THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY | MOVIE REACTION | FIRST TIME WATCHING 

"If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was hardly involved. All I did was, give your Uncle a nudge out the door." - Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring. That's bullshit Gandalf. You threw a Dwarf rave at his house without his permission.

"Oh my gosh - I want to live in the Shire." Cassie - the Shire set is still maintained and quite an attraction near Makamaka, New Zealand. There are a lot of travel blogs and videos to check out of folks visiting Hobbiton, and hyou can drink a pint in the Green Dragon. You can see Sam's house, Bilbo's house, and stand at the spot where Sam said "One more step and I've gone the farthest I've been..."

"I'm excited to see my friends again." - Never has a comment regarding Tolkien hit so hard. That's exactly what these characters are. They're our friends. And for many of us, they've been there through the darkest times, just as we shared theirs. This story has literally changed lives.

"I want Gimli to be on this quest." He's actually related to them. He's Gloin's son and Balin's cousin.

The moment Bilbo spared Gollum was the moment that was the salvation of Middle-earth. Gollum was needed to ensure the success of Frodo's mission. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.

"The Sword of Isildur!" "These look more like goblins." "Rivendell!" - Loremaster Cassie

Your gut reaction to this movie in general being more childish-as opposed to the Lord of the Rings movies-is spot on! It is indeed more childish, and therefore less majestic and epic, and that's by design. The Hobbit was written to be entertainment for Tolkien's children. In Tolkien's own words, “The Hobbit is a fairy tale for children; the Lord of the Rings is a fairy tale for adults.”

Balin is probably my favorite of the dwarves, since they properly portrayed how he acted in the books. That's why he's so well written. Balin is also the one Gimli finds in the tomb in moria.

So Martin Freeman has now played three of the most iconic characters of British literature: Bilbo, Dr. Watson, and Arthur Dent.

Lady Galadriel is so calm because she’s seen it all. She is literally older than the sun and moon. She’s dealt with so much crap that nothing fazes her.

The shot with the moon behind Galadriel was literally a message to those who are in the know that she is older than the moon itself and was around to see the birth of the moon and sun!!

In an interview, Andy Serkis (who acted the role of Gollum) said that he was inspired to create the voice of Gollum when he saw (and heard) his cat coughing up a fur ball.

"WHAT are DRAGONS gonna do with gold???" Any dragon: YES

Cassie: "The sword of Isildur!" Me: "Look at you girl!" How ever you might feel about The Hobbit Trilogy, watching it with Cassie is a real treat! 😁

Best call-out: “get off yer pig-horse like a man!” 😂

I love both Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy in their own unique and special way (not in the same way). They shouldn’t be compared so strongly, because they are two completely different stories. They both are amazing in their own right

I saw an interview with Sir Christopher Lee where he was really excited to have had the opportunity to play Saruman the White when he was a wise wizard and not totally corrupted by Sauron.

As so many others have posted: "The Hobbit" was a smaller book originally written for children. Tolkien later added some more adult elements to incorporate "The Hobbit" lore with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy of books intended for adults. As a whole - The mythological lore of Middle Earth is absolutely massive with various histories & languages of many races, spiritual beings, and Deities.

As many problems I have with these movies. I think the portrayal of Bilbo Baggins was the best from page to screen. I read the books when I was young and this is EXACTLY what I saw in my head for Bilbo.

I love all 3 hobbit movies, but i also think that Lord of the Rings is the best trilogy ever made, and nothing will come close to that

Gandalf is so interested in this quest because in 60 years time, when the War of the Ring goes down, he wants a friendly and powerful dwarves realm on the northern border instead of an evil dragon. We never hear from Gimli or Legolas’ people during LotR; in the appendix, we discover that’s because they’re blocking Sauron’s northeastern attack route at great cost in life.

Here's a fun little easter egg you may have missed! Do you remember the scene in the forest where Aragorn and the Hobbits stop to look for the plants to slow down Frodo's infection after being stabbed by one of the Nazgul in the first Lord of the Rings movie? You can actually see these three petrified Trolls in the background of this scene!

Many people give the hobbit trilogy a lot of grief for not being as "Cinematic" as the original trilogy but if you over look the artistic part of the films the actors alone deliver very masterfull performances. ♡

It's more light hearted because it's a depiction of 'There and back again' by Bilbo. Even the cinematography is brighter because it's Bilbo looking back and telling the story. It's a recollection. So it's not as true-toned and gritty as LOTR. It's also why the bits that don't have Bilbo in (like Gandalf's parts on his own) are darker in terms of lighting and music.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit." is the line that started all this, Tolkien wrote it one day, not knowing what a Hobbit was and it's still the first line in the hobbit.

15:02 The reaction in my movie theater during the premiere was this. Everyone was starting to clap and cheer at Sir Christopher Lee's appearance. But among the crowd, a little boy stood and shouted, "GET HIM GANDALF!!!" We all proceeded to have an outburst of laughter at that. It was super hilarious.

I wish there were more songs present in these and the LOTR movies. Tolkien wrote HUNDREDS of songs and poems to fit into his literature. Many of them in his own languages. And no one ever really acknowledges that. A lot of the vocals you hear in the score are choirs singing in dwarvish or elvish, but everyone just focuses on the big instrumental themes.

The eagles have a leader too, he's called Gawihir and he's Gandalf's friend

The Hobbit was originally a children's story, which is part of why it seems cartoonish. Even the chapters were written to be just long enough to be a bedtime story to be read aloud to children.

"The sword of Isildur. Look at me!" One of us! One of us! One of us! Gollum is seriously one of the most well realized digital characters. Period. Andy Serkis just slayed that role. And he is creepy beyond reason. You're dead right... the same level of magic is somehow not there in these, but they are still amazingly well made, the score is phenomenal, and they are a lot of fun.

The sweetest! All reactions with the heart, not overthinking and rationalizing too much on these stories, and I like that.

25:55 "Get off your pig-horse like a man." had me dead. This is my new favorite sentence.

"These orcs look thicker" if I remember correctly, they are Gundabad orcs so they are a different variety from that of Mordor and Saruman's Uruk Hai.

Gimli's not on this adventure, but his father Gloin is. Gimli was considered too young to participate, he was only a bit younger than Fili and Kili.

Girl! "I'm excited to see my friends again." THAT WAS MY REACTION AS WELL!!!! You have such a sweet attitude about this series and I really love your reactions!!!! (I loved this trilogy too, by the way haha)

If you have never read the Hobbit, you need to; it is a fantastic book; the Stone Giants are mentioned in it.. I love that Sir Christopher Lee returned as Saruman the White, it gave us a look at his character before he fell to Sauron; also Radagast was played by the Seventh Doctor Who, Sylvester McCoy. I also really like the interaction between Gandalf and Lady Galadriel during their meeting in Imladris.

In the Fellowship of the Ring Bilbo is telling the tale of that scene where the trolls turn to stone to the little hobbits.

This isn't the greatest BUT Bilbo's face when he's interrupted at dinner at the beginning is my life MOOD. Also NTL when you said "These are goblins" I was like, "sniff...sniff... look at this beautiful little nerd..." I couldn't be more proud

Elves actually love meat and hunting in general very much. In fact, one of their most favourite Valar (they are kind of like Gods in Tolkien's world) is the Vala of Hunting, Oromë. This makes the "green food" scene even funnier, since elves are definitely the prankster type of characters (which was, sadly not displayed in the movies at all)

The hobbit is an amazing story and I hate how often it is trivialized as just the prequel to lotr rather than it’s own story, which came first, and led in to lotr

Am I the only one who thought: "Balin? Oh hey, Balin, I saw your grave." :D

23:59 when you realise that the the demise of the whole Middle-Earth was at the tip of that blade

My favourite thing about the first part of this movie is how much gorgeous long take shots of Bag End we get, it's such a great set that we all love from watching LotR so it's fantastic to see even more scenes filmed in it.

I've lived in New Zealand all my life, im happy people get to see how beautiful New Zealand is

10:43 In the LotR, Bilbo told a story to some Hobbit children about how he was almost eaten by a bunch of trolls and that they were turned to stone.

The book is far more light hearted and _"cartoonish"_ than the Lord of the Rings, so in that respect it's true the spirit of the book.

First time Bilbo used the ring, he had the chance to kill Gollum but chose to spare his life. That's why he was able to resist the Ring's influence more than anyone else, because he chose good over evil since the very first moment.

It’s not only more “childish” because of the book, but because it’s told from the view of bilbo, and in the end his journey is to him, an ADVENTURE, and sure it was sad, but he was with his friends and shared with an adventure The lord of the rings was told by Frodo, and the journey was a 20+ year tale of pure pain

Yes indeed, Bilbo was remembering his adventure 60 years earlier just before his birthday party that we see in the Lord of the Rings.

"Oh my gosh, I want to live in the Shire." You and me both, sister, I could get used to such a life.

This one is by far the best of the Hobbit trilogy, it gets closest to the feel of LotR and isn't filled with unnecessary elements which no-one asked for and were poorly executed to boot. I also unashamedly adore Thorin's ridiculous amount of majesty, God bless Richard Armitage for his portrayal. Oh and Martin Freeman was a spot-on casting choice as well.

8:22 Cassie: "Please tell me that's not bird poop running down" Radagast: "It isss"

"why does Gandalf care about Smaug ?" Before I answer that I think I should first try to briefly explain *what* Gandalf & the other wizards are because they are not human. The closest approximation would be angels, at least they were angels (called maiar) before they came to Middle Earth from Valinor (the place Frodo sails to). They were sent to Middle Earth by the Valar (archangels or demigods would be the closest approximation for them) to fix the mess made by a Valar who went bad & no it wasn't actually Sauron, it was his master Melkor (now called Morgoth, this guy is basically Satan). Morgoth was defeated & banished by the Valar themselves but his disciple Sauron (also originally a Maiar/angel) had taken up his lord's work & he turned out to be even more insidious than Morgoth. Where Morgoth (who actually created the Orcs by torturing elves btw) was violent & destructive, Sauron was manipulative & cunning. To counter his threat, the Valar sent five Maiar to Middle Earth to serve as... sort of wardens of Middle Earth. They were called *Istari* & they were: Saruman the White - the wisest of the five, his job was to learn all he could of the ancient knowledge of Middle Earth. Gandalf the Grey - The Grey Pilgrim - he was to walk the West & learn all he could of it's people. Radagast the Brown, tender of beasts - he was sent by the Valar of nature, Yavanna, to care for the creatures of Middle Earth & try to save them from Sauron's corruption. Then there were the two Blue Wizards, Alatar & Pallando, but Tolkien never really got round to writing too much about them. They went off into the East & (according to Tolkien) contributed to the War of the Ring by disrupting the worship of Morgoth. So why does Gandalf care about Smaug ? Four reasons mainly: 1 - If Smaug signed up with Sauron that would bad on an epic scale. 2 - The Dwarves need to be strong for the coming war. 3 - Fate. Bilbo *was* meant to find the ring. 4 - It's just the right thing to do.

21:08 "30 white horses on a red hill, they champ, stamp and stand still" Humans (and presumably hobbits) have on average 30-32 teeth, the red hill being the gums, and the final part is a metaphor for chewing 👌

Another kiwi here, my mum and her ex were to get married at the place that eventually became Rivendell (had planned it before the first movie even came out), but after the first movies became so popular, it was always crowded with tourists so they settled on a backyard wedding instead.

"Somebody needs to tell Bilbo what's going on -- and me!" had such a bright energy it made me flash back to being a kid somehow.

I knew she hadn’t gotten enough of middle earth 🙏❤️🙏

The Hobbit was a children's book when it came out so it was very different from the vibes of Lord of the Rings. They tried to keep the idea of lightheartedness in the movies as well.

6:16 if you listen carefully to the lyrics it's a hearts lament for a homeland lost. It's really kind of a sad song sung very beautifully. I believe this is what persuaded Bilbo to take up their cause.

I love the first Hobbit movie so much! I'm glad you're giving them a shot. The quality does go downhill, but this first one is brilliant. And absolutely do stick with the extended versions, they cut out most of the best scenes from the theatrical versions in movies 2&3.

The giant Eagles are the special servants of Manwe, Lord of the Airs, King of the Valar. Gandalf, being a Maia, knows how and when to request their aid.

People say its not as serious and dire as LOTR's but The Hobbit was written as a children's book first and foremost. I think people forget that.

Ah Ms. Cassie, watching your videos is like watching with a new friend on all of my favorite movies. Your companionship and your views on them, they make me genuinely happy knowing that audiences still have yet to watch these immortal movies. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The level of humor in this trilogy is actually fitting if you have read the books. The Hobbit has a lot more humor and is a lot less dark than The Lord of the Rings. I actually read The Hobbit for the first time to my dad on our trips to and from my mom's (fun custody times).

6:00 "I want Gimli to be on this quest!" Well, he's too young at the moment in this story. Or was considered too young. But his dad is on the adventure. ;) If you remember from Fellowship of the Ring, Gimli is actually Balin's cousin. Balin was the lord of Moria they found entombed when they found the place overrun. He's also the same Balin here that accompanies Gandalf and Thorin.

I still like The Hobbit movies as movies themselves. Obviously they couldn't hold up to the Lord of the Rings movies but only a few movies can do that. I found them very enjoyable

Hobbit is only one book, but Tolkien also had a bunch of side-stories that tie in to both Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and take place 400 years prior to Hobbit. This movie trilogy alters the timeline so these side stories happen around the same time as Hobbit, and the combined story takes up 3 movies.

13:59 "look at me" Yes, very proud of you for knowing that

2:45 Dragons love gold as much as cats love catnip 🐉 And also: Smaug was inspired by the dragon Fafnir from norse mythology, who was originally a dwarf who hoarded a huge treasure and transformed into a dragon to keep it safe. A dragon of similar characteristic also appears in the tale of Beowulf

“"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." This was handwritten in a notebook by JRR Tolkien during an artillery barrage on the front in WWI. There is a wealth of world building to explore with one of the age’s greatest linguists, philologists and story tellers🙂

dont let anyone tell u otherwise!!! the hobbit is a great story and its not supposed to be LOTR. The original story was more whimsical for a reason! It is still beautiful in its own right!

I wonder if anyone should tell her..that the part in LOTR where Gimli cried(Just before the belrog), those skeletons and corpses were these guys and that is why he was crying. They were the last of the dwarfs leaving Gimli the last.

This is actually close to the book. They sing a lot of songs in the book. I was actually really pumped in the theaters whenever the Dwarves sang the song Misty Mountains.

Honestly, I was just as proud of Cassie for remembering Narsil :D Look at you, indeed! :D

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." Thorin to Bilbo near the end.

"Ride, bunnies, ride!" - Why does it feel like no one but Cassie would think of that? 🙂

10:44 Those were the trolls that sam told frodo when he was injured and Arwen appears and when Bilbo at his birthday party tells the story to the Hobbit children.

Gandalf in not interested in the gold, he fear what Sauron may do with the dragon. Gandalf wants to eliminate that menace.

My mom read the Hobbit to me when I was in grade school. My only objection was that she liked the story too. If I fell asleep she would poke me awake so she could keep reading until she got to a place where she wanted to stop.

"I wonder if Aragorn is there, as a child!" Well, yes, but also no. He's about 27 at this point.

The fact that it's one children's book spread out over three three-hour movies should tell you everything about the quality of the trilogy and which of the divided opinions is the accurate one.

"The Hobbit" is a book for kids: I read it when I was 12 and I cried when I finished it because I was part of the crew and the adventure ended :P "The Lord of the Rings" is a masterpiece inteded for adults. The story, the language and the whole tone of the two books are on different levels, because they target a different age. Tolkien was professor of english language and literature and some parts of TLOTR require a good amount of focus to read.

Also, "get off your pig horse, like a man!" Is the single greatest thing I've ever heard! 🤣

For a first time watcher of Tolkien's works you have an awesome understanding of its lore and mythos! Thoroughly enjoy watching your reaction vids! Liked and subscribed!👍🙂

"He's got some elf skill with that bow!" Oh no... More elf skill than you know.

"I'm sure there's a reason this is 3 movies from 1 book" Money. The reason is money.

The thing about the Eagles is that they are neither immortal like the Elves nor do they have souls that go on to a true afterlife like humans(simplified). Further their ordained purpose on Middle Earth is as observers not fighters or anything like that. All that compounds to the eagles not really being willing to take direct part in the affairs of other races, the only exception to this is Gandalf who is a Maiar serving Manwë, the Valar(~lesser god) that created the Eagles, giving them a special bond to him.

The Hobbit was a Children's book originally, that (I think) is why it doesn't have the weight and the gravity that the Lord of the Rings does. The Hobbit was read to me when I was little and when I was a teen I got to see the animated film then The Lord of the Rings. 🖤

Gimli was considered to be too young to join, but his father Gloin did.

It is said when a Dwarf holds a grudge it's set in stone and it takes a lot in order for them let go of the grievances of the past.

' An Eagle is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.' The Great Eagles of Manwe have a supremely developed sense of dramatic tension and release.

I love the dinner scene at the beginning of the movie because it always reminded me of my family visiting every Christmas Eve.

Not sure if someone else mentioned this, but in The Fellowship of the Ring, you see the Trolls that were turned to Stone early on in the movie! They are even called Bilbo's trolls!

you may recognize the trolls the Company encounter, they make an appearance in Fellowship right after the Nazgul attack on Weathertop.

23:56 - 24:05 "It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand." 🤣There's no rules however about him staying his foot to Gollum's face. Geez, Bilbo.

"The dragons want the gold? What is a dragon gonna do with . . . gold?" Traditionally, they sleep on it. Doesn't sound very comfortable, does it?!

(no spoilers) Some things you asked about: 2:28 "where is the actual dragon?" By the time post production on this first movie had finished they still had not decided what exactly the dragon should look like, so we barely see it here. The development of Smaug was a huge process that they all knew they had to get perfect because its the most iconic dragon in all of literature. 3:54 "I recognize him but I can't remember from what." The actor who played young Bilbo (Martin Freeman) is perhaps best known for is role as Watson in the BBC show Sherlock where he plays along side Benedict Cumberbatch.....who is also an important voice in these Hobbit movies. Martin Freeman also has a role in Marvel's Black Panther and Civil War. 4:15 "I want to live in the shire" You can visit it and even eat and drink at the inn where Merry and Pippin danced. The entire outdoor set is now preserved as a tourist attraction in New Zealand just as it looks in the film. 4:38 That head butt that startled you has some significance. Its a cheeky reference to Viggo Mortinson (Aragorn) who, during the filming of the LotR movies was known to headbutt other cast members as a greeting. According to a few of the actors, he still does it to this day. 5:55 "I want Gimli to be on this quest." Gimli was too young at the time of these movies.....but his father Gloin is there. He's the one with very thick/bushy dark red hair and beard with four braids in his mustache. He does look like Gimli.

Knowing that this was a children's book sort of lowered my expectations in a GOOD way before I watched the movies. They don't HAVE to be as epic as "The Lord of the Rings". I love "The Hobbit" trilogy, and I can still watch them over and over.

Gloin is father of Gimli, Gimli is in fellowship of the ring he isn't to old. And one thing, youngest dwarve is Killy(71). Normal age of dwarves is 250+- 🙂👍

Anyone who says not to watch it is an absolute cloooown!