Yesterday I recalled that the infamously bloated Star Wars Phantom Menace had at least two fan edits, one of which I spent the time to watch. (It had competent pacing, which the original didn't.) Hmm. Were there fan edits of the Hobbit?
Yes. Dozens. One highly regarded one is four hours long (like an extended edition LoTR reel), another apparently got it down to 2 hours.
Thus far curiosity. I didn't feel like watching any of them. I suspect I never will feel like it, though one day I might re-read the Hobbit.(*) (Just a heads-up--if you're reading a chapter a night to the kids, make sure you have plenty of hydration for the Mirkwood chapter.)
I wonder how many other movies have a sufficiently devoted fan base to do the work to fix them? Not many, I suppose--if the movie is sloppy enough to need substantial repair, it won't get fans on its own. There has to have been a precursor that was wildly popular--probably a book. And the fan base needs to skew geeky enough that some will have the technical chops to make it work. Harry Potter had a huge fan base, but the movies I saw didn't look sloppy or need fixing.
I've heard of some people who created their own animations from scratch for some books. Now that the tools are there and computer horsepower is relatively cheap, if technical skills collaborate with some good amateur artists and scriptwriters, we should see a lot more.
What would you be interested in seeing done?
(*) This year a number of things don't seem to have the attraction they used to, though it might be more accurate to say the past few years. There's plenty that's still satisfying; perhaps this is just a pruning to concentrate on those.
As a former Legolas fangirl, I hated how he was portrayed in the Hobbot movies. Part of his appeal in LOTR was that he was chaste and had no love interest. Making him unlucky in in love really ruined that part for me.
ReplyDeleteI have poor visualisation - I dream in sepia tones and can seldom picture what an author is describing, so I am grateful to Peter Jackson for the landscapes , monsters, and other visuals. I was not especially otherwise moved. I did not see the hobbit movies. I doubt I would improve them in the slightest with my suggestions.
ReplyDeleteAnd a team of Star Wars fans painstakingly put together an animation of Heir to the Empire, the REAL Episode VII.
ReplyDeleteThe 1977 Hobbit movie (which was animated) is almost perfectly paced. It did sadly elect to omit Beorn, but otherwise it conveys the story in a very solid 78 minutes. That's short enough to keep the attention of the children who are the intended audience of that book, and means that every thing shown and every thing said contributes to the whole.
ReplyDelete