''The Hobbit'' is a

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

Gene Deitch Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator, comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was known for creating animated cartoons ...

and the first attempt to adapt

J.R.R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

's 1937 novel '' The Hobbit'' (upon which it is loosely based) into a film. At less than twelve minutes, it is also one of the shortest films based on Tolkien's work. It has no connection to the 1977 Rankin/Bass animated film or

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

's film trilogy.

Plot

The film is short and lacking in detail, barely resembling the original storyThe 1966 Hobbit Movie You Never Knew Existed - Collider
/ref> with the exception of the encounter with the

trolls A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

(renamed "Groans") and Bilbo Baggins's encounter with a creature called Goloom. A Princess Mika, described as a "child", is introduced to avoid having Bilbo as a bachelor. A dragon named

Slag Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...

has ravaged a town in Dale called Golden Bells, though General Torin Oakenshield and Princess Mika survive. They ask a wizard, Gandalf, for help; he tells them that the Great Book prophesies Slag's death, for which they must have a Hobbit. They visit Bilbo at his home in

Hobbiton The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other works. The Shire is an inland area settled exclusively by hobbits, the Shire-folk, largely sheltered from the goings-on in the ...

; he refuses to help, but Gandalf and Mika persuade him. They set off and meet two Groans; Bilbo (not Gandalf, who does not come with them) tricks them to fight each other, and at dawn the Groans turn into trees. Bilbo vanishes from his companions. He has fallen into a hole in the mountains occupied by Grablins, landing in Goloom's lake. He finds Goloom's

magic ring A magic ring is a mythical, folkloric or fictional piece of jewelry, usually a Ring (jewellery), finger ring, that is purported to have Magic (supernatural), supernatural properties or powers. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. M ...

and escapes. He crosses

Mirkwood Mirkwood is a name used for a great dark fictional forest in novels by Sir Walter Scott and William Morris in the 19th century, and by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 20th century. The critic Tom Shippey explains that the name evoked the excitement of t ...

and reaches the

Lonely Mountain In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Lonely Mountain is a mountain northeast of Mirkwood. It is the location of the Dwarves' Kingdom under the Mountain and the town of Dale lies in a vale on its southern slopes. In ''The Lord of the Rings'', ...

. He manages to steal the Arkenstone from Slag's hoard, and uses a bow to shoot it into Slag's heart, killing him. Bilbo marries Mika and they return together to Hobbiton.

Production

Producer

William L. Snyder William Lawrence Snyder (February 14, 1918 – June 3, 1998) was an American film producer. He won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1960 for the animation ''Munro''. William Snyder created the company Rembrandt Films in Czechoslovakia ...

Rembrandt Films Rembrandt Films is a Czech production company founded by American film producer William L. Snyder in 1949. It began as an importer of films from Europe and expanded into animated film production. Gene Deitch directed for the company both his own f ...

had the film rights to Tolkien's work from 1964 to 1967, and intended to make a feature-length animated film of ''The Hobbit'', working with Deitch as animator and Bill Bernal as writer. A proposed deal with

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

fell through, so Snyder asked Deitch to make a 12-minute version, quickly and cheaply. Note: This source says that the film was made in 1966. The short is only slightly animated; it consists mostly of camera movements over still pictures, with some cut-outs moving on the screen. Rushing through production, Snyder "premiered" the film on June 30, 1967 — the last day before his film rights would expire. He paid people a dime to give back to him, and then come and watch the film in a small Manhattan projection room. He had them sign statements that they had paid to see a ''Hobbit'' film, which allowed Snyder to retain the film rights. He then sold the rights back to Tolkien for approximately $100,000. The film remained unknown to Tolkien fans until 2012, when Deitch posted on his blog about the film's history. He stated that the film had been produced and released in 1966, but subsequent document discoveries confirmed that this in fact happened in 1967.

References

External links

*
Film on DailyMotion

Film on YouTube

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobbit (1967 film), The 1967 animated films 1967 short films 1960s American animated films 1960s animated short films 1960s fantasy films 1960s rediscovered films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films 1960s British films American animated short films English-language Czech films Films directed by Gene Deitch Rediscovered American films Rembrandt Films short films Films based on The Hobbit Animated films about dragons Films about princesses Films about wizards Films about magic rings Rediscovered animated films

Plot

Production

See also

References

External links