After surviving the dwarves’ impromptu dinner party - a true display of Bilbo’s neurosis and Freeman’s knack for physical and linguistic comedy - Gandalf and the band of pint size warriors embark on their journey. The film follows the titular halfling, Bilbo Baggins ( Martin Freeman), enlisted by wise old wizard Gandalf ( Ian McKellan) to accompany 13 dwarves on their quest to retake the Dwarven homeland now ruled by the nasty dragon Smaug. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey sports a lighter tone than its predecessors - comedic routines and a brighter palette making Middle Earth palatable to the youngsters - but the film doesn’t lose any of the adventure or danger necessary for J.R.R. So Jackson splashes his brush in paint and goes wild. They harbor different sensibilities, their concept of life’s big challenges evolve, but children can be captured by the same iconography as their parents - they just needed it painted in broader strokes. Auden notes in his 1954 New York Times review of Fellowship of the Ring, The Hobbit “is one of the best children’s stories of this century.” What Jackson understands and gets wonderfully right in An Unexpected Journey (and that Lucas failed to understand with 1999’s The Phantom Menace) is that kids dream like adults. With his first of three Hobbit films, An Unexpected Journey, Peter Jackson daringly attempts the same maneuver, aspiring to capture the essence of his Lord of the Rings trilogy while translating it for a younger crowd. As we all know, the expansive, colorful, often-goofy escapade didn’t sit terribly well with those who kept a place in their hearts for Luke, Leia, and Han. As he believed of his original films, the prequels would be crafted for children of the day. Much to the chagrin of the adults who caught Star Wars in 1977, or even the ones who grew up with the film in years to come, George Lucas designed his follow-up prequel trilogy with a different audience in mind.
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