[Mithalwen]

Child has made some splendid points but thinking about it, while the tone of the Hobbit is very childish, the action is really quite dark already once you leave Hobbiton and using the Quest of Erebor approach is something that would remedy that. I think that a "childs"version would work best as one of those classic sunday afternoon serials which would spread the "nasties" out into manageable chunks interspersed with lighter parts. I can't help thinking that condensing it into even a three hour film is likely to make it too unrelentingly scary for smaller children. Trolls, goblins, gollum, more goblins & Wargs,man who turns into a bear, sinister wood, unfriendly elves, even unfriendlier spiders ... and all before we even get to the dragon.....