The 1977 animated television film based on Tolkien’s novel is The Hobbit. Produced by Rankin/Bass and animated by Japan’s Topcraft, it adapts J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 book about Bilbo Baggins’s journey with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves.
The film first aired in the United States on NBC on November 27, 1977. Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass directed it, while Romeo Muller wrote the teleplay. Orson Bean voiced Bilbo, John Huston voiced Gandalf, and Richard Boone provided Smaug’s voice. The production combined American television work with Japanese animation expertise.
It is sometimes confused with the 1967 animated short The Hobbit, directed by Gene Deitch, or with Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated film The Lord of the Rings. The Rankin/Bass film is a separate adaptation and was followed by the same company’s 1980 television film The Return of the King, which draws from the later Tolkien story rather than directly continuing this film’s production.