This Friday night, 8PM to 9PM EDT, GEEKBLAST will be hosting a show that covers some of our favorite cartoons of the last 30 or so years! Now we know that there is entirely too much ground to cover in such a vast spectrum of time, so I figured I would take a moment to tip the cap to one of my favorite cartoons that helped start it all...
Sometime in the mid to late eighties this short, round, little boy with his thick mushroom top bowl cut and vivid imagination, sat desperately looking for a form of entertainment. Thunder clapped outside, lighting flirted with one cloud and then, split seconds later, another one. The rain tapped at the windows like the delicate fingertips of a thousand neighborhood friends looking to play.
But the streets were empty, the sky choked with thick clouds and the ground saturated with the tears of an angry day.
I paced back and forth, across the ceiling and up and down the walls. The video games were all beaten, the books were all read, the pictures all colored, the action figures all melted. I was inconsolable. The walls closed in, my head spun; I was teetering on the edge of madness.
Then it appeared. Slid right under my door, there laid my salvation. A dusty old VHS tape with a tattered sticker partially peeled off. "The Hobbit"...
Over the next seventy-seven minutes of pure animated heaven my life changed forever. My Grandfather, in his infinite wisdom, had recorded it from television and gave it to my mother, “incase of a rainy day". That day had come and so my exposure to world of J.R.R. Tolkien began at a tender young age. The seeds of my GEEKdom had been planted and nary was I even aware!
I watched the tape over and over and over again. I was obsessed. I was a GEEK, and I loved it. The rain turned to blue skies, the grass from green, to brown, to snow covered drifts. Life washed over me through the rose color lenses of a Hobbit from that point on.
Looking back now, decades later, I have to thank not only my Grandfather but also the wonderful people who released the holiday special back in 1977 at Rankin/Bass Productions. So now here I sit, some thirty-seven years later, trying to spread the word to the world that this life altering VHS that once sat in my Video Cassette Recorder for nine consecutive days is now floating around on DVD, available on Amazon.com.
The animated movie is a fairly close representation of the 1937 book, by J.R.R Tolkien, of the same name. Truth be told, it borderlines on being considered a musical in some circles, as the cartoon captures the songs from the dwarves, hobbits and elves alike.
The film was even nominated for a 'Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation' and lost to STAR WARS!! That’s like getting knocked down twice by Mike Tyson in less then ninety seconds; There's no shame in that game! (I'm looking at you Peter' The Hurricane' McNeeley)
Produced and directed by Arthur Rankin, Jr and Jules Bass and adapted for the screen by Romeo Muller (who won a Peabody Award in 1978 for the teleplay) the film had a budget of 3 million dollars according to the 'New York Times' in an article written by John J. O'Connor.
O'Connor went on to say in the article, "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 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."
Now that is one mans opinion and at the blissfully ignorant young age I consumed this epic tale at such comparisons would have been lost to me. Years later, digging a little deeper behind one of the catalysts behind all that is OBiE, I continue to find that this film was created in the hopes of keeping it as close to the original book as possible. Even the Producer/Director Arthur Rankin, Jr explained in the 'New York Times' article that he never planned to add any content that wasn't in the book.
If only we could be as lucky with today's projects!
Obviously, due to the time constraints and editing to allow for commercials, some scenes were completely cut out. I mean the character Beorn and his sub-plot doesn't even exist. But the matter of fact still remains; this animated film acted as a springboard for a young mind into a world he never knew existed.
As the years went on, so did I, reading anything Tolkien I could get my hands on, consuming anything and everything I could in my path that fell even remotely close to realm of fantasy. The plot and tone of the movie, some argue, is for an older audience. This film managed to keep it as close to the book as possible with out dumbing it down for children, making it a good watch for youthful and aged alike.
I implore you, dear reader, find this DVD and watch it! Watch it with your kids, your buddies, hell watch it alone! If you're like me, from the instant the film begins your senses flash you back in time to a more innocent time steeped in magic and cloaked with the unknown. If you are younger then myself or even unaware this beauty even existed make sure to get your hands on it, especially now with all this computer animated, long winded and self indulgent Tolkien content flooding our theaters once ever six days!
I apologize if I GEEKed out a little on this 'editorial' but please understand this is a corner story of my origin story. This film is my Krypton, my dance with the devil in the pale moonlight, this film is my gamma rays and from it all my powers started to form.
I suggest you do yourself, your friends and your family a favor and check it out for yourself...and make sure to listen to GEEKBLAST Friday night, 8PM to 9PM EDT! Call in; let me know if this thing made you a fellow acolyte of all things fantasy!
Mahalo--
OBiE