Epic Win: The Hobbit
The Hobbit was what started it all, opening the door for J.R.R. Tolkien to create the world of Middle Earth – without it, there would be no Lord of the Rings or any of the other tales and poems. There are so many other epic things that we can also credit back to Tolkien’s creation of the Hobbit and Middle Earth, for instance, at least four Led Zepellin songs either reference or were written specifically about The Lord of the Rings.
We remember first opening The Hobbit and how it sucked us into its world full of mythical creatures, magic, and fantasy. Thank you J.R.R. Tolkien, you and your novel are truly an Epic Win.
I loved this movie! As soon as I saw this WIN, I started humming the song.
I love this movie! The Rankin-Bass cartoon gollum is like 450 times creepier than the CGI one they did for the live action LOTR. Seriously, I still have nightmares about it. I, too, am now mentally humming music from the cartoon.
“The Hobbit was what started it all, opening the door for J.R.R. Tolkien to create the world of Middle Earth”
FAIL. Tolkien started writing the root material that would become Middle-Earth 25 years before he wrote _The Hobbit_, in the trenches during World War I. Most of that early material would later be compiled into _The Silmarillion_, but without THAT work, _The Hobbit_ would never have existed.
Exactly what I was going to say.
you sound like a supa geek right now
Geeky is good. :3
But none of it would have been made into print if it weren’t for the Hobbit. It was the commercial success of the Hobbit which prompted the publishers to ask Tolkien for another, which inspired him to write the Lord of the Rings.
So while the details and themes of the Silmarillion came before the Hobbit, without the Hobbit being published, Tolkien would only be one more Oxford professor that no one’s heard of or cares about.
i remember these shows freaking me out. i still have nightmears about them! but they were still very cool!
No, no, no, no, no!!!! Epic fail!!! The producers of this so-called productions changed so much about the book that it isn’t even the sane thing! Tolkien was rolling in his grave at the premier!
I agree. The animated versions of “The Hobbit” and “LOTR” (not to mention “ROTK”) were horrible.
I thought the same thing until watching the movie once more… and I have to admit they actually did a pretty good job representing the general events of the book given, and this is important, the extreme limitations that the filmmakers were up against. Specifically, they had to limit the movie to no more than an hour and 15 minutes. That they showed so much in that time is impressive. Yes, Beorn was cut, and yes, the entire arkenstone plot was cut, and there was a lot that was left out. But overall it seemed somewhat faithful.
Except for the elves. The character design of the elves was awful and there’s no excuse for that. But the design of the dwarves, gandalf, the spiders, lake town, all were fun, and I absolutely LOVE the watercolor backgrounds in this movie! Gorgeous art direction and great music.
Return of the King, however… well, that’s another story. It still had great art and great music, but the character motivations were twisted, even more had to be cut out, it was poorly adapted even given the constraints, and it had much worse voice acting.
Was going to say the exact same thing Randy said.
man, i remember reading and LOVING this book! it is better for beginners that want to read the LOTR books someday.
the best Tolkien book IMO
Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptation will also definitely be epic.
Seconded. I’m really looking forward to that.
Oh, cool. I wasn’t aware that he was doing that. Thanks for the heads up.
I had heard that there was a production in the works, but not who was doing it, only that it was NOT going to be Jackson.
GDT is directing, Peter Jackson is producing IIRC.
Plus it’s TWO movies
. YAY!
In that pic, Bilbo kinda looks like the 4th incarnation of Doctor Who. Someone make a Totallylookslike!
tom baker was the best doctor !!!!! hands down!
cept he was like 6foot 6 inches tall, not very hobbitish
Ever notice, how, in the cartoon, everytime someone is struck down with a sword its covered up in some way?
Double-fail: you spelled Led Zeppelin wrong.
Glad I’m not the only one that noticed : )
Why is this cartoon being used as an example of The Hobbit? Is it even official?
Are no good scans of the official artwork avalible for use?
fan.theonering.net/middleearthtours/lee4.html Alan Lee’s work is amazing, for example.
Yes, that’s an official cartoon, although the trailer is fanmade. It’s pretty awesome, actually.
i never really cared for the cartoons or any of that. but wow, those books. Tolkien = god. that’s really all there is to say, for me XD
way epic
Who originally posted this false crap about The Hobbit being first? Granted, I enjoyed the animated movie, but it was quite different than the written works. And as others pointed out, it was not first. People should do their research before they make themselves look like idiots. Right now, onceuponawin is looking like an idiot as far as Tolkien is concerned.
While about a million miles from the LOTR films, I remember (and very fondly)when this was released we watched it over and over (on VCR…and recorded from television…yes, the quality of the recording was strictly average). But it was the best we had, and if you were lucky, you had the Bakshi LOTR as well. That was all we had. And it was good…better than nothing.
“We remember first opening The Hobbit and how it sucked”
Yeah.
This movie was fecking awful. If I had seen this animated turd before I’d opened the books, there would be an entire sector of literature I’d never have explored. I’d rather stick hatpins through my face than sit through this godawful load of bollocks again.
I can always p*ss my friend Barry off by imitating the warbling ballads from this cartoon….*The grea-a-a-atest adve-e-enture, is wha-a-at lies ahea-ea-ead*
Say what you will about what this movie did or did not keep from the original work, it has one hurdle that the live-action Hobbit movie will have to overcome; finding a voice actor that makes Smaug sound as formidable as he did in the cartoon. I had the storybook record for The Hobbit, and I had Smaug’s speech about how powerful he is memorized because I thought it was simply awesome. I suggest Ron Perlman, since he’s got a good working relationship with director Guillermo del Toro.
Speaking of LOTR coolness, lets not forget practically the entire fantasy sword & sorcery genre spawned by authors trying to imitate Tolkien’s greatness. I mean LOTR has become such a part of the culture that I can describe a particular book series to someone else as “Buffy crossed with LOTR” and have them understand what I mean.
. . … and D&D and Warcraft and pretty much EVERY fantasy role playing game ever made.
I remember deciding I wanted to be an author about five minutes into listening to my dad read “The Hobbit” out loud. Never seen the animated version, but when I first saw the Fellowship movie, I nearly got thrown out of the theater for going “YES!” when Ian Holm appeared onscreen, because he looked so much like the way I’d always imagined Bilbo.
J.R.R. Tolkien is the most epic of epic wins.
I ENJOYED IT FOR MANY YEARS. I STILL THINK BAKSHI’S LOTR WAS WELL DONE AND WISH HE COULD’VE FINISHED HIS VERSION OF THE LAST BOOK & A HALF.
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER “LEMMIWINKS’ JOURNEY” FROM SOUTH PARK THROUGH A GAY MAN’S COLON? THEY TOOK THE MELODY STRAIGHT FROM “THE GREATEST ADVENTURE”
Say… the style and look makes me think of the last Unicorn. The way the beards and faces are drawn. Gandalfs movements as well… Is there any relation?
Hm…
Yes, both the Hobbit and The Last Unicorn were Rankin/Bass productions.
And, strangely enough, much the Japanese studio that did the animation work in the Hobbit eventually went on to become Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki’s studio.
THIS IS CRAZY….This movie scared the crap out of me when I was little, but I loved it. I even had a cassette/book combo that I would listen to when I went to bed!
Iolith, if your question was serious and not sarcastic (I couldn’t tell for sure), then yes, the cartoon production of the Hobbit and The Last Unicorn are related…both done by Rankin Bass productions. Same animators. And PHOOEY to one who calls this movie an “animated turd”! Obviously, that person did not watch the film when they were 6 and it had just come out. I loved this movie even though Gollum scared the schnikey outa’ me! Go Rankin Bass!
Also, what’s missed are the two other movies that the producer and director made, arguably two or the best fantasy animated films of their time: “The Last Unicorn” and “Flight of Dragons”.
The “Frodo and the Nine Fingers” song freaked me out as a kid.
And the ring of doooom!
I really wish the movies had been out back when I was in college so I wouldn’t have had to read those boring and needlessly long Tolkien books. Even the Cliff’s Notes were as thick as a phonebook.
“Okay, it’s been 2 paragraphs- time to introduce another new character they won’t be able to keep track of!”
Sorry, but just not a fan…
Absolutely love this movie… I’m sad because my VCR died and now I can’t watch The Hobbit anymore. The cartoon Gollum was waaaay creepier than the CGI one, but Smaug remains my favorite character. JRR Tolkein= EPIC WIN
Oh god. We read the book for my senior English class, and then afterward our teacher had us watch this movie as a tie in. I loved it.