'The Hobbit': Russian Soviet Version Is Cheap & Delightful (VIDEO)

Bizarre Old 'Hobbit' Film Unearthed

Bilbo Baggins's adventure to the Lonely Mountain had quite a few twists and turns along the way. Little known fact: that dangerous, winding path included the Soviet Union.

While the internet geeks out over the new quick tease trailer of Peter Jackson's upcoming big screen adaptation of "The Hobbit," they'll have to wait until December of 2012 to see the whole film. But if they're feeling particularly antsy, they could always watch a full length version of the story.

The catch? It's a Russian-language film, shot in 1984 on a budget that looks like it was just a smudge less than the $150 million Oscar-winner Jackson is supposedly spending on his film. The JRR Tolkien novel has an interesting Soviet history. It was first published in the country in 1976 with some locally-sourced illustrations (which you can see here), and went through a number of reprints over the years.

There's also the 1977 animated version of the story, directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., that fans can watch to hold themselves over.

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