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The Hobbit: The Hobbit Edition (Released)

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 (Edited)

After almost a year of work, the first cut of The Hobbit: The Hobbit Edition is finally ready to be viewed.

As a world-class Tolkien fanatic, I am confident in deeming The Hobbit: The Hobbit Edition the definitive “purist” edit of Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

The project is all but complete. The Extended Editions of An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug have been edited, as has the theatrical cut of The Battle of the Five Armies. All that remains is to salvage any wanted footage from the Extended Edition of Five Armies, and to clean up any minor editing issues where they crop up.

What has resulted is a roughly 3 and 1/2 hour film which is not only more faithful to the source material, but has a tighter focus, better pacing, and a better balance between Bilbo and Thorin as main characters. Everything that felt like superfluous padding has been excised, as have many of the fan service visual homages to The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and much of the material which seeks to “bridge the gap” between the two trilogies, but is ultimately inconsistent with the tone of The Hobbit.

Major Changes:

• The opening sequence has been completely redone, removing Frodo and the Erebor prologue entirely. Ian Holm’s “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit” voiceover begins as the title appears, after which follow two generic shots of the interior of and view from Bag End and a single shot of Ian Holm smoking on the bench by way of segue into Martin Freeman smoking.

• The entire Azog sub-plot has been cut.

• The meeting of the White Council and attack on Dol Guldur has been cut.

• The entire Kili/Tauriel/Legolas love triangle has been cut: (Tauriel has been cut completely, and Legolas’ role has been reduced to a small cameo when he takes the Dwarves captive.)

• Radagast has been cut completely.

• Gandalf’s visit to the High Fells has been cut.

• The Master of Lake-town and Alfrid have been cut entirely.

• Most of the major action sequences have been cut entirely or severely shortened, including: the Troll battle, the Stone Giants, the Goblin-town chase, the warg attack, the barrel sequence, the Lake-town skirmish, and the battle with Smaug.

• Almost all of the actual battle in The Battle of the Five Armies has been cut by having Bilbo struck in the head and black out, just as he does in the book.

Less Major Changes:

• Most of the foreboding references to Sauron and the One Ring have been cut.

• Gandalf and Thorin’s meeting at The Prancing Pony has been cut.

• Gandalf no longer receives a telepathic message from Galadriel.

• Kili is never injured, and he and the other Dwarves are not left behind in Lake-town.

• The Dwarves do not enter Bard’s house through the toilet.

• Much of the material regarding Thorin’s “dragon-sickness” has been removed.

Many additional minor changes have also been made. For example:

• Gandalf and Thorin do not have a falling out before the Troll battle.

• Gandalf does not split the rock at the end of the Troll battle.

• Bilbo does not kick Gollum in the face when he jumps over him.

The Hobbit: The Hobbit Edition is the work of a couple of guys who have (1) a deep love for Tolkien, and especially The Hobbit and (2) a deep regard for Peter Jackson’s film-making. It is our conviction that Mr. Jackson and Co. and provided us with the raw material for an excellent retelling of Tolkien’s beloved fairy story. It is these “bones” that The Hobbit: The Hobbit Edition seeks to retain and bring to the fore.

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 (Edited)

Awesome! I've been waiting for something like this since I walked out of the theater after "An Unexpected Journey"...

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This is great! But you need to change the name so others can search for your edit 😉

The Hobbit: The Hobbit won’t give good search results :p

Why don’t you try The Hobbit: The Purist Edition or something?

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I made an account here just for this reply haha. I know this is a stupid question but how can I watch this? I don’t see a place to download it on the site. This looks awesome. Thanks!

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You have to ask the person who made the edit via private message, its against the site rules to provide links to download fanedits openly on the site.
Fan edits are a legal grey area as technically you breach copyright by ripping the film from its original media, but it’s not an issue unless you actually sell or redistribute, which is why forums like this will say own the source before asking for the fan edit and why they don’t want it done openly.
Go ahead and ask the original poster in a private message and they will likely oblige, if you own the source that is.

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Thank you very much, I didn’t know that. Time to private message a lot of people! Haha thanks again.

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No worries glad to help someone new to the forum.

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 (Edited)

You are better off privet messaging the faneditor for the link not just asking them to PM you in a thread.

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Very interested in seeing this one !

Hope with the release of the EE cut of Five Armies it is closer !

Keep us updated.