The Hobbit Rankin/Bass Animated Film..... (Released) — Page 2

muddyknees2000 said:

I was very dissapointed with the DVD that was released for this film as they have gone and mucked about with much of the color, and the sound. Many sound effects were changed or simply left out. I had a good condition vhs copy transferred onto DVD....but its quality is much lower than the remastered version picture-wise. I was wondering if there was anyone out there who would be willing to do an Adywan style re-edit of this particular film, or if its already been done. I am currectly working on DVD artwork that is much darker than the overly cheery garbage  they made for the official DVD and will gladly supply it to anyone who might like to undertake a re-edit of this film...

I think what you are looking for is called the Hi Fi hobbit.  It is up on youtube and has been floating around online for about a year on the torrent sites but apparently is hard to get a hold of the DVD.

Here is the first part on youtube anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcllH6Kslw8

Okay so its the DVD video with the colors changed, but at least this person ripped the vhs audio and spliced it with the DVD audio.

The best source for the tv broadcast has to be a 16mm print if you can find one and afford it, and have the screening equipment.  Otherwise the VHS is the only version with the real color timing intact.  The DVD color saturation matched the cels but the colors don't i once had a book with the artwork from this film.

From what i have gathered the DVD was from the negative and so the original color timing was lost, also the sound track was taken from an earlier more pristine mix which was not the final and was missing things.

Reminds me of Rhino's original transformers release.

It was the Harry N Abrams publisher's edition of the tolkien book with stills and concept art.

I also remember my recollection of the art on the record of the films dialogue and sound effects, there were 2 versions a complete version and a edited version of this LP.

The concept art looks a little different from the finished film, rather like colored storyboards.  They were produced in the USA, but the animated program was produced by the Japanese studio Topcraft, who also animated Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, and thundercats amongst other things including return of the king, rotk also had french animators as well.  Produced by 3 countries,lol.

Don't feel bad that they cannot get a perfect edition of the hobbit on home video though, look at what the fans of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings have had to suffer through.  The only open matte version of that film is on a rare japanese laserdisc with burned in subtitles.  The Vhs, the DVD and Blu ray and all do not give an adequate version of the film as seen and heard in theaters.

At least the Hobbit and Return of the King were available on CED.  Though the video was about the same quality as the vhs, if not worse.

Actually these screen captures make it apparent the color definition of the CED is somewhat better than the vhs and gives an idea of the original colors.  The funny thing is the quality of the return of the king ced is atrocious going by the pictures.

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/tolkien/hobbit.html

Also here is an article with info on the original color that they wanted while making it.  Described as monochrome like.

http://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/books/tolkien-hobbitani.html

If that is the case then the bright disney like color job on the DVD is wrong.

skyjedi2005 said:

Also here is an article with info on the original color that they wanted while making it.  Described as monochrome like.

http://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/books/tolkien-hobbitani.html

If that is the case then the bright disney like color job on the DVD is wrong.

Re-read the paragraph, that's not what it says:

"I like monochromatic works," said Rankin, "and I saw the whole picture in a series of monochromatic designs. There are about a dozen major sequences and each has its key color. The Hobbit Hole is springtime greens; the Gollum's cave, purples; the goblins' place, red; Smaug's cave, golden...

I listened quickly to the "Hi Fi Hobbit", it's not very hi fi ;)

Poor vhs quality lacking in dynamic range and rather muddy sounding.

No I don't have the vhs. It's very possible that muddyknees' audio is better though, or maybe it's possible to combine vhs+dvd audio, though it might be a lot of work.

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Looking quickly at the CED (and VHS?) screenshots, I will go out on a limb and say the colortiming on the DVD is the more accurate one.. The CED ones look like they have a yellow shift. The bigger difference is the brightness, the old version is several notches brighter, this makes it look less saturated also maybe.