"the hobbit", a 1966 animated knockoff that screwed over the tolkiens


the above is a recently-unearthed, unreleased, 12-minute, um.... animated (?) adaptation of tolkien's the hobbit, produced by bill snyder. it's got an interesting "little golden storybook" look provided by czech illustrator adolf born, and a wacky, totally non-canonical plot c/o writer gene deitch.

it's got a pretty twisted backstory, too, according to deitch:

Why invest money, plus a year-and-a-half of work, when you can make money without all that sweat? Not only had the Tolkien estate lawyers given Snyder the rights for peanuts, but in their ignorance of film terminology, they had left a million-dollar-loop-hole in the contract: It merely stated that in order to hold his option for THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Snyder had to “produce a full-color motion picture version” of THE HOBBIT by June 30th 1966. Please note: It did not say it had to be an animated movie, and it not say how long the film had to be!

so it's basically a cheap knockoff, only with a legit license. thank the valar for peter jackson.






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