Sunday, September 26, 2010

An Odd Piece of Inspiration

I'm a tremendous fan of Rankin-Bass's production of the Hobbit.  I saw it when I was very young, and it still impacts the way I view fantasy today.  

I'm aware that, outside of a few surface level trappings, the influence on Tolkien on D&D is debatable, but whenever I think of wizards I think of John Huston, and whenever I think of goblins I think of those fat gray things.

I've always liked the art style.  It's dark and whimsical at the same time.  I shall be trying desperately to bring that across in my portrayal of the Nightwick setting.

Other, more usual, influences (CAS, Leiber, etc.) will be present, but I haven't seen anyone tackling this old thing.  Maybe it's because I'm the only one who likes it.

4 comments:

  1. I can't watch the damned thing any more, but I still love the visuals.

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  2. I'm still a big fan of this treatment of The Hobbit... a really think the visuals suit the dark fairytale atmosphere that Tolkien evokes with The Hobbit, as opposed to the High Fantasy vibe of LotR.

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  3. Brian Froud and Arthur Rackham are probably on your art direction team too, then, I am guessing.

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  4. The Rankin-Bass version doesn't get a lot of love these days, but I still enjoy it a lot, and it got quoted like crazy during game sessions with my last group. The character designs are especially nice, and a lot of the voice acting is entertaining as hell.

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