This is kind of like looking through a collection of elaborate psychedelic album cover art while your crazy Auntie tries to tell you a story she read as a child and she is both remembering the details wrong and getting them confused with parts of other stories. And that is why this is AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing it!
@@adinocc2042 So there was Freddo, Perry, and Pippie Longstocking, and they set out to RiverDale to deliver the One Ring to the council of the round table. But on the way they encountered the Black Riders, who rode on pterodactyls but on the ground, who came upon them at the Inn at Bree. But they were saved by Strider the Woodcutter, who cut them open and sewed their bellies full of stones. ... I'd go on but this took awhile to write as it is.
@@adinocc2042 I've dabbled, actually. Did some fanfiction when younger, had a blog with a couple original stories up at one point (might still be there? I can't remember the site name though... word something), and wrote a few videos (those are on my channel), but it's a lot of time commitment to do right, and I have kids now. In this case I kinda want to do something with this, though... A Deitch-style adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (though with the absurdity pushed ad extremum to qualify as parody). Run what, 40 minutes? Main issue is that I'd need an artist.
@@professorhaystacks6606 Cool. I don't know how you feel about it, but you might try using AI in some capacity. there are several AI sites that let you make a hand full of images for free each day.
This is the first animated adaptation of The Hobbit. It was created by Gene Deitch after his hopes at creating a feature-length animation were squashed. His producer had him complete it in a month so that he wouldn't lose the film rights to the entire Tolkien series.
I don't know what to say about this. On the one hand, I'm impressed how Gene Deitch managed to put it together in 30 days, and for that I'll cut him some slack on the 'animation' if you can even call it that; on the other hand, so much was changed that you could barely call it "The Hobbit." 'Slag?' 'Grablins?' A Princess?!
To be fair, the idea of killing Smaug with an Arkenstone-tipped ballista shot is pretty hardcore and makes just as much sense as Smaug's death in the Jackson version
@@lukaskyzlik8770 Jackson's version isn't any more accurate than this version... Smaug dies by an arrow in every one, but still in no way similar to the way it happened in the novel.
Like the contractually obligated Fantastic Four, it's clear that this was never meant for public consumption. Fortunately, Rankin Bass went on to make one of the best versions of the story ever.
A very strange short with a very strange story behind it. Bizarre and weird. Considering the circumstances, Gene did the best he could. The animation is almost non-existent (it's more like a slideshow) but the visuals are creative. I especially like the first shot of Mirkwood Forest, it's legitimately epic.
Hello to all curious people, Adolf Born, the guy who created this just died, so pls spend a minute thinking or googling the guy, its worth it, he was really a giant of children production.
Don't forget, they have to rescue Princess Lily from Saroon's dreadful tower of Bradador on their quest. Brodo's long lost sister and the daughter of Bilbo and Mika. When the fellowship splits, Faragorn Eggolas and Hamli have to chase the Oorkahai through the plains of Roohun, and when Gandlaf returns after slaying the Brolog, he takes Perry to the land of Grundo to aid the Stewardess Denorthra (not Denethor, he's a woman now) from the armies of the Skeleton King of Minus Moorgool.
The story is bizarre and I don’t get why so many changes were made, but honestly, I’d *kill* for a modern 2d animated (as in actually animated, not panning still images lol) Hobbit movie in a similar art style.
For everyone moaning about how dreadful this is can I point out that it was made very quickly for a couple of thousand dollars simply to fulfil a contractual obligation on the part of the rights holders. If they didn't make a colour Hobbit film by such a date in 1966 and show it cinematically they would forfeit ownership and loose their investment. Only one projection print was every made which itself was shown only once in public. Having fulfilled his side of the contract the producer then went on to sell the movie rights for $100,000
The Hobbit is my favorite book, but as ridiculous as this adaptation is, there are actually a few things I kind of like: 1. The Arkenstone being used as a diamond-tipped arrowhead actually explains why the group needed a thief to help defeat the dragon, whereas In the book Bilbo was hired to steal treasure, but the Dwarves had no real plan for getting rid of Smaug. 2. The video ends by saying Bilbo and Mika returned to Hobbiton "...until the next time that Gandalf the Grey would knock upon the round, green, door." I like that because it suggests that Bilbo would have more adventures in the future.
Slag, grablings and groans. Nice way to avoid paying for the rights. Nice little fairytale adaption with a trippy feel. Dr Who stole Bilbos look with his snappy bow tie.
I think you missed the point, the producer had already paid for the rights and threw together this quick and dirty adaptation in order to retain those rights.
That is because it is from Czech. Here we have a long tradition of shooting classical fairy-tales, usually same classical European fairy tales that Disney adapted but also many other original fairy-tales with more or less same tone.
@@martinpavlicek2299 I was mostly just making a jab at Disney for totally overhauling the fairy tales they adapt just like this lol. But good to know the rich history of folklore there too!
@@JAIstarkillerkid The animator is Czech animator Adolf Born. And the producent original wanted to work with another Czech animator Jiří Trnka on full longer movie. They did a few concept arts but did not finish the movie.
This is my favorite adaptation of The Hobbit. Although it can stray from the plot of the book, the art is beautiful and the whole film is staged like a person reading the book to the viewer.
I am convinced the animators never read the book, but had asked an introverted nine-year-old who'd had it read to her what it was about, without taking notes on her reply.
He was not an animator but one of the most influential European illustrators of his time. If you put aside the copyright law, differences from the original book, and limited animation tools they had, this kid's goodnight story is a masterpiece with so many creative ideas. And all was handmade with love, hours, and hours of pure creativity in the sixties. Masterpiece. And the typography works of this guy...so inspirational.
I’m guessing that they thought that a word for waste material left over from smelting ores was a good name for an evil dragon? It’s just amazing that they didn’t realise what it means in British slang.
@@anonymoussaga8723 Most people know the term "slag heap"... no one is going to be thinking about a woman's virtue when they hear Slag. It also has more than one slang interpretation... typical connotations, worthless or vile.
Oh, you don't know the half of it! Check this out: th-cam.com/video/XsHGQptDJ2Y/w-d-xo.html It's a breakdown that The Dom did. PS Sorry I'm four years late.
As incredibly loose of an adaptation as this is, I have to give it credit: using the arkenstone as the sharp tip of the arrow that kills Smaug (or Slag as he is known here) is pretty clever.
This has the exact opposite problem of the Peter Jackson hobbit trilogy, where peter’s is stretched so thin across three 2 hour movies, filled with many subplots that don’t go anywhere. This has little to no substance because it’s condensed into 10 minutes.
Utterly strange. Almost completely divorced from Tolkien, so much so that with just a few changes would make it wholly original. Not bad, but certainly not the Hobbit.
Tbh, I really don’t understand why this adaptation in particular is hated so badly. Is it incomprehensible? Perhaps, but I LOVE the art style so much. It would fit well in a picture book adaptation.
Oh, the art is beautiful. It appears to be in the same style as the Weston Woods adaptations of children's picture books that Deitch made. But man, talk about mangling a story. And I'm sure the princess cliche annoys a lot of people. And you need to hear the story of how this short got made to learn how screwed Deitch got.
I feel like I should have been smoking, snorting, or dropping something before watching that. Wow. I want my 11 minutes and 42 seconds back. Just... wow.
After watching this (thanks for bringing me here Cracked!!!) I would very much like to say, he not only did not have the rights to the book, he went out of his way to change the 90% of the story just enough to avoid the infringement. Growns instead of trolls? Slag in stead of Smaug? Wow lol. Been a while since I've seen a film in this style there, that was refreshing, last time was in elementary school when we still had the projector movie fridays.
Does this guys LOTR adaptation feature Sauruuuun, Sallaman the white wizard, 4 thin hobbits Brodo Baggins, Samuel Gamgee, Perry Took, and Happy Brandybuck, and their quest to Whoredor. Their companions are Faragorn, Hamli, Eggolas, and a man who looks like Sean Bean but has a codename: 006............hmm...*cough*
Check out the fan edited "DM Cut", if u can't find it, get the Maple Cut. They took the Jackson hobbit movies and condensed then into one movie, fairly close to the source material. They're actually really good and wiped out the bad taste the original movies left me with
See, the more I watch this, the more I actually respect it. Seeing as how it was never meant to be screened, and was only an Ashcan film to preserve the rights for future sale - it's actually half decent. Sure, as an all up adaptation it's terrible, but for what it was intended to do, it's not that bad.
The font of the opening credits and the narration with music reminded me of the "Fractured Flickers" show, which must have been a big inspiration for this at the time.
"First, that's not even close to correct for this adaptation, let alone canonical. Second, I doubt any of the audience even knew before now that Gene Deitch did a half-baked adaptation of this story in 1966 just to make money back from his boss's ill-conceived purchase of the film rights, so that probably went over everybody's heads anyway. Third, Thorin would never use the Arkenstone in such a bizarre manner. And fourth, a crossbow that size would rightly be called a Ballista."
Though I kind of like the picture ("animation" just isn't the right word), I never thought I'd see a version of "The Hobbit" that makes the Rankin and Bass version look dignified.
The best part of this film: it was made in the era before Tolkien had taken over fantasy. It's really quite interesting to see people willing to totally change names of creatures/how they work without the natural limitations we have now that Tolkien's world is ingrained in our consciousness.
I'm not surprised Tolkien was so affraid of letting anyone adapt his works to film. Back when he was still alive, most of the attempted adaptations were utter crap that didn't even try making heads or tails of the basics of his stories. This little movie is a really surreal find, all the more when I realized the animation was done by none other than Adolf Born. :-)) What are the odds of a 60s animated Hobbit made as an American-Czechoslovak production... :-D
Mika needs to make a comeback. All in all this seems like a book report by an elementary school student with some added elements from their imagination. I would have liked this as a young child. And I have a soft spot in my heart for the Rankin/Bass Hobbit.
I will NEVER understand when people say Peter Jackson's version of the Hobbit is the worst adaption ever, when THIS animation abomination exists. I mean, "Slag"? "General" Oakenshield? A freaking PRINCESS who only exists for Bilbo to get married to? A prophesy for Bilbo to fulfill? I wonder if the people who made this even READ the book? *pant pant* Ok, rant done.
Chris Westergaard Yeah, my comment was a little bit short. What I meant was to compare the style of some of the scenes. For example the escape from the goblins. All these dozens of moments in which by the rules of probability the dwarves should have died, yet due some ridiculous amount of luck survive. Some kind of "funny" action scenes (I also disliked Legolas "skateboarding" in the third LotR movie etc). It's about the genre - The Hobbit should be told either as fairytale or as an epic, not as some funny action movie.
Its like something that would run in a german Child program called "Die Sendung mit der Maus" (The show with the mouse), it reminds me of those simple cartoons there with the characters having almost no motion. As a child I´d be okay with it
Not to say I dislike this, but I might like it even more if I were not aware of the original (heaven forbid!) The next time anyone complains about the deviations in the Jackson movies (which admittedly has its ups and downs) just think of this.
This video pronounces Gollum's name like it should be, Go-Loom, emphasis "loom", like a swallowing-noise, Not "gollem". Serkis and Peter Jackson fudged that one, having him cough "GOLLEM!" like he had asthma.
“The poisonous desolation of slag” is the best way to describe your relationship with your ex that I’ve ever heard.
🤣
Lmao
It also describes this "film"...
animated is a strong word
This is kind of like looking through a collection of elaborate psychedelic album cover art while your crazy Auntie tries to tell you a story she read as a child and she is both remembering the details wrong and getting them confused with parts of other stories. And that is why this is AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Next time that happens, pls get a recording of it and make something 'new' out of the aunt's ramblings for us, tho!
@@adinocc2042 So there was Freddo, Perry, and Pippie Longstocking, and they set out to RiverDale to deliver the One Ring to the council of the round table. But on the way they encountered the Black Riders, who rode on pterodactyls but on the ground, who came upon them at the Inn at Bree. But they were saved by Strider the Woodcutter, who cut them open and sewed their bellies full of stones.
... I'd go on but this took awhile to write as it is.
@@professorhaystacks6606😂 LOL! 🤣Excellent! You should get into writing stories for real! 🧙♂
@@adinocc2042 I've dabbled, actually. Did some fanfiction when younger, had a blog with a couple original stories up at one point (might still be there? I can't remember the site name though... word something), and wrote a few videos (those are on my channel), but it's a lot of time commitment to do right, and I have kids now.
In this case I kinda want to do something with this, though... A Deitch-style adaptation of The Lord of the Rings (though with the absurdity pushed ad extremum to qualify as parody). Run what, 40 minutes? Main issue is that I'd need an artist.
@@professorhaystacks6606 Cool. I don't know how you feel about it, but you might try using AI in some capacity. there are several AI sites that let you make a hand full of images for free each day.
This is the first animated adaptation of The Hobbit. It was created by Gene Deitch after his hopes at creating a feature-length animation were squashed. His producer had him complete it in a month so that he wouldn't lose the film rights to the entire Tolkien series.
I don't know what to say about this. On the one hand, I'm impressed how Gene Deitch managed to put it together in 30 days, and for that I'll cut him some slack on the 'animation' if you can even call it that; on the other hand, so much was changed that you could barely call it "The Hobbit." 'Slag?' 'Grablins?' A Princess?!
"Torin"
What it got right: Bilbo lived in a hole in the ground and he found a ring.
What it got wrong: The rest.
I'm impressed they called Gandalph "The Grey" though.
LOL!
They kinda got Mirkwood right, though.
Minus the spiders and that black river.
And the Wood Elves.
Tolkien had an earlier version. This is kinda based on that.
And there was a Dragon 😂
To be fair, the idea of killing Smaug with an Arkenstone-tipped ballista shot is pretty hardcore and makes just as much sense as Smaug's death in the Jackson version
Well, the Jackson's version is the same as Tolikien's version.
@@lukaskyzlik8770 No, it really isn't.
@@lukaskyzlik8770 I see that you've never read Tolkien's Hobbit.
@@newparadoxcity9911 I meant in the way Smaug dies. Yeah, most of the rest is very different.
@@lukaskyzlik8770 Jackson's version isn't any more accurate than this version... Smaug dies by an arrow in every one, but still in no way similar to the way it happened in the novel.
Wow, and here I thought Peter Jackson took a lot of liberties with his adaption.
at least this one does not need 12 hours do so.
@@MusikCassette but within these 12 minutes there are more changes than in peter jackson's adaptation
Yeah, but Jackson completely ignored the most important character - the princess!
@@waddleburr8048 still the suffering is at least over fairly quickly
@@MusikCassetteI actually like the hobbit films. They nearly aren’t as good as lord the rings but I enjoyed them
Like the contractually obligated Fantastic Four, it's clear that this was never meant for public consumption. Fortunately, Rankin Bass went on to make one of the best versions of the story ever.
Who has ever said that George Lucas’s THX - 1138 was ever meant for human or public consumption at all either?! Dan aka…
A very strange short with a very strange story behind it. Bizarre and weird. Considering the circumstances, Gene did the best he could. The animation is almost non-existent (it's more like a slideshow) but the visuals are creative. I especially like the first shot of Mirkwood Forest, it's legitimately epic.
Hello to all curious people, Adolf Born, the guy who created this just died, so pls spend a minute thinking or googling the guy, its worth it, he was really a giant of children production.
My favourite work of his are the illustrations to Gerald Durrell's "Talking Parcel".
@@beth12svist That edition has become expensive !
@@hurdygurdyguy1 I got lucky and found a copy in a local phone box library!
That was shockingly different from the book and really weird, but it was fun and I liked the art.
I like how the One Ring didn't actually do anything.
This is like film on crack.
I want to show this to every total LOTR nerd to cause them heart palpitations.
Don't forget, they have to rescue Princess Lily from Saroon's dreadful tower of Bradador on their quest. Brodo's long lost sister and the daughter of Bilbo and Mika. When the fellowship splits, Faragorn Eggolas and Hamli have to chase the Oorkahai through the plains of Roohun, and when Gandlaf returns after slaying the Brolog, he takes Perry to the land of Grundo to aid the Stewardess Denorthra (not Denethor, he's a woman now) from the armies of the Skeleton King of Minus Moorgool.
🧙🏻♂LOL!🧙🏻♀
Fun Fact: In Street Fighter II there's a character named Brolog in a nod to Laird of the Grumblering's Brolog!
Amazing!
How dare you! Hamli?! It was Hamfist!!
What?
I'm dying here 😂😂😂😂
The story is bizarre and I don’t get why so many changes were made, but honestly, I’d *kill* for a modern 2d animated (as in actually animated, not panning still images lol) Hobbit movie in a similar art style.
Look up 1977
@@samuelnicholes In a SIMILAR STYLE
@@a.shyperz9033 yes. A similar art style.😁
@@samuelnicholes the 1977 is not similar?
For everyone moaning about how dreadful this is can I point out that it was made very quickly for a couple of thousand dollars simply to fulfil a contractual obligation on the part of the rights holders. If they didn't make a colour Hobbit film by such a date in 1966 and show it cinematically they would forfeit ownership and loose their investment.
Only one projection print was every made which itself was shown only once in public. Having fulfilled his side of the contract the producer then went on to sell the movie rights for $100,000
The Hobbit is my favorite book, but as ridiculous as this adaptation is, there are actually a few things I kind of like: 1. The Arkenstone being used as a diamond-tipped arrowhead actually explains why the group needed a thief to help defeat the dragon, whereas In the book Bilbo was hired to steal treasure, but the Dwarves had no real plan for getting rid of Smaug. 2. The video ends by saying Bilbo and Mika returned to Hobbiton "...until the next time that Gandalf the Grey would knock upon the round, green, door." I like that because it suggests that Bilbo would have more adventures in the future.
Would the original plan have been to have a series of these, rather than a full movie?
7:50 Go-loom is staring into my soul!
Slag, grablings and groans. Nice way to avoid paying for the rights. Nice little fairytale adaption with a trippy feel. Dr Who stole Bilbos look with his snappy bow tie.
I think you missed the point, the producer had already paid for the rights and threw together this quick and dirty adaptation in order to retain those rights.
This feels like Disney storyboarding their own version.
That is because it is from Czech. Here we have a long tradition of shooting classical fairy-tales, usually same classical European fairy tales that Disney adapted but also many other original fairy-tales with more or less same tone.
@@martinpavlicek2299 I was mostly just making a jab at Disney for totally overhauling the fairy tales they adapt just like this lol. But good to know the rich history of folklore there too!
@@martinpavlicek2299 How is this Czech?
@@JAIstarkillerkid The animator is Czech animator Adolf Born. And the producent original wanted to work with another Czech animator Jiří Trnka on full longer movie. They did a few concept arts but did not finish the movie.
To be fair, the fairy tales that Disney adapted were also heavily altered adaptations themselves.
Torin...Galoom...and a young princess who fills in for ten, absent Dwarves.
Fake Fact: The princess is actually 10 Dwarves in a trench coat,... Er... Princess dress.
thorin in old norse and scandinavian languages is actually pronoucned that way. they dont say thier h's after a t. same as in polish too.
Is it me or is this unbelievably quiet?
This is my favorite adaptation of The Hobbit. Although it can stray from the plot of the book, the art is beautiful and the whole film is staged like a person reading the book to the viewer.
"until humans came along and destroyed magic"
I am convinced the animators never read the book, but had asked an introverted nine-year-old who'd had it read to her what it was about, without taking notes on her reply.
He was not an animator but one of the most influential European illustrators of his time. If you put aside the copyright law, differences from the original book, and limited animation tools they had, this kid's goodnight story is a masterpiece with so many creative ideas. And all was handmade with love, hours, and hours of pure creativity in the sixties. Masterpiece. And the typography works of this guy...so inspirational.
This is like if an AI got instructions to make an adaptation of The hobbit 😄
With creative liberties like these, it’s easy to see where AI gets the influence.
Word!
It is not.
So they were able to use the names: ‘Dale, Mirkwood, Thorin Oakenshield, Gandalf, Bilbo, Hobbit, and The Lonely Mountain.
But they couldn’t say Smaug.
I’m guessing that they thought that a word for waste material left over from smelting ores was a good name for an evil dragon? It’s just amazing that they didn’t realise what it means in British slang.
They didn't get Thorin right. They called him "Torin"
@@anonymoussaga8723 Most people know the term "slag heap"... no one is going to be thinking about a woman's virtue when they hear Slag. It also has more than one slang interpretation... typical connotations, worthless or vile.
All similarities to hobbit aside, this is a pretty interesting kids tale.
It may be a questionable take on the book, but damn is that some pretty art!
Cool! This style was used on Samurai Jack cartoon!
it's actually a really cool throwback to those old children's cartoons. Even if, you know, pretty much everything in it is completely wrong.
Wait a minute, Bilbo says the princess is "only a child", but then he falls in love with her and apparently marries her?
What the heck?
Well he's really short so it's ok obviously
Maybe he's muslim.
Uh, Er,... Apparently, right, Bilbo is a *********.
Sorry!🤷🏻♂
When Tolkien found out about this...there was probably a lot of loud shouting, lots of cursing, threats of lawsuits, probably a death threat or two
While this film was the only one made when Tolkien was alive, he never saw it, much to the relief of Gene Deitch.
Oh, you don't know the half of it! Check this out:
th-cam.com/video/XsHGQptDJ2Y/w-d-xo.html
It's a breakdown that The Dom did.
PS Sorry I'm four years late.
Tolkien is probably ripping up hell & Mordor now that Jeff Bozos has his license.
Nah, Tolkien was father too old-school British for a lot of shouting. Possibly a veiled threat in Quenya.
by making it its own thing, i enjoyed this one more than PJ's version. nice art and tight running time, too
This is wild. I love the style.
What a whiplash at 2:30
As incredibly loose of an adaptation as this is, I have to give it credit: using the arkenstone as the sharp tip of the arrow that kills Smaug (or Slag as he is known here) is pretty clever.
It's a great ironic death for a dragon to be killed by treasure, and it explains why it was so necessary for a thief to come on the adventure.
Love the 60s feel. So much more inpressive to make a film with still art and one narrator.
This has the exact opposite problem of the Peter Jackson hobbit trilogy, where peter’s is stretched so thin across three 2 hour movies, filled with many subplots that don’t go anywhere.
This has little to no substance because it’s condensed into 10 minutes.
"Happy, Perry…we've got to take the One Bling to Mount Boom!" "Cool story, Brodo."
So...Bilbo Baggins is the dragonborn?
Yes.
Utterly strange. Almost completely divorced from Tolkien, so much so that with just a few changes would make it wholly original. Not bad, but certainly not the Hobbit.
Yeah it was basically just a cash-grab to keep the rights in order to sell them back to Tolkien for 100k. I call it extortion.
This is definitely the best adaptation.
Better than Peter Jackson's, anyway.
"Guhlooooom" good job.
They repeat that pronunciation in the 1968 audioplay Hobbit. Also "Tureen" Oakenshield
Tbh, I really don’t understand why this adaptation in particular is hated so badly. Is it incomprehensible? Perhaps, but I LOVE the art style so much. It would fit well in a picture book adaptation.
To be fair, anything Gene Deitch worked on is an acquired taste (one not too many people seemed to have)
It reminds me a lot of the style of Gustav Klimt, or the way I’d imagine that Victor Ambrus drew/painted as a child.
Oh, the art is beautiful. It appears to be in the same style as the Weston Woods adaptations of children's picture books that Deitch made. But man, talk about mangling a story. And I'm sure the princess cliche annoys a lot of people. And you need to hear the story of how this short got made to learn how screwed Deitch got.
Art is just amazing but ppl today prefer soullles cgi.
I feel like I should have been smoking, snorting, or dropping something before watching that. Wow. I want my 11 minutes and 42 seconds back. Just... wow.
12 minutes of watching today is proof of quality today bro. Dont lie to yourself :D
Thanks Mr Sunday Movies for leading me to this treasure 😂
After watching this (thanks for bringing me here Cracked!!!) I would very much like to say, he not only did not have the rights to the book, he went out of his way to change the 90% of the story just enough to avoid the infringement. Growns instead of trolls? Slag in stead of Smaug? Wow lol. Been a while since I've seen a film in this style there, that was refreshing, last time was in elementary school when we still had the projector movie fridays.
Does this guys LOTR adaptation feature Sauruuuun, Sallaman the white wizard, 4 thin hobbits Brodo Baggins, Samuel Gamgee, Perry Took, and Happy Brandybuck, and their quest to Whoredor. Their companions are Faragorn, Hamli, Eggolas, and a man who looks like Sean Bean but has a codename: 006............hmm...*cough*
Strangely enough the thing that bugs me most is the fact that they acknowledge it as The One Ring and that apparently Bilbo is the true ringbearer?
Wow, I had no idea it was possible for an adaptation of the Hobbit to be further from the books than Peter Jackson's version.
Check out the fan edited "DM Cut", if u can't find it, get the Maple Cut. They took the Jackson hobbit movies and condensed then into one movie, fairly close to the source material. They're actually really good and wiped out the bad taste the original movies left me with
Movie from Czechoslovakia :) and excelent work by Adolf Born - one of the best Czech (world-known) animator!
*1966
See, the more I watch this, the more I actually respect it. Seeing as how it was never meant to be screened, and was only an Ashcan film to preserve the rights for future sale - it's actually half decent. Sure, as an all up adaptation it's terrible, but for what it was intended to do, it's not that bad.
The font of the opening credits and the narration with music reminded me of the "Fractured Flickers" show, which must have been a big inspiration for this at the time.
"First, that's not even close to correct for this adaptation, let alone canonical. Second, I doubt any of the audience even knew before now that Gene Deitch did a half-baked adaptation of this story in 1966 just to make money back from his boss's ill-conceived purchase of the film rights, so that probably went over everybody's heads anyway. Third, Thorin would never use the Arkenstone in such a bizarre manner. And fourth, a crossbow that size would rightly be called a Ballista."
Anyone else notice the glaring inaccuracy that Bilbo only had four fingers? Other than that it was spot on.
Saddly that's still far better than new Disney Movies 😭
Though I kind of like the picture ("animation" just isn't the right word), I never thought I'd see a version of "The Hobbit" that makes the Rankin and Bass version look dignified.
Well done. Thanks for posting this rare find.
The best part of this film: it was made in the era before Tolkien had taken over fantasy. It's really quite interesting to see people willing to totally change names of creatures/how they work without the natural limitations we have now that Tolkien's world is ingrained in our consciousness.
Adolf Born, Czech painter and illustrator.
I'm not surprised Tolkien was so affraid of letting anyone adapt his works to film. Back when he was still alive, most of the attempted adaptations were utter crap that didn't even try making heads or tails of the basics of his stories. This little movie is a really surreal find, all the more when I realized the animation was done by none other than Adolf Born. :-)) What are the odds of a 60s animated Hobbit made as an American-Czechoslovak production... :-D
This is both awesome and horrible at the same time. Thanks for sharing. It would have been nice to see your original screenplay surface.
I like the style it reminds me of an old children's book or a Weston Woods film based on a old children's book
It's almost like a draft for a "Fractured Fairy Tales" that they haven't yet added jokes to.
Grablins and Slag. Okay then.
Awesome design work though.
Mika needs to make a comeback.
All in all this seems like a book report by an elementary school student with some added elements from their imagination. I would have liked this as a young child. And I have a soft spot in my heart for the Rankin/Bass Hobbit.
This is actuly a great movie
Wow, first time watching it and I just love it! Thanks for sharing this amazing and wonderful pure art.
I will NEVER understand when people say Peter Jackson's version of the Hobbit is the worst adaption ever, when THIS animation abomination exists. I mean, "Slag"? "General" Oakenshield? A freaking PRINCESS who only exists for Bilbo to get married to? A prophesy for Bilbo to fulfill? I wonder if the people who made this even READ the book? *pant pant* Ok, rant done.
At least it's told like a fairytale. Instead of being some Pirates of the Carribean clone in style.
Ksortakh Kraxthar I don't think the Hobbit films are like the pirates of the Caribbean films.
Chris Westergaard
Yeah, my comment was a little bit short. What I meant was to compare the style of some of the scenes. For example the escape from the goblins. All these dozens of moments in which by the rules of probability the dwarves should have died, yet due some ridiculous amount of luck survive. Some kind of "funny" action scenes (I also disliked Legolas "skateboarding" in the third LotR movie etc). It's about the genre - The Hobbit should be told either as fairytale or as an epic, not as some funny action movie.
Its not full movie just only "demo" version, learn something about movie history.
Jakub Jarý It's a pretty shitty demo all the same.
Funnily enough, when Tolkien had just started writing LotR, he toyed with the idea of Bilbo getting married and having a son (a future Frodo)
This is an ashcan copy, it's supposed to be like this because it was to show the hobbit could be made into a film.
Its like something that would run in a german Child program called "Die Sendung mit der Maus" (The show with the mouse), it reminds me of those simple cartoons there with the characters having almost no motion. As a child I´d be okay with it
This sounds like something Bernd would have a field day with!
Now the only thing that’s missing is a depressed bread lol.
I like the way Gollum is pronounced in this
Not to say I dislike this, but I might like it even more if I were not aware of the original (heaven forbid!)
The next time anyone complains about the deviations in the Jackson movies (which admittedly has its ups and downs) just think of this.
ENDUT! HOM HECH!
why were all cartoons in the 1960s terrifying?
+roflmows nukes?
Don't you hate those evil Grablins? They're almost as bad as Slag.
Well, that was truely interesting! It will go into my playlist of Middle Earth Hx ( history).
Nobody can ever say the 1977 version is the worst anymore.
It never was.
They couldn't say that from 2012 onwards.
Russian Hobbit is a masterpiece compare to this
@@TheMicroaggressor 1977 was always the best.
@@samuelnicholes I hear you loud and clear
Why am I watching this!!
Perhaps we treated The Rings of Power too harshly.
No.
The same level of accuracy.
This was obviously created for the sole purpose of keeping the movie rights just enough to resell them
So Bilbo doesn’t want the princess to go alone because shes a "child" he then marries said princess...
I love the art and the narrator. But the adaptation... oh my goodness.
Very interesting. I liked the illustrations at least.
If people though three films for the Hobbit was unreasonable, see what happens when you cut that down to twelve minutes.
Thank goodness this never became a full-length film
This movie is from Czech Republic
It's actually not.
It is actually: it was made in Prague.
It has the virtue of being short.
@AlexandraLovesActing WOW! Great acting, Alexandra!
The evil dragon Slag...
(I know people have mentioned it in the comments, but does no one else find it hilarious?)
Slag? I thought it was Smaug.
this is making that live action Russian film look more faithful!
I'm sorry, what? There was a Russian what adaptation?
@@WiseSageBum yeah, there was one from the 1980s.
And I thought the '77 film was a fever dream...
This video pronounces Gollum's name like it should be, Go-Loom, emphasis "loom", like a swallowing-noise, Not "gollem". Serkis and Peter Jackson fudged that one, having him cough "GOLLEM!" like he had asthma.
There was some good in this short, which was quite enjoyable, and plenty of bad, which was moreso.
One word: WOEFUL.
Gollum's not the only one that cringed