For the past two decades, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has been entrenched as a winter favorite among those who crave spectacle and a good time on the couch. We can (and have!) debated whether the movies are best served during one holiday or the other, but every fantasy lover seems to agree: the mix of Misty Mountains snow and an undying glimmer of hope for a better future is a cure for the winter blues.
But I have a new suggestion for Rings fans who might want to shake things up, or put an all-ages-friendly spin on the tradition: 1977’s The Hobbit.
Produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, the duo behind stop-motion Christmas classics like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer And Santa Claus is coming to townas well as the hand-drawn ones Frosty the Snowman, The Hobbit The reputation of TV movies is… bad. Critics of the time found it slow and overly erratic. But after a recent rereading of JRR Tolkien’s novel and a rewatch of the film (now streaming on Max), those negatives feel like an important part of the Rankin/Bass formula that drove the company’s holiday shorts sixty years later kept it so indelible. In reality, The Hobbit might feel right at home there Rudolf in a Christmas revision list.
The 1977 film, animated for Rankin/Bass by Topcraft, the anime studio that Hayao Miyazaki would eventually call home, was adapted with the utmost fidelity by Romeo Muller (the writer behind all the Christmas specials). Like Tolkien’s book, the film wastes no time in introducing Bilbo Baggins to Gandalf, Thorin Oakenshield, and Thorin’s band of dwarves, who need Bilbo’s help to infiltrate and retake the Lonely Mountain from the gold-hoarding dragon Smaug.
The party hits the road and hits all the familiar beats, from an encounter with trolls to a showdown with the Goblin King, a fateful meeting with Gollum and a barrel ride on the way out of the elven kingdom. Anyone familiar with Jackson’s nearly nine-hour version The Hobbit will be happy to see how Muller elegantly adapts Tolkien’s story into a 78-minute TV movie package. The only casualty of the cuts is Bilbo and company’s stint with Beorn the shapeshifter, whose side adventure in the book even feels like trimmable fat (hot take?).
Topcraft’s animation is particularly lush throughout the film, building on Rankin’s production design, which was heavily inspired by illustrator The watercolors of Arthur Rackham. The hard lines, shadow work, and earthy color palette feel more like concept art than cel animation. Compared to the studio’s work IcyTopcraft outdoes itself with the character achievements. The worn faces of the dwarves write a history for Middle-earth and each monster is a complete nightmare (but… in a kid-friendly way). I could watch Bilbo and Gandalf puffing hand-drawn smoke rings all day long.
As with their Christmas films, Rankin and Bass rely heavily on songs to piece the action together. Lacking traditional Christmas carols, their favorite composer, Maury Laws, wrote some of the most 1970s folk bops imaginable, including “The Greatest Adventure (The Ballad of the Hobbit),” performed by Glenn Yarbrough, which went on to make a decent living. touring with Christmas music. The soundtrack gives Bilbo and the dwarves’ perilous journey a certain fantasy not present in Tolkien, but which is evened out by the casting: you don’t cast John Huston as Gandalf to make things tacky. Everyone in this film is constantly barking at each other’s throats, true to the source material.
When watching again The Hobbit Around Christmas time, I couldn’t help but see the dedication to Tolkien’s plans as downright theological, a kind of spiritual reverence that was present in the Christian-oriented Christmas specials. Some believe that Tolkien writes time letters in Santa’s voice led him to create Gandalf in the first place – looking at a bearded guy and a bunch of dwarves could certainly conjure up the image of Santa Claus in his factory. But even beyond the surface, there is a certain Christmas glow in Rankin/Bass’s music. Hobbitthe idea that this great myth should be shown in all its impossible glory. The stories of Middle-earth feel like Scripture as Muller ties together the key set pieces. If Tolkien didn’t write it, it’s not really in this version of The Hobbit.
Case in point: Jackson devoted an entire movie to the Battle of the Five Armies, while Rankin and Bass take a more Tolkien-esque approach by announcing the impending battle, throwing in a few bursts of action, and then cutting to black as Bilbo is beaten out. The hobbit wakes up as the dust of war settles. Everyone hugs it and goes home. That’s what happened, that’s what we get, and that’s all we really need.
This brevity has to do with being downright religious about the text. Bilbo’s enigmatic confrontation with Gollum takes the form of a Biblical parable. Smaug growls with fervor before going through the entire Old Testament in Lake Town. A final burst of greed from the warring factions of Middle-earth is met with a pure heart by Bilbo, who convinces man, elf and dwarf to put aside differences and create a new future for the continent.
It’s epic and full of joy. And if you spend your Christmas in the church of Lord of the Rings, 1977 The Hobbit can be an unexpected treat.
The Hobbit is streaming now Max.