Summary (From GoodReads) : Tolkien's famous saga, the prelude to The Lord of the Rings, has all the ingredients of fantasy and adventure: dwarves, elves, goblins and trolls, a fearsome dragon, a great wizard, a perilous quest, and a dramatic climax. This radio dramatization became a classic when it was first broadcast on BBC Radio, and it continues to delight today. Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit, is a peaceful sort who lives in a cozy hole in the Shire, a place where adventures are uncommon—and rather unwanted. So when the wizard Gandalf whisks him away on a treasure hunting expedition with a troop of rowdy dwarves, he's not entirely thrilled.
Thoughts: It has been a while since I read the Hobbit and I think I'll have to read it again. In this adaptation, most of the characters annoyed me and it was next to impossible to tell any of the dwarves apart. There are just so many of them and they don't have particularly distinctive personalities. I had trouble following what was happening. Part of this is because I think it is hard to convey action in radio-theater. I kept asking myself why things were happening and wondering if I really wanted Bilbo and the dwarves to succeed.
Moments I Loved: When all the dwarves show up to discuss the adventure and Bilbo is all "What is going on? Why is my house full of dwarves who want to fight for treasure?"
WTF Moments: Bilbo finds something that he knows is important to one of the dwarves and decides to keep it. While he grows in a lot of good ways throughout the course of the book, this scene marked that change goes both ways and you can start doing bad things even while becoming a stronger person.
Performance: The cast did a great job, but overall the production stressed me out. There is a lot of action and fighting, which is hard to follow. Listening in my car, I was surrounded by the sound of clashing swords and yelling men. Most listeners will probably think this adds to the performance, but it made me feel overwhelmed and I sometimes had trouble following what was happening.
Overall: Definitely worth a listen for die-hard Hobbit fans, but I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to the story if you haven't read the book.
The Hobbit (A BBC Full Cast Radio Drama) gets a FakeSteph rating of...
Posts
Ooh, I could see how this would be tricky to follow as an audio. It can be hard enough to watch battle scenes and know who's hitting who, let alone just listening!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting review Steph! And I loved your commentary on the WTF moment. I'm extremely disappointed in myself that i failed on rereading this series before the movie came out. I only had 100 pages left in Two Towers but now I kind of feel like it has been so long I wont really remember what was happening where I left off. One of these days I'd like to give it another shot and read all four books in a month.....someday.
ReplyDeleteI both love and hate these kind of audio books, it really depends on the quality. I might try this one out though since I really want to re-read The Hobbit! I totally agree with your WTF moment, you can still do questionable things as you grow as a person, it's not like an automatic switch is flipped. Even the nicest person in the world probably does some not so nice things.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't gotten on the audiobook wagon yet, so I don't know that I'll be listening to this radio drama anytime soon. And I still have yet to see the first movie! Argh! Hopefully it'll be on DVD soon...
ReplyDeleteI reread The Hobbit last year and one of my complaints was the fact that a lot of the dwarves just didn't have their own personalities. I felt like the only reason they had so many was to create that humorous moment in the beginning that you mentioned, and also to have a kind of bigger army than just a few dwarves...
Great review, Steph!