Rankin/Bass version of "The Hobbit"

[SamwiseGamgee]

I don't think that this would be a proper message board without having some sort of discussion about the Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit. If you guys are unfamiliar with the names Rankin/Bass, then you will know them better as the guys that made all of the Rudolph and Frosty Christmas specials. But anyways, I'm sure that there are a good many of you who got to see this very interesting piece of film. I don't really know where I stand on it. One thing I will say is, it has some of the worst animation that I have ever seen in my entire life. There are frames where the person talking is the only one moving and the rest of the people in the frame remain completely motionless. However, the landscapes that the artist drew are really really awesome. The voiceovers are hilarious, because it is soooo obvious that they were recycled from the Rudolph and Frosty specials. I think that the guy who does the voice of Bilbo is the same person that plays the voice of the evil magician guy in Frosty the Snowman. However, with all that being said, the movie has some of the best songs I have ever heard. Rankin/Bass took many of the songs that characters sing in the book, and used them, word for word most of the time, as lyrics, and then created music to go with them. My personal favorite is the Goblin song. They also made this other song that goes something like "The greatest adventure is what lies ahead", which was pretty sweet too. Another oddity about the movie is that they have 7 or 8 of the dwarves die in the Battle of the Five Armies, instead of the 3 that they mention in the book. Kind of sadistic for a kids movie. But enough of what I think, what is your stance on this bizarre cartoon.