The Hobbit Movie You’ve Never Heard Of

Long before Peter Jackson, there was this…

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The new Hobbit trailer hit a few days ago, and AnUnexpected Journey looks like it should be another grand adventure from the Lord of the Rings universe. But long before Peter Jackson got his greasy hair all over the franchise, some other studios took a few whacks at JRR Tolkien’s epic work (even the Beatles wanted to do an adaptation – seriously). And you might know the classic 1977 Rankin Bass Hobbit adaptation (if you don’t, the whole thing is on youtube and it is awesome. There’s singing, and goblins, and talking spiders and more singing!).

But we’re betting good money you never heard of the 1966 version, and for good reason: It’s like if Joseph Kony banged the Gangam style guy on a Six Flags Ferris wheel – so amazingly bizarre and terrible you want to laugh, cry and jerk off into a cookie jar all at the same time. In this version, there are no dwarves, there’s a princess (JRR Tolkien – who was famously not-a-so-good with the female characters – didn’t really have any ladies in TheHobbit), and the dragon is named “Slag” instead of Smaug. Awesome stuff. Also, it’s not really a cartoon, more a series of narrated illustrations drawn by a blind, epileptic child using potato grease. Anyway, you should totally watch it if you’ve got a couple of minutes and want your childhood scarred forever.

Want to see this week’s movies rated by dogs? Here you go.

Want to see our hottest nerdy crushes? Go here!