MIDDLE-EARTH TIMELINE
The Hobbit is an animated television film produced and directed by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, first broadcast on NBC on November 27, 1977. The screenplay is by Romeo Muller, and the animation was made in Tokyo by the Topcraft studio, many of whose artists later joined Studio Ghibli.
The film follows Bilbo Baggins on his journey with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves to the Lonely Mountain, with the trolls, the goblins, the riddle game with Gollum, the spiders of Mirkwood and the dragon Smaug. Orson Bean voices Bilbo, John Huston plays Gandalf, Hans Conried is Thorin and Richard Boone is Smaug. Many of its songs are set to Tolkien's own verses, and the theme "The Greatest Adventure" is sung by Glenn Yarbrough.
Romeo Muller won a Peabody Award for the script. Rankin/Bass followed it in 1980 with The Return of the King.
Bilbo Baggins, a comfortable hobbit, is hired by Gandalf as a burglar for thirteen dwarves who want to win back their treasure from the dragon Smaug.
