After seeing the new, first part of the Hobbit trilogy, many of those who have read the book may be wondering at many things in the film that weren’t in the book, and vice versa.

For instance, among many other things, the band of dwarves did not encounter an orc raiding party on their way to Rivendell, nor, did Thorin openly oppose going there.

Also, many, before the film was released, worried that none of the comedy from the book would be translated into the film, this did not happen, on the contrary, there was too much humor… There was too much humor, in the wrong places and done the wrong way, such as the Goblin King, who in the film looks nothing so much like a Gungan from Star Wars.

However, amidst the many places where the film did quite badly, in some places it excelled, such as in the redesigning of the wargs, this, I think, Tolkien would have approved of. In the films of the Lord of the Rings, the wargs were made to look almost like hyenas, in the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, they have been redesigned to look more like wolves, and also, like the wolves in Norse mythology, which heavily influenced Tolkien.

Another instance where the film excelled is in the scene in which, Gollum and Bilbo engage in a game of riddles, this scene, could not in any way have been more faithful to the book. And here, in this scene, they show something that in both the film and the book, of the Lord of the Rings, is alluded to: Bilbo’s chance to kill Gollum, and more importantly, that he finds himself feeling pity for this wretched, half insane, bulbous eyed creature.

While the film failed in many ways, in some of the most important parts, it followed the book…

…And portrayed wonderfully the adventures and decisions, the challenges and dangers, that the Hobbit from Hobbiton faces.