An Unexpected Journey: The Hobbit Hits the Big Screen

So...it finally happened. The Hobbit will be hitting hollywood in 2012. I thought I would dedicate a blog post to my thoughts on the entire matter.

This novel has a close place to my heart after reading it for the first time in the fourth grade. I was completely swept away in this magical world of danger and adventure. I couldn't put the book down! The awesome wizard who shows up one day at Bilbo Baggins' house, the company of dwarves, elves, dark woods, mountains, men who changed into bears, trolls, giant spiders, treasures, a Dragon! I just ate this stuff up!

I think that reading it at a young age really contributed to the book's impact on how it would stick with me forever.  My school was using the Accelerated Reader program which allowed student's to earn 'points' for every book they would read and take a test on. Yeah, I was always one of the kids on top of the charts - I just really become so involved with the written word and the way a story could move somebody to all sorts of emotions and thrills. Needless to say, The Hobbit was one of my early conquests. I remember writing book reports about it as "my favorite book" for the longest time.

Below is a picture of the exact edition which I had read so many years ago; even seeing it now, the cover awakens a fierce nostalgia of that pure enjoyment I had from the adventure.

This is the book cover version that I first read in 4th grade.

As I would read, I would take quick breaks in order to soak in the story. I wouldn't put the book down so I would always glance over other aspects of the book -- looking over the cover artwork, for one.  I would see the picture of the crew escaping from Mirkwood forest in those barrels and floating down into a new part of their adventure and try to visually place myself in the action as one of the characters. What had me even more embedded in the story, however, were the maps provided within the book. I always just thought that the maps were amazing. I would look over them for hours, studying the curves of the mountains, the trees in Mirkwood, the directions and notes written all over the place and the funny language that appears all over the map. By providing the map, I felt like I was one of the characters gathered by Gandalf on the quest.

This is the map that guided Bilbo and Thorin's company through Middle-Earth in 'The Hobbit"

Naturally, I ventured forth into reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In fact, I even remember going to the El Paso Public Library to check them out because the school did not have them. At the very first, I was disappointed because the story was talking about Frodo as the main protagonist - and NOT Bilbo. I definitely wanted to read more of Bilbo and his further adventures. Admittedly, because of this fact, it was hard for me to initially get into The Fellowship of the Ring. I was stubborn. Don't worry though, I eventually cracked and realized that the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien was so complex, vast, and deep that I was only limiting myself and restricting the possibility to enjoy the sense of adventure, mystery and action that drew me into the Hobbit, in the first place. I was pretty "into it." You know, I even got my first girlfriend because we loved the series so much (oh memories).

Years later, I was sitting at the movie theatre with my friends waiting through the previews of upcoming attractions. Like all things that a significant impact on your memory, this happened in slow motion. The previous movie trailer had finished and proceeded into darkness. It seemed like I was sitting in the theatre through an eternity of darkness when suddenly the next movie trailer appeared - it was a pan of forest with a narrator speaking of an all powerful ring. I thought to myself, "Is this really happening...is it?...Can it be?... Be stil, my gentle heart". I was totally surprised, as the world of Middle-Earth slowly started to manifest on the screen. I was actually crying from happiness (only slightly). Wow, that sounds really nerdy now, but I was just caught off guard at the idea of the series being adapted into films. The memory of the trailer unfolding before my eyes is still very vivid in my memory - luckily our culture has become so culture heavy (and thanks to technological advances) that I can easily share the trailer I saw on that night. 

Now...many years later the book that started it ALL for me is now being adapted into a film, The Hobbit. It looks like it will be a two parter, so I'm curious to see where Jackson decides to make the break in script for the second part. All I can say, is that I'll be there in the movie theater when this is released. Here is the latest film trailer that I could find; hearing the "Ring's theme" from the film trilogy at the end kind of gave me goosebumps:

I'm really really excited about this, and to commemorate I wanted to share a link to a free download of a book containing artwork of Tolkien's Middle-Earth courtesy from The Cult of Genius.

Download the book “Tolkien’s World: Paintings of Middle-Earth” here: http://goo.gl/y2yhh

I hope that you enjoy! So what are your thoughts of the upcoming film adaptation. What are you looking forward to? Please share your thoughts and comments below. Thanks for reading, and don't forget: Never steal a cup from a Dragon!

- Rich

P.S. As a bonus:

I'm a Hobbit; here is the proof.

That one time I saved my friend from Shelob