The Hobbit (1977)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The hobbit |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1977 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Arthur Rankin Jr. , Jules Bass |
| script | Romeo Muller |
| production | Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass , Masaki Ihzuka |
| music |
Maury Laws , Jules Bass |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
|
Successor → |
|
The Hobbit is an English-language cartoon from 1977 based on the book of the same name by JRR Tolkien .
action
In a hole in the ground - in a comfortable hobbit cave - there lives a hobbit named Bilbo . One day he is visited by the magician Gandalf and thirteen dwarfs and taken on an adventurous journey without further ado, the goal of which is to snatch the stolen treasure from a dragon . The hobbit Bilbo is supposed to act as a master thief in this adventure and thus do the real work.
On a rainy night, the exhausted travelers discover three trolls sitting around a campfire in the wilderness they roam . Gandalf is not there at the moment, he has separated from the others, and so Thorin has taken over command. Thorin decides that Bilbo should now prove his art. He is supposed to steal some of the meat that the dwarves have found edible from the trolls. Bilbo sneaks up, but is caught by one of the trolls. As a result, the trolls track down the dwarves that are still hiding and capture them. In this situation, Gandalf suddenly appears, who exclaims: "The twilight take you all, and you shall turn to stone". The trolls can only look around briefly and see that the sun is just rising before all three of them freeze to stone. The prisoners are saved. In the nearby troll dwelling, the adventurers discover a small gold treasure, which they hide immediately because they do not want to take it with them on their further journey. They only take some valuable swords with them.
In the evening they reach Rivendell , the hidden valley of the Elves , in which Elrond lives, who temporarily takes them in. They tell him about their adventure so far and show him a map that includes a key, both of which Gandalf had once received from Thorin's father. The map shows the mountain in which the dragon from which they want to snatch the treasure lives. Its home was once a city of dwarves, ruled by Thorin's ancestors. But then the dragon Smaug came and drove them away . Elrond now discovers writing on the map that had previously remained undiscovered because it is only visible in moonlight. Elrond reads this scripture, which speaks from a secret door. It reads: “Stand by the gray stone when the throttle strikes and the last ray of sunlight falls on the keyhole.” The journey will soon continue.
On a stormy night they look for protection in a cave, which turns out to be the gateway to the realm of the goblins . The dwarves and Bilbo are captured by the goblins, dragged deep into their caves and brought before the great goblins . There they should be sentenced. But before something worse happens to them, the fires suddenly go out, Gandalf appears and wields his brightly shining sword, which he had found in the troll's dwelling. Gandalf slays the Great Goblin with the sword. The goblins flee in a panic. The dwarves, as well as the little Bilbo, who is carried by one of them on his back, flee through the dark caves, following Gandalf. Suddenly Bilbo can no longer hold on to Bombur's back and falls into the depths. Bilbo soon finds himself on the banks of an underground lake. He discovers a ring lying on the floor and takes it. But Bilbo, who is armed with a small blade, is not alone in this cave. A being called Gollum is also there. Gollum promises to show Bilbo the way out if he wins a puzzle match. Should he lose, however, Gollum will eat him. The two of them ask each other puzzles and solve them. When it is Bilbo's turn to ask a riddle, he pensively reaches into his trouser pocket and asks Gollum the question “What do I have in my trouser pocket?” Gollum cannot answer the question and therefore rowed his boat to a small island in the underground lake. on which he set up camp. Gollum realizes that his magic ring is no longer there and then realizes what Bilbo had in his pocket. Bilbo has meanwhile put on the ring and discovered the magical ability of the ring: The ring makes its owner invisible. Gollum goes to the next exit and hopes to catch Bilbo there. Bilbo follows Gollum, manages to get past him and thus escapes from the caves. Bilbo meets his friends again soon afterwards and they continue their journey together.
In the emerging night storm Wargen riding goblins brought. With the help of giant eagles rushing up , the adventurers can escape again. You will be dropped off at the edge of a dark forest . Gandalf leaves the group again because he has urgent tasks. On the way through the forest, the tour group is overwhelmed by giant spiders during the night . With the help of Bilbo and his ring, they survive the danger, but are shortly thereafter captured by wood elves, who bring them to the palace of the wood elf king. The suspicious king has her thrown into dungeon. Bilbo, who was not captured, frees the dwarfs from their cells. He lets them crawl into empty wine barrels, which the wood elves dump across a river. Undamaged, the dwarfs, hidden in the barrels, reach a lake on the river. In the lake there is an island with a city that is inhabited by people. Some of the people provide the wood elves with wine. These suppliers of the wine have already awaited their barrels. You fish these out of the water and discover the dwarfs with them.
Bilbo and the dwarves are now at the foot of the mountain where the dragon lives. The adventurers do not want to use the main entrance to the dragon lair. Instead, they search the mountain for the hidden door that should also lead to the dwarf city or the dragon's lair. After a long search, they rested on a small plateau . While he is writing his travelogue, Bilbo watches a thrush pecking at a snail. Bilbo remembers the hidden writing and discovers a rock with a hole through it. The sun shines through this hole and marks a spot on the rock. This is where the keyhole is located. Thorin unlocks the door. He sends Bilbo to the dragon's lair to steal the treasure. The thrush follows Bilbo, who comes through the tunnel to the dragon lair. Bilbo puts on the ring and believes he is hidden from the dragon, who has a good sense of smell and immediately notices that someone has entered the hoard. Still, the dragon cannot pinpoint Bilbo's position. He speaks to Bilbo, who starts a conversation with him. During the conversation, Bilbo discovers a badly damaged area on Smaug's dragon shell , which Bilbo expresses aloud. The thrush who followed Bilbo hears this. After this conversation, Bilbo leaves the hoard through the tunnel with a stolen goblet. Smaug is angry and also leaves his hiding place. He discovers the open back door from outside. Shortly after the dwarves and Bilbo took refuge in the tunnel, Smaug destroyed this entrance. Bilbo now sends the thrush to Bard, one of the people who lives in the seaside town . Smaug attacks the city. Bard, who was informed of Smaug's weak spot by the thrush, manages to hit the spot with his bow. Smaug is dead on the spot and falls into the depths of the lake.
The dwarves discover the gold that Smaug has gathered in the mountain. Bard and the Wood Elf King soon advance with an army. They claim a share of the treasure because their people have long suffered from Smaug. However, the dwarves do not want to give up any of the treasure and enforce their claim by force of arms. In this situation, Gandalf rushes up and informs the military leaders that a large army of goblins is on the advance. The military leaders settle their quarrel and now defend themselves together against the attacking goblins. Just before a defeat, the eagles arrive and turn the tide. The goblins are crushed. However, many fell, including Thorin.
Bilbo, accompanied by Gandalf, returns to his homeland with a small share of the treasure. He now lives in his hobbit cave again. He wrote the story of the adventure he experienced in a small book, which he called There and Back Again . He keeps the ring as a souvenir under a glass case on the mantelpiece.
background
The film was produced by Rankin / Bass Productions and animated by the Japanese studio Topcraft , which later became Studio Ghibli . The production cost about 3 million US dollars .
Director and producer Arthur Rankin Jr. stated in an interview that "there will be no material in the film that does not appear in Tolkien's book". However, a lot has been streamlined and thus changed compared to the original. Despite the concise presentation of the story, the film still contains many details from Tolkien's books, such as Tolkien's original maps. Arthur Rankin, Jr. was also inspired by the illustrations by Arthur Rackham for the graphic design . In contrast to Ralph Bakshi's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings , which was aimed at a more adult audience, the bloodshed in The Hobbit was obviously depicted more subtle.
The film was first seen three days after Thanksgiving , on November 27, 1977, on television in the United States , on the television channel NBC . The film premiered in Japan on July 15, 1978 . The film was released in Brazil under the name O Hobbit . The film was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1978 , but lost to Star Wars . Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass won the Peabody Award . In 1980 Rankin / Bass Productions released a sequel to the Hobbit film called The Return of the King .
In the early 1980s, Sony and ABC Video Enterprises released the film on VHS . In 1991 and 2001 the film was released again by Warner Bros. (as Warner Home Video and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment ) on VHS. The film was later distributed on DVD by Warner Bros. , along with the films The Lord of the Rings and The Return of the King . So far the film has not been translated into German and has therefore not been shown on German television. In the meantime, a remake of the Hobbit has been implemented as a film trilogy. The first part, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , hit theaters in December 2012. Peter Jackson is directing this three-part film.
criticism
John J. O'Connor wrote in the New York Times a few days before the film first aired :
“The 'Rankin and Bass Production' has now carefully transferred the Hobbit into a […] film. [...] The result is remarkably diverse. but filled with nice impactful moments. […] The drawings often convey a strong resemblance to non-Tolkien characters. The dwarfs look suspiciously for Snow White's grown-up friends. The goblins could have sprung from a book by Maurice Sendak . But [...] the dragon and Gollum of the puzzle lovers cleverly convey a touch of the original. […] Beyond the Flaws - This TV version of the Hobbit guarantees attention. "
Web links
- The Hobbit in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Hobbit at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Screen captures images of the CED edition of the film (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The film has a running time of 77 minutes. You can often read on the Internet that the film is 90 minutes long. However, this is likely to be wrong. See TheOneRing.net Rankin / Bass 'The Hobbit' Follow Up
- ↑ The Internet Movie Database - Affiliates for The Hobbit (1977)
- ↑ Box The Internet Movie Database - office / business for The Hobbit (1977)
- ↑ a b c d John Culhan: Will the Video Version of Tolkien Be Hobbit Forming? In: The New York Times, November 27, 1977
- ↑ For example, it was omitted that the dwarves at the beginning of the story introduce themselves individually to Bilbo, that Gandalf outsmarts the trolls and does not speak a spell and that the tour group stops at Beorn . In addition, the Arkenstein does not play a role in the implementation.
- ↑ Right at the beginning of the film and the map that is shown to Elrond.
- ↑ a b The Internet Movie Database - Launch Dates for The Hobbit (1977)
- ^ John J. O'Connor: TV Weekend: "The Hobbit" In: The New York Times, November 25, 1977
- ^ The Internet Movie Database - Awards for The Hobbit
- ↑ Original wording in English: “Rankin and Bass Productions have now carefully translated 'The Hobbit' into a […] film […]. The result is curiously eclectic, but filled with nicely effective moments. [...] The drawings frequently suggest strong resemblances to non-Tolkien characters. The dwarves look suspiciously like Snow White's friends grown older. The goblins could have stepped out of a Maurice Sendak book. But […] the Dragon and Gollum the riddle aficionado bring some clever original touches […]. Whatever its flaws, this television version of 'The Hobbit' warrants attention. "John J. O'Connor: TV Weekend:" The Hobbit " . In: The New York Times, November 25, 1977