This is not so much a "cartoon" as it is a rush job to get a "film" made before a deadline.
Producer William L. Snyder bought the rights to THE HOBBIT for a small sum before the revival of interest in Tolkien that came when the books were published in paperback. The plan was to make a feature length film adaptation, but it fell through. Meanwhile the interest in Tolkien started to take off and by 1968 even Leonard Nimoy was recording songs based on THE HOBBIT.
In order to keep the rights for resale Snyder realized he just needed to make A film; the contract did not say the film had to be animated, nor did it say how long it had to be, nor did it say it had to be any good. He had Deitch make a 12 minute film made up of still pictures so he could show it in a theater one time, which he did on June 30th 1966, the day the contract would have expired. The audience members had to sign affidavits that they saw it as proof that the contract had been fulfilled. Snyder got his extension on the rights and soon sold them for $100,000 (in 1966 money!)
The film was presumed lost, but turned up in a vault and its now readily available on YouTube. Deitch added characters, made Bilbo look like a little human boy, and chopped what took Peter Jackson 3 films to tell down to 12 minutes.
It's not a great cartoon by any means; there was NEVER any plans to release it! Howeverit is an interesting historical oddity from a weird meeting where Deitch crossed paths with Tolkien.
Producer William L. Snyder bought the rights to THE HOBBIT for a small sum before the revival of interest in Tolkien that came when the books were published in paperback. The plan was to make a feature length film adaptation, but it fell through. Meanwhile the interest in Tolkien started to take off and by 1968 even Leonard Nimoy was recording songs based on THE HOBBIT.
In order to keep the rights for resale Snyder realized he just needed to make A film; the contract did not say the film had to be animated, nor did it say how long it had to be, nor did it say it had to be any good. He had Deitch make a 12 minute film made up of still pictures so he could show it in a theater one time, which he did on June 30th 1966, the day the contract would have expired. The audience members had to sign affidavits that they saw it as proof that the contract had been fulfilled. Snyder got his extension on the rights and soon sold them for $100,000 (in 1966 money!)
The film was presumed lost, but turned up in a vault and its now readily available on YouTube. Deitch added characters, made Bilbo look like a little human boy, and chopped what took Peter Jackson 3 films to tell down to 12 minutes.
It's not a great cartoon by any means; there was NEVER any plans to release it! Howeverit is an interesting historical oddity from a weird meeting where Deitch crossed paths with Tolkien.