The Animated Hobbit - Tolkien for Children

from the "Muppets' Christmas Carol"

In honor of J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday today, we watched the old 1970s, made for television, animated version of The Hobbit, for our family movie night, last night.

I hadn't seen it, myself, since I was a child, probably during it's original airing.  I was delighted to find the movie just as warm, and cozy, in a radio drama sort of way, as I remembered - like Ricki-Tikki-Tavi or The Velveteen Rabbit.

Although he could have done with less singing, even my 17 year old, half-watching from the periphery of the room while pretending to be playing a video game, had to admit it was closer, in many places, to the book, than the more modern, live action movies, and had a "pretty good" narration, and voice work.  High praise from a 17 year old for a '70s cartoon.

The younger children (ages 8-11) loved it.  Despite being "culture" it is not all that scary.  I'm not sure if that's true for the animated Lord of the Rings (made by a different group)...

...or the final of the animated films - The Return of the King. 

But, I can't wait to stream them both up for watching today, if nothing else, just to be able to hear the orc's "Where there's a whip, there's a way!" song in context again.  It made such an impression on me, as a child, I still find the chorus stuck in my head from time to time, though the rest of the details of the film have long since faded from my memory.