Re: More Hobbit pictures [3] SPOILER THREAD

[bungobaggins]

Smaug has been redesigned for the EE. When he enters Erebor in the TE you can clearly see his feet, in the EE what we see is the claws on his wings. It seems that they may have moved the design from 4 legs to 2 fairly recently.

Spoiler:

[halfwise]

Too murky for me to see anything.

[bungobaggins]

Sorry Halfy, it's the best resolution of the EE I could find that wasn't going to be a hefty download. It's very noticeable when you watch the clips side by side. I'll see if I can make a gif.

[bungobaggins]

Spoiler:

[Tinuviel]

Oh wow!!! That's really interesting! I wonder why they changed it? Because I do remember that moment from the theatrical version, so I was so confused as to why all of a sudden his feet were gone! Well, I still am confused... does it make him more graceful and snake like? Less lumbery? But why change it mid film?

[Eldorion]

I feel like they'd have been better off removing that shot entirely, or at least replacing it with something from a different angle. It looks awkward without front legs.

Relatedly, I wondered before why they felt the need to play coy with Smaug's design in the first film only to reveal it in trailers. Maybe it was because they weren't happy with the design yet rather than because they really wanted to keep it a secret until some big reveal later on.

[Norc]

ooh.. they changed  this is gonna be fun to delve into once i get the EE

[Lancebloke]

PJ doesnt know what the word secret means Eldo. So I imagine the former.

[Norc]

i know he's a serious actor and all that, but i can't help but laugh a little.

[Norc]

THERE WILL BE NUDITY?!

[halfwise]

THERE WILL BE NUDITY?!

In your dreams, Norc.

[halfwise]

Going back to Smaug's legs, the funny thing is I don't remember that shot from the movie. I think the theatrical version looks more dramatic than the EE, and why would we expect to see the tips of wings and stuff anyway? They just keep getting in the way.

[Mrs Figg]

the theatrical version is more T-Rexy and the EE is more Dragony.

[bungobaggins]

I remember watching that scene in the theater. I like the TE better. And if they're going for a more snake-like physique wouldn't they want him to have 4 legs so they can elongate his torso?  

Also, there's really not much in this EE to delve into (in terms of the film, I'm sure there will be a lot of stuff in the extras). Only 13 minutes of new stuff and it does show. The best parts are young Bilbo, and Bilbo visiting the market. In the LOTR EE's it felt like extra scenes were spread out fairly, and all of it really added to the film. But here that doesn't seem to be, for me. The last extra stuff in the movie is the Great Goblin's song/interrogating the company.

It just doesn't feel like a different movie.

And just in case Petty reads this, Gandalf is not controlling fireworks with his hands in the scene with young Bilbo. On a second frame-by-frame viewing, it does look like the fireworks mimic the movements of Gandalf's hands, but it goes by so quickly it's hard to notice.

Another interesting thing to note is that, unlike the LOTR EE's, the title of the film appears in the same location as it did in the TE (Bilbo's smoke ring wafting into the air).

[Pettytyrant101]

Smaug has four legs, I mean its not like the author drew him and put him on the front cover of the book or anything.   This should not be something thats a problem, let alone something else they are still changing their mind about even after the bloody films been out for a year.  

[bungobaggins]

Author? What author? Clearly you are referring to Peter Jackson. The most amazingest director who ever walked this earth. We shall all bow down before him.

[Norc]

also. Martin Freeman is my spirit animal.

[Eldorion]

Looks like Bendydick has competition for Norc's heart now!

[Pettytyrant101]

  Good on him for displaying the correct proper crabbit attitude when you realise the film you signed on for has been completely rewritten a hundred times since then and is now just a pile of steaming poo.  

[Norc]

i don't know how i feel about the leg change just yet. six limbs.. pehaps better, but in the theater he felt very low and heavy, not very agile.. i dunno, maybe four limbs are better, when thinking of mo-cap, probably.

[Pettytyrant101]

but in the theater he felt very low and heavy, not very agile.- Norc

Which is why they should have based it off Tolkiens design, where he has four legs but a long sinous body, which looks both potentially agile and not heavy.

[Norc]

this one is better, Tolkien knew nothing of the anatomy of dragons, it got to be authentic and feel realistic.

[Pettytyrant101]

Tolkien was probably drawing on north european myth-

'In European folklore, a dragon is a serpentine legendary creature with two pairs of lizard-type legs and bat-type wings growing from its back.'- wiki

Which is pretty much how he draws Smaug.

'J.R.R. Tolkien wrote:

And dragons, real dragons, essential both to the machinery and the ideas of a poem or tale, are actually rare. In northern literature there are only two that are significant. If we omit from consideration the vast and vague Encircler of the World, Miðgarðsormr, the doom of the great gods and no matter for heroes, we have but the dragon of the Völsungs, Fáfnir, and Beowulf's bane.

Many European stories of dragons have them guarding a treasure hoard. Both Fafnir and Beowulf's dragon guarded earthen mounds full of ancient treasure. The treasure was cursed and brought ill to those who later possessed it.'

[bungobaggins]

THERE WILL BE NUDITY?!

Warning! Hobbit Nudity!:

[Tinuviel]

also. Martin Freeman is my spirit animal.

Where are all these from? Is there a new blog out or are these from the EE? CUZ I LOVE THEM ALLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!