Hah, you are SO right about Bombadil and Beorn. Beorn would have made LotR, he would have fit in the casting... and I forget, consistently, that he's in the Hobbit, though that series of events is wild and weird and wonderful I remember it as a vignette on its own. I'll think "Oh wait, who was that bear changeling with the house in the wilderness and the bees. Did he have talking horses? What? OH THE HOBBIT."
Bombadil I encountered in a read-aloud as a pretty young person, so in a way I'm totally uncynical about him, but I'm pretty glad he's not in the movie, looking at it that way--how could he have been made not ridiculous? There's some poetry of Tolkien's featuring him more as a fae-king kind of character, or something and that's maybe effected my vision of him as well. And his wife, River's Daughter, is kind of the foreshadowing of Galadriel, which makes you wonder if Tolkien realized he hadn't accomplished what he wanted to with her...and yet, both of them are not elves, and will not leave Middle earth to go into the west. So in a way, they are like the more enduring aspects of the elves that won't ever leave.
This post is basically my manifesto to articulate to *myself* that I don't have to be defensive. And yes, the thing about The Hobbit, is everything is just borrowing on the work that went before in LotR. And that's okay. Sometimes you can enjoy having already broken the ground, and serve the audience that wants a sequel, not a new vision.
Whether that's good for Peter Jackson's soul is another matter entirely, and I will not be commenting on it. XD
Martin Freeman as Bilbo was perfect, even if thinking of it, after watching Ian Holm's version, is a bit mind-bending. I waited for the first to come out on DVD and didn't regret doing so...so I haven't seen Smaug either.
The one thing I am hoping for in the next couple of movies is to see more of the Lake town, and the totally underutilized hero from there. The one thing I think I will be disappointed in is the kingdom of the elves, which was a very different realization than what came in Lord of the Rings, and so how can they preserve that somewhat cold, fae-court feeling without reneging on what we know of elves from LotR?
As long as Bilbo gets credit for a lot of their escape and etc., I'll be content.
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Bombadil I encountered in a read-aloud as a pretty young person, so in a way I'm totally uncynical about him, but I'm pretty glad he's not in the movie, looking at it that way--how could he have been made not ridiculous? There's some poetry of Tolkien's featuring him more as a fae-king kind of character, or something and that's maybe effected my vision of him as well. And his wife, River's Daughter, is kind of the foreshadowing of Galadriel, which makes you wonder if Tolkien realized he hadn't accomplished what he wanted to with her...and yet, both of them are not elves, and will not leave Middle earth to go into the west. So in a way, they are like the more enduring aspects of the elves that won't ever leave.
This post is basically my manifesto to articulate to *myself* that I don't have to be defensive. And yes, the thing about The Hobbit, is everything is just borrowing on the work that went before in LotR. And that's okay. Sometimes you can enjoy having already broken the ground, and serve the audience that wants a sequel, not a new vision.
Whether that's good for Peter Jackson's soul is another matter entirely, and I will not be commenting on it. XD
Martin Freeman as Bilbo was perfect, even if thinking of it, after watching Ian Holm's version, is a bit mind-bending. I waited for the first to come out on DVD and didn't regret doing so...so I haven't seen Smaug either.
The one thing I am hoping for in the next couple of movies is to see more of the Lake town, and the totally underutilized hero from there. The one thing I think I will be disappointed in is the kingdom of the elves, which was a very different realization than what came in Lord of the Rings, and so how can they preserve that somewhat cold, fae-court feeling without reneging on what we know of elves from LotR?
As long as Bilbo gets credit for a lot of their escape and etc., I'll be content.