Hobbit-ception
June 13, 2013 7:25 AM   Subscribe

Kellie and Alex, better known as Kili and Fili on the Tolkein fan site TheOneRing.net, are sisters who run the webseries Happy Hobbit. They filmed themselves watching the trailer for the new Hobbit film and posted the resulting video on their facebook page. Peter Jackson came across said video, posted it on his facebook page, and then filmed some of his cast as they watched it. Of course this then required a reaction-to-the-reaction-to-the-reaction video.
posted by tractorfeed (30 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
paging bunny ultramod, bunny ultramod to thread 129034.
posted by boo_radley at 7:28 AM on June 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


Is the next installment of The Hobbit due in theaters soon?
posted by notyou at 7:31 AM on June 13, 2013


I was waiting for Jackson's cast reaction to the 2 sisters video to include a brother not in the original video. Dang.
posted by dukes909 at 7:42 AM on June 13, 2013 [4 favorites]


Mod note: fixed the link, carry on.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:48 AM on June 13, 2013


I would like to watch people dressed like elves making fun of people in a delighted way for, like, hours, thank you. That is the equivalent of soothing animal videos, but tailor-made for my brain.
posted by WidgetAlley at 7:48 AM on June 13, 2013 [4 favorites]


I love these links and basically all things involving tricksy hobbitses but oh my god that is not what inception means.
posted by elizardbits at 7:53 AM on June 13, 2013 [4 favorites]


That was sweet and made me surprisingly happy. (Also hey! Lee Pace!)
posted by Lyn Never at 7:58 AM on June 13, 2013


"WE'RE A LAUGHING STOCK!!"

"IT'S OKAY, IT'S OKAY!"

These girls are awesome.
posted by Think_Long at 8:02 AM on June 13, 2013


Metafilter: just what it says on the tin.
posted by kozad at 8:11 AM on June 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


It's strange, since recursion is central towards understanding computation, that it doesn't get taught in secondary school or something.
posted by curuinor at 8:13 AM on June 13, 2013


I really want to hate Orlando Bloom for a number of superficial reasons, but his public persona makes that really difficult.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:16 AM on June 13, 2013 [5 favorites]


Considering the overblown nature of the Hobbit film production, I guess it's sort of appropriate that it took a seven minute video for two people to watch a two minute trailer.
posted by afx237vi at 8:18 AM on June 13, 2013 [7 favorites]


I saw this and thought "Oh, that's dumb; I'm not going to watch that."

And then somehow it was fifteen minutes later and my face hurt from grinning at all the adorable happy people, and now I sort of want to feed everyone a cookie. Good job, internet.
posted by MeghanC at 8:23 AM on June 13, 2013 [3 favorites]


I do not understand why Mr. Jackson did not give the stay with Beorn its own trilogy.
posted by Tanizaki at 8:37 AM on June 13, 2013 [9 favorites]


This was super adorable. Kind of reminded me of our own Astro Zombie's girlfriend recording herself being unable to watch the Wall-E trailer without crying, and that video eventually finding its way to Pixar.
posted by sparkletone at 9:00 AM on June 13, 2013 [6 favorites]


sparkletone: I think of that video every time I hear him say his name.
posted by grubi at 9:10 AM on June 13, 2013


OH MY GOD
posted by echocollate at 9:28 AM on June 13, 2013


The fanboy in me wants to say that Peter Jackson couldn't buy that kind of publicity, but the cynic in me is pretty sure that he is doing just that.

I hate getting old.
posted by plinth at 10:40 AM on June 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


I hope those ladies get invited to the premiere of the next movie.
posted by sparklemotion at 11:06 AM on June 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


This made me grin so hard.

It's almost impossible to match that kind of lovely, manic joy that exists in a moment like this because you're two of a kind and there's a THING and it is AWESOME.

I'm really glad Peter Jackson shared it, and went all recursive in inviting the people who create the THING that these two girls find awesome in the experience, and then let all of us share it. This is the best of fanning - passion and fun and everyone is included. (Even poor mom, at 3 AM!)
posted by harujion at 12:05 PM on June 13, 2013 [1 favorite]




You know. This. This is some of the best of what the internet is capable of doing, making connections between people that could not have happened or would be incredibly difficult to make in any other way. Who could've thought twenty, thirty years ago that big serious actors from a blockbuster movie would ever watch fans watching the trailer of their movie, that you could communicate this way, it's brilliant.
posted by MartinWisse at 1:19 PM on June 13, 2013


So awesome!
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:55 PM on June 13, 2013


appears to be taking Game of Thrones-esque liberties with his source material

I have started reading these books and have been surprised by some of the changes HBO has made. The most striking one to me was Tyrion's participation in the Battle of Green Fork. In the book, Tyrion fights rather well, including an ingenious attack against a mounted adversary. In the show, Tyrion gets knocked in the head by one of his own men and spends the entire battle unconscious.

A change like this is utterly baffling to me because it is not a reasonable concession to the constraints of translating a book to film. Would we like Tyrion too much if he fights well?
posted by Tanizaki at 3:00 PM on June 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


I can tell you exactly why that change was made and it is very reasonable:

$$$

Battle scenes cost big bucks.
posted by Justinian at 4:12 PM on June 13, 2013


The most striking one to me was Tyrion's participation in the Battle of Green Fork. In the book, Tyrion fights rather well, including an ingenious attack against a mounted adversary. In the show, Tyrion gets knocked in the head by one of his own men and spends the entire battle unconscious.

A change like this is utterly baffling to me because it is not a reasonable concession to the constraints of translating a book to film. Would we like Tyrion too much if he fights well?


I was watching a special features about the first season of Game of Thrones. It turns out they originally planned to show more of the Battle of the Green Fork, but had to cut it for budgetary reasons. I have issues with some of the adaptation choices, but most of the changes were either made to save money (see: setting a certain battle at night, not showing a few minor battles) or to keep the number of characters and factions at least somewhat comprehensible (see: getting rid of Edric Storm, The Bloody Mummers, and the Stormcrows.)

If anything, the show's changes to Tyrion have made him more likable. Also, Tyrion gets a chance to fight in the second season.

On edit, what Justinian said.

appears to be taking Game of Thrones-esque liberties with his source material

For better or worse, Peter Jackson and Newline decided to turn a 300-page novel into a nine-hour movie. There's just not enough story in The Hobbit to sustain a trilogy, not unless the movies had a glacial pace. So they did the only thing they really could: rewriting large parts of the story, adding story and changing characters as needed. But it's not just plot they changed: it's also tone, and I think this is where An Unexpected Journey went wrong. The Hobbit started out as a mostly lighthearted children's adventure, tinged with moments of dark humor, and only really started to take itself seriously near the end of the book. The movie, however, seemed to jump back and forth between two conflicting tones: the goofy adventure of The Hobbit, and the darker, more serious tone of The Lord of the Rings films. One minute it's The Tomfoolery of Radagast the Shitted Upon, the next it's an intense, emotional story about a brooding dwarf's quest for revenge.

Of course, there were other problems, like the first film's heel-dragging when it came to actually getting on with the story. I'm hopeful that the next films improve upon the first: it would be awesome to have a truly great adaptation of the Hobbit, instead of a merely medioce one. But the way to adapt a book isn't always to do things directly.
posted by Green Winnebago at 4:19 PM on June 13, 2013


Somewhat related to the FPP:

Homestuck, a webcomic about the inherent loneliness of internet cultures and circlejerking metashenanigans, was recently on a hiatus. Many distraught superfans respond to this hiatus by reading liveblogs where people talk about their reaction to Homestuck as they first read the comic such as this one. Parody liveblogs of the liveblogs started. This is a parody liveblog of a parody blog of a blog of the original webcomic.

The hiatus ended yesterday and the first thing the author of homestuck did was have a character retell part of the story as it interests/affected him, referencing the liveblogs and making the idea of a character sharing their reaction to the story a permanent and important part of the story.

I guess what I'm getting at is that ridiculous back and forths between superfans and creators are normal now and it's awesome.
posted by sandswipe at 9:40 PM on June 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'll tell you this right now: If Jackson made The Hobbit into a trilogy and skips the visit with Beorn, Jackson's dead to me.
posted by Reverend John at 8:02 AM on June 14, 2013


I can tell you exactly why that change was made and it is very reasonable:

$$$

Battle scenes cost big bucks.


That's a fair point, but the ten seconds he was on-screen getting knocked out like a boob could have been spent showing him charging into the fray. The Jack Burton treatment particularly diminishes his survival when he learns afterward how Tywin used Tyrion and his mountain men.
posted by Tanizaki at 8:27 AM on June 14, 2013


I have no children but if these two young women were my daughters I would be bursting with nerd pride.
posted by Ber at 1:16 PM on June 16, 2013


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