We are all hobbits now

The National Post ^ | September 28, 2001 (yes, I know, it is old!) | Patricia Pearson

[Alkhin]

Don't know how many Canucks are on board here at FR, but I am going to take my chances and say that the only thing that bothers me about what this girl has to say is that she writes as if CANADA were attacked...yet it was CANADA that those Godless b*st*rds came through to strike at us. If ANYTHING, it is Americans who are the innocents here...Canada is just standing by, not providing much of a barrier in their own right.

I know the article is old, but since there has been such a furor lately of this upcoming movie (not to mention that I am a HUGE and LONGTIME lover of all things hobbitish, elvish, and ringish), I thought this article interesting and wanted to share....because her MAIN point is exactly how I will be looking at it when I go see it: how salient the set-up will be to our own positions in this flow of history.

She also writes: I've seen the trailer and I was disappointed that Frodo Baggins, played by young actor Elijah Wood, looked so pretty. They weren't good-looking boyswith huge prosthetic feet.

THANK GOD FOR THAT!!! There was an article on another site of Warwick Davis ("Willow") complaining that he wasnt cast. Sorry, but I happen to believe that even young hobbits in the prime of their lives would be goodlooking and virile...not shrunken and dwarvish. Elijah Wood is BEAUTIFUL...and as such fits the role of Frodo PERFECTLY...he was named 'elf-friend' after all!

Anyway, My $00.02 worth...

[Alkhin]

EVERY hobbit should look like this:

[Alkhin]

BUMP

[Mamzelle]

I do think we'll need some hobbits in about a month or two. I've been looking forward to this for thirty years...every indication is that this'll be a wonderful movie. America could use one, and Britain, too...(and talk about your anglophile movies!)

[Silly]

September 28, 2001 (yes, I know, it is old!)

Don't feel too bad about publishing an old story -- it was published on my birthday.

The trailers for LOTR are thrilling, and I can't wait to see the movie.

[billbears]

Elijah Wood is a good person to be cast as Frodo and I believe that with John Rhys Davies involved as well this will be an excellent EXCELLENT movie. The guy from Willow could play Bilbo walking towards the sea at the end of the final book, but that's about it. This movie will be heads above any of the Potter movies.

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

One glaring problem with this article is that she casts Kofi Anon as Gandalf! If this were true, Gandalf would have been working closely with the orcs to make sure they got a homeland right next to Moria.

LTS

[Cyber Liberty]

From the article:

Kofi Annan of the United Nations can be Gandalf...

That line alone is a five-alarm insult to Gandalf the Grey.

[BlueLancer]

Pardon me while I sit here and comb my feet.

[maxwell]

This better not disappoint. I don't think it will... I've been looking forward to this for years. Anybody know if they hired actual little people for the hobbits etc.? I don't know who Pretty-boy Wood is.

[Sangamon Kid]

Finished the Hobbit a week ago. Nearing the end of the first book of the Rings trilogy. The sword Glamdring, and Gandalf haven fallen in battle; the Balrog having pulled the wizard down with it into the fiery pit in the Mountains of Moria.

Great Stuff!! Last time I read Tolkien was 30 years ago.

[Alkhin]

Yes, yes, yes to all posts...I am SO stoked...(AND in lust....sorry, but I am so thankful Jackson had the smarts to present the hobbits as something either as neutral children or bandy old men. Frodo and friends were in their 50s, which in human years is like 20s and 30s...the prime of life...when a person is young and vital and attractive. It also ensures that Tolkien's universe is complete in its beauty...sad to say, but Hollywood knows this best and foremost...you cannot sell a movie if the actor/character does not have some or a lot of sex appeal.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! I can't stand it...best friend and I have already told our hubbys..."you will have to sit in another part of the theater...we WILL embarrass you by our drooling!" LOL

[ArGee]

Kofi Annan of the United Nations can be Gandalf, let's pretend,

Well, if she had left off this Kofi Annan as Gandalf c*** I might have enjoyed the article. However, this line suggests the article needs a

Barf Alert!

Shalom.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Nope, they hired actors that are in normal parameters of height. They are using clever camera work and digital technology, along with small actor doubles, to create the illusion that Woods, Astin, Boyd, and Monighan are 3 to 4 feet tall.

[ArGee]

Elijah Wood is a good person to be cast as Frodo and I believe that with John Rhys Davies involved as well this will be an excellent EXCELLENT movie.

I don't know any of Wood's work and I don't expect it to upset me too much when I watch the movie. But Frodo isn't a kid - he's 50 years old when he goes on his adventure. What's wrong with letting the elderly show their strength?

That said, the trailor is outstanding!

Shalom.

[Alkhin]

NOPE...which is what Warwick Davis was complaining about. They used average sized people, and then did camera tricks/CGI and focal manipulation to make them appear to be hobbit sized.

Here's a photo of Pippin and Merry, the two playboys of the group....makes you wonder just what it was they got into THIS time!

Fool of a Took! (and Brandybuck)

[FairWitness]

One of many scenes in LOTR that I like to remember (I have not re-read it in quite a while so this will be a very loose description) involves Gandalf and one of the "young hobbits" (Pippin I believe) hurrying, after the fall of Saruman, to Gondor. They are in a great hurry and are therefore both riding on Shadofax, Gandalf's great white horse, since a second horse would only slow them down. As I remember it, Gandalf finishes some grandiloquent monologue about honor/duty/sacrifice and the hobbit's response is to ask him if it isn't time for them to take a break to rest and eat. Gandalf's response is to say something like "every great warrior/wizard should ride with a hobbit at his back to remind him what it is that he is fighting for".

[Sangamon Kid]

One glaring problem with this article is that she casts Kofi Anon as Gandalf! If this were true, Gandalf would have been working closely with the orcs to make sure they got a homeland right next to Moria.

He would be correct to if he cast Kofi as the evil wizard Saruman.

[billbears]

Rhys-Davies is over 6 feet and he is playing one of the main dwarves. That's the only thing I'm really worried about, the special effects

[Alkhin]

What's wrong with letting the elderly show their strength?

That's because Hobbits live to be about 115 yrs old...50 is old in human terms, but not hobbit...think about it: if human average lifespan was 115 years, the old ideas of being over the hill at 40 would be laughable.

No Frodo et al are in the PRIME of life...and their youth and unattachment to any settled life should show it.