Arthur Rankin, Jr. & Jules Bass (1977)

An animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale of the adventures of a hobbit on a quest to regain a dwarf king’s gold. Smaug is a dragon and the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1937 novel The Hobbit. He is a powerful and fearsome dragon that invaded the Dwarf kingdom of Erebor 150 years prior to the events described in the novel.

“My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail is a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!“

Smaug was a fire drake of the Third Age, considered to be the last “great” dragon to exist in Middle-earth. He was drawn towards the enormous wealth amassed by the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain during the reign of King Thror, and laid waste to the neighboring city of Dale and captured the Lonely Mountain, driving the surviving Dwarves into exile.

For 171 years, Smaug hoarded the Lonely Mountain’s treasures to himself, staying within the mountain, until a company of Dwarves managed to enter the Lonely Mountain and awaken him from hibernation. Correctly believing that the dwarves had received assistance from the men of Lake-town in entering the Lonely Mountain, Smaug left the mountain to wreak destruction upon Lake-town, nearly destroying it before being slain by Bard the Bowman.