Yay, so we are getting another two movies of people walking. The books were awesome, but the more I've seen the movies, the more I tend to agree with the Clerks 2 interpretation of them.

I personally think LOTR is brilliant, well written and a must-read for fantasy enthusiasts. Certainly, Tolkein is the father of all modern fantasy, though his style of writing reflects the style of the time and is not everyone's cup of tea.

But if you have no intention of reading LOTR and are curious about the scouring, you might as well read the Scouring of the Shire Cliff Notes.

Well, at least they were walking through absolutely beautiful scenery though, right?

I approach the news with cautious optimism.

And I find this link fitting, for some reason.

Thanks for the link. I think I'm going to give the books another try, though. I have an entire month off and no real reading lists to work on, so I might as well pull out the Tolkien.

Some people find it easier to read if they skip (or just lightly skim) all the poetry.

I'm not sure it was the poetry. That was actually a nice break from the slowness of the story's progression. It's more what you described before about the writing of the time in which it was written. It's very Robinson Crusoe-esque.

As an aside, I hated Robinson Crusoe.

They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard! They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!

...DAMN YOU.

I was too.

EDIT: I wonder how and why he is going to spilt the hobbit into 2 movies? wonder how close to the book it's going to be. wait there was poetry? oh skimmed those

Most people I know have trouble getting passed the first half of Fellowship, because its all about that stupid fricking party. If you can make it past the party and to where the quartet of Hobbits leave the shire, that's when things start getting a lot better.

Absolutely not, I think that was my favorite part of the books. The hobbits getting back all geared up, done kicking ass and going through what they went through, only to find that their beautiful homeland was corrupted. And then taking care of business.

Great news about Jackson directing The Hobbit! I remember rumors he was going to do something like this a while ago. Also, I loved the Shire part of the first movie.

I managed to get as far as the third book without giving up. The first two were struggle though.
It's all about the writing style, as Estarra mentioned.

I'm so excited!

I was disappointed too about the Scouring not being part of the story. I think Jackson made some errors and showed bias in certain things--for all his vaunted special effects, he ignored Wizard-effects, stating in the commentary that he never liked that stuff. (He ignored "Sauraman of Many Colors", for instance).

The Hobbit sounds fun. The Hobbit however always had a different tone. It was written as a Children's book and with a different narrative style--I hope the Hobbit keeps that tone. I wonder if Jackson plans to elaborate on the backstory of the LoTR as well... maybe show where Gandalf disappeared too (investigating the Necromancer). I can't see how you could expand the novel for over 3 hours.

Estarra, do you have any memories of watching "The Hobbit", the Rankin-Bass animated special back in the 70s. That was actually my first exposure to The Hobbit and it was from what I remember a pretty-faithful adaptation, even though they omitted Beorn.

Of course! I enjoyed that animated version of the Hobbit quite a lot. I also remember being first in line to watch the animated version of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings (and buying up posters, calendars, anything I could get my grubby little hands on). And don't forget the Rankin-Bass musical version of Return of the King! I can still hear the orcs singing, "Where there's a whip! There's a way!"

If you watch the bonus features on the Return of the King DVD (all two disks ), it says why Jackson had to cut the Scouring of the Shire. There were already a lot of plotlines that were ended, and he wanted to keep the ending from dragging on so long after the climax that people would leave the theater (which happened anyway, and he had already cut some of the characters out like Gimli and Legolas). The tip of the hat in the first movie, in Galadriel's mirror, was the only reference to the Scouring that he intended to - and could - make. Sorry, Estarra.

Less Arwyn/Aragorn romantic tension, more scouring!

And I own those Rankin-Bass movies, as well as the Bakshi version. I love the "goat boy" singer of the Rankin-Bass versions.

"Frodo-o-o-o-o-o-o of the ni-i-i-i-i-i-i-ine fingers and the Ring of Do-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-om"

Okay, for those unbelievers, here's the Singing Orcs from the old Rankin Bass Return of the King movie.

This was one of my favorite songs from the animated version.

Fifteen Birds

That Hobbit film has one of the best Dragons I've ever seen. I still have memories of Smaug and how he used his "headlight vision" looking around. That was truly an impressive animated dragon.

The one flaw of the animation is the fact that everybody looks a bit wrinkled. The elves look kinda creepy.

I still have never seen the Bashki version, though I did see Return of the King from RB when it was on TV. (It was a bit harder to follow the plot that way).