A Tale of Two Hobbits...

OK, it's been over a year since the last installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy hit DVD, and suffice to say, I didn't like it at all.  But rather than rant about the movies, let me just compare them to a superior offering, an excellent animated version by Rankin/Bass from 1977.  Now that's the stuff!

So let's examine the versions side-by-side and compare the two productions on their key points, shall we...    

IMAGERY

The original Hobbit had a whimsical, storybook feeling to it, and requires imagery to match.  This is something hinted at in Tolkien's original illustrations, which are worth a look!  So how do the two versions stack up on their delivery?  Our thoughts...

Jackson's Hobbit is visually stunning, but everything is visually stunning these days.  Luckily, it had to gel with the superior Lord of the rings series and didn't get too crazy.  But it tried a bit too hard to appear whimsical and ended up being ridiculous, because, let's face it, some things just look better in the abstraction of artwork than in the proportions of real life (and I'm talking about every superhero and D&D movie ever made)!

At times I wondered if I'd walked into some Tim Burton movie and half expected to see a cameo by Johnny Depp, complete with the trademark pancake makeup he's always wearing.  And the axe stuck in Bifur's head was just stupid and not true to the book.  Of course, neither was its misguided depiction of Erabor, which looked for all the world like something out of the Dragon Age: Origins game.

This article appeared in TV Guide (I
mean, who remembers that, right?), and presents
the cast in all their Tolkienesque glory...

The movie needed, and deserved, a homage to Tolkien's vision, undoubtedly rooted in old world sensibilities, and not this cynical pandering to the last ten years of gamer culture!

The Rankin/Bass Hobbit was animated, and delivered an abstracted version more in line with Tolkien's world.  There was something more earthy, elemental, and real about its depictions, something pulled from the pages of the best 19th century storybooks vs. 21st century computer RPGs, complete with their MODERN sensibilities...

Because let's face it.  Tolkien was an old-fashioned fellow who imagined his races looking much as they were imagined in the prior century, where his heart undoubtedly remained.  

So it's Rankin/Bass for the win on the visual front for us!

STORYLINE

OK, movie (and television) adaptations require a certain amount of compromise out of necessity, but...

Jackson't Hobbit took a richly detailed story, gutted it, and replaced the best bits with UTTER DRIVEL about dwarves and elves falling in love, building complete storylines around cynically manufactured characters.  Even when they retained good characters, like the shape-shifting Beorn, they trimmed his onscreen time to make room for these silly diversions.  What?  Really cool materials actually OUT OF THE BOOK aren't good enough for you?

Remember, one book was stretched into a TRILOGY, and signs of padding are EVERYWHERE.  Tolkien wrote a wealth of appendixes that could have fleshed things out authentically.  Instead, we suffer through a chase scene with Smaug that I FELL ASLEEP through at the movie theater no less!  And it wasn't the lounge seating...

Like Gollum, Jackson's Hobbit
becomes hollow and stretched out until it loses
its soul to become an empty shell...

The Rankin/Bass Hobbit had to, as a matter of necessity, trim substantial portions of the book.  But what they left in was pretty true to the original story and kept my interest. 

Rankin/Bass for the win again!  I was able to go from the animated version to the original work seamlessly.

MUSIC AND ATMOSPHERE

Yes, music.  It figured prominently in the original work...

Jackson't Hobbit actually did a decent job with the first installment, probably because he didn't deviate much from the book, seeming to recognize that THIS part had to work.  And the songs pretty much rang true.  But this element was dropped in the later films, which spun wildly off course with UTTER NONSENSE.

The Rankin/Bass Hobbit included earthy, folksy songs recalling an earlier time rather than modern sensibilities.  And you get them throughout.  You even get the elves singing as they enter Rivendell, and the whole thing is charming and true to Tolkien's vision of both the elves and The Last Homely House...

The Misty Mountain song (lyrics by Tolkien) really captured the feeling of dwarves at their forges better than Jackson's offering could ever hope for.  And the ONE original piece, The Greatest Adventure, sung by Glen Yarbrough, absolutely fits here, and hey, I really think this little animated movie did a much better job of nailing Bilbo's personal transformation by a landslide!

I'll say it again: This little animated movie did a MUCH BETTER job of nailing Bilbo's personal transformation by a landslide...   

Once again, Rankin/Bass for the win!  Yes, the WIN!

Say what you will about the new movies, but sometimes, it's the thoughtful gems that get it right.  A book first written for children made into a children's cartoon feature that stayed true to everything Tolkien was going for with pure authenticity...

I recommend it for children and adults still children at heart!