The Hobbit (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

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.

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

Tropes used in The Hobbit (film) include:
  • Action Girl: Tauriel. She does not appear in the book.
  • 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:

"Who is that odd little fellow?"

  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Thorin and Kili are suspiciously handsome and tall for dwarves. Fili too.
  • 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.
  • Adaptational Villainy: The Master of Lake-town has been turned into an oppressive tyrant.
  • 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.
  • Arch Enemy: Thorin and Azog to each other.
  • 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
    • Anyone who's seen the three LotR films beforehand, even if they haven't read the books, may catch on that Balin will be killed by orcs between scripts, as he's the one buried in the dwarf crypt from Fellowship.
    • The same goes for Ori and Oin.
    • Arguably overlaps with Foregone Conclusion to some degree, as Bilbo and Gandalf will survive.
  • Draconic Demon: While Smaug was already a force to be reckoned with in the novel, he's an utter terror in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. Not only is he a godzilla-sized monstrosity who makes Bilbo look even more helpless and small than in the book, but he's openly cruel and sadistic, looks as if he's maliciously grinning at all times, and has a downright hellish-sounding voice thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch's dulcet tones.
  • Drop the Hammer: Dwalin wields a big 'un.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Frodo, Saruman, Galadriel, Legolas, and Sauron in an incorporeal form. 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.
    • Though, it is arguable if any of that counts, as in this case the sequel was adapted first and any characters who appear in the sequel and are added to this movie trilogy are merely reprising their roles.
  • Epic Movie: Three, actually.
  • Framing Device: The entire story is framed as Bilbo writing his memoirs to Frodo.
  • Interspecies Romance: Kili is a dwarf and Tauriel is an elf.
  • Leitmotif: Many leitmotifs are recycled from The Lord of the Rings movies.
  • Love Triangle: Between Kili, Tauriel, and Legolas.
  • Mr. Fanservice: 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".
  • 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.
  • Shoot the Messenger: In his introduction scene, Azog murders one of minions for bearing bad news so that the audience can see that Azog is a villain. This all is played painfully straight.
  • The Smurfette Principle: The original book was very nearly totally lacking in female characters, so the movie-makers added one, the elf Tauriel, to make the latter two movies adhere to the trope.
  • 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.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Bilbo during the story and also in comparison to the original story.
  • Vlog Series: Jackson kept a blog series giving us a good look at the film.
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