Why The First Animated 'Hobbit' Is Good For Your Kids

Emma Chao/Courtesy Rankin/Bass Productions; Fatherly; Getty Images Back on November 27, 1977, kids watching network TV were introduced to the “greatest adventure” of all time. Although the original Star Wars blew everyone’s minds that summer and forever altered the way we think about blockbuster movies, the Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. version of The Hobbit quietly pushed the most famous fantasy origin story of all into the mainstream. 45 years later, the impact of the animated Hobbit cannot be overstated. Clocking at just 77 minutes (and apparently, not an hour and a half as many remember it ), the animated version of The Hobbit from Rankin and Bass captures the breezy and jaunty quality of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 children’s novel The Hobbit . Of course, even by 1977, The Hobbit had been retroactively relegated to “prequel” status, making it something of an underdog next to the sprawling, and mega-popular Lord of the Rings trilogy of novels, which had been published, originally from 1954 to 1955. Before this, in 1951, Tolkien had revised The Hobbit , to make it more closely aligned with the spirit of The Lord of the Rings , making the slightly more childish version of the book a historical memory. Bilbo Baggins (Orson Bean) and Gollum (Theodore Isidore Gottlieb) in 'The Hobbit.' | Rankin/Bass However, the 1977 animated Hobbit , firmly took the world of Middle-earth and made the adventure for children. With their experiences on other animated kids’ specials like Frosty the …