After acquiring the rights to The Hobbit and other works by Tolkien in 1964, William L. Snyder got Gene Deitch (the animator from Tom and Jerry) to work on a possible feature-length animated version of The Hobbit. That deal hit snags due to financing, but Snyder still felt there was money to be made, as he could see the popularity of the work taking off in society. He got Deitch to make a short, 12 minute version, which was done in Prague, in thirty days, with the help of respected Czech animator Adolf Born working on effects. The whole thing was a slap dash affair, revolving on a technicality in the rights, whereby if Snyder had a film made, and shown (they paid people in NY to see the film, then sign a paper saying they'd paid to do so) he would further retain the rights which could have expired. He later sold the rights back to Tolkien, at a considerable profit--you see what kind of person we have here. This short film, for all its flaws, liberties, and sordid history, does have some neat technical and art elements, and is a part of film history concerning Tolkien. ~Largely paraphrased from The J.R.R. Tolkien Miscellany, by Robert S. Blackham
