My dad used to read the Hobbit to me and my brother when i was 5 and when he finished the book we loved it so much that he began making up new adventures for bilbo from the top of his head as he thought that LOTR would be a little bit heavy for a 5 year old. Even those stories were better than the movies and thats including one where bilbo is abducted by aliens and then has to find a glowing jewl from a temple in the rain forest with Indiana Jones.

I really wish this was a two-parter by Del Toro. I don't think you can make a satisfying adaptation of The Hobbit while also being a prequel to Lord of the Rings in just one movie. The book is short, but it's also VERY condensed. The fact that there was still Middle Earth material that was yet to be covered shows that adding material that wasn't in the original book was absolutely necessary. But with all the material they had, they did NOT need three bloody movies!

The only problem I have on this film series is that they made the battle of the 5 armies a 3 hour long film when it was 5 pages in the book...

The writing on the map was indeed in the book, it's the last two pages of chapter 3. "Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them," said Elrond, "not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a midsummer's eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago."

" _And end up as a delicious low-fat snack for a Dragon? Eheheheh, dream on!_ " - And there was much giggles.

You guys forgot that Thorin is OLDER than Balin, he was the leader of the group and the direct heir to the throne of Erebor. He had a beard almost as long as Gandalf had...

Urhh.... How did I miss those fucking moon letters?! Resigning myself to years of "well actually" comments.

In the middle of the earth, in the land of Shire there's a brave little Hobbit who we all admire. Bilbo, Bilbo, Only three feet tall. Bilbo, Bilbo, He's the bravest little Hobbit of them all.

You missed a good joke though "If I need more people, I put in another me" *insert other Dom* "But your audience needs a female role model" "Ahem" *pan to Dom in a wig and dress* "What about me?"

One of the most eye-rollingly blatant scenes in the first Hobbit movies was Bilbo visiting the shrine with the shards of Narsil and staring at the ring in the painting of Isildur vs. Sauron as the music grows ominous. Come on, guys, we know Bilbo's going to find the ring already, geez.

Your right about the Norse/Beowulf connection! JRR Tolkien was a professor of Saxony culture so there was a strong Norse influence and it was he who made scholars look at Beowulf for its literary merit, not just as something giving information about the time it is written and it also influenced his work.

"...and probably offered a dress to wear." Actually, even dwarf women had beards, at least according to the films (I'm not knowledgeable enough to say if this is true in the books). This is referenced directly in one of the LotR films in which Gimli talks about other races not being able to tell the difference between dwarf men and dwarf women, after which Aragorn quietly clarifies "It's the beards" behind his back. In Rivendell, this confusion is actually shown happening in reverse, as Kili demonstrates an inability to tell the difference between elf men and elf women since they share the human "feminine" traits of being slender, long-haired, and having smooth, hair-free faces. All of which is simply to say that I doubt they considered their beards an expression of maniliness so much as just... dwarfishness. - Lewis

Whatever else you want to say about the hobbit films, Smaug was the single best representation of a Dragon in modern cinema. A perfect blend of arrogance, intelligence and raw, palpable *power* where so many others end up underwhelming or dumb beasts.

"The group tended to create most of their own problems in the book." So, they were a D&D party.

I like how Thorin wasn’t as “bad ass” in the book which actually makes him more interesting. In a way it’s actually more bad ass when you don’t try too hard to make someone bad ass.

But the writing that appeared in a specific moonlight WAS in the book. The rest -> yeah, I agree with you.

You know, if I had a pound every time the phrase "Thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread" in relation to the Hobbit films, I would be rich enough to buy a small island!

You're right! Beowulf and the Poetic Edda were inspirations for the Hobbit. Overly Sarcastic Productions makes a note of that in their episodes on these texts. Dwarf names in LOTR are pulled directly from a chapter in the Poetic Edda that consists mostly of common dwarf names. In Beowulf, the titular hero/king defends his town from a dragon who's trying to burn his town. Why? Well, this dragon lives in a cave full of gold, gold that it loves very much. And somebody stole its favorite cup. He doesn't know how to single out the thief, but he can kill that criminal and the rest of the town all at once.

Watching this is depressing. This adaptation should have been two films long at most.

Please do stardust, the movie and the book are excellent and yet uniquely different

Dom don't be mad on Terrance... Look how handsome he is.

The effects were definitely not better than the Lord of the Rings. The CGI was cartoonish and they relied FAR too much on it. Peter Jackson is notable for his use of practical effects in all his older films. Lord of the Rings uses them expertly to make orcs look gritty and real. He also filmed actual models for the castles and towns. Not just CGI madness everywhere

"scene of Tom Bombadill just dancing in the background" I seriously pictured him doing that and burst out laughing.

The forced love interest in this trilogy and setting up a kickass female character only for her to be the token damsel REALLY pissed me off with these films -_-'.

13:25 I just read this book for the first time, and the moon runes on the map were certainly in the book, and Elrond shows it to them, just like in the movie.

I still have fond memories of these movies, because every Christmas my godmother would take me to the movies, and we watched these movies.

I recently had one of those "On This Day" things pop up in my Facebook timeline. It from when I had just seen _The Hobbit_ at the cinema in December 2012:- "Went to see 'The Hobbit' today. It had me grinning every time they used a line from the book. It was a bit like when your favourite band plays the opening chords from one of their classic hits." [Sigh] Talk about diminishing returns.

0:15 You are my spirit animal, Dom. 14:33 This is simply due to everyone and their dog believing that everything in the middle ages was brown and dirty when in reality rich people flaunted their wealth by dressing in the brightest primary colours possible.

Please do the Chronicles of Narnia! I would love to see you discuss how bafflingly different Prince Caspian's movie plot is from the book.

"Conventionally handsome" Aiden Turner? I'm straight and I'd offer myself in tribute.

"The Battle of Anzaga-boogoo-boogoo" I FUCKING SNORTED XDDDDD

The whole skit thing has such Channel Awesome energy.

Love the Dom/Calluna duo! They work well off one another and I'd definitely like to see more of them together. (Terrance is great. Nothing about this will ever change.)

Calluna seems nice. I'm gonna check out her work.

One does have to love how the moon letters were pretty much the only memorable thing that happened during their visit to Rivendell, and the map presented at the start of the book even has the moon letters presented in transparent text as opposed to solid black for the curious rune-reader. And how you thought it was copying the door to Moria when it was far more likely that the door was Tolkien recycling the map's concept because it was so cool.

My mom would read 1-2 chapters of the Hobbit to me every night when I was really young, so it holds a special place in my heart

As someone that always loved the book I liked the first movie, but they got worse as the movies continued.

I really liked the first film. The other two dragged on but I still liked them. I really do wish they had just stuck with making just two films. It's just crazy that they took a rather short book (what was it, 300 pages?) and stretched it over 3 films but condensed 3 much longer books into the same number of films.

WHAT!? ARE YOUR FUCKING SERIOUS! BRIAN BLESSED! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on 50 episodes Dominic I'm so sad I can't watch Howl

I personally wouldn’t have minded adding more LOTR elements into The Hobbit, since Tolkien originally never wrote the book too be part of a bigger universe and it wouldn’t had been a stretch that if he had made the book knowing what would come next he would’ve added more. Having two Hobbit films with extra stuff like Gandalf’s journey from the originally appendices on paper don’t sound like a bad idea (I’d even argue it’s what De Toro was probably intending to do). The issue tho for me was the poor execution and them stretching it into three movies.

If you have time, are you going to discuss the differences between this and the Rankin-Bass Hobbit animated movie?

Could you guys imagine Guillermo Del Toro's take on Mirkwood though? It probably would have been amazing!

My favorite part of both the book and movie was Bilbo and Smeagol's riddles, I love it so much. That being said, the second and third movies left out a lot of cool stuff from the book but added needless padding when they could've just used the actual material

Terrance at the end cracked me up xD

I grew up with the Rankin Bass version, and read the book much later. I still haven't been able to bring myself to watch the newer film adaptation. I hope someday I'll get to see a comparison to the animated version.

I really love the Lord of the Rings movies. I know they have a lot of differences from the books (which I have also read), some of which do seem a pointless, but I think it's offset by the fact that they really capture that combination of badass heroics, wistful sadness at a bygone age and the gradual loss of innocence, and the resolute struggle of good against overwhelming evil that is the essence of Lord of the Rings. They might not correspond to the books completely or even the best they could, but they capture how the reading them felt. Which of course the Hobbit fails to do in every way. I feel like they took all the bad things from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and left out all the things they did right.

Why does everyone feel the need to add short to the description of the Hobbit as a book? It’s not a long book by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn’t call it short. Short implies novella length. It’s an average length novel, not stupidly long and not too short. In defence of the three films an awful lot happens in the book, and some without very much build up (e.g. Bard). It was nice to see all the scenes from the book play out and to expand on certain back stories to make them more interesting. And it is wise to give a central villain across all three films to give us some real stakes. I would have accepted 2 films on this, but I do agree that 3 was excessive.

Nice! You should also do, Miss Perigrine's Home For Peculiar Children and A Monster Calls :)

The book is basically: the hobbit a tale I don’t want to go on

I genuinely quite liked the inclusion of the "I'm going on an adventure!" part from Bilbo. It makes him a bit more proactive and I like that. Gods no to the rest of it though.

I always thought the first one was the best. The padding became alot more obvious in the 2nd.

Congrats on 50 episodes. and knowing Del Toro was planing on hiring Brian Blessed just makes me wish his version had happened even more, what he had planed for Smaug was also super cool

Influenced by scandinavian myths... It really is. The names of every member of the company are in a list at the beginning of the poetic Edda. It was hilarious when I started reading that list. Fili, kili, thorin... all of them

I just finished the movie trilogy and I couldn't believe it when I first saw Thorin. He looked like Fili and Kili's older brother, instead of their uncle who is older than their mother.

In the middle of the earth, in the land of Shire there's a brave little Hobbit who we all admire.

I like that they made Azog the main villain and Thorin's nemesis. This wasn't Dain's story, it's Thorin's so it makes sense to give him that. Also the first one is the best because it's the most focused. 2 and 3 start jumping from place to place a bit too much instead of focusing on the main quest. I think that LOTR too was at it's best when the Fellowship was together, not when they were split into multiple parts.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate Dom's scream at 2:10 - especially when slowed down hahahaha I am easily startled in exactly the same way so I'm living for that representation right now XD

There actually are reasons why the eagles can talk in the extended Tolkien lore. The eagles are very specifically the direct servants of one of the Valar (gods, essentially) and are empowered to do certain things in his service and they're gifted with speech to better meet his needs. Ravens can talk because, come on, that's a super common fairy tale trope. Also, ravens can mimic human speech, so it's not that much of a stretch for a fairy tale derived story. The men of the dale being able to talk to thrushes is just . . . a thing they can do. That's kind of justified in Tolkien's extended lore, but only in the sense that elements of the extended lore technically make anything possible, as long as Tolkien didn't feel it broke the story. As I understand it, every single person who ever lives in Middle Earth is given a certain amount magic power by Iluvatar, the creator of the universe. Each person could use that power however he saw fit, as long as he could consciously figure out how to access it. Most people never did, but whenever someone did, he would usually teach that power to his children, and they to theirs and it would eventually sort of become just a thing the family line could do after a while. An interesting implications of this: the reason why hobbits were so good at growing things and so resistant to the evil of the ring was because they loved simple, pastoral pleasures so much that they were unconsciously tapping their magic power to make them good at it. Because they cared most about simple pleasures and disliked grand adventures, they would also be less tempted by the ring's power and their innate, but totally unconscious use of magic gave them additional protection. However, the power of the ring was such that even they would be corrupted over time if they subjected themselves to it for too long. Another fun fact: everybody's magic power was finite. They only got a certain amount of it to be used across the whole of their lifetimes and once you used it up, it was gone. That's why you see so many huge displays of magic across the Silmarillion and why Galadriel was an absolute bad-ass early in her life, and why Sauron had tons of different powers when he served under Morgoth, but all of them seemed to have so little they could do by the time Lord of the Rings rolled around. Gandalf, for example, had tons of unbelievable power, enough to destroy the Balrog and drive away the ringwraiths without too much effort, but he'd been using it slowly over centuries and was very conservative with it because he knew if he ran out, he'd find himself needing it later, but not be able to use it. And Sauron? He'd got killed twice during the Silmarillion, but each time, he used huge amounts of personal power to restore his spirit to a physical body, and each time he got progressively weaker. When he died for a third time in the Battle of the Last Alliance, he no longer had enough power to rebuild a body for himself. Knowing this was a possibility, he bound his spirit to the One Ring so his soul wouldn't be banished into the abyss at his next death and he could use it's power to revive himself again, but before he could do so, Isildor took the ring as a prize for his victory. Tolkien's extended lore is fascinating.

I've been waiting for this since it was mentioned in passing!! Yay!!

Ooh, good choice! I hadn't thought to expect this one, but it seems such an obvious choice now.

It is nice to see someone finally admit that most of the added stuff (although not all of it) was taken from the appendix of Return of the King (or inspired by it).

If the Lord of the Rings were adapted to film the same way the Hobbit was, it would be over 29 hours long.

Bit odd seeing you in a crossover, but you guys work well together.

You do realize now The Dom that the ship of TheDomxCallunaxTerrance shall all set sail, for maybe around... 3 months.

"The Hobbit" was one of the first Books my dad ever read to me and I sort of love it. It holds a special pace in my heart. I did watch "an Unexpected Journey" in a Theater and I left feeling kind of empty and bitter. Never even saw the other two, read the book again instead.

All I remembered from the book was that Elrond just put the map on a window or something like that, and the letters just shone to the moonlight. When I first saw it at the cinema in 2012 I just lolled at the scene and thought to myself "this is sooo Peter Jackson."

Might I recommend the Dustin Lee cut of the Hobbit? It removed almost all the Lord of the Rings fan service and subplots with the intent of making the trilogy a single 4 hour film with only the elements that were adapted from the book. It worked surprisingly well and it makes for easier and better entertainment that feels more faithful and less tiring.

Ironic that you called what Hermione goes through "Legolas Syndrome" since Tauriel made Legolas look downright grounded in comparison.

Absolutely loved the crossover! I enjoy both yours and Calluna's videos, and watching the two of you together wasn't just double the pleasure, but more like quadruple the pleasure. Looking forward to the future collaborations or even videos briefly featuring her :)

It was about time! I've been waiting for this!

Oh great, now I ship Terrance and Calluna

I remember my dad reading this to me and my sister when we were little, it was so cool. Also, YAY TERRENCE!

I was so happy when I saw this in my sub tab thing. I've been waiting for this one for a while now

The first film gave me hope, especially when it made all those early references to the book. Even using Tolkien's notes to pad Gandalfs side of the story seemed a good idea for making it a bit darker to fit LOTR and adding runtime, but the next 2 films just make me sad inside.

I've never watched Calluna's stuff but her voice is strangely familiar.

"I work alone" Ha! You two live together now beech! That's what's up! That mountain ain't lonely no more!

Finely, I've been waiting for this for forever. Can wait for Desolation Of Smaug.

I've never seen these movies, but I can't get over how young Bilbo looks. What made the original book so unique was the idea that the hero was a stolid, middle aged man who got caught up in a crazy adventure, the reverse of the more common young-hero trope.

The runes that appear only by the light of the moon WERE in the books. That scene with Elrond in the films is not to different from the books.

Say what you will about Rhadaghast or however you spell his name, he's probably the only druid we've gotten in any form of big budget movie any time recently, and his character wasn't bad. if you were intending on a totally accurate hobbit movie then sure, but I think everyone knew that they were going to take 'creative liberties' with bits here and there and frankly, I'm glad to see another of the several wizards, always thought the two blue wizards would be a great starting place for a different storyline in the universe.

The reason why there were three movies was because Jackson went into the movie without having time for pre-production(the LOTR movies were being figured out to the last detail YEARS before filming started). He literally asked there to be a third movie because he began filming the Battle of the Five Armies without even a storyboard. It wasn't to expand the storytelling, it was to give the production some necessary leeway.

There's one major thing untouched in the video. The behavior of the dwarves besides Thorin. A major example of the changes in their behavior is in the musical number chip the glasses, crack the plates where the movie depicts the dwarves doing all the terrible things they mention, such as smashing dishes, bending silverware, and smashing wine on the front door and over all just wrecking Bilbo's house. However, Tolkien depicted the dwarves as singing this to tease Bilbo but they actually cleaned up after themeselves as a show of thanks to their host Bilbo. “I suppose you will all stay to supper?” he said in his politest unpressing tones. “Of course!” said Thorin. “And after. We shan’t get through the business till late, and we must have some music first. Now to clear up!” Thereupon the twelve dwarves-not Thorin, he was too important, and stayed talking to Gandalf-jumped to their feet, and made tall piles of all the things. Off they went, not waiting for trays, balancing columns of plates, each with a bottle on the top, with one hand, while the hobbit ran after them almost squeaking with fright: “please be careful!” and “please, don’t trouble! I can manage.” But the dwarves only started to sing: Chip the glasses and crack the plates! Blunt the knives and bend the forks! That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates- Smash the bottles and burn the corks! Cut the cloth and tread on the fat! Pour the milk on the pantry floor! Leave the bones on the bedroom mat! Splash the wine on every door! Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl; Pound them up with a thumping pole; And when you’ve finished, if any are whole, Send them down the hall to roll! That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates! So, carefully! carefully with the plates! And of course they did none of these dreadful things, and everything was cleaned and put away safe as quick as lightning, while the hobbit was turning round and round in the middle of the kitchen trying to see what they were doing-The Hobbit, Chapter One: An Unexpected Party Tolkien makes it clear the dwarves respect and honor their host but also find Bilbo's behavior and worry ammusing and while they joke about it, they still clean up as a show of respect and gratitude. Ultimately the dwarves are not jerks or college students who trash their dorms during frat parties, they have a strong sense of respect and honor but also a strong sense of humor. Of course they did act in a manner that may seem abraisive and slightly rude and reckless, but for them it is rather efficient and they acted without delay.

23:59 - sadly this was the "good" one in the trilogy.

Great to see this one finally being done. (As a lover of the books, I hated the movies with a vengeance.) You should put a link in the description for Calluna's channel.

Still binge-watching. That handslap priceless

Thanks so much for making this video!!!

That's funny, I always imagined the bear guy from the book as Brian Blessed. Point is, Brian Blessed definitely should have been in The Hobbit.

WHY would you foreshadow the whole Tauriel subplot with your co-host ONLY TO COMPLETELY AVOID THE TOPIC IN THE ACTUAL REVIEW. WHY.

Hellz Yeah! Love your work Terrance

I think I like it better that Bilbo actually has the choice of going, instead of being muscled into it by Gandalf. That's one of the changes I do like. (That, and having the Arkenstone being the focus of the treasure-hunt instead of only mentioning it near the end.)

Well actually, because you pinned you acknowledgement of the moon letters, I won't make my intended comment. How many is that?

It's a testament to how incredibly pointless Tom Bombadil is that even in these movies he couldn't get any screen time.

Dom, thank you sooo much for doing this franchise!

21:18 That’s interesting actually, because it very neatly debunks that old fan theory about “why didn’t the eagles just fly Frodo to Mt Doom?” from LotR. If they were too afraid of Smaug to go near his lair, then they were _definitely_ too afraid of Sauron and the Nazgul to risk flying anywhere close to Mordor. Even toward the end of LotR when Gandalf asks one of the eagle for help to outrun the Nazgul, he waits until _after_ he knows Sauron is gone, when he’s sure they’re greatly weakened (though not necessarily destroyed). In fact, this delay nearly proves fatal for Frodo because it meant the ringwraiths ended up reaching Mt Doom before Gandalf, and if they hadn’t been annihilated there and then (either because their rings’ power expired or because they got caught up in the eruption; AFAIK it’s never made entirely clear), he and Sam would’ve been royally screwed. 12:42 In fact, they basically took that LotR scene and shoehorned it into this film. 20:56 I’m guessing they’re meant to have some sort of connection to the descendants of Numenor (and so still possess a few slight “magical” abilities)?

I'm definitely more in favour of a solo Dom or double Dom review. Nothing against the lady.

Am I the only one who is extremely disturbed by the Goblin King's neck goiter, to the point that I have to avert my eyes during that whole scene? :shudder:

You're actually quite right about The Hobbit's Scandinavian/Anglo-Saxon influences, Dom. JRR Tolkien was (and is) pretty much a rock star in the field of Germanic literature studies, and cribbed A LOT from "Beowulf" and the Old Norse Eddas. Hell, Smaug himself is almost a carbon-copy of the dragon from "Beowulf".

The biggest change from book to film: Splitting Goblins from Orcs. In The Hobbit and LotR, “Orc” is just another word for “Goblin”.