Air New Zealand is showing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey EXTENDED EDITION before any of the rest of us have a chance to get our hands on it! And one lucky fan got to see it. Based on what she could remember, here’s her account — from her blog, ‘fortysixthhour’ – of the new scenes you can expect. TORn’s own comments are added in [bold and square brackets]:
Oh, and a warning for significant movie spoiler material!
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1. The introduction. In the scene where even the Elves come to pay homage to the Arkenstone, they show the scene with Thranduil approaching the throne. The new part is that Thror motions for a dwarf to bring forward a big chest of gorgeous jewels, which he presents to Thranduil. Thranduil looks entranced, and reaches for the gems, but the dwarf cruelly closes the lid before Thranduil can reach it. (I suspect this is where a lot of Thranduil’s animosity toward dwarves comes from!)
2. In Bilbo’s introduction, “this is where I come in…” and there’s a flashback scene to a party in the Shire (likely one of the Old Took’s midsummer parties), with Gandalf setting off lovely fireworks. A small hobbit boy comes running up to Gandalf and starts batting at him playfully, trying to catch his sleeves. The boy is young Bilbo, and we see his mother Belladonna come running after him to tell him to stop before embracing Gandalf as an old friend. (I don’t remember who plays Belladonna, but she’s lovely… dark hair in curls. I looked in the credits to see who was listed, but didn’t recognize the name and didn’t have a pen to write it down with.)
[There was a rumour on the internet that Belladonna Baggins (nee Took) would be played by Fran Walsh herself, as the picture of Bilbo’s mother seen hanging in Bag End in Fellowship of the Ring was based on Walsh. Given Walsh’s tendency to shy away from publicity, however, it seems unlikely she would take on such a role. We do know that Katie Jackson appeared as a hobbit in AUJ; could she possibly have taken up the Belladonna mantle from her mother?]
3. After Gandalf meets Bilbo on the front bench, Bilbo goes into Hobbiton to buy himself his supper. He’s suspiciously looking everywhere to make sure Gandalf isn’t still around, as he buys his fish and talks to a neighbor. It’s actually a very funny scene, because he sees a gray hat-shaped form behind a wall and runs for it to avoid Gandalf, but it’s actually just another Hobbit carrying a tall load 😀
4. There were a lot of small little bits added in to the scene with the dwarves in Bilbo’s house -— I can’t remember them all, but they added some nice bits of character.
Rivendell had the most new scenes, from what I can recall… I was so pleased with this entire part of the extended edition, and wish they’d kept all of these bits in the original movie!
5. Kili is sitting at the table and he glances over at one of the Elvish musicians and catches her eye… and then winks at her. Dwalin catches him flirting with the Elf, and gives him a dirty look, and Kili quickly starts making excuses… “None of them are attractive, not enough facial hair! That’s what I want in a woman, a good beard” and so on and so forth. Dwalin obviously doesn’t believe any of Kili’s shit. Then Kili points to another Elf and says, “Although, that one isn’t so bad,” and Dwalin gives him a level looks and says, “That’s a male.” and everyone bursts out laughing, to Kili’s embarrassment.
6. After Ori complains about the green food, we see Nori complaining to the harp player because the music sounds like he’s at a funeral. He asks her to change it up a bit. Bofur leaps to his feat and then climbs the nearest object (a round stone sculpture that might very well be what Frodo sets the ring on when the Fellowship first meets in LOTR) and starts to sing and throw food. The other dwarves quickly join in. The song was brilliant, I wish I could remember it! And then one of the dwarves throws a big chunk of food at Lindir, and the look on his face!! We also see Nori slide a fancy salt-shaker into his jacket pocket.
[This is the song James Nesbitt was hoping would be back in the Extended Edition, as he told TORn in this interview. A Ringer spy tells us that this song is in fact ‘The Man in the Moon’, as sung by Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring.]
7. There was a scene with Thorin after Elrond explains about the swords, but I honestly can’t remember it. I’m going over and over with it in my head, and I’m blanking.
8. A scene where Lindir and Elrond are walking through Rivendell. Lindir says, “My lord, the kitchens are being severely strained, and we’re almost entirely out of wine. When are these dwarves leaving?” and Elrond gives a non-answer. They turn the corner, and the dwarves are all in a large fountain, stripped down to their smallclothes, and stacked three high on each other’s shoulders, having a battle to push over the other dwarf-tower.
9. While the dwarves are burning furniture and Bofur is throwing sausages to Bombur, Bilbo is outside on the stairs next to their balcony. He spots Gandalf and Elrond walking and listens in on their conversation. They’re discussing Erebor and Thorin, and how Thorin’s retaking of the Mountain could give the side of Good a stronghold in the East. Elrond points out, though, that Thror and Thrain both went mad, and the same fate is very likely in store for Thorin. Bilbo turns around, and Thorin is standing behind him, looking devastated but obviously not denying the possibility. It’s a really intimate moment between Bilbo and Thorin, this realization that a) they’re being manipulated to give the side of Good a better foothold, and b) that Elrond is so clinically discussing Thorin’s eventual madness, and Bilbo is now aware of what may be to come.
10. In the Goblin caves, there are two scenes that are new. The first is the Goblin King singing a song as the company is brought forward. All of the Goblins join in. It’s a pretty bad song (both musically and lyrically) about torture and the like. I actually enjoyed it, though; I like the characterization it gives the Goblin King.
11. When the Goblin King comes forward to start interrogating (Ori, the youngest), all of the company quickly step forward to try to stall. Oin comes forward and says that he’s the one they need to talk to, but his ear trumpet has been squashed so he can’t hear anything. Bofur then steps forward and pretends to be in charge. “How did we get here? Well that’s a funny story. We were traveling down the road. Well, you can’t really call it a road. A path. We were traveling down a path. No, not even that… a trail. So we were traveling down a trail, on our way to a meeting of our kin!” and so on. Finally Thorin steps forward.
12. When the Goblin King orders the dwarves to be searched, one of the goblins dumps a big pile of Nori’s stolen goods on the ground. There are spoons and an Elvish candlestick (“Second Age Elvish make”, the Goblin King declares, “You couldn’t give this away,” and he tosses it aside) and more. Someone (I think it was Dori) gives Nori grief about it, and Nori just shrugs and grins. I love this characterization of Nori, because Jed Brophy has talked before about how he wanted Nori’s character to be a thief, and but we never got to see any of that characterization before.
The blogger ends by noting:
“I’m sure there were other scenes. In fact, I’m positive of it. But I’m running on about four hours of sleep, and I just couldn’t remember anymore … All of that said, it is totally worth buying the Extended Edition if you’re interested in seeing more characterization of Bilbo and the Dwarves. There’s not a lot more fighting added in, but I genuinely believe that these extra scenes add more to the movies as a whole, and that some of the scenes, like #1, #5, and #9 will be important in the second movie.”
Any other Ringer spies out there who are flying Air New Zealand, let us know if you get to see this Extended Edition and if you remember any other added scenes! Back in June, Empire Magazine had reported Peter Jackson saying that there would be “… things in the extended cut that are going to play straight into the second film, … like this character Girion, who is defending Dale using black arrows against Smaug. And the black arrows play a part in an ongoing story, for they are the one thing that can pierce the dragon’s hide.” No mention of that scene in this blog — did it not make it after all? Let us know if you find out!
Thanks to all the Ringer spies who wrote in to alert us to this blog; and special thanks to ‘forty-six hours in a day’! Check out the blog here.
