J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit Review

Overall Rating

The sound effects, i.e., clinking glasses, pouring rain, etc., are well-placed. You can even hear the buttons popping off of poor Master Baggins' waistcoat as he exits the goblin caves.

Unfortunately, if you are not familiar enough with the book already, you'd be hard put to realize that what you just heard was the ripping of his waist coat and the scattering of the buttons on the cave floor.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit - Well, as much as I have really tried to enjoy this collection, I will still have to give it an overall thumbs down. Good sound-effects do not make up for the utter lack of skill on the parts of the actors/voice effects. This could be the fault of the producers too. All of the characters save two, Thorin and Beorn, sound like munchkins from Wizard of Oz...including Gandalf. As was already stated, the creatures in this re-creation all sound as though they are robots because of the voice manipulation. When more than one creature is talking it becomes a mishmash of unintelligible rabble. Gollum is the exception to this rule. He is very well-voiced, if not even a bit scary with all of his sputtering and gollum-ing. Some mispronounciations of characters (Gollum is gah-LOOM and Thorin is toe-REEN) are also a minor distraction. I won't even get into the singing.

This collection very plainly states that it is abridged...so if you're looking for something that is unabridged, the best bet is the collection voiced by Robert Inglis. Though sans sound effects, he absolutely captures the characters in all regards...though the singing here is also questionable, it is far superior to that of the reviewed collection.