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Warg Vs Rabbits Chase
With the chance to build on Middle-earth’s movie mythology, Peter Jackson introduced or revamped several of its creatures.
Key among them are Radagast’s rabbits.
If these enormous lagamorphs were put into a stew they could feet many a hungry Hobbit.
Thankfully, the eco-warrior wizard has a better use for them than that, commandeering them as his own private army of sled-pullers.
And they move at quite a lick too.
Their speed is showcased when Radagast uses himself as a diversion to draw away a pack of ravenous Wargs (given a bit of a makeover from their LOTR days, on account of their extended screentime).
Told that he won’t be fast enough to escape the gnashing hordes, the Brown wizard responds, “These aren’t just any rabbits… These are Rustabell rabbits.”
And the chase begins.
Dont Feed The Trolls
A return to the good old-fashioned variety of trolls, the sort that existed in the days before the internet, this episode is one of the most memorable moments in the first act of the novel.
It also provides a very direct link to The Fellowship Of The Ring , as the stony remains of the trio are spotted by Frodo and co on the first stages of their journey.
Jackson plays loosely with the scene as it appears in the book: the outcome is the same, but in the film, Bilbo plays a much more active role. While he might not be the toughest of the Company, his wits are an essential survival skill, this neatly foreshadows his riddling with Gollum (in the novel, it’s Gandalf whose smarts save the day).
With their own unique attributes, the trolls manage to carve out their own personalities and features, while still looking like they’re all from the same gene pool.
Brought to life with motion-capture, the trolls give three of the Dwarf actors with minimal screentime an extra opportunity to shine, with William Kircher (Bifur), Peter Hambleton (Gloin) and Mark Hadlow (Dori) donning the dotted suits.
And Gandalf’s ‘Let there be light’ moment at the end is a winner.
An Unexpected Party
It was always going to be one of the key scenes, as Peter Jackson has the unenviable task of introducing the thirteen Dwarves into the mix.
As they barge into Bag End in packs of two or three, it’s Bilbo whose character is defined most clearly - as his consternation slowly grows as his dinner guests get ever more numerous (“That’s a doily, not a napkin!”)
Raiding the Halfling’s larder, the Company pull out a glorious buffet spread, one that glistens in 48FPS (and makes you wished you’d ‘gone large’ on that popcorn).
This particular scene, as the camera twists and turns around Bilbo’s cylindrical hallways, showcases PJ’s mastery of perspective as the pint-size Dwarves break bread with a looming Gandalf.
The Dwarves Tunnel Tumble
As they enter the Goblins’ domain, and kick off the movie’s big action sequence, the Dwarves come hurtling down through a twisting tunnel, in a shot that was made for 3D.
Proving that Jackson is pretty much peerless among today’s working directors when it comes to corralling a set-piece, the imagination and invention is palpable.
You don’t come to Middle-earth for half measures, and Jackson doesn’t disappoint.
The animation process of this scene was dissected in the ninth Hobbit production video .
Great Putdown
With Jackson’s Middle-earth films, it’s often the little moments where sparks fly between characters that stick with you.
Freeman’s no stranger to comedy, but he resists the temptation to make Bilbo a cartoonish gag-machine. He does know how to deliver a putdown though.
Like when Gandalf talks of Radagast the Brown, and Bilbo retorts, “Is he a great wizard, or is he more like you?”
In Freeman’s hands, even when Bilbo is at his most churlish, he’s still impossible to dislike.
Warg Gwan
A giant albino Orc needs a suitably impressive steed to ride into battle, and Azog has just that: a giant albino Warg (not pictured, unfortunately).
This one doesn’t do anything in particular, or have any defining features: he just looks damn cool, like a white, furry version of Zuul from Ghostbusters .
And the leader should always have a steed that differentiates him from his minions, and this beast does just that.
The Witch-kings Blade
Another callback to the LOTR trilogy, the reveal of the Witch-king of Angmar’s blade is a welcome link to the future.
Revealed across Elrond’s Rivendel table (after being hinted at earlier in the film), the blade forebodingly warns of the darkness that lies some 60 years ahead.
And our foreknowledge of the events to come makes the moment all the more sinister.
And it makes up for the lack of the shards of Narsil, which were glimpsed in the first trailer , but failed to materialise in the finished film.
Guess we’ll have to wait for the extended edition , as the group don’t revisit the Council of Elrond in Rivendel in the source novel.
Finding Courage
Ian McKellen’s Gandalf can always be relied on to give a stirring speech, and he delivers a fine example when explaining to Galadriel why he chose the Hobbit to be the Company’s burglar.
Yes, we know Hobbit are light on their furry feet, and can “pass by undetected by most”, but there’s more to his decision than that.
“Simple acts of kindness and love keep dark things at bay… Perhaps it is because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.”
It’s moving to see such a mighty conjuror depend on such an outwardly insignificant hero.
It once again brings into focus the key theme of The Hobbit : the power of the individual to make a difference.
In such a gloriously unreal setting, the key strength of Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens’ scripts has always been the attention to the human (or wizard/Hobbit/Dwarf) moments amid the epic-scale fantasy.
Ring Tone
With Howard Shore returning to scoring duties on The Hobbit , there are a great many references, allusions and downright lifts from the LOTR soundtrack, which help to anchor us back in Middle-earth immediately.
The One Ring, an insignificant-looking trinket that played such a central role in LOTR doesn’t appear until the final act of An Unexpected Journey .
But, as Bilbo absent-mindedly handles the ring in his waistcoat pocket, we hear a very familiar theme indeed, as the haunting strings that accompany the ring (and soundtrack the title cards) in LOTR surface.
We’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the ring will play a more prominent role in the next two Hobbit movies than it did in the later stages of Tolkien’s book.
Out Of The Frying Pan
“Out of the frying pan…” observes Thorin, before Gandalf completes the phrase with, “… and into the fire”, as the Company evade the Misty Mountain’s Goblins, only to find themselves cornered by Warg-mounted Orcs, thirsting for vengeance.
A familiar idiom you might think. ‘Cheers for rubbing it in guys,’ you might scoff. But it’s no throwaway phrase, harking back to the title of one of the chapters of The Hobbit .
It’s a pleasant reminder, even if they do use the modern permutation of the phrase, rather than the very much more literal version Bilbo utters in the book.
