Hobbit Production Blogs

[Shaikoten]

Not really a whole lot to say here except, awesome. If you liked LOTR and want to see a bit of the production process and a sneak peak at some of the characters, costumes, set designs, and the beautiful New Zealand scenery, give these a watch. The production quality is fantastic as you would expect, so watch them in HD.

[Doom_Dude]

Awesome, those were interesting to watch. Really looking forward to the finished product.

Now I'm kinda wondering if playalongtoys will come out with some hobbit figures like they did for the LOTR. I have a few ringwraiths and orcs when the figures were in the stores back when...

[Enjay]

Thanks for posting those. Worth watching. I'm really looking forward to this.

[Planky]

I may be a kiwi myself, but those accents really grind

[Quast]

Cannot wait for this.

[DoomUK]

Thanks. Those were a good watch.

[Hellbent]

Peter Jackson should have cast himself as Bilbo.

[Sharessa]

They should use this song:

[CODOR]

Danarchy said:
They should use this song

First time I saw that I felt they missed an opportunity to cast Nimoy in LOTR as a wise, pointy-eared elf.

[AndrewB]

I had no idea that so many of the same characters appeared in both stories.

[DoomUK]

AndrewB said:

I had no idea that so many of the same characters appeared in both stories.

Me neither.

I tried reading the LOTR trilogy after watching the films and promising myself I would read the books seeing as everyone was complaining about what was missing that was in the original material and how Peter Jackson didn't understand this and that about various characters. I got through the first two books and gave up about half way through the third. The whole thing is a serious case of tl;dr. Asking me to read The Hobbit is too much. That said I only have the faintest idea about what the story is about.

[Belial]

DoomUK said:

Asking me to read The Hobbit is too much. That said I only have the faintest idea about what the story is about.

It's just a relatively short and self-contained kids story. Hardly comparable to LOTR.

[Enjay]

Yeah, The Hobbit is an easy read. The LotR trilogy, however is a slog. And don't get me started on The Silmarillion.

I don't give a damn what people say, I think the books are dense and dull for much of their text and I think that it is obvious that Tolkien was an English language geek rather than a talented author. The books read like an exercise in writing English literature to me rather than something produced for of entertainment. Yes, the story he was telling was fantastic (in many ways) but his interminable technical prose often left me cold. Even the Hobbit, although easy, can be a bit dry. Don't get me wrong, I really like them, or at least the world and story that they paint, but in some ways I don't enjoy reading them.

Personally, although not perfect by any means, I think the movies are better than the books. There, I said it. :P

[chungy]

I actually read the LotR trilogy before seeing the films and uh... Peter Jackson basically removed all of the nonsensical or boring parts in the films. If you're really looking to get immersed in a whole world, the books are better. If you're just looking for entertainment, watch the films, they're good enough :P

[Thadeuss]

Yeah I've been following these, they are very interesting and definitely get you excited if you are a fan. I just worry though with all the problems it's had will it be as good as TLOTR? I suppose it worked for Apocalypse now....that films was a disaster during production.

[CODOR]

chungy said:
Peter Jackson basically removed all of the nonsensical or boring parts in the films.

It'd be great if he could take on the Quenta Silmarillion someday. I think there's some good stuff in there surrounded by a lot of boring bits...
I also want to see what a live action+CGI version of this battle looks like:



I first read The Hobbit when I was 13, and I don't remember it being any more difficult then than it is when I read it now (i.e. it should be no problem for a 13 year-old to read). I re-read it again a couple months ago in only a few days, then immediately started on LOTR. I'm just finishing The Return Of The King right now :-P

(So basically what Enjay said...)

[dew]

chungy said:

Peter Jackson basically removed all of the nonsensical or boring parts in the films.

umm.. i think 15 or 20 minutes spent on the scouring of the shire would be much less boring than the endless ends of rotk. the movies are very solid adaptations, but i don't care about them much and i have no desire to watch them again.

[sirjuddington]

Should be a cool movie (well, movies).

I should probably read the hobbit again at some point, last time I read it was many years ago. I can barely remember most of it heh.

[Belial]

Last vid, 10:06, they cloned Obelix.

[Sharessa]

Enjay said:

Yeah, The Hobbit is an easy read. The LotR trilogy, however is a slog. And don't get me started on The Silmarillion.

I don't give a damn what people say, I think the books are dense and dull for much of their text and I think that it is obvious that Tolkien was an English language geek rather than a talented author. The books read like an exercise in writing English literature to me rather than something produced for of entertainment. Yes, the story he was telling was fantastic (in many ways) but his interminable technical prose often left me cold. Even the Hobbit, although easy, can be a bit dry. Don't get me wrong, I really like them, or at least the world and story that they paint, but in some ways I don't enjoy reading them.

Personally, although not perfect by any means, I think the movies are better than the books. There, I said it. :P

Pretty much this. I've attempted to read through Lord of the Rings at least 6 times in my life, but have only succeeded twice ever. The rest of the time I get hung up in book 4, where it gets REALLY slow. For comparison, I've read the Hobbit all the way through at LEAST 6 times.

[Enjay]

On the movies, there are a couple of things that wear a bit thin for me after a while:

1: Characters whispering. Aragorn in particular whispers an awful lot of his lines when he is supposed to be getting all meaningful. When he speaks to Arwen, or when he tells Éowyn "You are a daughter of kings, a shield maiden of Rohan. I do not think that will be your fate." I almost have to turn the volume up on my TV to actually hear him.

2: Sort of slow-motion: Jackson uses a strange semi-slow-motion-like effect, again, when characters are being meaningful. The very end of the trilogy when the Hobbits are saying their goodbyes, everyone seems to be almost moving in slow motion even though the soundtrack is at the right pitch. Seriously, I'm sure that drawn out goodbye scene would have been much quicker if just filmed normally.



And on the scouring of the shire, seeing as how it was brought up, personally, I always found it to be unnecessary and tacked on. I know what Tolkien was doing with it and that he had a point to make but, IMO, it could have been much better integrated. To me it just doesn't sit right and it is unnecessary. The Hobbits have been through all that hassle just to come home and find the shire under "Sharkey's" heel and for them to go through the effort of rising up and defeating him again. But by that time I didn't care. I'd already had my epic battles and heroic victories. I didn't need to go through it all again in miniature. Reading it felt like extra effort for no reward.

Although I believe some of the scouring was filmed (you certainly seem to see it in visions in the movie) I'm glad that Jackson cut it. Not only did he cut it, he made damned sure that everyone knew that Saruman wasn't going to pop up later in the shire or that the Ents were not merely going to let him go. Jackson had Saruman stabbed repeatedly, fall of his tower, land impaled on a spike and, for good measure, get dragged under water (in the extended cut, of course).


And what's with Sauron and Saruman having such similar names? Even now, as a long term fan, I still use the wrong one every now and again. :P

[edit] What I meant to say is, if it felt like that with the books, how tacked on, awkward and tedious would it feel at the end of a 4 hour movie? For movie pacing, if nothing else, removing the scouring was a good call IMO. [/edit]