The final blow came some years later, when an animated feature version of The Hobbit appeared, starring the timid voice of Orson Bean. That film to my mind in no way approaced the magnificence I had originally envisioned . I had obtained the greatest Czech artist of the time, illustrator, painter, sculptor, and director of the most famous Czech puppet films of all time, Jiří Trnka, to be the designer of my projected version. Sadly, we never got beyond his model sketches. They have never before been published, and I present them to you here, brilliant souvenirs of one of my more magnificent failures!