The BBC’s story of the tense (and failed) negotiations for a Disney presentation of The Hobbit is the highlight of the 2015 season.
Repeating his striking portrayal from Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Tom Hanks plays the beloved Walt Disney seeking to bring to the screen the latest sensation in childhood
literature. The efforts expended to bring reluctant writer J. R. R. Tolkien (Sir Derek Jacobi) to an agreement are shown in full and intense detail.
The reluctance of the Professor is illuminated in his correspondence with his wife and their son Father John Tolkien, as he struggles with his conflict of Art and Commerce. The Disney artistic vision is limned in great detail, as is the struggle between the two creators.
The notorious copyright problems are used to further the plot, as Disney executives, behind Uncle Walt’s back as it were, negotiate with novel editor Donald A. Wollheim (Michael Richards) to realize the public-domain solution to the matter.
When two great creators go head-to-head against each other over an artistic vision, the result can be as striking and conflicted as any fiction. Recommended.
Comments:
The details were striking for the reviewer, no doubt. Some of the concept art presented is truly dreadful, stomach-turning, even. The “Bilbo and the Twelve Dwarfs” [sic] scene, for example is barely painted-over Snow White. How much did the animation cost the Beeb?
They even had Disney Princesses then! This Princess Tauriel they intrusively introduced was so much at odds with the original concept. They were no doubt planning to make a mint on tie-ins.
You’re all so down on Disney. Unlike some of the other adaptations, this would have been done by people with skill, and respect for the original.
I knew Donald A. Wollheim, and Michael Richards, you’re no DAW. You’re no Futurian, you’re a Pasturian.
What are we going to see next, “Walt Disney Presents Doctor Who”?
And the chicks will dig that.