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Post by xerxez on Apr 4, 2013 21:46:54 GMT -6
I searched the forum and did not find anything about this, so hopefully I'm not re-posting old news but I was unaware of this 2012 story from the Huffington Post until I was Google searching Hobbit Zines. Apparently, someone bought film rights for the Hobbit at a pittance in the early sixties and out of this came a 1966 animated short film at a little under 12 minutes. The filmmaker changed some very essential elements of the tale to condense it into a short film and the film is one of those painted art stills that have very little complex animation to them, mainly just "gif" type light and color shows, but all in all I enjoyed it and was amazed that I had never seen or heard of the very first actual Hobbit film in existence, enjoy. Here is the H.P. article, with links to the blog of the film makers. www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/11/gene-deitch-the-hobbit_n_1198864.htmlThe Hobbit (1966)
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Post by scottenkainen on Apr 5, 2013 6:59:48 GMT -6
That is crazy weird. My mind is blown.
~Scott "-enkainen" Casper
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Post by owlorbs on Apr 8, 2013 10:10:03 GMT -6
Pretty cool, despite the weird rewriting. Fantastic artwork.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Apr 8, 2013 13:04:14 GMT -6
Very interesting! I wonder why they felt the need to change some of the story?
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Post by xerxez on Apr 8, 2013 19:30:46 GMT -6
Good question, Otto, all of it cannot be explained simply by the need to condense, though some can.
I read the original blog article this was posted on that the Huff Post article links and it said it was changed both to make it condense better and also because this was supposedly common in the film industry, changing books that is, for example adding a love interest for Bilbo.
There was also an element of schedule..the rights to make the film had been bought and then nothing done...there was a late push to get a film made and submitted in hopes of getting an actual full length contract.
I can see the animator not wanting to draw the entire party of Thorin Oakenshield and Co. as opposed to four characters, though!
I dig the style, too, owlorbs!
I love how he rendered Gandalf and the tower. I seem to remember seeing this work in other animation and some children's books I had growing up in the 1970's.
I still love the Bakshi and Rankin Bass films, although the Return of the King animation film is a little tepid. I lucked onto it on VHS the other day and have a VHS player I reserve just for such lucky finds--the tape was in good condition but it just doesn't grab you like Bakshi LOTR and Rankin Bass The Hobbit animations.
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Post by xerxez on Apr 8, 2013 23:03:11 GMT -6
I went to a You Tube channel that had the Hobbit (1977) on it almost as long as I've been on the Internet...I watched it there several months ago but tonite when I tried it I found that Warner Brothers, the Servants of Morgoth and Sauron, have struck since the Jackson Hobbit came out and have blocked the content. Fortunately, the Darkness of the North has not scoured every posting of the film yet...here is the film on the daily Motion www.dailymotion.com/video/xhrzbc_hobbit-1977-part-i_shortfilms#.UWOer5NJM1IWatch it for free while you still can--my intro to Tolkien was at the age of 11 when they showed this on TV. After being completely enchanted by the film, I read the Hobbit... and re-read it, and re-read it, and....you get it. That of course led to me reading the Rings trilogy, and afterward, discovering the Silmarillion. I remember being 15 years old at my high school, somewhat of a loner and a misfit, sitting on a bench at lunch and not only reading the LOTR but SEEING it in my mind's eye....when I would get home from school I would sometimes eat something, grab one of Tolkien's books, and lay on my bed and read for two hours or more. So the books will remain dear friends all my life! The paintings for the background in the animated films remain for me truest images of Middle Earth....
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Post by Zenopus on Apr 9, 2013 7:24:29 GMT -6
These were the thoughts I wrote last Jan on my blog after seeing the 1966 Hobbit: -Reminds me of a Fractured Fairy Tale from the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show -The art is very 60's style children's illustration...and strangely like the Cor Blok art on this year's Tolkien Calendar -"Slag the Dragon" - mainly interested in jewelry -The Dwarves are downsized to Thorin, a Princess, and one random guard -Credit sequence - nice font -Gandalf's tower - where did he live anyway? -Gnarly trolls (or whatever they call them) that turn to trees in the sun -Bilbo & company build a giant crossbow to shoot Slag with the Arkenstone! -Bilbo reigns in Dale (with the Princess) before returning to the Shire (still with the Princess, naturally) until next time (LOTR, obviously). The Hobbit Animated (1966)
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Post by xerxez on Apr 9, 2013 17:55:54 GMT -6
Ah, that was perhaps my favorite part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show!
Yes, that fits!
I'll bet you can remember Underdog and the Little Rascals, too, ha!
You know, the films aren't too bad, but I'm going to posit that they really never needed made.
It was all neat, but it could not compare to the visions I had reading the books. The movies are really just other people's vision, after all.
Some awe inspiring imaginative moments for me while reading them were the Barrow Downs, the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, the Argonath...wish I could have painted them.
Maybe I will try!
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capheind
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 236
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Post by capheind on Apr 10, 2013 12:18:50 GMT -6
Groans are making their way into my games ASAP. Tree's no longer content to watch the animals have all the fun, breaking free of the earths hold and living wild in the darkness, but at the first glint of sunlight their essential nature takes hold and they are naught but odd-looking tree's once again.
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capheind
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 236
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Post by capheind on Apr 10, 2013 12:20:05 GMT -6
Groans are making their way into my games ASAP. Tree's no longer content to watch the animals have all the fun, breaking free of the earths hold and living wild in the darkness, but at the first glint of sunlight their essential nature takes hold and they are naught but odd-looking tree's once again.
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