Elves and Hobbits!

[Folwren]

Originally posted by drigel:
the thing i regretted not seeing enough in the movies was the hobbit height point of reference. Very hard to do admittedly, but seeing how PJ dealt with Gollum proved to me it was doable. Lots of clever perspective tricks - yes - but (to me) not enough - and it was obvious when the little people stand ins were shot. Plenty of close ups or away shots, and plenty of hobbit only scenes, but not enough reference shots that portrayed that hobbits were not just people who were height challenged - but hobbits - 3-4 footers.

I think that's what disapointed me. You didn't get to actually see that they were that small. You did at times, but it wasn't remdined of you constantly. The part when Boromir stops Frodo at the Bridge when Gandalf falls and picked him up and carries him off was really, really well done, and is that the sort of thing you wanted more of?

Originally posted by Elladan and Elrohir:
I thought hobbits were done awesomely in the movies. The author of this thread made the point that Sam's the only one of the main four that acts or talks like a hobbit. I would say that that is accurate, both accurate for you to say and accurate for PJ to portray. Sam is the quintessinal (sp?) hobbit; the others are quite unusual for hobbits, particularly Frodo. Because of their high ancestry, and because of the unusual amount of knowledge they have about the world outside

Well, no...if you read the books carefully, you'll find that all four of them were very much hobbits when they left. Even Frodo. There's a certain character to them that goes beyond even the special shooting of the camera or spacing, that they didn't get many times in the movies. Of course, as the book goes on that changes, and really only Sam is left the most unaffected, but they are completely 'hobbit', if you follow me, at the beginning...and they continue to be until later in the TT.

Does any of that make sense? I'm trying to think on an empty stomach, and I find it's not working too well.

As for elves...no, they weren't all protrayed like the elves in the books, I won't argue with that, especially now that you've brought to mind Sam's quote. But I still liked 'em.

-Folwren

Edit: Now that Eomer's replied, I've got to say something more.

I might've guessed you'd say just about the opposite. I'm finding most people do in this matter.

I think it's the childishness in the hobbits that I miss most. If that's how it appears in the book, then I'll bet that's how Tolkien meant it to be and that is how their character was supposed to be formed and that's how he shaped them. Being able to write some myself, I know a little about character developement, and you don't just write a thousand and more pages about people and make them something they're not supposed be. For PJ to take the childlike character out of them makes them...short men and little else.