[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

To be fair, Gandalf the Grey was established as a slightly batty, scruffy chap in PJ's films, it was only when he became Gandalf the White that he became 'noble/angelic' etc.

Sure, sure. But the point is that since seeing Gandalf the White, the audience already knows that the Wizards are something more than just scruffy old men. And when you watch the movie for the second time with that knowledge in mind, you can still see the "hidden power" aspect in Gandalf, or Saruman, for that matter. Of course, it remains to be seen what they do with Radagast - maybe he's going to have that too. But just on first sight, the "air" is not very pleasant.

Billy Boyd's accent was his native one! I'm not sure about the other chap but Aidan Turner is Irish - he can 'do' accents very well though. And we've only heard a snippet of it so far so there's nowt to criticise. Northern accents are the most aesthetically pleasing of all, and the most correct, posh ones being a French aberration

I'm not presuming to judge whether accents are natural or not, they sound fake. To me. Like when all the Dwarves in all the fantasy games or who knows what have these fake Scottish accents or who knows what. As for "posh ones" - I have no idea what you mean by "posh", when you say "posh", I imagine the overdone "high-class" English (thinking the classic over the top versions of My Fair Lady professors). I prefer normal English. Something in the limits. The stuff we hear from most people in most normal movies. Average.

British humour isn't 'light', that's just the stuff that gets exported. The majority of British humour is very harsh, even quite cruel and crude. Slapstick is essentially violence, and then you have satire and black humour, plenty of toilet humour and trading on embarrassment. Some of the comedy that's on British TV would make people in other countries have palpitations, it's so offensive. A big naked goblin being flung at dwarves is very British. I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing! But it's nothing out of the ordinary. It's a bit League of Gentlemen, actually...

I think I'd be fine with that. I am not British, so I cannot 100% say I know what British humour is like, but I think I have some basic ideas. Yes indeed, satire, black humour and absurdity is what I think of. They say Czech humour is very similar to British one, and when I think of e.g. the use of black humour, satire or (perhaps in lesser manner for mainstream Czech humour) absurdity, I tend to agree, at least from the Czech part and as far as I have seen or heard (what comes to my mind from the TV now are the Pythons, Red Dwarf, Rowan Atkinson, Black Books - there is the sort of central line to it which is similar).

But I fail to see the falling of the Goblin on top of the folks as having anything in common with the spirit of the kind of humour I could even remotely connect with The Hobbit. The rabbit sled is just weird. Of course, the rabbit sled is taken out of context in the trailer, but it gives the impression that it is just like in, I don't know, Ice Age where the folks are sliding down that icy tunnel. Nothing wrong about that, but does it belong into The Hobbit? With Radagast? If there was a similar thing with Bilbo falling down the crack to Gollum's cave, sure. But he's the hobbit. Radagast is not. Simple as that.

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Tolkien's humor was dry, puckish, donnish, clever- even when aimed at children it's aimed at *bright* children

Absolutely well said.