With the Hobbit movie due to come out this summer, I received a link to a story about the original animated version from Gerry Williams, sci-fi movie enthusiast and proprietor of San Diego Vintage Sci-fi Films–and I don’t mean the 1977 cartoon with Orson Bean.
The story is quite fascinating and the man named Gene Deitch that originally bought the rights had a LOT of…err, interesting ideas for the story, including new characters. For example, instead of naming the dragon Smaug, he called it Slag. And that was probably the simplest change!
Although Deitch’s imagination is impressive, is it okay to admit I’m fine with the fact that his version never took off? Might make a great computer game though.
Christopher Vera 