The Hobbit, animated
by rasalvatore on Nov.02, 2009, under R. A. Salvatore
Does anyone remember the Rankin-Bass animated version of “The Hobbit”? Orson Bean starred as Bilbo Baggins…one thing about that excellent production that has stayed with me was the sense of whimsy it captured withint he framework of a more serious topic.
The colors of the Shire night, on the bridge above the stream, for example, were really saturated and beyond the expected spectrum. it drew me in and made me want to be there.
I would also argue that this is one reason World of Warcraft has so smashed its competitors. Many of hte other video games go for the grays and greens and browns of the real world in their quest for a near-real look. Blizzard threw that out the window with World of Warcraft and instead moved the color palates to the extreme ranges.
And again, it’s a world I want to visit.
Bob
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November 2nd, 2009 on 5:01 pm
The one thing I remember most about the animated Hobbit cartoon is that it forever tainted the Lord of the Rings movies for me. Sure, those movies are great and all, but my first visual look into Tolkien’s world was from that Hobbit cartoon.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch the upcoming live action version either.
I think it all has to do with my childhood. I read, and saw, The Hobbit as a child so I link that together with a fond childhood memory. Completely agree with you re: sense of whimsy.
As I get older, some of those memories fade, so I’m hanging on to the ones I remember with all my might.
November 3rd, 2009 on 1:57 pm
I think I was in fourth grade when that cartoon came out (wasn’t it a TV production? My memory is hazy). It seems that either one of my teachers was really into Tolkien or they were doing some kind of marketing through schools because there was a lesson around that upcoming cartoon and our teacher read us an excerpt from the book. After watching the cartoon, I got the book from the school library and devoured it.
I’d love to be able to say that this was what hooked me on fantasy, but at that time my reading tastes were very whim-driven and I devoured it all without grouping books into genres. It wasn’t until sixth grade when I simultaneously got into The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia that it clicked with me that I liked books of that type and should probably look for more books like that.
November 6th, 2009 on 10:31 am
God, I loved that cartoon. Mr. Salvatore rightly points to its beautiful colors, but (being a kid when it came out in 1977) I also loved being scared sh*tless by the monsters. Peter Jackson’s muddy-bloody orcs and big-budget ringwraiths were ok, I guess, but the RB bad guys were just awesome. Smaug as a massive, wizened catlike dragon. Madman performance artist Brother Theodore’s absolutely horrifying Gollum (the definitive version, IMHO), and *this* scene (@ 0:30), which still gives me the willies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkqjc23yqs