The Hobbit (film)



"Gandalf: You'll have a tale or two to tell, when you come back. Bilbo: Can you promise that I will come back? Gandalf: ...No. And if you do, you will not be the same."

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and and The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies are a three-part adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien's classic fantasy novel The Hobbit, directed by Peter Jackson and adapted for the screen by Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. It is a prequel to Jackson's adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, telling the tale of Bilbo's adventure with Gandalf and a company of dwarves.

An Unexpected Journey was released on December 14, 2012; The Desolation of Smaug premiered almost exactly a year later on December 13, 2013; and The Battle of Five Armies in December 17, 2014. All three movies were filmed in stereoscopic 3D, and in a cinematic first, at 48 frames-per-second.

You can view the trailers here.

See also: The animated film adaptation of The Hobbit (1977) and Peter Jackson's previous adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

""Who is that odd little fellow?""
 * Actor Allusion
 * Flight of the Conchords star Bret McKenzie plays an elf named Lindir. Lindir is Elvish for "singer". (A character of this name does get a brief cameo in Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring.) Also a reference to "Figwit", the unnamed elf (and Memetic Bystander) McKenzie played in The Fellowship of the Ring. If not for that role, he probably wouldn't have a role (let alone a name) in The Hobbit. Lindir is in the book The Fellowship of the Ring, an Elf of Rivendell listening to Bilbo's poetry.
 * Actor Swap
 * Martin Freeman as Bilbo, replacing The Lord of the Rings' Ian Holm, who was simply getting too old to play the part of a young (well, fiftyish) Bilbo -- though Sir Ian will appear as his older, post-Ring self from the Rings films as well.
 * It was thought for a while that Christopher Lee might also be replaced as Saruman for similar reasons, but he is set to come back; his scenes will be filmed in England to spare him the stress of long travel, as indicated very entertainingly in the third production vlog:


 * Adaptation Expansion: Enough to fill three movies, from the shortest of Tolkien's books set in Middle-earth. Some of that was inspired by brief notes from Tolkien, but for the most part the expansion consists of material completely made up by Peter Jackson & co.
 * Amusing Injuries: Wouldn't you love to know why Bifur has a chunk of pick-axe stuck in his head?! Luckily that character design didn't make it to the final movie.
 * Badass Beard: Thirteen dwarves, all bar two have beards and they're awesome. One that doesn't compensates with Badass Muttonchops, and the other has Perma-Stubble. In one of the production videos Jackson predicts these movies will bring them back into fashion.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Nori's are braided into his hairdo!
 * Canon Immigrant: Quite a few, particularly the White Council.
 * Character Development: The dwarves get to express a lot more individual personality than most ever had a chance to in the novel. Yet they end up mostly interchangeable anyway.
 * Darker and Edgier: The movies are a lot more violent and less light-hearted than the original children's book.
 * Doomed by Canon
 * The same goes for
 * Arguably overlaps with Foregone Conclusion to some degree, as Bilbo and Gandalf will survive.
 * Drop the Hammer: Dwalin wields a big 'un.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: Frodo, Saruman, Galadriel, Legolas, and . Radagast the Brown is an odd case: he was in the book, but his role in the film version of Fellowship was filled by a moth Gandalf used to summon Gwaihir, Lord of Eagles.
 * Epic Movie: Three, actually.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Aidan Turner's Kili is pretty darn handsome for a dwarf. In the video blog everybody else referred to him as "sexy dwarf" or "the hot one".
 * Also, Legolas repeats his role from The Lord of the Rings movies.
 * Framing Device: The entire story is framed as Bilbo writing his memoirs to Frodo.
 * Leitmotif: Many leitmotifs are recycled from The Lord of the Rings movies.
 * Mythology Gag: The Dwarves' recitation of "The Misty Mountains Cold" use a similar musical composition to the original 1977 rendition of the song.
 * Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Peter Jackson tried to keep them as distinct as possible.
 * Perma-Stubble: Kili's beardless face spots this instead.
 * Scenery Porn: The beautiful landscape of New Zealand are there again, though a lot of that has been overtaken by CGI.
 * Serkis Folk: Gollum (performed once again by the Trope Namer himself). Jackson must be really impressed by Serkis, because he also appointed him Second Unit Director on both installments.
 * Token Evil Teammate: Saruman will most likely be played as one for the White Council, even though the viewers are the only ones aware that he is evil. At this point Saruman wasn't evil, though he becomes so not long after the events of The Hobbit. In the Appendix of The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Talesof Numenor and Middleearth it is revealed that Saruman deliberately delayed the White Council's actions against the Necromancer because he hoped to get a hint of the One Ring's location from the Necromancer's actions, so he could seize it for himself. He only agreed to take action when he started to fear that the Ring could elude his grasp. While not as openly evil as in Lord of the Rings, Saruman is still already working for selfish goals with the intent of becoming the most powerful force in the Middle-Earth.
 * WETA Thinks Of Everything: Look at the scene in the trailer where Bilbo finds the Sting. It lacks the Elvish inscription seen in The Lord of the Rings, which read "Sting is my name, I am the spider's bane". Clearly Bilbo had it inscribed only after the adventure was over.
 * Vlog Series: Jackson kept a blog series giving us a good look at the film.
 * Vlog Series: Jackson kept a blog series giving us a good look at the film.