It was only, I think, in his looks that Elijah Wood may have appeared 'innocent' or 'childlike' (actually I think he was OK); in his manner, he was indeed much more aware and educated about the world than the other Hobbits in the films, and much more serious. But it is unfair to say that. Sam did not look anything like he should have (one of the least pleasing characters in the film, I found *grimace*). They are being played by humans, remember, not real Hobbits -- like the Elves, the actors are bound to be slightly ill-fitting in their roles.
Personally, I didn't like the movie (or at least the first one, because I didn't bother seeing the second and so my only reports on it are from hearsay and trailers). It wasn't because of the story that they missed, which is inevitable and I can live with (in fact they would have been really bad if they'd included it all -- it isn't a screenplay of the entire works of Tolkien) but the rubbish that they put in. Chiefly displeasing were Arwen's reformed 'warrior princess' character and Aragorn, most evident in the first film, who was transformed from the Estel, that had been preparing to be King all his life, to a mere vagabond who sort of decided to tag along with the Company at the last minute. Elrond was pretty bad as well. Totally changed the character. I hear there was a lot of that story-altering going on in the second one (which I'll probably watch soon on DVD -- not my own, someone else's [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] -- if only to validate my point of view on it) which is why I didn't see it.
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