Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – January 13, 2013”
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Fan reaction to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been broadly supportive, and the commercial success of the film is undeniable. But we all recognise there are divergences from the canon of Tolkien’s legendarium.
That’s why, this weekend, Hall of Fire will revive our traditional Tolkien Purists’ Whine and Cheese Party™, and pick apart all the changes that Peter Jackson and his crew chose to make.
We’ll be asking … what were the things — big or little — that bugged you? Continue reading “Hall of Fire today: the Hobbit whine and cheese party”
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This Russian version of The Hobbit, made in 1985, is nothing less than fascinating. You may have a hard time following it unless you understand Russian, as there are no captions, but it’s nevertheless always intriguing to see how someone else visualises Middle-earth.
Some background via the Youtube comments: Technically this is not a movie. It’s a theatrical performance filmed on a TV studio. That’s what “телеспектакль” stands for. Think of it as of a TV show for little children. These were pretty popular at the time, because soviet televison didn’t have anything you could call a “show” in modern sense. Also, the narrator here is Zinovy Gerdt — one of the most famous and recognised soviet actors.
There’s also a sub-titled MST-3K style parody (bad language warning!) here.
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Sharon Eberson from the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette interviewed “Tolkien scholar” Janet Brennan Croft she is a consultant for the film-makers of the Hobbit movie trilogy.
Her job for “The Hobbit” filmmakers is to make sure that writers are not bringing in outside sources because the rights are for specific Tolkien works.
She said has made continuity suggestions as well. “They have fixed some of the things I have mentioned [in the first film], but I don’t know if it was because of what I noted,” she said. “They are changing things all the time; the film was different than the last script I saw.”
[Read More]
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Emil Johannson of the LOTRProject assembled this simple flowchart analysing how Gandalf solves problems. He says that when there is no hope left, Gandalf will simply call the eagles. Which is probably a neat demonstration of why the eagles are such a dangerous literary device — something Tolkien himself recognised.

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Over on Tracksounds.com, Doug Adams (author of Music of Lord of the Rings) discusses Howard Shore’s score for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Stream the Episode 54 of The Soundcast directly from the site, or download the podcast and listen later. In the episode, Adams discusses the effect of the format on film experience, how the score caused people some headscratching, and why this whole thing is just a huge “game of themes.” It does take the panel a fair chunk of time to actually get down to talking about the OST. If like me, you find that frustrating, you might want to skip the first 10 minutes or so.
Episode Highlights
00:00 Blunt the Opening and Doug Adams Intro
05:46 What we were expecting from this film
9:58 General reactions and comparing to Lord of the Rings
11:45 Reacting to the film and it’s music (spoilers)
31:21 Headscratching: Reacting to the score
49:56 A Game of Themes?
78:50 Wrapping it up
[The Soundcast]
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