The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Studios

michael bukachi

Awesome!!

Lust and Kinky Games

Really nice

My dad and my fiancé, who are both Tolkien fans, really enjoyed the way you compared this to the source material. You made an interesting point about The Silmarillion. My dad hated that book as he thought it was a bit tacked on so I can see why they went with the link between The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. Also you will probably know Aidan Turner is very big over here now in Poldark so the added love triangle certainly helped his career! To be honest I struggled to finish LOTR when I read it as a teenager but was determined to read it before the last film came out, but my Dad read The Hobbit to me a few times and I got more out of that. That probably puts me in the casual category compared to you. Thanks again so much for the video.

Taylor Costello

I think the only way I'd watch these movies is the eventual fan edit that condenses it down to one movie (I'm so sorry, Lindsay).

Man I know I'm late to the party, but I just wanna say, fantastic job on these vids! These must be the most ambitious yet, and it REALLY shows. Keep up the good work! (Also can't wait for your next vid.)

Gregory Ball

I never finished the trilogy, and I couldn’t even get to the end of the Jobilt edit... and now I understand why! Another Kiwi here, looking forward to finding out how this ends.

Hey, Lindsay. Thank you. I heard and read about some of the troubles about Pete and New Line but not so much about Hobbit since I watched the trilogy only last year, despite having them sitting on the shelf as they came out. I wanted the hype to dissipate so, I could watch it without the awe that everyone else had when they came out. Now to the video, wow. well done. Very informative and I am glad I decided to follow your page. Will be becoming a Patron soon. I love your interview with Mr Callen. I kept thinking he is able to speak his mind because he has nothing to loose, having such a huge career already, which is a good thing, but also, bad since the younger ones don't have that privilege due to how it will reflect on their future opportunities. I am really looking forward to part 3 to see how we as Kiwi's were screwed. I know a bit, but not all. Great job. :)

Matthew Abbott

I really liked the interview you did with John Callen, I really think the perspective he offered was useful in kinda formulating a theory of what was happening. Plus, production stories are always fun. I'd really like to see the raw footage you did, because I'm sure there was plenty of stuff that didn't make it in to the final video.

Lul that ending

Hayley Nystrom

I honestly don't know how I did not see that twist coming.

Drak Drake

Hah! Love the ending. Can't wait to see part 3.

Emily Daenzer

Fucking called it! Thank god I get to see more of this! Also can we all mourn the lost thread of Balin playing Uncle Iroh to Thorin's Zuko because that was one of my other favorite relationships that never gets resolved.

Joshua Marchant

I was wondering if you were going to cover the whole boondoggle where our parliament changed laws and raised subsidies to allow our humble country to be graced by the presence of Warner Bros production of The Hobbit. Can't wait for part 3!

Loved the interview, it really served to give an original insight!

IDK, I thought the Fantastic Beasts film in Rowling's universe was really good

Christopher Stutz

Agreed. That was legitimately hard to watch.

LL

Finally, a forced trilogy I can get behind.

Wow, that interview with John Callen is one of the saddest things I've ever seen. Followed closely by that Evangeline Lily interview. Oof. I hope there's a support group somewhere for all the Hobbit actors who got shafted by the studios.

There are actually a couple of unauthorized and highly illegal edits floatng around the interwebs. One was called the "Tolkien Edit" and lasted about 3 hours and addressed a lot of the issues that Lindsay raises. I WOULD love to see the "Lindsay Ellis" edit though... it would be much more thorough and less full of fanboy rage.

Kelsey R Howell

I am so excited!!

Somewhere in these films is a really great adaptation that you can watch in one sitting, I really believe that. You just need to Frankenstein them somehow...and I'm sure there's technology for that.

Get well soon! Thank you for uploading. Can't wait for part 3 <3

SuperDezzy

And seeing my name in the credits in hobbitey, Tolkieny font. That made me so happy!

SuperDezzy

Oh my GOD! One minute and change in the video and Nella looks so freaking *HAPPY* to be in Hobbitton. My aging geek heart has grown three sizes!

IJLSK

How did I not see the 3rd part coming... I guess I'll claim that I was just so engrossed with (yet another super rad) analysis from you.

Unfortunately, I do have to end my patreon subscription with you, due to financial struggles I'm currently under, but I'm so glad to have supported even a part of you making these videos. I'll continue to be a faithful viewer on youtube, and I look forward to Part 3!

CodeTako

It makes me so sad, the wasted potential. LotR lived up to its, and its obvious there was the possibility for the Hobbit to be good too - with that core group of Bilbo and the dwarves. It's a real shame what happened. Looking forward to vid 3 now!

Will Park

In your King Kong Loose Canon, you once said that Jackson's flaw as a filmmaker is that he loves the source material too much. I don't know if you remember this, but I later asked if this aspect of him is what contributed to the problems in The Hobbit films. You responded that it definitely played a part, but you also brought up studio interference did as well. After watching this, I finally understand what you meant by that.

Will Park

Studio interference. The bane of many a movies' quality.

Lindsay's videos are the now probably the only ones where you can get a documentary-quality interview AND a casual mention of AO3 in under like 5 min

Harry Thornton

MAN it is so cool seeing you guys in New Zealand! Greetings from a fellow kiwi here - and HOLY CRAP you got John Callen to do an interview?! THAT IS AMAZING! How did you get into contact with him?

A. M.

HOBBIT ANGELINA. After Nella and Angelina, does this mean the next episode will have Hobbit Dan?

Allan Jensen

If you're logged into YouTube, once you press play the video will show up in your video history.

Alex Wright

After much fiddling with HDMI cable and trying to log into Patreon on a laptop finally got this on my TV like I would on YouTube so looking forward to it.

Kyle Williams

That April Fool's at the end worked on me completely! I saw there was a minute left when the guy at the end said the movies fucked New Zealand and I really thought you were ending it on that without explanation.

This video was amazing,a masterwork that an Elven smith would envy.

I do tend to think that flawed representation is better then none at all. There's just very little that's more artistically or culturally damaging to a social group then being utterly absent from narrative. Tamriel has tons of fangirls on DeviantArt who feel inspired by her presence,and Evangeline Lily got global exposure out of the deal. From the actor's perspective,modern flawed representation is always gonna beat unemployment. This is particularly true if the gig guarantees one a career, perhaps even a small fortune. Guys have had buckets of skewed Hollywood representatives. A better world would have to involve women receiving the same.

Koda Fiction

*long beleaguered sigh*

Koda Fiction

I really do relate to your feelings of lost childhood wonder, which I think is why I’m enjoying these video essays more than I have your others. I’m not gonna rant, but as someone who grew up loving and relating to the Harry Potter movies, and then looking at what Rowling’s universe (and even what Rowling herself) has become now... well... I get it >_>

WE ALL KNEW IT. WE CALLED IT. THREE VIDEOS. HAH.

#MoreFantasyMatriarchalSocieties

Clair H.

Also, quick question -- what did Tom (the NZ film-maker) say he was a writer for? The CC didn't say =(

Because she does her homework. And then she does all the extra credit homework. And then she follows the references in the bibliography and does the homework that those references lead to. And when she's done with all of _that_ homework, she goes on a search for _more homework_. And when she's done with all of _that_, and all the remaining homework is on the opposite side of the planet, she books plane tickets to the opposite side of the planet.

Fel Martins

I saw the "love triangle" more as Tauriel liking something different. I mean, Legolas is cool, does action hero shit, but he's kind of boring. Here's this dwarf who is so unlike anything she's ever seen. Maybe she just wanted some strange.

3 distinct moments where I actually burst out laughing: dead-eyed thousand-yard stare of Jackson Evangeline Lilys "here we go" the ending Great work as ALWAYS, and so happy we get to see such great content from you

Ng Yi-Sheng

I love the ending!!!!

TalysAlankil

Well you all killed me, congrats, i guess i'll be watching part 3 from…*insert middle earth reference here that I'm not nerdy enough to make myself*

waywardskies

I'm so glad I'm a Patreon!

This series is incredible, it's fascinating to see all this infornation in the same place and you did an amazing job with it. i already knew some of it, but man, it's sad to see how much of this production was kind of a disaster. That ending was gold!

Rork

I laughed a lot with this ending! ^^

Jake G

YOU ABSOLUTE MADWOMAN

Matthew Dunne

Ohoho you got me with that ending. :)

Curse you studio @lindsey. All of that for more youtube money !

DangCat

OH MY GOD I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE GOING TO (PRESUMABLY) GET INTO THE ACTING UNIONS THAT IS SOME JUICY STUFF

Amelie Marandet

YESS ANGELINA'S CAMEO

Clair H.

Sorry to hear you've been ill! I've just come out the other end with my own seasonal illness, so yeah. :( Super looking forward to watching this! Feel better soon. xo

De

I am so full of feelings. And all of them are so useless because I have no control over how we Americans have decided to go about the business of telling our stories. Why does it hurt so much? Anyway, great video. I'm so sorry you're sick. I hate throwing up and I hope this was just a passing bug that's all done with now.

Best time for a shoehorned third video ever!

YES! I CALLED IT! Hahahahahahaha I knew from the moment you talked about the Hobbit going from two movies to three that this would be revealed as a three-parter. I for one could not be happier! This stuff is good, delightful journalism and I'm eager to hear more about the legacy of this movie.

Callen

My dad's name is John lol

Paul Grodt

You are the BEST, Lindsay. I know how Patreon forces you to publish within schedules, but I have no problems with you needing extra time. I hope you feel better!

Lindsay Nelson

Thank you for the next-level research, interviewing, and location shooting! That "how Hollywood treats women" section is one of the most concise primers on female characters in blockbuster movies that I've ever seen. (Also can't believe I didn't see that ending coming but OH GOD it was perfect.)

Why are you a genius?

f***ing knew it

Harmony

LOL AT THE ENDING

Callen

I don't know what I did to deserve both videos in the same month.

Nickwolf

After the first video, me and my partner agreed that it would be a dope move if *thing that happened at the end of this video* had happened. I am so glad to see it happened.

Works-in-progress are always as fascinating to look at as the finished product, so thank you for this, Lindsay. :-)

Joe Bloe

Fans of Jackson should love a special made for Tongan Ninja, an all but disappeared movie that was basically a cheesy spoof of Enter the Dragon, the Bruce Lee movie set in Italy where he fights Chuck Norris at the end. It's very self aware of it's low budget-ness and there's even a moment in a fight scene that breaks the fourth wall in a clever way. Tongan Ninja starred Jemaine Clement long before Taika Waititi or Flight of The Concords took off, although Brett did help with the songs and dance numbers. Anyway, they made a 24 minute special for the DVD which was a spoof of DVD specials. It includes interviews with Peter Jackson and Andrew Adamson (director of a couple of Shrek and Chronicles of Narnia movies) pretending Tongan Ninja was a real comic book the movie was based on that influenced them greatly. I've uploaded it here with the password set as the username of this patreon. You can't buy Tongan Ninja new anywhere, haven't been able to for about a decade and this is a fairly private community and even here most probably don't read the comments so I don't feel too bad about posting it: <a href="https://mega.nz/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://mega.nz/</a>#!SCAASDYL!0BB0fgUYORwmQaNWYEH7gmdLic9_jpbaj-O2GwHWkcY

Jennifer Miller

"We've just been informed by the studio that this is gonna be 3 videos..." ok, that was a good joke. Should have seen it coming, but I didn't. And I literally saw it right at midnight as it turned to April Fools.

Awesome Ending! I was wondering if you would mention the .. interesting hoops the last NZ Govt jumped through to keep the film in NZ and the impact on the local film industry, so happy that you'll delve into it :)

Reutermo

I love that you go outside the film and do actual interviews. This is next level stuff.

Jacqueline Pineda

I hope you feel better soon, Lindsay! : (

Noah Goucher

Vis-a-vis CGI Dain, I was always under the impression that they did that to work around Billy Connolly's health problems.

I loved that ending! Also I'm glad there's another in the works. Love seeing you and Nella back together.

Phil Strahl a.k.a. Pixel Prophecy

Sweet! But take care of yourself and get well first before finishing it up. I'm happy to wait.

Anthony

these deep dives are fantastic, awesome that you got to do some interviews

Clare (Agrippina) Belshaw

Heh, of course that ending.

DaNerdJones

Lol that ending!

Orellien

Regarding Tauriel and gender relations with Fantasy: One of the works that handles it in a unique way that's worth looking at is Dragon Age. In the games, it's sorta like they started out with a more Game of Thrones-style universe, mirroring real-world gender roles, but with a twist: Because the Jesus-figure in the primary religion is a Joan of Arc type, and a few other noted instances where women stepped up and kicked ass, it became a lot more egalitarian. These were certainly done with an aim towards being more egalitarian, but I find it interesting that they put some of their worldbuilding efforts into explaining why, in this pseudo-medival setting, not much of a deal is made by a woman kicking ass.

David Majors

Great video, Lindsay. Great FINAL video of this series. 🤓

Some Strange Circus

That final plot twist

Allan Liebold

Let's call him FIGWIT. Short for Folding Ideas Guy, Who Is There.

Benedict Marko

And again, the title alone made me laugh out loud ^^ Thanks so much, Lindsay &amp; team, for the hard work! Going to watch it RRRight now! :) EDIT: Loved the twist at the end - I was jokingly thinking to myself "what if they did that", and then it happened ^^ Also, I wish for a Bonus Disk with all the Behind the Scenes of your production :) Two questions! 1.) Did you ask for a permit for shooting at the locations (airport, film set) or did Dan shoot those guerilla style? 2.) Was there any talk with John Callen about how the interview might negatively affect him (like, if there might be repercussions from the studios, or if he was bound by NDAs to not touch certain subjects)? Get well soon, Lindsay! What a fine piece of work, as always!

Joe Bloe

Aaaaaahhhh!!! Oh hey, Folding Ideas Guy is there too.