Escapist Podcast: Bonus: The Hobbitcast!

[The Escapist Staff]

Bonus: The Hobbitcast!

In this special Escapist podcast, we discuss Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Hobbit. WARNING: There will be spoilers!

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[The Lugz]

my immediate response: YESSS!!! hobbit-cast!

love you guys and your themed podcasts, they rawx all the sox

the only thing i have to complain about is the style of the film
what you commented on as 'melodrama' feels a little negative it may really just the fact that most films get these longer establishing and awe shots cut down somewhat but peter is making a haystack from a single bale here, i think it's on the longer length of acceptable
because these parts just arent hitting the clipping room floor
especially considering that they're trying to make a bedtime story on par with a full blown epic tale

allot of things in the film are a little fun loving too, with the.. bounciness of the dwarves
( who knew dwarves would be so fun? )
also love lash's ( that is lash right? 'feels awkward' )
comments on oakenshield having rolled a high charisma value
that was freki'n amazing.
honestly i think allot of the goofyness could be because the producers knew it would be slotted in the
December period for Christmas and they wanted it to be a fun story for wider appeal

anyway, rock on happy new year guys and all escapists!

 

[umbraticus]

awesome podcast!

about the events in the next movies:
the second movie is called 'the desolation of smaug'. and on the fb page of the hobbit, they have showed a teaser image of bilbo in a pile of gold.
so i think the next movie will end with a dead smaug and the third will be about the dwarfs having established themselves in the mountain again and then that giant-A** battle between a lot of groups (the battle of the 5 armies).

 

[Camaranth]

The melodrama started to get irritating as did the long sweeping shots following the group as they ran away, I don't know why I noticed so many of them this time around. And Gandalf randomly appearing to save them having wondered off 5 minutes ago got annoying. (It's been years since I read the books but I thought it was just Bilbo who got them away from the trolls.)

It is absolutely worth going to New Zealand. It's a beautiful country and a great people and culture. (I was there for 5 months at the start of this year.) The Great walk at Tongariro (Mordor) is beautiful (I only got to do the 8 hour trek, couldn't take the 5 days) Hobbington is a lot of fun and now you can drink at The Green Dragon!

Just one little concern, unsurprisingly some places take advantage of the hype and buzz of the movies. One place I was in offered a tour that was to two spots where they filmed some scenery at a very specific angle and some green screen,I'm sure the guide was giving lots of interesting anecdotes and details, and I think the tour offered some other activities too but I'm not sure it was worth the cost.

 

[bdcjacko]

I loved the hobbit. It was the third best film I saw all year. Mind you Avengers is number 1 and I saw Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 Electric Boogaloo with a die hard twilight fan was an unforgettable experience. So being 3rd best in a year of amazing is good. I didn't feel like hobbit was gratuitously winking at us saying "this is going to be important for LotR!" It fleshed out the back stories and made the world seem larger if anything. Like meeting another Wizard that is not in LotR was neat. Also I should say I hate Elves and Love Dwarves. So seeing a movie or hearing a story where Dwarves are the heroes and not just a joke is great. Seriously, fuck elves.

 

[thewanderer41]

I feel like y'all answered your own question! What's in all the extended scene's? Why, all the poems and musical scenes! XD

 

[The Lugz]

(It's been years since I read the books but I thought it was just Bilbo who got them away from the trolls.)

yeah, it was a little different but it had the same general effect.. you could call it 'adapted for film' because basically it would have been a picture of the trolls on screen for 30 minuites while bilbo goes through all the different ways you could possibly cook something and make them argue about it among themselves, which is awfully clever in book form but would be boooring as heck to watch, especially as it's trying to show off it's 3d, 48 fps toys.. so action / fight it is
stick to what you're good at right?

also, that relentless bashing on about the 48 fps that some movie critics are going on about in my opinion it just made the action sequences sharper, and as i watched it in 3d too it probably helped prevent it giving me a migraine
( my first 3d film, guys.. yes i know. i'm boring and out of date bla to you! my pc does 3d, though! )
the only thing i suspect may have been better in 24 is 'that' scene in the mountains.. you know the one i mean and i think that's just because certain objects can be too sharp and perhaps appear to move too slowly.. ?

the 'kick the hobbit out the door' scenes were a little lethargically paced come to think of it but i just don't see how else they'd have gotten the newbie audience to appreciate what it was about otherwise overall it's different pacing and
i do wonder if middle-earth based film lore in general has reached that point where it is holy ground that the older audience must defend their ( impossible ) nostalgic memories of it already, because if so that was awfully fast
i'm sure there will be different cuts to watch on the blurays for the hardcore fans there were about 5 different extended lord of the rings to get i know that much, let's hope for the same this time!

 

[charge52]

(It's been years since I read the books but I thought it was just Bilbo who got them away from the trolls.)

The way they were saved in the books was different, but Gandalf saved them in the books as well by imitating the trolls and causing them to argue until the sun rose. Essentially he did this:
Troll 1: I'm hungry.
Gandalf as Troll 2: STFU nerd.
Troll 1: WTF you say to me?
Troll 2: I didn't say nothing!
Troll 1: You calling me a liar.
10 minutes of arguing:
Troll 3: Enough, this arguing is pointless,
Gandalf as Troll 3: Because we all know Troll 2 is better and Troll 1 is totally gay.
Repeat process until sun rises.

I just realized Gandalf is one of the first "internet" trolls.

 

[Farther than stars]

That was a good podcast to listen to. I agree with Ma'idah that most of the issues were 'editing concerns', i.e. they could have cut out a couple of things that didn't need to be there. As a matter of fact the choice of cuts actively hurt the exposition in some cases.
Take the scene in Rivendell when they're interpreting the moon runes. You get Elrond reading the riddel, Gandalf explaining it and then Balin explaining it again. It's not even that big a plot point; it doesn't come back for the rest of the film.
But apart from a few minor issues like that it was a perfectly fun movie. I agree that they crammed in a few too many battle scenes here and there, such as with the trolls, but I was glad that they were at least faithful to the book with the Gollum encounter, because in my opinion that is the most iconic scene from the entire story. (Although they could have used a better cut when Bilbo says the line: "What have I got in my pocket?" Since that crucial line fell a little flat the first time he said it.)
And finally, what's wrong with Sam in Lord of the Rings? In my opinion he's the best character in the fellowship, simply because he plays the ordinary citizen. He's not smart and he's not strong, but he's brave and in the end he comes through for his friend. He literally carries him to the end. And personally I thought that was beautiful.

 

[bdcjacko]

Justin and Greg, good news, I can tell your voices apart!

Ma'idah and Janelle, bad news, I can not tell your voices apart.

 

[Eleima]

For the record, I think Nasrin is awesome, and that she should be in every podcast.

Now I haven't seen the movie yet for lack of a sitter, but I've read the book and read up a lot on the movie. I'm waiting until I've seen all three movies to pass judgment, but like a couple of you said, I'm afraid all the "extra stuff" will deter from the story. Wait and see, I guess.

Was great to hear your opinions, though!!!

 

[awdrifter]

I'm one of that 10% that didn't watch the LotR movies, so I thought this movie is kind of boring. I thought I could get into this because it's a prequel, but as Ma'idah said in the podcast, it keeps making references to the LotR movies, so I probably didn't get all the jokes or references that would've made the movie more interesting and funny.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I really enjoyed the movie overall, the only thing that stuck out to me is that traditional scene transitions don't work well in a 3D film. Having a character pop out as the screen fades from black is very jarring.

 

[Kuredan]

Has anyone heard the radio dramas put out by Minds Eye from the 70s and 80s?
Those were what I listened to growing up and what the "reading voices" were for me when I read the books. They were what I had to compare to the movies. The Hobbit is about 4-5 hours and the Lord of the Rings is about 9-10 hours long. Great for long car trips! They should be on CD on Amazon or on Audible.