# The original 1966 HOBBIT movie



## Eledhwen

Just for completeness, I feel that The Tolkien Forum should somewhere mention the first ever Hobbit movie:

The first film adaptation of The Hobbit was created by Gene Deitch in 1966. The film was produced by Bill Snyder and took less than a month to create. The film was approximately 12 minutes long and was only created so Snyder could extend his license for The Lord of the Rings and sell it back to Tolkien and his publishers, which he did for $100,000. No copies were made and the film has long been lost.

The whole sorry story is detailed here


----------



## Alcuin

Thank you, *Eledhwen*!


----------



## Mike

A shame that no prints exist. Even the 12-minute version looks worth seeing. I'm sure the visuals were amazing, even if lacking in plot.

The changes he made before, though...those make my head hurt. Bilbo marrying a princess? S'what?


----------



## Starbrow

I bet the NPW's would have a field day with this.


----------



## Alcuin

Starbrow said:


> I bet the NPW's would have a field day with this.


NPW? Can you expand, or is it NSFW?

Were all the prints of the film lost or destroyed? I suppose I am asking, is there any chance that the short might be viewed again?


----------



## Starbrow

NPW refers to Nit Picking Weenies or those people who disliked Peter Jackson's LOTR and found many things to complain about.


----------



## Alcuin

Ah. I see. I must be an NPW. Thank you: now when the epithet is applied to me, at least for PJ’s films, I shall wear it.

All the same, I’d like to see the 12-minute short. So to repost the question, is it gone for good, lost, or tucked away somewhere? (I have not bothered to read all four pages of the article myself; I am hoping a TTFer who has will provide the answer.)

I don’t recall reading anything about this in _Letters of JRR Tolkien_ or Humphrey Carter’s _Tolkien: A Biography_. Did I overlook it, or was it not mentioned there? Wasn’t this [strike]1968[/strike] 1966?


----------



## Mike

The article says all prints were destroyed. Unlike the first _Fantastic Four_ movie, or even _The Star Wars Christmas Special_, nerds didn't hawk bootleg VHS tapes, mostly because there were no VHS tapes to hawk. A shame, though. Even _The Day the Clown Cried_ has a print hidden somewhere, just waiting for Jerry Louis to die so we can finally see it.


----------



## Alcuin

Mike said:


> The article says all prints were destroyed. Unlike the first _Fantastic Four_ movie, or even _The Star Wars Christmas Special_, nerds didn't hawk bootleg VHS tapes, mostly because there were no VHS tapes to hawk. A shame, though. Even _The Day the Clown Cried_ has a print hidden somewhere, just waiting for Jerry Louis to die so we can finally see it.


Found it!





_This message was "too short". This is padding to make it lots longer._


----------



## Mike

What, Rickrolls not good enough anymore, Alcuin?


----------

