It should come as no surprise to anyone that I’m a geek. What’s slightly less known is that before Peter Jackson came along, I was much more of a Hobbit geek than a LOTR one. A slight distinction to be sure, but an honest one. To the grade-schooler I was on discovering the books, the story of a short and quiet everyman caught up in someone else’s adventure was much more resonant than the long, wordy epic going into the backstory of everyone and their grandparents. The Hobbit‘s emphasis on music helped as well (I’m a musician’s son), as Ralph Bakshi’s animated take on the Hobbit is more musical, more coherent, and more fun than the mess the animated take on LOTR was. Growing up in the 80′s, it was hard to read the book in the middle of the night and not hear the bass-heavy goblin chants, or the dwarven choir. And no kid who hated doing the dishes didn’t like the celebrating-a-mess of “that’s what Bilbo Baggins hates.”
Jackson’s take on LotR may not have satisfied purists, but it’s one of the better-crafted adaptations of all time, and he’s given The Hobbit much the same treatment. How much is going to remain true through the next two films remains to be seen, but for now it’s a rich, well-told story. The take on the music is incredible (the soundtrack’s already on my list), the characters are deeper than I thought they would be, and I can’t wait for the next one.
For you technical geeks, I have no idea if the screening I was at was in 24fps or 48fps, so don’t ask, I wouldn’t know how they compare.
Fight folk: This film is awesome. Dwarves mean impact weapons reign. Sword & shield the way it was meant to be, impact weapons that have impact, and polearms that actually use the reach. There’s also some interesting applications of the Romeo Paradox (which I’ll address in another post). But overall, the fights are incredible.
Now we get to the changes and spoilers. I’ll let you leave now.
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No, seriously, SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
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OK, you’ve been warned, here we go.
As I said before, there’s been some adaptations and additions. I’ll go with them somewhat stream-of-consciousness, and some compare and contrast with the Bakshi version.
Characters:
Bilbo is one of those characters that’s really easy to make annoying if you don’t do it right (kinda like D’Artangan). It would be easy to fall into the “everyman dragged around and whining” trap that touched the Bakshi version. Thankfully, Freeman’s Bilbo gives us more of the kindhearted if put-upon Bilbo as a willing participant. Instead of being badgered off of the breakfast table by Gandalf, Bilbo finds himself alone before grabbing the contract and running. That one small change told us that we’re definitely dealing with Belladonna Took’s son, even if he doesn’t quite realize it yet.
Thorin: Both he and the story benefit the most from the changes. Bakshi’s version had Thorin as an aging, greedy prick. Armitage’s Thorin is given a prologue showing the fall of Erebor, and the fates of Thrain and Thror. Armitage’s Thorin is much more prince-in-exile than treasure hunter, with going home being a much more firm foundation for the quest than the waiting gold.
The Dwarves: To be fair, these guys weren’t given much characterization in the novel, and Bakshi boiled it down to “Thorin’s in charge, Bombur’s fat, and everyone else has names.” While Jackson hasn’t given them all their chances to shine yet, they’ve already grown much from the novel, and I can’t wait to see some of the others. While fat jokes at Bombur’s expense are still there (and be honest, did you think they’d be left out?), we also see Balin falling into the advisory role we know we’ll see him in later. Fili and Kili have their young, cute and impulsive moments. A lovely touch is in the first distinct words out of Gloin’s mouth. You can so see his son Gimli in them.
Gandalf: What a difference 60 years will make. He’s still the powerful wizard and chessmaster, but not quite yet the magnificent bastard we’ll see in LotR. Seeing Gandalf have his early “oh shit” moments does a lot to humanize him.
Now we’re getting into story parts. As before, I’m not a Tolkien purist, and I found a lot of these changes enhanced the story for me. Most of them are relatively minor, too.
- Setup of Old Bilbo writing his memoirs (and trying to hide from Eleventy-First Birthday well-wishers)
- A prologue comes in detailing the rise of Erebor, the discovery of the Arkenstone, and Smaug’s arrival at the lonely mountain.
- Bilbo’s impulsive move detailed above
- Azog comes into play with a serious hate-on for Thorin, actively pursuing the company.
- A story by Balin detailing events at Moria.
- Radagast the Brown makes an appearance, both drawing more threads into LotR and bringing the Necromancer into the story. Both characters were only mentioned by Gandalf in the book.
- The entire party doesn’t discover the trolls. Fili and Kili notice them after screwing up their pony-watching duty, and shanghai Bilbo into his burglaring.
- Politicking in Rivendell, mostly between Elrond, Galadriel, Gandalf and Saruman.
- The dwarves lose their ponies before escaping to Rivendell, and do not get fresh mounts there. I’m guessing this was to make a sequence involving the storm giants easier to do.
I’m probably missing a few. I’ll just have to go and see it again to be sure! (I know, twist my arm, right?)
Jackson’s take on LotR may not have satisfied purists, but it’s one of the better-crafted adaptations of all time, and he’s given The Hobbit much the same treatment. How much is going to remain true through the next two films remains to be seen, but for now it’s a rich, well-told story. The take on the music is incredible (the soundtrack’s already on my list), the characters are deeper than I thought they would be, and I can’t wait for the next one.
For you technical geeks, I have no idea if the screening I was at was in 24fps or 48fps, so don’t ask, I wouldn’t know how they compare.
Fight folk: This film is awesome. Dwarves mean impact weapons reign. Sword & shield the way it was meant to be, impact weapons that have impact, and polearms that actually use the reach. There’s also some interesting applications of the Romeo Paradox (which I’ll address in another post). But overall, the fights are incredible.
Now we get to the changes and spoilers. I’ll let you leave now.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
No, seriously, SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
OK, you’ve been warned, here we go.
As I said before, there’s been some adaptations and additions. I’ll go with them somewhat stream-of-consciousness, and some compare and contrast with the Bakshi version.
Characters:
Bilbo is one of those characters that’s really easy to make annoying if you don’t do it right (kinda like D’Artangan). It would be easy to fall into the “everyman dragged around and whining” trap that touched the Bakshi version. Thankfully, Freeman’s Bilbo gives us more of the kindhearted if put-upon Bilbo as a willing participant. Instead of being badgered off of the breakfast table by Gandalf, Bilbo finds himself alone before grabbing the contract and running. That one small change told us that we’re definitely dealing with Belladonna Took’s son, even if he doesn’t quite realize it yet.
Thorin: Both he and the story benefit the most from the changes. Bakshi’s version had Thorin as an aging, greedy prick. Armitage’s Thorin is given a prologue showing the fall of Erebor, and the fates of Thrain and Thror. Armitage’s Thorin is much more prince-in-exile than treasure hunter, with going home being a much more firm foundation for the quest than the waiting gold.
The Dwarves: To be fair, these guys weren’t given much characterization in the novel, and Bakshi boiled it down to “Thorin’s in charge, Bombur’s fat, and everyone else has names.” While Jackson hasn’t given them all their chances to shine yet, they’ve already grown much from the novel, and I can’t wait to see some of the others. While fat jokes at Bombur’s expense are still there (and be honest, did you think they’d be left out?), we also see Balin falling into the advisory role we know we’ll see him in later. Fili and Kili have their young, cute and impulsive moments. A lovely touch is in the first distinct words out of Gloin’s mouth. You can so see his son Gimli in them.
Gandalf: What a difference 60 years will make. He’s still the powerful wizard and chessmaster, but not quite yet the magnificent bastard we’ll see in LotR. Seeing Gandalf have his early “oh shit” moments does a lot to humanize him.
Now we’re getting into story parts. As before, I’m not a Tolkien purist, and I found a lot of these changes enhanced the story for me. Most of them are relatively minor, too.
- Setup of Old Bilbo writing his memoirs (and trying to hide from Eleventy-First Birthday well-wishers)
- A prologue comes in detailing the rise of Erebor, the discovery of the Arkenstone, and Smaug’s arrival at the lonely mountain.
- Bilbo’s impulsive move detailed above
- Azog comes into play with a serious hate-on for Thorin, actively pursuing the company.
- A story by Balin detailing events at Moria.
- Radagast the Brown makes an appearance, both drawing more threads into LotR and bringing the Necromancer into the story. Both characters were only mentioned by Gandalf in the book.
- The entire party doesn’t discover the trolls. Fili and Kili notice them after screwing up their pony-watching duty, and shanghai Bilbo into his burglaring.
- Politicking in Rivendell, mostly between Elrond, Galadriel, Gandalf and Saruman.
- The dwarves lose their ponies before escaping to Rivendell, and do not get fresh mounts there. I’m guessing this was to make a sequence involving the storm giants easier to do.
I’m probably missing a few. I’ll just have to go and see it again to be sure! (I know, twist my arm, right?)
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