The Hobbit (1978) Jules Bass & Arthur Rankin Jr.   With the colossal success of the Lord of the Rings movies, older animated Tolkien adaptations are coming out of the woodwork into DVD release. The Hobbit was produced for television in the late 1970s by the Rankin/Bass animation company (who were mainly known for Saturday morning children's cartoons). The animation is not exactly Disney standard, and Bilbo Baggins looks more like a large potato than the hobbit described by Tolkien, but all things considered, this is an acceptably done production. Fans of the Lord of the Rings films who are too busy to read the books will find this movie a useful background, for it is, in part, the story of how Bilbo met Gollum and how Gollum's "precious" (i.e. the ring) fell into Bilbo's possession. Whereas The Lord of the Rings is an epic saga, The Hobbit is a fairy story, simpler and more child-like, with dragons, elves and giant spiders. Some phenomenal vocal talent is featured in this production, as well. The great actor/director John Huston lends his booming voice to Gandalf while fellow actor/director Otto Preminger furnishes the voice of the Elf King. Surrealist comedian Brother Theodore (a frequent guest on Late Night With David Letterman in the 1980s) provides the scraping voice of Gollum, while the actor Orson Bean provides the kindly and sincere voice of Bilbo. Despite a first-class story, this is basically a technically dated children's film, with sanitized violence and cute-looking characters. Unfortunately, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema blew it by not starting their series with a film of The Hobbit, so this little animated trifle must serve as the sole adaption of he story which started it all. —Paul Andrew MacLean

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