I like that poster too.

I didn't see the 1970s Rankin-Bass Hobbit, but I did see the animated LOTR from that era. Though I didn't see it, in some ways I think I'd prefer its treatment of the Battle of Five Armies (given in Lady Galadriel's spoiler above) rather than a huge epic fight with tons of action.

(Random: I can't help thinking of the animated LWW from the 70s with Tumnus having bright red skin and "Chia pet" green hair. Sorry).

That Silmarillion read-along is probably just what I need to read it again. It's been a very long time since I read it. I think I was spoiled by a friend's audio book version read by someone with a very cool and dignified English accent (I don't recall the details of that production, such as who the reader was).

Is anyone else thinking it's about time for a trailer?

A few days ago TORn ran an interview with PJ that basically said they weren't far enough along with the effects for a trailer, but we should see a teaser soon (this week?). I'm guessing that's what's been rated.

The official trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies is finally here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzeFFsKEt4&list=UUjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g

I'm still not really excited about this Hobbit trilogy thing. But if you like fantasy battle sequences, I'm pretty sure this movie has plenty.

Please don't ruin the Arkenstone plot. Please don't ruin the Arkenstone plot. Please don't ruin the Arkenstone plot.

Considering how I felt coming out of the second movie (which was pretty disappointed to put it mildly), I thought the teaser looked... pretty good. Like, I thought I saw some stuff from the book in there! Whaaaat???

So I have gone from not terribly interested in seeing this in the theaters to possibly giving it a chance.

Biggest dislike:

Biggest likes:

But if you like fantasy battle sequences, I'm pretty sure this movie has plenty.

I do not, not overdone, anyway. And drat! But not at all surprising. Btw, a huge ditto to your small print point there, Dot.

Some of these may need not to be Spoilered, but just to be safe ...

Dislikes:

Spoiler

And yep re Galadriel and Gandalf

Spoiler

Is that Radagast on his light-speed sled again? /edit wait, from TORn, that's a dwarf war-sled ... huh?! /end edit

General:

Likes: I was very

Spoiler

drawn to Bard, although I still say he looks way too much like Orlando. When he asks of Thorin "Will you have peace or war?" ... goosebumps, oh yeah.

Bilbo

Random:

re: Fantasia's biggest dislike

Spoiler

I was actually pretty, meh, whatever, they're sure working that angle. I think I used up all my indignation last time around. I hope (based on last time) that it's just a blink-n-you'll-miss-it thing... I was actually a bit more confused by the shot of Galadriel's feet. What were they trying to suggest there? She goes and looks in her mirror?

Ditto Dot. They've been heavy-handing it all through the last movie, don't about face now...

My biggest dislike:

Spoiler

The sled. Seriously. Whaaa? Why?

Random:

Just watched the trailer for a second time and I think I finally figured out what bugged me the first time around. They are trying too hard to have it set up for LotR. The tone, the flash of the "eye", the song, the way it seems to set up for a more depressing end... it seems like they are trying to foreshadow LotR so that future watchers will watch The Hobbit movies and roll straight into LotR and "understand" without being told that there is a time gap between movies and that's why LotR is such a dark story to begin with until the introduction of hope into the story.

... it seems like they are trying to foreshadow LotR so that future watchers will watch The Hobbit movies and roll straight into LotR ...

Or run straight to the shop and buy the LotR DVDs?

I like Pippin's song, but I agree with whoever said that if it's going to be used in the film, it should be sung by Bilbo. I'm going to read the chapter of LotR where it's found and see whether it's possible that Bilbo was the author.

Jo, I agree that the choice of trailer music pulled me back to Gondor instead of putting me into the somber mood it was no doubt intended to! I don't think I would've had such a strong reaction if they'd hadn't used Billy Boyd's version. I believe Bilbo was indeed the original author (but do check and let us know, Varna!), so I wouldn't mind if he (or even one of the Dwarves) sang it, but pulling it straight out of RotK kind of bugged me...

Otherwise, I don't really have too much of an opinion on the teaser; at this point, it'll be what it'll be and there's not too much of a point of me getting worked up over it now, especially since it is still a teaser.

Random:

Spoiler

The use of Pippin's song, to me, suggests that they do intend to leave you heartbroken at the end of the movie. (I remember seeing Faramir's charge for the first time and breaking down in tears in the theater. And they don't even have a pause button.) So... I think it's a good sign even if it doesn't seem to thematically fit...

I believe Bilbo was indeed the original author (but do check and let us know, Varna!), so I wouldn't mind if he (or even one of the Dwarves) sang it, but pulling it straight out of RotK kind of bugged me...

It doesn't belong in RotK, but in FotR, and it isn't a sad song at all - they actually had to change the text to make it a sad one (more about that later). In the book, the hobbits begin singing it while they're planning to rest for the night, just before they meet the Elves and spend the night with them.

They began to hum softly, as hobbits have a way of doing as they walk along, especially when they are drawing near to home at night. With most hobbits it is a supper-song or a bed-song; but these hobbits hummed a walking-song (though not, of course, without any mention of supper and bed).

The idea is "oh lovely, now we're nearly back home", which is a rather hobbitty attitude to adventure

And indeed

Bilbo Baggins had made the words, to a tune that was as old as the hills, and taught it to Frodo as they walked in the lanes of the Water-valley and talked about Adventure.

The third (and last) verse of the song really goes like this,

Home is behind, the world ahead,
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadows to the edge of night,
Until the stars are all alight.
Then world behind and home ahead,
We’ll wander back to home and bed.
 Mist and twilight, cloud and shade,
 Away shall fade! Away shall fade!
 Fire and lamp, and meat and bread,
 And then to bed! And then to bed!

The text is changed in the RotK film version - the thoughts of a cosy home are removed.
And what is more: "Away shall fade" is changed to "All shall fade" - which turns the meaning of those two lines completely upside down!

They are trying too hard to have it set up for LotR. The tone, the flash of the "eye", the song, the way it seems to set up for a more depressing end... it seems like they are trying to foreshadow LotR so that future watchers will watch The Hobbit movies and roll straight into LotR and "understand" without being told that there is a time gap between movies and that's why LotR is such a dark story to begin with until the introduction of hope into the story.

Peter Jackson said that was what he was essentially trying to do at the Comic Con panel. I get where he's going with it, because TH should lead into LotR. However, I think he's going about it the wrong way. He's making TH a "save all of Middle-Earth" thing, rather than have it lead up to the actual save the world story. In an effort to make it less of a children's story, he went too far in the other direction. There should be stirrings of darkness and dread in TH, but not all-out Gandalf fights someone he can't beat! The Nazgul are back! Doom and gloom!

I'm pretty convinced that the trailer music was just fan service. Hey, remember how you felt when you heard this before? You're going to feel that way again!

If they're going to adapt Tolkien's poetry, I wish they had adapted the Misty Mountains Reprise instead. Particularly the last two verses:

Now call we over mountains cold,
'Come back unto the caverns old'!
Here at the Gates the king awaits,
His hands are rich with gems and gold.

The king is come unto his hall
Under the Mountain dark and tall.
The Worm of Dread is slain and dead,
And ever so our foes shall fall!

The Worm of Dread line would obviously need to be rewritten, but other than that these two verses emphasize Thorin's gold sickness (which they had already been pushing really hard), and that last line has so much potential. Imagine hearing that and then immediately going into Bard and Thorin's exchange in the trailer.

I'm pretty convinced that the trailer music was just fan service. Hey, remember how you felt when you heard this before? You're going to feel that way again!

If they're going to adapt Tolkien's poetry, I wish they had adapted the Misty Mountains Reprise instead.

...now THAT would have been fan service. That song is about the best part of the first movie.

I wonder if anyone has done a tune for Tolkien's original hobbit version of "Home is Behind" (or whatever its title may be)? I was having a hard time reading the verse and not hearing the movie tune in my head... (I just listened to the BBC radio adaptation where they did some of the songs, but I don't remember hearing that particular verse.)

Varna, I did mean that they pulled the actual song recording straight from the RotK movie. Thanks for clarifying and checking into that!

Ooooh, the Misty Mountains Reprise would've been great, Dot!

Which original hobbit version are you thinking, Mel? I'm sure there's a tune somewhere (there's a possiblility Adele McAllister might have one?)...

Speaking of, are any of you familiar with Adele McAllister's settings of Tolkien's poetry as songs? She has a lot of them in a playlist, but she also has Tom Bombadil's Song, The King Beneath the Mountain, The Little House of Lost Play, and some others on her main page.

I wonder if anyone has done a tune for Tolkien's original hobbit version of "Home is Behind" (or whatever its title may be)? I was having a hard time reading the verse and not hearing the movie tune in my head... (I just listened to the BBC radio adaptation where they did some of the songs, but I don't remember hearing that particular verse.)

Yes, there has been published a song cycle called The Road Goes Ever On. Poems & Songs of Middle Earth.
Upon the hearth the fire is red (which is the title) is included in this cycle.

When I googled "Poems & Songs of Middle Earth" I found this gem:

Upon the hearth the fire is red is the second song, at about 2:13 - it's the type of merry song that I would have expected.
"Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade!" (at 3:47) goes at a very happy tune.

Wikipedia has more details about the song cycle at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Goes_Ever_On .

With Tolkien's approval, Donald Swann wrote the music for this song cycle, and much of the music resembles English traditional music or folk music.
(...)
An LP record of this song cycle was recorded on 12 June 1967, with Donald Swann on piano and William Elvin singing. Side one of this record consisted of Tolkien himself reading five poems from The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. The first track on side two was Tolkien reading the Elvish prayer "A Elbereth Gilthoniel". The remainder of side two contained the song cycle performed by Swann and Elvin.[2] This LP record, entitled Poems & Songs of Middle Earth, is long out of print and very difficult to find.

I found facts about the LP at http://www.discogs.com/release/1039597 . The illustration on the cover is by Pauline Baynes - she made some book covers for LotR, and this is one of them.

Colin Rudd is another artist who has recorded versions of many of the songs in LotR. His version of this song is very quiet and contemplative. It's one of my favorites among his Tolkien recordings.