The Road Goes Ever On and On: Everything Tolkien - Book 2

[Lady Galadriel]

I think I know why you suspect September 22. I like it as a release date personally.

Interestingly, TOR's forum has a thread saying Peter Jackson wrote on his Facebook page that the trailer will arrive on the 19th.

[fantasia]

Some sneak peek pictures from the trailer on the 19th. One of them is pretty spoilerish.

http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/%27The+Hobbit-+An+Unexpected+Journey%27/G4337

I'm so in love with Bilbo's coat, it's not even funny.

[fantasia]

Nobody has posted the trailers yet!!?!?!?!?!?

Apple's website...
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/thehobbit/

And on YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5bvK-pMzJM

Likes...
Love everything in Bilbo's house with the dwarves and the partying and the dialog. Nice to hear the "At your service" line. And of course Bilbo's reaction to being invaded and told he's been chosen is priceless. I think Martin Freeman as Bilbo is going to make this movie for me.
Oh and the bits with Gollum and Bilbo looked really great as well.

Mixed...
Kind of undecided on the action sequences. It will depend on how it plays out in the movie as to whether I end up liking them or not. The rock giant battle made it in, yay but falling off the cliff because of it... eh. Didn't see as much of the Goblins (particularly the Great Goblin) as I had hoped aside from them running through the underground. The scene with the trolls looks like it could be pretty good. We'll see. And finally, Radagast? That looked. Weird.

Dislikes...
Gandalf... WHY!!?!??!?!? I'll pray this works out in the movie and isn't yet another case of a character being destroyed by Hollywood because it makes them more "realistic."

[AslansChild]

*jumps up and down with hand raised like schoolkid*

ME ME ME, I DID I DID I DID!!!!

I'll be back to list my yays and nays a bit later. Although, on a whole: Looks good!

On a side note, did you notice the tune playing @ 1:03? Sounds like the Narnia theme!

[shastastwin]

FK, I generally agree with you about the new trailer.

Regarding Radagast: I think he's just dark and strange because of the darkness in Mirkwood. He struck me as being affected by the stain on nature, so I expect to see more of him in a brighter, more Radagast-y setting. Still not convinced about the bunny sled, though.

Gandalf: Not sure how I feel about this. It's like the lines almost match Gandalf, but they're off just enough to make me concerned. The shots of him in the dark underground and the trees at the end of "Out of the Frying-Pan" are great. I really want to like what they do with Galadriel, but I'm going to be way until I see the film.

Dwarves: Great. I even think Fili and Kili are going to be okay, despite their very youthful looks.

Settings: Beautiful as always. I love the shot of Bilbo in Rivendell.

Bilbo/Gollum: Great scene. Gollum is almost too funny for my taste, but I think it will be okay. Bilbo is great in everything (particularly sneaking through his own house and his reactions to the adventure). My only concern is the shot around 1:10 of him fighting the goblin.

[johobbit]

Yes, isn't Bilbo's patchwork housecoat wonderful?!

fantasia, I can basically Ditto you.

scenes:
*Love, love Freeman's portrayal of Bilbo, just from the trailers! And Gollum, not surprisingly, is A-1, although sometimes I think they try to make him too 'cute'. Can hardly wait for that "Riddles in the Dark" scene!

*Bilbo's reaction to the fact that he is chosen is priceless. His tip-toeing in the rounded hallway to listen in ... ahhh ♥. I think the Bag End scenes are going to be quite the mixture of comedic and very solemn (so anticipating the Dwarvish-singing from the first trailer).

*Love when Bilbo's running through the Shire paths, contract in hand ( ), calling back that he's "going on an Adventure"!

*Ooooh, the trolls! And the stone giant rocks!

scenes:
*Around the one minute mark is a part I can't bear to listen to. As fk exclaimed "WWHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY?" They did this (diminished a noble character) in The LotR films with some major characters, including Gandalf to some extent. Not again!!! This really concerns me. Nellie of Narnia and I were discussing this just now and came up with this defence: "Tolkien's Gandalf inspires courage in others, rather than having to draw it from them". Amen? Amen! Hear ye, hear ye, PJ!

*Aside from that major UGH point, a more minor bit is that some of PJ's Dwarf humour may look a bit too ridiculous. Someone said it well when they want Tolkien's whimsical humour in the film, not PJ's silly stuff.

*As for Radagast's bunny sleigh ... Something like this does not fit Tolkien's world, imho.

Not sure what to think scene:
*Radagast: I'll have to wait for the film, but he looks and acts a bit too creepy/odd/dark for the Radagast I have always 'known'. We shall see.

Misc. general/random:
*The line right near the end, "Well, that could have been worse" totally reminds me of Pippin's "Ooh! That was close" from Fellowship. Silly, but fun.

One of my favourite fun lines in all The Hobbit has always been Bilbo discovering he had left his pocket-handkerchief behind after he ran out in a-flurry from Bag End to meet the Dwarves in Bywater, so I quite hope they include that, with Gandalf, then, bringing along "a lot of pocket-handkerchiefs" (and Bilbo's pipe and tobacco) when he meets them in a bit.

Yes, AslansChild, definitely the music at 1:03 for those few seconds sounds like the Narnia theme.

So, there are many parts of the trailer that really draw me in, but that one Gandalf scene, in particular, pulls me up abruptly and gives me concern.

EDIT: It has been asked if there might be any significance to the round, rock table that Elrond, Gandalf, and Thorin are standing around? Thoughts?

[Lady Galadriel]

A couple of my own quick thoughts about the trailer. First of all, let me start out by saying that overall, I thought it was fantastic (even though I've only seen it 3 times so far).

So I finally got to see this bunny sled people have been talking about...at least I think I saw it. Some of the shots were so fast! Where did they get the idea of the sled, anyways? And I think it's either Radagast or a Dwarf in the shot right after that holding some animal. I don't get it.

Some of the music certainly did sound like Narnia for a moment.

The line right at the end. "Oh, that could have been worse." For some reason, it sounded to me like Sam. I know it wasn't, but in that case, who said it?

Although I'm trying to stay partly spoiler-free, I've been getting hints of the ending of the movie being where they enter the Misty Mountains. The trailer definitely seems to be showing the Misty Mountains as the climax, don't you think? Although I would love to be wrong because this is so close to the beginning of the journey.

A couple of my favorite shots:

Bilbo looks out the window, sees Gandalf's eye, and jumps quickly away. Gandalf never does anything the conventional way, like walking up to the front door and knocking. He has to stand outside and stare at Bilbo first. This made me laugh.

Gandalf caught in the tree! Not bad! It's pretty much a shot straight out of the book!

And, of course, Bilbo sprinting out of the Shire, shouting out for everyone to hear, "I'm going on an adventure!" This may not be straight of the book because [in the book] Bilbo was not nearly so enthusiastic, but at the moment I'm simply loving it. So far, they have also still shown the careful side of him when he is horrified that Gandalf could have chosen him. We will see how this goes!

[AslansChild]

http://www.hobbit.com has a feature that allows you to choose between five different alternate endings to make a "custom" trailer. A very good hobbit on TOR.net decided to upload all 5 endings to youtube !THANK YOU!:

SHOW SPOILER

Sting Ending:


Gollum Ending:


Gandalf Ending:


Bilbo Ending:

LoL. I liked

SHOW SPOILER

Bilbo

and

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Gollum

's best.

Here's a link to the HD versions:
http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/g ... t=39037297

What do you think?

[Louloudi the Centaur]

Hmm, I think I liked the trailer. I just really need to read the book again (upcoming Hobbit reading group in just a few days would be of help), and get to the trilogy for that matter. I do not exactly recall bunny sleds and hedgehogs in The Hobbit.

In other words, very beautiful cinematography. Not sure if I'm a fan of the humor or not, but it could work.

[daughter of the King]

There are no singing Dwarves. Very disappointing this is, precious. We musts have singing Dwarves we must!

Bilbo and Gollum are of course amazing. This scene looks spot-on. The Bag End scenes look good, although I could do with less of PJ's idea of Dwarf humor. I did love the "At your service line."

Gandalf . . . he chooses Bilbo because he was great friends once with his grandfather the Old Took and Tooks are known for going on adventures. He chooses Bilbo because he thinks Hobbits are the best sort of companion to have on an adventure if you can pull them away from their warm cup of tea by the fire. What is with this perhaps I am afraid and he gives me courage thing?! Gandalf is of course allowed his moments of doubt, but does not need to draw courage from others.

Bunny sled? It sounded odd on writing and looks no less odd on film. Not sure what to think of Radagast himself. It's hard to get a bearing on his character based on just those few brief shots.

Edit: Oh, Sting alternate ending! Sting alternate ending! Balin will soon learn the powers of a letter opener.

[johobbit]

I don't think there is anything overly Spoilerish in here ...

Yes, I really missed the singing dwarves! That is one of the most effective and powerful highlights of the trailers.

As for your third paragraph, Dot, SPOT ON!!!

We quite enjoyed Gandalf's nod to Pippin's poignant song in The RotK of "Home is behind; the world ahead" (around 2:10).

And I just clued in who Fili and Kili remind me of when they greet Bilbo ... Fred and George Weasley.

[Pattertwigs Pal]

Just a reminder: The Hobbit Reading Group starts on Saturday.

There is so much to digest in the trailer. I don't like the original ending. The other ones are much better.

Just some quick thoughts:
What in the world is happening at the tend of the trailer? It looks like the dwarves are being crushed by a troll while Gandalf stands by. That should not be the case. The trolls didn't really see Gandalf. He was hidden until they were turned to stone.

It seems they put in a lot more action than there was in the book. I don't remember the wargs getting close enough to the dwarves and hobbit to send them running.

I really like the way Bilbo talks about liking visitors. I wonder if what he says is going to be in the movie or if it was just for the trailer. Thoughts?

Was it Thorin who was talking about taking each of the dwarves rather than armies? I didn't recognize the voice.

I liked the scene where Kili and Fili were introduced.I could say a lot more but this will do for now.

[GlimGlum]

Just looking at the trailer as a trailer, I thought it a pretty good one. No doubt The Hobbit will be a good looking movie. I think a general audience who has not read the book will like what they see.

I agree with our Watchful Admin that Martin freeman will make an excellent Bilbo and Andy Who? as Gollum; couldn't ask for much more than the original. And Gandalf will be Gandalf.

But as far as deviations from the book, we'll have to wait and see things in context and hope any big ones work. But we already know with VDT how they might not.

Here is hoping that Peter Jackson and company will be as faithful as possible and will not doing something totally unnecessary that will stick out like a sore thumb to the Hobbits' many fans.

[johobbit]

Just a reminder: The Hobbit Reading Group starts on Saturday.

Must get that first chapter re-read! (Sadly, however, I'm out of town for much of Saturday. Bad timing on my part. )

Twigs, I'm hoping that they focused on the action parts in the trailer to entice more people in ... although for true fans of the book, action-overload would be a turn-off, methinks.

I wasn't sure about the one voice either. I'm assuming it was Thorin ...

Here is hoping that Peter Jackson and company will be as faithful as possible and will not doing something totally unnecessary that will stick out like a sore thumb to the Hobbits' many fans.

Indeed, although I think a couple of sorethumbs are already beginning to rear their heads tips.

A couple of Hobbit-related books are hitting the shelves (well, probably many more than this list , but these two struck my eye):

~Tolkien scholar and lecturer (The Tolkien Professor), Corey Olsen, has written a book, Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, released a few days ago. This looks like it would be an excellent companion in a Reading Group.

~And Devin Brown, who has been involved in some Reading Groups here on the forum, has written a book with an early October release, The Christian World of The Hobbit. I am curious to know what he has done with this, as there is no indication JRR wrote the book with Christian themes in mind. Rather, it was based on his love of weaving a great and endearing tale.

[Movie Aristotle]

Well, I am about to step my foot into the world of Tolkien discussion, something I probably should stay away from since Middle-earth is a world I have enjoyed onscreen for a decade but have only done sparse reading on. But there seems to be no end to the books on Middle-earth and if I'm going to discuss the anticipation of The Hobbit movie, I have to start somewhere, so here goes:

Having now read the book twice, I have to say that the part of the trailer that I thought was the coolest was

SHOW SPOILER

the part with the Rock Giants, -characters that I had missed in my first reading, was intrigued with on my second and more recently wondered about as I awaited the trailer. Indeed, in my first view of the trailer, I didn't even notice that they were giants, since if you are not looking closely it simply looks like a bunch of rocks are falling towards the screen. Overall, I am interested to see the scene play out onscreen.

Concerning Gandalf:

SHOW SPOILER

I'm not exactly sure what people are so upset about. I didn't notice any "ruining of his character" in the trailer. He seemed to be much the same person as in The Lord of the Rings. Nor did anything he said seem out of place from my perspective based on my readings of The Hobbit. Perhaps further discussion with more serious Tolkien readers will correct my misapprehension of the situation, but for now I am content with this character's portrayal.

Radagast

SHOW SPOILER

was not at all like I imagined him. At first glance I thought he might be Tom Bombadil, except he wasn't wearing yellow boots. Then I thought he might be a dwarf, based on his size compared with the bunnies. -Speaking of which, what was up with the bunny sled? It seemed so absurd that it simply must be in an appendix or unfinished tale that I am unfamiliar with. I hope Peter Jackson would come up with something so ridiculous on his own. If it is part of Tolkien's world, I'm ready to accept it; if not, then this might just ruin my movie a bit.

So much to learn about Tolkien's world. Somebody, teach me!

[Pattertwigs Pal]

*Pops in briefly*
I was at a birthday party for Bilbo and Frodo yesterday and two people sang "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins." I mentioned it to my parents and they had no clue what I was talking about so I dug up the link and figured I might as well post it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04