Synopsis:

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy cut into one 4-hour film.

Intentions:

Just like damn near everyone else, I've put together a version of The Hobbit. My version is a single standalone movie that adheres more closely to the book and will hopefully be a bit more family friendly, provided you explain to the kiddies that none of those nasty orcs who were beheaded in the film were actually hurt. Like many fan editors, as I sat in the theater watching the three Hobbit films, I was mentally saying to myself, "that scene goes" and "that scene stays." It was pretty evident which parts of the movies did little or nothing to move the story along, so those bits have, for the most part, been consigned to oblivion in this edit.

Change List:

I've made about 225 cuts in putting this edit together. Rather than list them all, I've responded to the categories in the Hobbit edit comparison spreadsheet provided by herowoac: OVERVIEW Faneditor(s): Billy Batson Name of edit: The Hobbit Movies Included: AUJ, DOS, & BOFTA, both theatrical and extended editions Total Length: 240 minutes Intended Tone: The best 3 in 1 edit possible. High Fells Plot: Deleted White Council Plot: Deleted White Orc Plot: Abbreviated. Deleted references to Azog's name and backstory, but kept him in most scenes relating to Bilbo's story. Army from the North plot: They show up at the end. Love Triangle Plot: Deleted. Radagast Inclusion: No. Legolas Inclusion: Abbreviated. He's in Mirkwood, and shows up late in the Battle of Five Armies. Tauriel Inclusion: Deleted, for the most part. She appears in a couple of background shots. Alfrid/Master Inclusion: Severely abbreviated. Extended Edition Use: Yes. Use of Deleted Scenes: No. SPECIFIC SCENES (yes/no/partial/more info) Prologue/Flashbacks: No. Chip the Glasses: Yes, along with Bofur's song at Rivendell and the Goblin King's song. Battle for Moria Flashback: No. Radagast in Mirkwood: No. Troll Battle: Yes. Radagast's Rabbit Chase: No. White Council in Rivendell: No. Stone Giants: No. Gollum scene modified: Not really. Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees: Yes, trimmed a bit. DoS Gandalf/Thorin Prologue: No. Beorn: Yes. Gandalf in Dol Goldur: No. Bilbo fights a bug for the ring: No. Cut other references to the ring being tied to Sauron. Tauriel/Kili in prison: No. Barrel Chase: Yes, but cut the elves and orcs. Dwarves in Laketown: Yes, though abbreviated. Dwarfs coming out of a Toilet: Yes. Dwarves Left Behind in Laketown: No. Orcs & Elves in Laketown: No. Dwarves Give Up at Erebor: No. Dwarves Combat Smaug: No. Black Arrow/Bard's Son & Smaug: No. White Council battles Nazgul: No. Thorin's Dragon Sickness: Yes. Battle of Five Armies - Battle Scene Running Time: 26 minutes from arrival of orc army to Thorin's death. The Master discusses class warfare: No. Alfrid wears a dress: No. Thorin/Azog combat: Yes, edited for pacing.

Additional Notes:

While my main intent was to delete anything that wasn't in Tolkien's original novel, I do realize that a film adaptation of a literary work is just that, an adaptation. Accordingly, I've retained elements of Jackson's trilogy that do not appear in the book but serve to tell Tolkien's basic story in a visual medium. For example, the Battle of Five Armies portions of the film expand considerably from the parallel material in the original novel, but I felt it necessary to utilize much of Jackson's expansion on that portion of the story in order to better tell the main story.

Other Sources:

Elements of both the theatrical and extended cuts of all three films have been used, along with the soundtrack album for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and a public domain sound effect of a waterfall.

Special Thanks:

While I'm very pleased with how this edit turned out, the final product would not have been possible without the re-use of ideas from the edits by both Spence and DrFontane. Although the ultimate intent of my edit differs from that of both of these fine fan editors, I found many of Spence's edits to be impossible to surpass and have therefore incorporated some of them into my version of the film. Likewise, I found a number of ideas in DrFontane's edits to be very useful and have adapted them as well. And although I appear to have lost him somewhere along the line, I'm very grateful for the early interest and helpful ideas from revel911. I would not be nearly as pleased with how this project turned out without the helpful feedback and advice from both him and his wife.