The Hobbit (1977)

I have been sent back until my task is done here in Middle-Earth.

 I must admit I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Released in 1977 as a TV movie from good ol' Rankin & Bass, The Hobbit is a very humble production and a decent adaptation of Mr. Tolkien's story. Since I've covered the bigger budgeted grander trilogy, to see it in an entirely new light was a real treat for me and I very much appreciate it from the standpoint of the time when it came out. Of course it would look shoddy and lacking in story compared to three movies and even those were a notch bloated, so no I am firmly not in the camp of disliking this. The movie is almost an hour and twenty minutes long so I'll more take this opportunity to disclose what actually made it into the film. Of course Bilbo Baggins is recruited by the wandering wizard Gandalf to aid in the quest of Thorin Oakenshield to reclaim a treasure stolen by the fierce dragon Smaug. To my delight this adaptation includes a good deal of songs as is customary to the world of Tolkien and to hear recognizable tunes in a more folky style made me smile and is prevalent throughout. The eagles are present and actually given the chance to speak this time so point for this movie staying truer to the book. The battle of five armies is briefly touched on like in the book with Bilbo staying out of the madness. Mirkwood is present with spiders and wood elves. And to use the words of one Leonard Nimoy, he fought with the goblins, he battled the trolls, he riddled with Gollum, a magic ring he stole, he was chased by wolves, lost in the forest, escaped via the barrel from the elf king's halls! Big props also to the movie for namedropping Orcist and Glamdring, they actually did do a fair bit of research for this and I feel the love and attention shows. It's no secret the movie runs at a brisque pace so some things got ommited but just as a simple fantasy story I think it works commendably. The animation style is entirely unique, I know Rankin & Bass is prevalently known for it's stop motion works so it is fascinating to see 2D animation from them, the backgrounds are very simple and yet incredibly beautiful, the character designs lean into the more outlandish as it should I mean it's not trying to give you realistic movement and appearances. I think I would totally have digged the hell out of this if I saw it at a young age, though I'm not sure how much younger I mean for God's sake I was 6 when Fellowship came out, but it would have worked splendidly for me. I think I've seen too much animation though, I was distinctly singling out elements of the animation that looked japanese to me and sure as hell the animation crew hailed from Japan. Though admittedly it doesn't have as many noticeable touches of flair from more recent anime, I'm just familiar enough with early examples of it to where I could see it. The voice cast did very well, I like Orson Bean's upbeat and naive potrayal of the bravest little hobbit of them all, John Huston gives Gandalf that oomph of power in his voice and I actually really love how Gandalf's magic is shown in this, Hans Conried as Thorin did have that more wise and kingly aura to him and it's almost hilarious how the majority of the other dwarves are just there for the background, Theodore Gottlieb as Gollum is so interesting to see potrayed before Andy catapulted this role into legend cause Gollum looks more amphibian and seems more just a strange creature than hopelessly addicted tragic character, and lastly Richard Boone as Smaug I can 100% see where Ben got some of his cues for when he played the dragon he has this smooth yet threatning voice and again the design is something completely unique. And that's just the only way I can sum up this movie, it's unique, it's different, it's something only this movie has. People who even attempt to compare this to the Peter Jackson movies are really just setting themselves up for ridicule, there is no comparison to be made it's just two seperate entities of a children's story so you completely and fully have to just judge this movie on it's own merits. And for me, I liked it a good bit, now was I expecting much? Not at all, I almost thought it would be sub standard at best, but I got a charming, enjoyable, utterly novel adaptation and I'm very appreciative and happy I got to see it. Back in 1977 Lord Of The Rings was still grassroots man, if you were a young kid and you read the books, maybe were into D&D, and getting to see an adaptation of Tolkien's work even as a wee TV movie must have been a big deal cause who the hell else was doing it? Nobody, that's who. Today's movie and tomorrow's review walked so Jackson could run faster than greased lightning. So I give it 3 stars, 7/10, and tomorrow's review has actually been coming since the year I started all this so stay tuned.

Mad Monster Party

Yeah, bet you didn't know Rankin & Bass made a Halloween special.

This is a strange one to talk about, it's the first and only Halloween special from Rankin & Bass, it's not even a special cause its over an hour and a half long, and it was made 3 years after Rudolph so the animation style was still working out the kinks. Everyone talks about the Christmas specials every year so I figured it was time to shine some light on their Halloween work. Our story begins with Baron Frankenstein voiced by the man himself Boris Karloff, who has just created the means of total and absolute destruction, no not atomic weaponry but a serum that can dematerialize anything in the world. After which he sends out letters to all the classic monsters to convene at his castle to announce his retirement and his heir, which leads to much scheming and in fighting between the monsters as to who shall truly be his succesor before their attention is drawn to Frankenstein's meek nephew Felix. So it's a fight for survival between the humans and the monsters with whoever wins gets the destructor serum. A decent plot that fully uses the feature length runtime, yet sadly it's not a very good movie, it's very middle of the road and the highest it reaches is cult classic at best but there are good things to talk about. I was happy to see the Universal Monsters roster in this movie yet even more bizarre things surround that, the company didn't have the rights to the actual names of the monsters so Frankenstein is now called Fang, it's not the Wolf Man but just the Werewolf, Gillman is just called Creature, and King Kong himself is simply named IT. Yes, IT. Strangely enough I saw many more references to monster designs both old and new, Baron Frankenstein has a pet that is literally the Blob, and I swear to God Miyazaki stole the designs from his little soot spider creatures from Spirited Away from this movie. It's a curious little movie with some genuinely fascinating animation, because they have the Invisible Man in this movie but I haven't the faintest clue how they animated him, it's just clothes moving, there's no semblance of a stopmotion figure on camera yet the clothes aren't hanging on wires or anything. I was thoroughly impressed with that but the other animation is your standard Rankin & Bass quality which I do like, and the monster designs are done quite well too. There are songs here and there but none of them are even close to being as catchy or memorable as other productions of theirs, but the musical score is very upbeat and downright groovy seeing as how this was the late 60s when it was released. Our main characters are alright, I mean Boris Karloff doesn't exactly send in a bad performance, Felix is kind of a funny and endearing klutz, and this is such a product of the times but the female assistant to the Baron Francesca.....yeeeaaahh. I mean she's a very goal orientated independent woman but my God does everyone including the kitchen sink hit on her, I mean I'm a sucker for redheads like no one's buisness yet even I was like can you reel it back a bit. And there's one scene. Holy jumpin' Jesus on a fracking pogo stick, okay so through the whole damn movie Francesca is being pursued by almost every monster and she honestly can't stand it but is saved from death by Felix later on in the movie, and she kinda breaks and has a good cry but, oh God. I cannot stress to you enough that this is what actually happens. So Felix, our kind and klutzy hero claims the crying woman is hysterical and slaps her, five fingers across the face, not once but twice....and she immediately falls in love with him. Excuse me one moment I need to just think for a minute.

What the f*** 1960s??! Oh yeah, that's a great lesson for the kids, just smack a woman right across the eyes and she'll love you forever! What in the actual french toast is going on around here! I just...I can't. What were they thinking!?

Okay, I gotta wrap this up before I bust out the bottle of hooch and grab a handful of pills. It's an average special that should only be checked out by the very curious, but maybe someone will get a kick out of it more than me.

The Year Without A Santa Claus

The more I analyze it, Christmas movie titles are such liars! It's A Wonderful Life is not wonderful, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is not an instructional video on how to steal Christmas, and The Year Without A Santa Claus has Santa Claus delivering presents! What even in the coldest depths of hell??

As our final nod to the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials I decided to do this movie, and it's not half bad so we ran the full gambit of, not that good to excellent to okay. And so the story goes that Santa woke up one day before Christmas and through quite honestly the rudest and most likely to be terminated elf decides that his days of nightly adventure to bring gifts to kind and good children must come to an end, but the missus won't be having none of that talk and sets out with two elfs to find the Christmas spirit that Santa doesn't believe exists anymore. Now I for one would think that would be an incredible Christmas movie, to have Santa Claus himself doubt his abilities and intentions in a world that doesn't believe in him and the Christmas spirit has disappeared leading to a very reflective, dark, and downright depressing movie where Santa has to come to terms with the world and come out on top. And you get hints of that here, I mean obviously they have to keep it upbeat and not childhood scarring but come on! How great would that be to see a character study of quite possibly the most beloved man in history? But it's more subtext than actual text I grant you that, with Mickey Rooney returning as Santa giving a very good performance juggling doubt and sadness with hope and kindness, and the cool thing is it ties with Santa Claus Is Coming To Town! Santa is still voiced by Mickey, Mrs. Claus has red highlights so clearly she's Jessica, and even some artwork survived to this movie. It's a shame we couldn't have Winter back but we kinda make up for it with the addition of Snow Miser and Heat Miser which are very brief characters in an already brief special, but my lord did they leave an impression. Everyone knows or has at least heard I'm Mr. White Christmas, I'm Mr. Snow once in their life, and it is a very catchy and fun tune. The music quality is sort of in the middle this time around, not as great as Santa Claus but not as forgettable as Rudolph, I Believe In Santa Claus and Blue Christmas are highlights for me and they are very nice and sweet. So if you're in the mood for more after the first two Rankin/Bass specials check this one out, it's an alright movie with some highlights though Santa Claus will always be the best in my eyes. I always heard very mixed opinions about the Rankin/Bass stuff ranging from absolute Christmas classics to just being weird and kind of nonsensical so I wanted to bring up a few examples and judge for myself and let you do the same. Personally, they are a mixed bag but I don't hate them, I'm a fan of stopmotion and true it's no Harryhausen but they did good work. I guess it depends on what you like, which I can understand. And next week, we look at some well known, something new, and something I'm....less than looking forward to. Until next time.

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Bet you didn't know Santa was a total ginger!

You'd think after the near merciless beating I delivered to Rudolph, I'd be ready to take out old Saint Nick as well but I think you'll be surprised how much I enjoy this special. This was the one along with Rudolph that I watched many a time when I was very young regardless of the time of year, and it's aged very well in my memory. Though I doubt it's the first, I do say this is the best Christmas special that tells the story of how Santa Claus came to be. The story takes every pre-known fact about Santa and interweaves it into a lovely little story, starting when he was just a wee baby and adopted by a family of elfs who parent him and teach them their ways of toymaking. As he grows up he decides to take the toys he and his family made to the children of a small and rather quite depressing looking town, which brands him as an outlaw and forces him to be more elusive in his delivering of toys to the good kids. There he meets a schoolteacher named Jessica and a very sweet relationship starts between them, and they continue on with their lives while still delivering gifts. Unlike the Rudolph special that took barely a darn thing from the actual song it was based on, this special covers just about everything with hardly anything added on besides a penguin in a scarf and a warlock turned babyface but even then it works very well. Mickey Rooney is our Santa and honestly I never realized how absolutely southern he sounds in this special, and it is glorious. It's just a cherry on top of an already very good performance where most of the story focuses on when Kris Kringle was still a young man and he brings such a legitimate joy and niceness to a world known and beloved person. Robie Lester is such a sweetie in this movie as Jessica and quite possibly has the best song in the whole special, in fact the songs are quite sparse compared to the last special but are done way better. They're more memorable, fun to listen to, and are even songs I wouldn't mind hearing on the radio this time of year. One Foot In Front Of The Other is an incredibly upbeat and catchy tune, and serves basically as an inspirational song while My World Is Beginning Today is a slow little ballad that's quite lovely to listen to and Robie Lester slays the singing. The more I think about it, just the entire quality of the production is improved since Rudolph, the animation while still stopmotion is more fluid and looks nicer, the songs are definitely a gigantic improvement, the story and characters feel natural, and it can have it's sweet moments that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. And again my favorite character is the warlock who Kris meets and convinces him to be a friend to his journey, I don't know if it's Keenan Wynn's voice or what but he's a joy to watch and it's funny to think he legitimately scared me when I was younger before he became a good guy but honestly I was one step above being afraid of my own shadow at that point so I'll give myself some credit. And we even have Fred Astaire as the narrator and it's always nice to see him in a movie. So yeah, kinda surprising that I love this special so much but it's hard to argue with decent material and fine actors that make it all work so well. Now this is a definite recommendation for the holidays with your youngins' or just if you're curious from how much praise I showered it with. No wonder I used to watch it a lot as a kid.