Russian animation: The Hobbit (+English subtitles)

[CHRIS1974100]

great thanks for posting this cartoon

[eriathdien]

In a communitary hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, luxurious and bourgeois mannor filled with unnecesary goods. It was a soviet-hobbit-hole, and that means that this hobbit did no have more than the other 20 hobbits who live with him in that hole.

[Niffiwan]

@eriathdien This was made in Russia, not the Soviet Union.

[kalevraa]

well, russian /soviet animation often kicked ass. i would LOVE to see a russian animated version of the hobbit. the talent to do it is certainly there...

[PufferBluntman]

Вот это да!

[R0gyo]

The old man said: "while there is 13 of you", not "while you are 13". The translation was a little off.

[Niffiwan]

@R0gyo Both sentences are grammatically accurate and identical in meaning (although yes, the one I used also has the possible second meaning of referring to age)

[R0gyo]

@Niffiwan Well, now that I tihnk about it that's true. It just might confuse some people by thinking their age is 13. But yeah you're right. :)

[gmanthebeast1]

@R0gyo or it could be youre to stupid to understand old english

[R0gyo]

@gmanthebeast1 I'm just saying that might be confusing to some people watching this cartoon...

[Skullbastard]

This looks better than Rankin/Bass version. Pity it was never finished.

[MrHaterforyou]

cool, what editing program did you use for the subtitles?

[Niffiwan]

@MrHaterforyou Subtitle Workshop

[GenghisKhan44]

This is too good...

It's stuff like this that is the reason why I do not support copyright.

[bizanloo]

@GenghisKhan44 You can't be serious! It's never right if some one is making money out of the hard work of others without them getting a part of the profit.

[Niffiwan]

@bizanloo Please do a Google search for "The Cult of Originality" - it's very nice and concise response written by Nina Paley about this.

Basically, all creative work is derivative. Tolkien himself borrowed heavily from folk legends and lore that, thankfully for him (and others like Disney who did the same thing) were not copyrighted.

And Tolkien himself was long-dead when this film was being made.

[ianern32]

@Niffiwan You're going too far there. Tolkien certainly borrowed names, races and story elements from mythology. However, it is one thing to use mythology as inspiration, quite another to borrow the body, structure and style of a story.

If you read some of the texts Tolkien was influenced by, you'll see most of what he was influenced by had a primative narrative structure (indeed, modern narrative structure had not been invented). It is a world away from the lucidity of Tolkien's writing.

[Niffiwan]

@ianern32 Please do a Google search for "The Cult of Originality" by Nina Paley, and it might help you to see where I'm coming from. I have the greatest respect for Tolkien's work.

[Niffiwan]

@Niffiwan Of course Tolkien's work actually copies many sources. It is true that the direct sources of his PLOT elements generally had a "primitive narrative structure". But this just means that Tolkien borrowed his "narrative structure" from the dominant style of English literature that he was reading, mixing and matching from what he liked from others' works. Tolkien created a successful marriage between what hadn't been combined before. Mix enough different things, and your art looks original

[Niffiwan]

A film adaptation of The Hobbit will borrow the basic plot elements, like Tolkien did with the various mythologies that he used, but a film is a very different thing from a book (and many film adaptations fail because the directors don't realize this). And so much of what is "borrowed" from previous art to make the film will of necessity come from sources far away from the book. That is why in the Soviet Union, a film adaptation was considered too different by its very nature to be a "copy".

[Niffiwan]

Hence it wasn't subject to "copyright". In the West, opinion was and is different; film adaptations are most definitely considered "copies". When the USSR collapsed, it took some time for Russians to understand that. And so this film started being created, though the creators should've known that it was illegal.

[Niffiwan]

@bizanloo Also, in Russia a work of art in a different genre than the original was not considered "derivative". The substantial changes that usually had to be made to it in order to adapt it into the different genre were considered to make it different enough to not count as a copy.

[coaldusty]

It quickly absorbs you. Has a classic feel to the animation.

[HumanitySuffer]

wow, this takes me back

this is wonderful, is there more?

[Niffiwan]

Not as far as I know.

[idolovetopoop]

Amazing translation! The text fits the melody perfectly!

[Niffiwan]

Thank you.

[Alchera201]

Гэндальф такой...красивый, что ли...

[denalihedgehog]

А кто озвучивает? похоже на Караченцева

[Niffiwan]

6:01 :)

Yes, Karachentsov is Gandalf.

[KorparnasTid]

This is fantastic. While I still like the Rankin/Bass adaption this one would have been so much better. The animation is so smooth and the character designs are fantastic. The opening is very original. The Jacks/Del Toro version will definitely not capture the spirit of the book as well s this does. I'm so glad you uploaded and translated it!

[Ereldor]

My God NO!!! Why did they stop production?! This would've been beautiful!

[denalihedgehog]

Copyright laws(((

[Hjalmberi]

@Ereldor I don't know for sure, but it was made in the beginning of 1990s when everything changed in Russia and finding money for animation was very hard.

[Toomnyusernae]

Need . . . more. . . .

[Ofen911]

сразу видно не коммерческий проект, у него есть душа автора...

[Yakovlievich]

What a tragedy that this was never finished

[IIOllOII]

fuckt up thing here!

[dadaism]

damn, this would have been more beautiful than any billion dollar live action film they could make of the hobbit

[FilmTraum2]

This is so wonderful, so full of life,colours

and music!

[TheDailyCrumb]

amazing, loved the colours. great animation

[uberkakis]

So how much of this film was made? IS there more available?

[Niffiwan]

There are probably sketches/storyboards/scripts and such, but I don't think there's any more finished footage.

[uberkakis]

That is a true shame... This could've ended up quite good!

[nutherefurlong]

I had no idea this existed. This is great. Thank you for translating it.

[pavlovich74]

A great job Niffiwan with the subs, a really great job. It is such a shame that the film is unavailable in its entirety, but ce la vie.

It is is great that we are left with, at least, the fragments, to ponder over what could have been...