The Hobbit

I remember when the trailer for The Return of the King came out.  There was a great deal of jumping around and shrieking.  This was repeated recently when all our cell phones beeped simultaneously and M, N and I all got messages from E to "check Facebook right now!"  She had posted a link to the trailer for The Hobbit, and even as we watched it, she called me - presumably to hear my high-pitched excitement.

I am the opposite of the commenter on the trailer felt that "it  doesn't look very 'Hobbity' to me .... more like a Lord of The Rings spin-off" (NZ Herald, December 22, 2011).  I am glad to see that the story is being treated seriously - I was a little afraid there would be too much focus on the potential slap-stick silliness.  One of my earliest memories of The Hobbit was listening to it on cassette tape when I was about 10 or 11 and sobbing uncontrollably when Thorin Oakenshield lay dying.  When they began the darkly beautiful rendition of "Under the Misty Mountains," I was relieved that there seemed to be adequate restraint in the balance of serious and silly with the dwarves.