feature Fritz the Cat got the very first X rating from the MPAA, and things like Heavy Metal wouldn’t have had an audience if it weren’t for him.
Those old roto-scoped flicks are still fun and a lot if people’s first exposure to Tolkien’s world was through that animated Hobbit movie, mine included. Just saying.
Bakshi did Lord of the Rings, which was a seperate animated movie from The Hobbit. The Hobbit was a 70s TV movie by Rankin-Bass (the guys behind Frosty the Snowman). I agree, I Bakshi’s LoTR is worthwhile.
::clickety clack:: Oooh that was Rankin Bass? Coulda sworn that was Bakshi, thought he did all of them. My bad yo.
You harp on the Rankin-Bass Hobbit for being “weird” and don’t even mention Leonard Nimoy’s music video in passing which is weird, creepy, and weird? I don’t think you’re fun at parties.
This was about bad Hobbit adaptations. Nimoy’s song was great.
Gotta agree with Nate. Nimoy’s song is a favorite of mine.
Rankin-Bass HOBBIT ain’t great, but no piece of music in PJ’s version will ever top “THE GREATEST ADVENTURE.”
Thanks for digging for this junk for us. I’ve never seen the Russian TV movie but now I feel like my life is complete. I’m going to point these out to my doubting Thomas boyfriend that regardless of how “bad” he thinks the Hobbit will be, there is no way it could be worse than these. Which is why I will be attending the midnight Hobbit premiere with my fellow LOTR nerds because I refuse to believe that PJ will “Lucas it.” I’m not listening, I’m not listening!
The Rankin-Bass version will beat PJ’s for the simple reason it is not 9 hours long. There’s a little over 300 pages in “The Hobbit” and PJ is making three movies out of it. Pass.
One does not simply trash the 77 TV version of The Hobbit. When I watched it as kid it sparked an interest in reading the book as well as LOTR series. I still sing “Where there is a whip, there is way to this day.