[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I didn't care much for the animated version of the Hobbit either and I saw it as an adult (1977) when I was in my full throat Tolkien phase. It was a TV special and the animation was done by a Japanese animation company. It was certainly a lot truer to the tone and spirit of the book than the Jackson movie, but it also had more of an Astroboy look and feel as well.

I disagree. Yes, the animation was done by a Japanese studio, but nothing in The Hobbit screams anime to me. I think the animation style is beautiful.

I tend to agree with Timboli, I really liked the Hobbit movies but considered them movies suggested by The Hobbit book, rather than an adaption of the book. Yes, the studio pushed Jackson into turning it into a trilogy for financial purposes, which meant that a whole lot of filler had to be thrown in. Jackson likely could have done it as a single long movie, or perhaps even two movies and stayed much truer to the book.

I just felt like the Petey Jackson Hobbit movies were a mess as movies. He went too over the top with CG characters bouncing around and everything felt too amped-up. The storm giants and the barrel ride for instance.

One of the issues with The Hobbit is that while the story starts off as a children's tale, it's more like the original dark Brothers Grimm tales than the light and airy Disney movies that kids are use to now. I'm not sure you can make a movie that is faithful to the book and have it be successful. The Hobbit was published in 1937. Children were very different back then than today's modern bubble wrapped children.

I think by virtue of the films being a follow-up to Lord of the Rings, they would have been successful regardless. Look at the box office the tedious Star Wars prequels did. The Hobbit trilogy reminds me of those prequels in many ways.