Little Hobbit, The

This is a wonderful fanedit, proving that fitting all 3 Hobbit movies into one is not only doable, but improves the tale immensely. Even though this is not a 'Tolkien Cut', it nevertheless feels much more faithful to the spirit of the book than Jackson's bloated epics. I can't list the number of things which were cut that I ended up not missing in this edit. However I did keep a list of things I thought could be improved, mostly nitpicks but some more substantive suggestions:

Fading to black between shots at the beginning is a bit off-putting. Perhaps crossfades would work better.

Bilbo isn't properly annoyed at Gandalf when he sees him at the party.

Bilbo teleports at the discussion of Smaug at the party.

There's still a bit too much discussion of strategy at the dinner table.

Would have been nice to see 'I'm going on an adventure!'

Bilbo is oddly brave when deciding to free the ponies.

The Dwarves are very suddenly captured by the Trolls.

There's an odd transition from the Troll hideout to the crevice leading to Rivendell.

A mention of the Dragon Sickness would be good in Rivendell.

The transition from the march to the Misty Mountains to the interior of the cave is strange, since everyone is out of breath and dripping wet despite not seeing the rain. Keeping a bit of the rainy scene beforehand would have helped with Bilbo's decision to turn back to Rivendell.

Bilbo's scene with Gollum is wonderful but a few riddles could have been cut for time. The scene goes on for 15 minutes straight, so I'd suggest cutting up to 5 minutes from this.

Beorn is necessary in my opinion since he's the only way they get the ponies to get to Mirkwood.

Thranduil has little introduction. A few more shots before the Dwarves are imprisoned would help, or if Thorin's meeting comes before they are locked up.

A bit more of the barrel ride would be pleasant. Good choice in removing the battle though.

I didn't miss Laketown at all. It's a it sudden to see them walking to the mountain so quickly, but another establishing shot is all that would be needed here.

A bit of color correction and brightening of the shots of Thorin opening the mountain door would help mask the scene transition.

Focusing on the Arkenstone after the destruction of Laketown is a good choice. However, Beorn's absence is felt in the acorn scene.

There remains some confusion about why the orcs are attacking at this moment. Granted it's not well established in either the book or the original films, but it would be nice for this point to be more clear. It almost feels as if Gandalf's explanation confuses what could be a simple matter of revenge on the part of Azog.

Thorin must discover Bilbo's treachery.

It feels against character for Bilbo to put on the ring and head into danger without good reason. After all, he's no warrior.

The battle with Azog is rather superfluous, since we don't have enough knowledge of the two parties to care. It would be far more effective to have the fight be from Bilbo's perspective, where he sees only the aftermath. This cuts a good 5 minutes from the end.

2.5 hours is a good length for this movie. With the 10 minutes of additional cuts and the addition of some small moments and the Beorn scene this edit would be just about perfect.

I'm sincere, I do not think the Hobbit movies are bad movies, they are quite repetitive and they have very mediocre scenes, but in general they are decent movies (although they are not at the LOTR level).

What I call the attention of this edition was its duration: 3 movies in 170 minutes ?, Surprisingly I think not much has been lost, many transitions are quite intelligent, the movie has a constant rhythm and at the same time the scenes take their time . Not only that but he has removed almost all of the subplot of Laketown, Tauriel, Alfrid, Radagast, most of the Orcs and even the Bard Daughters. Being honest he feels quite close to what could have been The Hobbit adapted to film (being a faithful adaptation) . Most of the movie is only the best scenes of the movies, so you do not have to wait until the boring policy of Laketown ends or a long battle with the goblins. I think that the rhythm of the movie is exactly the one that should have been given to The Hobbit Movie (as a single movie, of course)

I also love being cut off almost all of Laketown stuff, one of my biggest problems with Smaug's desolation is that we spend too much time in Laketown and Laketown is fucking boring, I'm not interested in anything that happens there, even in scenes where At last we see Smaug, they continue to emphasize Laketown, that I love this edition does not even feel that something is missing, I do not think Laketown takes more than 5 minutes, I'm surprised that even if it parallels the book, it really tries to be a Adaptation and not a purist version.

Unfortunately, not everything is perfect, personally I think that although most of the transactions worked, there were some that did not work for me.


-We had two dwarves at first to have the house full of dwarves and Gandalf in the house and Bilbo not say nothing, I think we should keep the discussion between Gandalf and Bilbo that his house is full of dwarfs.

-I did not like the removal of the prologue, it gives a clearer context about the trip, but it is my opinion.

-Kili goes to look for Bilbo and out of nowhere they caught everyone

-The dwarves fall covered with cobwebs and out of nowhere are they standing and clean

-Something strange felt the way I started the part of the Battle of the five armies (the movie), I think I should start directly with the dwarves looking for gold and then Thorin complaining that he does not appear.

- When the statue falls, Bilbo says they are crazy and should avoid war, when there has been no mention of it, if you are going to cut the scene where Bard and Thorin speak, you should eliminate all references.

-This is not a mistake, but I think we should not eliminate Bilbo by revealing to Thorin that he gave the Arkestone, so the final scene when they speak has more emotional, but it's a personal idea, nothing more.

-I'm also no fan of the way you edit the battle of the Five Army, I think it would have been better if the battle started when Thorin leaves the Mountain and then used the scene of the battle chariot and then Thorin confronts Azog, I would only have liked to see more of the dwarves in the battle, since we had little of them and more of characters that ara unknown for the audience, also the sandworms felt left over, but again it's just as I would have done.It's your edition, you're free to do it however you like

But apart from that, it's a good edition, it lasts what should last, and is the closest edition to what would happen if it were made a movie of the solitary Hobbit. Although I personally like the original films , this is a good alternative way to see it,

Recommended

Many Hobbit fanedits have emerged from Director Peter Jackson’s fertile raw material, but if you’re looking for the shortest 3-in-1 version, look no further. . . or higher. Clocking in at two hours, fifty-two minutes, this version provides a breezy hobbit fix that nevertheless doesn’t feel rushed.

Whereas the single-movie fanedits of An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug removed enough filler to keep the stories functional as stand-alone movies, 3-in-1 edits can be more ambitious in their condensations.

Mammam, by aggressively removing certain scenes wholesale, has brilliantly solved problems that earlier edits tackled with varying degrees of success. To my delight, the love triangle and almost the entirety of Laketown have been expunged. Some edits have pulled off fantastic color grading to hide Smaug’s improbable gold coating, but Mammam deals with it by dispensing with it.

Or take the barrel ride, which was trimmed mercilessly to keep the edit focused on character moments and less on action. All the problems associated with the sequence have been swept away, so to speak, by not giving it much air in the first place.

No longer does Bilbo have to point out a dwarven staircase to the dwarves who would know best of its presence, nor do the dwarves sulk away from their quest after minor door-opening difficulties and expository chatter.

This is just my personal preference, but I was hoping the warg battle and Beorn’s hospitality would have been retained, but I understand the editor’s intent was to keep the story moving, and that keeping these elements would have necessitated keeping other interstitial bits and padding.

The video looked crisp, and I didn’t notice any audio issues.

Although this is a lean, perhaps the leanest, version of The Hobbit franchise, think of it not as a hurried experience, but one that has shed the excesses of the original, excesses that slowed down the narrative. This wonderfully condensed version of The Hobbit is one that could have been released by a more focused studio and a more focused Peter Jackson.

I had the pleasure of reviewing this edit for approval and now look forward to Mammam’s future edits. And once I’m finished reading The Hobbit with my kid (we’re about halfway through), I plan to introduce her to the Jacksonian telling by showing her this edit.

I think this is the version of The Hobbit I was looking for. I was stunned when I initially learned that what should have been a single film of a "children's book" was being expanded to three lengthy films and I wasn't surprised to see that it was mostly comprised of needless sidequests, characters, and action.

Mammam's cut fixes almost all of that. Fresh after having re-read the book, I almost couldn't tell that anything had been cut. It isn't a purist book cut, per se, but it is an excellent adaptation utilizing Jackson's material. Leaving in some of the things like the mention of Azog and the duel with him at the end was acceptable to me: it gave the Orcs a bit more of a reason to be there at the end (rather than appearing without warning in the book). All of the needless characters, cameos, and sidequests have been done away with. All the fat has been trimmed and what is left is a delightful meal.

The one odd moment for me was just after Thorin died and then it fades to Bilbo sitting alone. It seemed a bit incongruous, but that's minor. This will be my favorite version of The Hobbit from here on out I think.

The Hobbit novel, being a young adult book and at around 300 pages should have originally been released as a stand alone movie. For Peter Jackson to make it into three movies was clearly a cash grab from the success of the LOTR trilogy and was not necessary. There was so also so much unnecessary padding in these three movies to justify there existence. This edit give us the stand alone movie that should have been released. Mammam removes all the bloat from the three movies and give us most of the scenes from the book. The edit flows really well and it really feels like this could have been the cinematic release of the movie. I really enjoyed this movie and would highly recommended it. Great work Mammam!