The Hobbit

[sstimson]

I hope i do not get in trouble for this BUT

back in 1977 Two directors named Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr. made an animated version of The Hobbit. They seem to stay somewhat true to the book. And their movie was less then one and one half hours. Any one interested can watch it here

[mangaluva]

I actually really enjoyed this movie.

Spoiler:

I'm guessing the skinchanger was stuck in to avoid the whole stooshie they had before over cutting Tom Bombadil rather than any plot reason.

I actually really liked Tauriel. She had more dimension to her character than Legolas or Thaundril, IMO. Legloas was just a mix of really weird faces and references to the previous/future movies and while Thaundril had more to him than in the book, that's not exactly saying a lot. I think Tauriel would have gone after the dwarves if it had been any of them injured, not just Kili, and would've gone after the Orcs anyway if none of them were injured, because unlike Legolas and Thaundril she genuinely cares about what's going on outside of their borders, not just in case it affects them in the end but because lives will be lost. She visibly struggled between staying to save Kili and going to kill Orcs. I can respect a girl who's very good at killing people but puts more stock in saving them.

Also, I'm still glad that the White Orc's son isn't coming out of nowhere in the last twenty pages like in the book. That pissed me off. Also, I actually like the fact that Bard turns up much earlier than in the movie than in the book, because in the book he is introduced and the story of his ancestor explained literally the paragraph before he shoots Smaug dead out of nowhere. I'm also not going to complain about the dwarves getting a bit of fight in against Smaug instead of just watching him fly out of the mountain. Smaug covered in gold looked fantastic.

And we actually got to SEE Gandalf fight the Necromancer and it ties interestingly into the previous/future movies rather than being a random thing that happened offpage.

And I'm kinda praying that Kili and Fili getting separated from the other dwarves means maybe at least one of them will live...? BECAUSE KNOWING THAT THEY ARE GOING TO DIE IS KILLING ME and Thorin too a bit but not so much because you can see the gold sickness starting to get him. I'm kinda hoping they give him something a bit redeeming before the end instead of just letting him die a gold-crazy wanker.

Basically, in comparison to the book I'm enjoying it. I do wish there'd been less Legolas though. Yes, we get it, Legolas, the pretty one, very good, let's have more Bilbo sneaking around tricking elves while invisible or stabbing spiders with Sting, 'kay?