“Koala Boy Kokki” - October 4, 1984

The Hobbit is a perfect example of how good design can turn a cheap movie into a masterpiece. There isn't anything expensive about this movie, and yet a little effort to make it unique went a hell of a long way. The cel animation itself was done by the Japanese studio Topcraft, which later was bought by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Toshio Suzuki, and renamed Studio Ghibli, which you may have heard of. Every race of fantasy creature looks like a distinct, unique species, not just humans with pointy ears, and the design for Smaug is my favorite of any I’ve seen. I highly recommend this movie over the under-imagined Peter Jackson trilogy.

- The Last Unicorn (requested by anonymous)

After the heavily re-written and edited 1985 release of this film in the United States and Europe (as "Warriors of the Wind"), which substantially changed the movie in addition to cutting nearly 25 minutes of footage, Hayao Miyazaki was hesitant to release any of his films outside of Japan. Miyazaki demanded that any new licencor for his films be contractually bound to do no edits whatsoever aside from a straight translation and dub. Disney (who bought the rights to all of Miyazaki's films except The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)) has honored this stipulation. (x)

Miyazaki was so upset by the original international cut version that he sent a samurai sword to the Executive at Disney with a simple note which read: "No cuts." (x)

Talking about the worst and least well known of the Tolkien animated films. The follow up to the hobbit that skips 2 books and pretends that's gonna work out even though it's a terrible idea. but the animation is nice