Right in the Childhood

Source

Warning: this might be incredibly niche. 

 I found a free online copy of the 1977 Rankin Bass Hobbit film. I'm very excited about this. 

I haven't seen this film for at least twenty years, so my recollections of it are probably veneered with a pretty thick coat of nostalgia. Nevertheless, some of the scenes are permanently etched into my memory and probably always will be ("Carefully, carefully, with the plates!!"). It was my introduction to the works of Tolkien, and I'm excited about the prospect of sharing it with my own children. 

I found an edition of it on Internet Archive  that combines the 1977 soundtrack with the 2001 restored animation (apparently the soundtrack for the later edition left out several sound effects). I got unreasonably excited when I found it and figured I'd share in case any of you get as excited about this as I do. 

Despite the fact that it leaves out a few plot points from the novel, I stubbornly believe this is still a much better adaption than Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. It is most definitely a product of the late 70s (as a few corny folk songs in the soundtrack and the animation/ art style prove), but it gets closer to the spirit of the original than Jackson's trilogy (evidently the studio almost entirely wrestled the story and creative control from him, so it wasn't exactly his fault. Still...I'm salty over it). 

So if you too are a Tolkien nerd with a slight interest in 1970s fantasy art...enjoy. (If you're really interested in 1970s fantasy art, check out the Hildebrandt calendar art).