Radagast in The Hobbit Film (SPOILERS)

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by cellurdur

I hated Radagast in the film (though I supported his appearance). He was just not what a member of the Istari should have been. There is one thing loving animals, but it is another having no dignity. If anything in the books he comes across as slightly snobbish with the way he looks down at the Shire. Having bird drops on his head was not only disgusting but beneath a Maia. I will not even mention the use of mushrooms as a psychedelic drug. Was very disappointed with him in the film.

Do wizards need such a pathetic thing as dignity? I say 'pathetic' because surely a wizard, in Tolkien's creation or indeed in any other writer's, is an inherently powerful being, much more so than a mere Man. 'Dignity' is something we humans need to set ourselves above or apart from the common herd and wizards by their nature have no need of that.

McCoy's portrayal of Radagast is not unlike a lot of figures in folklore - eccentric, unfathomable, even a bit disgusting.

As for him being 'silly', it puzzles me that when Jackson chose to excise the 'silly' things from the essentially very serious Lord of the Rings text, such as Tom Bombadil, he was praised. Yet when he chooses to echo the incredibe silliness of the text of The Hobbit, he is lambasted.

I wasn't keen on a hedgehog being named 'Sebastian' as the name was a bit jarring (I associate it with Brideshead Revisited and posh people's children), though I have my suspicions that might be McCoy's idea or an in-joke somewhere along the line.