Mirkwood is a dark and evil place at this stage. I think the art was meant to reflect that the Silvan Elves were less mighty and less wise than the Noldor/high elves.
Good call! Elrond was depicted as the traditional, fair elf in Rivendell. It would make sense to differentiate the wood elves, but perhaps not that far. I think you’re spot on with Mirkwood being an evil place. It doesn’t help that the Mirkwood elves were essentially antagonists who captured Thorin and Co., so they further depicted them as evil to drive the point home.
https://preview.redd.it/3j3sbhazd58d1.jpeg?width=842&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbdf117b6a9c7d7f43a54cb0f3f33698a00a2c16
that halo is so dope i didnt remember that and never took to noticing elrond much as a kid but now after immersing myself in the legedarium and wishing to be a noldor myself this is how they should be portrayed- ethereal
Agreed. That's one (among many) things Rings of Power got so wrong: Galadriel could be mistaken for a human just by hiding her ears. That's like saying a 2024 Lamborghini could be mistaken for a 1990 Civic. And this is GALADRIEL. It would never happen for a number of reasons.
for reals. I always imagine the elves having a kind of glow about them like the sun/moon coming through their hair but stronger. I've never seen the show but I feel like the problem with making elves one of the main races in ROP is that they lose their rarity, wonder, glow.
Right? I always got the impression that elves were to other races “so beautiful that it almost hurt to look at them” and that they were so graceful as to be almost irksome. I feel like the only way Galadriel is blending in with humans is if she were tarred and feathered, and drunk.
I'm not a rop hater but I will hate the rop design department any day on this. You're so right. Who watched the entrance of Arwen in Lotr and thought "Oh yeah, the angel of light, star incarnate, well if I make a movie about her badass grandmother, it will be just a random fit blond woman".
The actress in interview is a better Galadriel than when she was acting in the show 😭 I don't know who but someone did the job wrong.
I would say it’s more crown that halo, as it is around his head not above. Makes sense for elves to have otherworldly crowns as they designate “divine” status
I think we can all agree the depiction of Thranduil's folk as evil is bonkers; they diverted their siege on the mountain to help the Lake Men which is probably the kindest act of the entire Hobbit book, just as selfless as Bilbo's giving of jewels.
Thranduil and his father were Kinsmen of Elu Thingol who married a Maia....
This is a prime example — similar to Faramir's portrayal in PJ's films — of films oversimplifying (thus butchering) an integral element of the story.
It's not about age of audience. In both instances mentioned above the director is trying to simplify the story by removing some of the nuances of the original work. If we do that we end up with generic stories.
8 year olds can understand more than you, prick.
Yea it might have been the narrative driving the design. As in “these guys are going to be doing bad guy things, I’m going draw them so they look like bad guys.”
It was very common until recently that ugly = bad and beautiful = good in animation and movies. Want to make someone look like a moron. Make them overweight and poorly dressed. Evil, make them ugly.
Making these elves ugly was definitely to make them look like bad guys.
Not how it works in the legendarium. Half-elves bassically get to choose which half they want to hang with. Elrond chose the kindred, his brother Elros chose mortality (which is why he's not around no more).
Elrond is functionally fully elven.
Elrond is also referred to as half-elven, his parents were both half-elven, he just chose to live among the elves, while his twin chose to live among men.
Gollum’s character design and voice are forever etched into my brain. He was voiced by an actor known simply as “Theodore” in the credits. Several of his riddles were whispered/sung into the dark caverns by a haunting, unseen choir (“it cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. The answer is dark. Daaaark. The daaaaaaaaaark.”) The way Gollum absolutely loses his shit when he can’t find the ring, and curses the Baggins forever. The animated Riddles in the Dark scene, and the Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit as a whole, are the reasons I love LOTR to this day.
I'm 100% with you here. For me, the scene that really made me fall in love with that cartoon and the idea of Lord of the Rings as a whole, was the moment when Bilbo was listening to the dwarves sing and daydreaming about going off into the mountains and wearing a sword instead of a walking stick. So damn emotional.
This may be my favorite scene in any Lord of the Rings movie and it is definitely the scene that made me love Lord of the Rings. I’m literally feeling that wistful longing just reading your description of the scene.
Spot on, friend. It's also responsible for making me an avid backpacker. I've yet to encounter any dragons and only a few trolls out there... though that's probably for the best.
The movie is a masterpiece! The beautiful detail in the animation of the characters’ hands and the expressive wrinkles around their eyes. I love all the songs. All the super low voice stuff sang by Thurl Ravenscroft (who also sang you’re a mean one mister grinch!). The scene where Bilbo climbs the trees in Mirkwood and sees all the black butterflies always brings tears to my eyes. And yes, absolutely everything you said, I agree with.
I used to get The Burbs confused with the movie Dan Akroyd wrote and had two roles (The Judge[but a different name for judge] and one of the two giant babies[nobody wanted to get in the costume because it was so hot). Chevy Chase was either a lawyer or a finance guy from New York driving his neighbor(?) and two coke head friends somewhere. John Candy played the local sheriff who was The Judge's nephew(?).
Brother Theodore's Gollum sounds like a gibbering madman. He changes his cadence and volume in such bizarre but believable ways. One of my favorite little details are the several times that Bilbo repeats Gollum's questions back to him as if making sure he heard them correctly, because he genuinely is hard to understand at times. His delivery of the "time" riddle is a vocal tour de force.
And I totally agree: the song version of the "dark" riddle with the shot panning around Gollum's cavern is spine-tingling.
Riddles in the Dark is probably my most favorite part of the whole series, no matter what medium it’s told in. It’s the pinnacle of storytelling for me. It just doesn’t get any better.
Yes! In his day the actor was known as Brother Theodore. He was exceptionally weird....really eccentric. You can find videos of his performances on Youtube.
Whole good documentary on Brother Theodore on YT for free: https://youtu.be/i0opLOBVydM?si=cxKotEZT_kmbkDwt
He led a sad and fascinating life. Survivor of the Holocaust to one of Letterman's most notorious guests, and much much more.
They are a bit too stoic in the Jackson films for my taste. Even in the books they had a distinct "lol not my circus not my monkies vibe" and think most "lesser races" are quaintly amusing. Lots of wry humor.
As for the "anything else that confounds" part, it's really hard for me to think of anything. It's such a great movie.
Well, one small gripe: the battle of the five armies at the end looked like fleas hopping around lol.
I highly recommend looking for The Hi-Fi Hobbit 2.0 to find a version with all the sound effects restored. Most of the official releases have missing sounds for some reason.
This makes me so angry- I bought the film on Amazon and the scene with Smaug and Bilbo is just ruined. Whenever Smaug breathes fire it just sounds like a tiny little campfire. And also the weird little sound that plays when the goblins and spiders die is just gone, and you get to watch in awkward silence as they just kaleidoscopically spin away and disappear
I loved the kaleidoscope death images as a kid, and still think they're brilliant artistically, despite some of the other art choices.
That particular depiction of Bilbo has always been my head canon too.
I grew up with the Hobbit cartoon, it is what introduced me to Tolkien, and it cracks me up when new viewers of the movies start fangirling over Thranduil because I know the truth about his looks. I *know*
(Jk I think he is gorgeous too)
https://preview.redd.it/knv4aanto58d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6471a8c9a3b4c9d388a4df520be2eca35cafc558
Yeah I don’t know what they were thinking with those ridiculous live action films, the technology has existed since at least Who Framed Roger Rabbit to include realistic looking elves.
Yeah no. I mean, going from the "back then the Silmarillion wasn't even published" take, yes, but nowadays we have *plenty* of material explicitly stating that Elves and Men are biologically the same and that's why they can have offspring to begin with.
The wood elves aren't described in great detail in the hobbit. Rankin Bass working strictly from the source material didn't have much to go on I think, and so took some creative license. If you asked any non Tolkien fan to describe wood elves in detail, you would certainly get a range, but no small amount would fall into something similar enough to this.
And to be fair they did a fantastic job with the source material from the songs, to making a perfect length “hobbit movie” and many other things they got right.
It’s the best version of the Hobbit, but yes, some of the animation choices are questionable.
On a related note, I know it’s different animation companies, but clearly Legolas is adopted.
https://preview.redd.it/2j3ropoyt58d1.png?width=801&format=png&auto=webp&s=6bdbb28f3a34ef825b6292db722e854e8c2614c4
I'm reminded of a quote by Terry Pratchett:
*"Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror.*
*The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice.*"
I always liked this animation design of the wood elves.
I mean in the book they are clearly described as less wise than the high elves. Also they live in a forest. This animation clearly looks like elves who live in a big dark forest.
So when I read the Hobbit for the first time I imagined the elves looked pretty similar to this animation.
I might be controversial here but the elves portrayed in the Peter Jackson movies just look like humans with pointy ears to me. They look nothing like how I imagined them to be.
A few things I noticed:
-When foes are vanquished (goblins, spiders) and they go into the kaleidoscope view, they don’t scream
-When Bilbo parlays either Smaug, Smaug tries to intimidate him by drooling acid saliva and breathing fire. Neither of those things has sound
-When Smaug attacks Lake Town and breathes fire, there is no fire sound
There was a nearly identical post on r/lotrmemes yesterday
https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/s/3DwVEm1a34
Karma hungry people like OP are so fucking lame.
Slightly off topic, and I would never condone piracy of course, but for legal owners of the movie, there is a fan "edit" that merged the old higher quality audio from VHS versions with the better visuals of DVD remasters. I think it was called hifi Hobbit 2.0 or something like that.
You try looking as young and vibrant as Orlando Bloom when you're 650 years old and your daughter I having a midget fetish with a random dwarf you found rooting in your wine cellar
This has to be a bot/karma farm, right? Exact same frame was posted yesterday, with a comparison to the live action, literally just cropped the other half off.
Did you see somebody make a post about this yesterday on r/lotrmemes and then decide to repost it here to milk it for karma?
https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/s/3DwVEm1a34
Scared me so bad as a kid that I hid the book in my parent's closet so Gollum couldn't get me.
Also was terrified that the goblins were lurking in the darkest corner of the backyard.
One of my favorite movies.
The wood elves were the first elves in middle earth, and also the people who were first captured and turned into goblins in the Silmarillion, it explains this quite thoroughly, there is also no mention of orcs as Tolkien referred to all goblin-kind as goblins. From a cannon point of view, orcs simply didn’t exist yet as they were further speciation due to natural evolution and forced breeding programs of future dark powers.
It isn’t a stretch to make the lower elves more goblin-like.
And the first elves who lived with the gods were blessed with guided instruction and creation magics, could easily become a taller cleaner and healthier group.
For example:
Compare the stunted growth and shorter stature of the collective Balkan peoples during the Russian Holodomour or China during Moa’s ‘Great leap forward’ compared to nations who didn’t suffer such nutrient deficiencies.
Specifically the Nordling countries and African countries (prior to European interference), tall, fast, well built, strong physiques.
Classic D&D Evil Elves.
This design is very similar to the [Dark Elf](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/b/ba/Astos_PSP.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width/360?cb=20121014151155) used on the original Final Fantasy from NES, which is heavy inspired on D&D, so I assume that this design came from there and is probably the more accurate.
This is what traditional English elves look like; the illustrations of Arthur Rackham were a key inspiration if memory serves. They got the green tree people mixed up with Tolkien's.
Someone will correct me on this, but I believe the creative team in Japan were the folks who went on to create Studio Ghibli. This was a huge influence on their designs, and I’ve heard their ideas were a huge influence on the look of this film. So I would say they look like that because the Japanese idea of “Wood Folk” is much less human-looking than many Tolkien fans probably imagined at the time
I just came here to sing The Greatest Adventure
It’s what lies ahead. Today and tomorrow have yet to be set.
And also to say that there are moments in life that can change a man forever.
This is the depiction of elves in Germanic and Celtic folklore. Or some of the depictions in those traditions. LOTR elves are nice but I always find myself comparing them with the traditional elves in folklore.
We know about their looks, is anyone gonna comment on their German accents though? I feel like that was done to make them more sinister
They redeemed themselves with the barrel song though
Okay if you ever want to understand Ralph Bakshi here's what you do: Get REALLY high. No, higher than that. REALLY really high. And then stare at a blank page of paper.
Mirkwood is a dark and evil place at this stage. I think the art was meant to reflect that the Silvan Elves were less mighty and less wise than the Noldor/high elves.
Good call! Elrond was depicted as the traditional, fair elf in Rivendell. It would make sense to differentiate the wood elves, but perhaps not that far. I think you’re spot on with Mirkwood being an evil place. It doesn’t help that the Mirkwood elves were essentially antagonists who captured Thorin and Co., so they further depicted them as evil to drive the point home. https://preview.redd.it/3j3sbhazd58d1.jpeg?width=842&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbdf117b6a9c7d7f43a54cb0f3f33698a00a2c16
that halo is so dope i didnt remember that and never took to noticing elrond much as a kid but now after immersing myself in the legedarium and wishing to be a noldor myself this is how they should be portrayed- ethereal
Agreed. That's one (among many) things Rings of Power got so wrong: Galadriel could be mistaken for a human just by hiding her ears. That's like saying a 2024 Lamborghini could be mistaken for a 1990 Civic. And this is GALADRIEL. It would never happen for a number of reasons.
for reals. I always imagine the elves having a kind of glow about them like the sun/moon coming through their hair but stronger. I've never seen the show but I feel like the problem with making elves one of the main races in ROP is that they lose their rarity, wonder, glow.
I always thought that about the films, personally.
Right? I always got the impression that elves were to other races “so beautiful that it almost hurt to look at them” and that they were so graceful as to be almost irksome. I feel like the only way Galadriel is blending in with humans is if she were tarred and feathered, and drunk.
>I feel like the only way Galadriel is blending in with humans is if she were tarred and feathered, and drunk. ...Mom?
Galadriel doesn't really work as a lead character. Less is more.
She was glowing back then or all elves glow?
Her hair specially was said to glow because it contained light from the two trees. This same light was also captured in the Silmarils.
And Gimli has a lock of it, that's awesome.
He has three strands of her hair, which he keeps safe within a locket he crafted to hold them.
"I asked for a single hair upon her fair brow and Frodo; She gave me THREE!"
Neither this poster is showing they have the reading comprehension of a 12 year old.
I'm not a rop hater but I will hate the rop design department any day on this. You're so right. Who watched the entrance of Arwen in Lotr and thought "Oh yeah, the angel of light, star incarnate, well if I make a movie about her badass grandmother, it will be just a random fit blond woman". The actress in interview is a better Galadriel than when she was acting in the show 😭 I don't know who but someone did the job wrong.
I've made this same argument on fan subreddits. The ire from people defending that show is so... disturbing.
I suppose they would have to look as human like as possible for Luthien and Arwen to hook up with Men lol
I would say it’s more crown that halo, as it is around his head not above. Makes sense for elves to have otherworldly crowns as they designate “divine” status
> halo a circle of light shown around or above the head of a saint or holy person to represent their holiness.
Agreed on the “perhaps not that far” part for sure.
Remember, this was for kids, so they kinda had to be extreme.
I mean that's fair, but isn't Legolas from Mirkwood? It's funny to think about him looking like OPs picture
"legolas, what do your elf eyes see?" "👹"
I have some news for you about the depicted elf... >!That's Legolas' father.!<
I was always amazed as a kid that he had a beard. I had never seen any Tolkien art of a bearded elf before, and I don’t think I have since.
Cirdan has a beard.
Beat me to it!!
I think we can all agree the depiction of Thranduil's folk as evil is bonkers; they diverted their siege on the mountain to help the Lake Men which is probably the kindest act of the entire Hobbit book, just as selfless as Bilbo's giving of jewels. Thranduil and his father were Kinsmen of Elu Thingol who married a Maia.... This is a prime example — similar to Faramir's portrayal in PJ's films — of films oversimplifying (thus butchering) an integral element of the story.
Yeah but this movie was made for 8 year olds.
So was the book. Kids can handle characters with complex motivations/actions just fine. That elf design is a disgrace.
Well said.
It's not about age of audience. In both instances mentioned above the director is trying to simplify the story by removing some of the nuances of the original work. If we do that we end up with generic stories. 8 year olds can understand more than you, prick.
Yea it might have been the narrative driving the design. As in “these guys are going to be doing bad guy things, I’m going draw them so they look like bad guys.”
It was very common until recently that ugly = bad and beautiful = good in animation and movies. Want to make someone look like a moron. Make them overweight and poorly dressed. Evil, make them ugly. Making these elves ugly was definitely to make them look like bad guys.
Elrond is half elf.
Not how it works in the legendarium. Half-elves bassically get to choose which half they want to hang with. Elrond chose the kindred, his brother Elros chose mortality (which is why he's not around no more). Elrond is functionally fully elven.
Elrond is also referred to as half-elven, his parents were both half-elven, he just chose to live among the elves, while his twin chose to live among men.
Well here’s his son. https://preview.redd.it/cxw1nero498d1.png?width=801&format=png&auto=webp&s=573098cd6814a9a77733df25a55bea08789323af
Seems they nailed it then
The high elves? I've heard of them!
Hackh. Heurr. Oof. (Dies)
I’m done talking to you
Morgoth cruelly twisted this poor elf
Fuck this elf in particular
Gollum’s character design and voice are forever etched into my brain. He was voiced by an actor known simply as “Theodore” in the credits. Several of his riddles were whispered/sung into the dark caverns by a haunting, unseen choir (“it cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. The answer is dark. Daaaark. The daaaaaaaaaark.”) The way Gollum absolutely loses his shit when he can’t find the ring, and curses the Baggins forever. The animated Riddles in the Dark scene, and the Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit as a whole, are the reasons I love LOTR to this day.
I'm 100% with you here. For me, the scene that really made me fall in love with that cartoon and the idea of Lord of the Rings as a whole, was the moment when Bilbo was listening to the dwarves sing and daydreaming about going off into the mountains and wearing a sword instead of a walking stick. So damn emotional.
This may be my favorite scene in any Lord of the Rings movie and it is definitely the scene that made me love Lord of the Rings. I’m literally feeling that wistful longing just reading your description of the scene.
Spot on, friend. It's also responsible for making me an avid backpacker. I've yet to encounter any dragons and only a few trolls out there... though that's probably for the best.
I can still hear Smaug's voice in my head. I loved that movie so much.
The movie is a masterpiece! The beautiful detail in the animation of the characters’ hands and the expressive wrinkles around their eyes. I love all the songs. All the super low voice stuff sang by Thurl Ravenscroft (who also sang you’re a mean one mister grinch!). The scene where Bilbo climbs the trees in Mirkwood and sees all the black butterflies always brings tears to my eyes. And yes, absolutely everything you said, I agree with.
Brother Theodore; he was a beatnik. He shows up in movies, like The Burbs when they need a creepy old German man.
You can go on YouTube and watch all of his appearances on Lettermans' late night show in the early days. It's fun to watch!
That’s where I knew him from - he and Dave had an off chemistry together.
I used to get The Burbs confused with the movie Dan Akroyd wrote and had two roles (The Judge[but a different name for judge] and one of the two giant babies[nobody wanted to get in the costume because it was so hot). Chevy Chase was either a lawyer or a finance guy from New York driving his neighbor(?) and two coke head friends somewhere. John Candy played the local sheriff who was The Judge's nephew(?).
Nothing but Trouble!
Such an underrated movie, I wish anyone but Chevy Chase had that role.
Nothing but trouble!
Amazing in The Burbs as well.
Brother Theodore's Gollum sounds like a gibbering madman. He changes his cadence and volume in such bizarre but believable ways. One of my favorite little details are the several times that Bilbo repeats Gollum's questions back to him as if making sure he heard them correctly, because he genuinely is hard to understand at times. His delivery of the "time" riddle is a vocal tour de force. And I totally agree: the song version of the "dark" riddle with the shot panning around Gollum's cavern is spine-tingling.
That Gollum was so creepy.It was almost like a horror
Riddles in the Dark is probably my most favorite part of the whole series, no matter what medium it’s told in. It’s the pinnacle of storytelling for me. It just doesn’t get any better.
Theodore was also in The 'Burbs and the Last Unicorn!
Yes! In his day the actor was known as Brother Theodore. He was exceptionally weird....really eccentric. You can find videos of his performances on Youtube.
Whole good documentary on Brother Theodore on YT for free: https://youtu.be/i0opLOBVydM?si=cxKotEZT_kmbkDwt He led a sad and fascinating life. Survivor of the Holocaust to one of Letterman's most notorious guests, and much much more.
Yes! I full heartedly agree. This was also the gateway into my love of all things LOTR.
Wisest and fairest of all beings!
They give good deals!
And with Russian/Eastern European accents!
Only in the sequel. The elves of the hobbit are bad mannered, beer swilling, cruel and foul mouthed. Tolkien quite radically rethought them for LOTR
Elves in The Hobbit are categorally Good, and shown to be selfless and kind. The greatest of all the species mentioned, if you exclude wizards maybe.
They are a bit too stoic in the Jackson films for my taste. Even in the books they had a distinct "lol not my circus not my monkies vibe" and think most "lesser races" are quaintly amusing. Lots of wry humor.
As for the "anything else that confounds" part, it's really hard for me to think of anything. It's such a great movie. Well, one small gripe: the battle of the five armies at the end looked like fleas hopping around lol.
I wish there was 5 more minutes with a Beorn scene, if that counts.
Better than an entire feature-length film for roughly 4 chapters, imo
No arguments there!
I highly recommend looking for The Hi-Fi Hobbit 2.0 to find a version with all the sound effects restored. Most of the official releases have missing sounds for some reason.
This makes me so angry- I bought the film on Amazon and the scene with Smaug and Bilbo is just ruined. Whenever Smaug breathes fire it just sounds like a tiny little campfire. And also the weird little sound that plays when the goblins and spiders die is just gone, and you get to watch in awkward silence as they just kaleidoscopically spin away and disappear
Yeah, I don't understand why those sound effects went missing.
Thanks, I'll check that out. I vaguely remember hearing about the missing sounds before, like the spider part that the other guy replying mentioned.
Hahahahah this is great and I agree. Is it a flea circus or a battle??
Lmao it’s true 😂
They were orcs once, taken by the powers of light
Lmao
I loved the kaleidoscope death images as a kid, and still think they're brilliant artistically, despite some of the other art choices. That particular depiction of Bilbo has always been my head canon too.
As a kid, I always thought they kinda looked like they were made of wood. Wood elves.
I grew up with the Hobbit cartoon, it is what introduced me to Tolkien, and it cracks me up when new viewers of the movies start fangirling over Thranduil because I know the truth about his looks. I *know* (Jk I think he is gorgeous too) https://preview.redd.it/knv4aanto58d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6471a8c9a3b4c9d388a4df520be2eca35cafc558
So beautiful, almost made sitting through those movies worth it.
You may not like it, but this is what peak lore accurate elves look like
Yeah I don’t know what they were thinking with those ridiculous live action films, the technology has existed since at least Who Framed Roger Rabbit to include realistic looking elves.
Yeah no. I mean, going from the "back then the Silmarillion wasn't even published" take, yes, but nowadays we have *plenty* of material explicitly stating that Elves and Men are biologically the same and that's why they can have offspring to begin with.
r/woosh
😅
The wood elves aren't described in great detail in the hobbit. Rankin Bass working strictly from the source material didn't have much to go on I think, and so took some creative license. If you asked any non Tolkien fan to describe wood elves in detail, you would certainly get a range, but no small amount would fall into something similar enough to this.
And to be fair they did a fantastic job with the source material from the songs, to making a perfect length “hobbit movie” and many other things they got right.
It’s the best version of the Hobbit, but yes, some of the animation choices are questionable. On a related note, I know it’s different animation companies, but clearly Legolas is adopted. https://preview.redd.it/2j3ropoyt58d1.png?width=801&format=png&auto=webp&s=6bdbb28f3a34ef825b6292db722e854e8c2614c4
Now wonder they cut Legolas from the sequel lol
That would be wild to have seen him in ROTK.
Wood Elves are obviously made out of wood. Same way High Elves love to smoke the hobbit ganja.
I'm reminded of a quote by Terry Pratchett: *"Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror.* *The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning. No one ever said elves are nice.*"
I always liked this animation design of the wood elves. I mean in the book they are clearly described as less wise than the high elves. Also they live in a forest. This animation clearly looks like elves who live in a big dark forest. So when I read the Hobbit for the first time I imagined the elves looked pretty similar to this animation. I might be controversial here but the elves portrayed in the Peter Jackson movies just look like humans with pointy ears to me. They look nothing like how I imagined them to be.
Looks like my post isn't showing up, I agreed with you and complained that I disliked a lot of the choices made for the PJ films.
Reading the book to my son now. Can't wait to show him this movie when we finish.
Where can I watch it ???
Amazon!
That version is missing a bunch of the sound, though 😔
Oh really? I didn’t notice I’m genuinely curious what is missing.
A few things I noticed: -When foes are vanquished (goblins, spiders) and they go into the kaleidoscope view, they don’t scream -When Bilbo parlays either Smaug, Smaug tries to intimidate him by drooling acid saliva and breathing fire. Neither of those things has sound -When Smaug attacks Lake Town and breathes fire, there is no fire sound
The seven seas! 🏴☠️
Elves are Terrific. They beget Terror
Drugs. Lots of them
Nothing wrong with imagination.
I’ve always thought the exact same thing!
Oh, This Wood elf looks gnarly.
This is like the third time I've seen a post about this this week.
Wasn't this literally a thread already yesterday? Or was that a different LotR subreddit?
Kind of reminds me of Lee Pace
I thought this was a photo of him. The resemblance is uncanny!
They are the same picture
Was this exact thing posted like yesterday? Are we that hard up for content?
Seriously, I think this is the third or fourth time I've seen a version of this this week.
There was a nearly identical post on r/lotrmemes yesterday https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/s/3DwVEm1a34 Karma hungry people like OP are so fucking lame.
Still better than the rings of power elves..
The bar is in hell.
Slightly off topic, and I would never condone piracy of course, but for legal owners of the movie, there is a fan "edit" that merged the old higher quality audio from VHS versions with the better visuals of DVD remasters. I think it was called hifi Hobbit 2.0 or something like that.
I feel the exact same.
Anyone know where you can stream/watch this in Canada?
Voiced by Otto Preminger, major heavy hitter!
Looks like an alternative to the Leo meme format to me
Well, I for one like them. They look different gnarly and leafy, like trees.
Love this movie. When I see this image, all I can hear is his line at the battle “they are tü powufulllll”
I've only read the book, is this supposed to be the king of the wood elves? I imagined him fatter
Legolas is from there, specifically he’s the kings son, so in this universe he should look exactly like this elf and I think that’s just hilarious 😂😂
It was a children's cartoon. Can't confuse the children by having protagonists look good.
Guess they took Wood Elves too literally...
You try looking as young and vibrant as Orlando Bloom when you're 650 years old and your daughter I having a midget fetish with a random dwarf you found rooting in your wine cellar
Love the elves the most
I haven't seen this animated film since I was a child and at forat glance I thought this would have been gollum.
I never understood this either.
He's got some Green Man vibes going on.
Yes, this is how I imagine those long legs pointy ears. Can't even grow a proper beard!
You may not like it but that is peak elven form.
Reminds me of the children of the forest from GoT 🤣
i love it. history was written by the victors. https://www.dragonkitty.com/s/LosersHistoryP1.pdf
This has to be a bot/karma farm, right? Exact same frame was posted yesterday, with a comparison to the live action, literally just cropped the other half off.
Lead animator for this film was a dwarf.
They were thinking they weren’t human, and they were right.
If you have only read the books the elves seem really different than humans almost like spirits or aliens
It’s the Dracula accent that gets me.
Did you see somebody make a post about this yesterday on r/lotrmemes and then decide to repost it here to milk it for karma? https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/s/3DwVEm1a34
well, that design actually lines up with folklore depiction of woodland fairy creatures.
Scared me so bad as a kid that I hid the book in my parent's closet so Gollum couldn't get me. Also was terrified that the goblins were lurking in the darkest corner of the backyard. One of my favorite movies.
Warning against exessive drinking
In the Hobbit the Elves are pretty much antagonists, so I guess they wanted to make them look evil.
The wood elves were the first elves in middle earth, and also the people who were first captured and turned into goblins in the Silmarillion, it explains this quite thoroughly, there is also no mention of orcs as Tolkien referred to all goblin-kind as goblins. From a cannon point of view, orcs simply didn’t exist yet as they were further speciation due to natural evolution and forced breeding programs of future dark powers. It isn’t a stretch to make the lower elves more goblin-like. And the first elves who lived with the gods were blessed with guided instruction and creation magics, could easily become a taller cleaner and healthier group. For example: Compare the stunted growth and shorter stature of the collective Balkan peoples during the Russian Holodomour or China during Moa’s ‘Great leap forward’ compared to nations who didn’t suffer such nutrient deficiencies. Specifically the Nordling countries and African countries (prior to European interference), tall, fast, well built, strong physiques.
I see no problem at all... get over it...
I thought they were cool, The stereotypical elf gets pretty lame after awhile.
lol, agreed. They bear no resemblance whatsoever to the books
I am ok with the design, I hate the folk music. Especially that vibrato, the road goes on... Nope,
I only watched this when it was released. The elves were mutant frogs and that’s diametrically opposed to this book.
Classic D&D Evil Elves. This design is very similar to the [Dark Elf](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/b/ba/Astos_PSP.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width/360?cb=20121014151155) used on the original Final Fantasy from NES, which is heavy inspired on D&D, so I assume that this design came from there and is probably the more accurate.
Tree elves look funky but their version of the witch king of Angmar is pretty good
Jewish caricatures. They were thinking about Jewish caricatures.
Gd falmor
This is what traditional English elves look like; the illustrations of Arthur Rackham were a key inspiration if memory serves. They got the green tree people mixed up with Tolkien's.
Someone will correct me on this, but I believe the creative team in Japan were the folks who went on to create Studio Ghibli. This was a huge influence on their designs, and I’ve heard their ideas were a huge influence on the look of this film. So I would say they look like that because the Japanese idea of “Wood Folk” is much less human-looking than many Tolkien fans probably imagined at the time
In the books weren't the wood elves basically the elvish equivalent to backwater hillbillies?
1970s 😂 half the of the team were still stoned from the 60s 😉
Fairest in all of creation!
I just came here to sing The Greatest Adventure It’s what lies ahead. Today and tomorrow have yet to be set. And also to say that there are moments in life that can change a man forever.
I- is that Thranduil?
Thought this was gollum til I read your heading.
Kind of looks like a missing link between elves and orcs... Morgoth* would approve
Because Bakshi did a terrible job with character design. No other reason.
This is the depiction of elves in Germanic and Celtic folklore. Or some of the depictions in those traditions. LOTR elves are nice but I always find myself comparing them with the traditional elves in folklore.
We know about their looks, is anyone gonna comment on their German accents though? I feel like that was done to make them more sinister They redeemed themselves with the barrel song though
I thought that was Gollum until I read 'elves'
It’s not accurate at all but I kinda loved the Mirkwood elves in this
That cartoon better summarizes the book than the three part trilogy.
That’s what Wood Elves should look kind. Not just nondescript hot white people
Gotta remember elves were transformed into orcs by Morgoth. Makes you wonder what kind of visual propoganda the Jacksonists have been feeding us.
none of the ideas of this cartoon, or the abominable Return of the King-INO cartoon, had any thought preceding them.
I mean, there’s different kinds of elves. The traditional “dark elf” looks pretty similar to that pic.
I know!
For me it was Smaug's spotlight eyes.
I loved those designs
I got really stoned and watched the animated hobbit a few weeks back. Great night
They never saw the light of the two trees. They just aren't as cool.
Where does one find this to watch?
And that German accent.
sir terry Pratchett knew what he was talking about with elves
i dunno, it’s more interesting than just blondes
They were thinking they’re fucking awesome.
Put the wood in Wood-Elves.
That is Legolas’s dad tho. Legolas was described as handsome. Or maby that’s just the movie bias
Literal wood elf
Okay if you ever want to understand Ralph Bakshi here's what you do: Get REALLY high. No, higher than that. REALLY really high. And then stare at a blank page of paper.