This version of Tolkien's "The Hobbit" has its 50th anniversary this year and Tolkien was actually alive to see it. I really wonder what he thought of it. To start with the positive here, I like Herb Lass' narration and I wonder why he has not appeared in any other films. The story is of course very complex, but I guess writer and director Gene Deitch did a solid job in fitting it into a pretty short 11.5 minutes. The big downside of this film, however, is the animation. This is way inferior to what Disney and Warner Bros did in the 60 and actually already in the two decades before that. It's tough to call this even animation at times as there are many scenes that are really just shots with no movement except the camera moving in closer to the action. But the characters and objects stand completely still. The story deserves better than that. Apart from that, I did not like the animation style a lot either, but that is just personal preference. Overall, I do not recommend the 1966 version of "The Hobbit". Thumbs down.
Review of The Hobbit
