Thank you for this. One of the best experiences I've ever had was walking into the Wizarding World area at Universal Studios, first thing in the morning, and seeing the pointy roofs of Hogsmeade emerging in the distance. The kids let out a lot of excited squeals, but my eyes welled up...and stayed welled up as we visited Honeyduke's, explored Diagon Alley (so much detail to keep you firmly planted in that world!), and admired the very well-done moving portraits in the castle. It felt like coming home to a place that was intensely familiar to me, but of course isn't "real." The production design was just that good!
I feel like its a mark of just how good the production design is that I suspect I would have a similar reaction, despite not being much of a Potter fan. Its exactly what you say: a familiar place despite not existing.
So… what is the relationship between the goblins of The Hobbit and the orcs of LoTR? (ducks). I ask because many years after Peter Jackson ruined Tolkien for me, I’m back to the books and falling in love with them again…
I’m going to have to look up the canonical answer but I’m going to place a bet, right now, that it involves a distinction in the language used by bilbo and Frodo in writing the red book of westmarch
Who went to the shop to buy The Nature of Middle Earth yesterday, a footnote to a footnote to the appendices of LoTR? Me. We are barely in the foothills of nerdery here… I often wonder what Christopher Tolkien was like. Cf. Christopher Milne, tormented by his legacy as companion to the most famous teddy bear in history.
Yes, they’re a really interesting comparison. One trying to escape out from under his father’s legacy, the other living his whole life inside it. I guess C. Tolkien never had to contend with the fictional version of himself.
I share your fury at streaming services cutting the credits to tell you what to watch next. Many computer screens and coffee cups had to pay the price for that.... I shall ask them to pay for that!
Its not just the rudeness to all the people who worked on a show, or how important credits are to the sense of a completed work, like the cast taking a bow at the end of a play, but what it reveals about how the streaming services see us, the viewers. Not as an engaged audience but as passive eyeballs. https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/essays/casual-viewing/
I really enjoyed this! As a family we always read the credits, looking for the brilliant job titles (Pixar has good ones: there is a named person in charge of Fur and Hair)
Thank you! And yes, the job titles are always a delight, even the old traditional ones like Best Boy and Gaffer (also revelatory of how some of these things take an astonishing amount of work: Fur and Hair needs a whole person doing a full time job)
Thank you for this. One of the best experiences I've ever had was walking into the Wizarding World area at Universal Studios, first thing in the morning, and seeing the pointy roofs of Hogsmeade emerging in the distance. The kids let out a lot of excited squeals, but my eyes welled up...and stayed welled up as we visited Honeyduke's, explored Diagon Alley (so much detail to keep you firmly planted in that world!), and admired the very well-done moving portraits in the castle. It felt like coming home to a place that was intensely familiar to me, but of course isn't "real." The production design was just that good!
I feel like its a mark of just how good the production design is that I suspect I would have a similar reaction, despite not being much of a Potter fan. Its exactly what you say: a familiar place despite not existing.
So… what is the relationship between the goblins of The Hobbit and the orcs of LoTR? (ducks). I ask because many years after Peter Jackson ruined Tolkien for me, I’m back to the books and falling in love with them again…
I’m going to have to look up the canonical answer but I’m going to place a bet, right now, that it involves a distinction in the language used by bilbo and Frodo in writing the red book of westmarch
Nerd!
Who went to the shop to buy The Nature of Middle Earth yesterday, a footnote to a footnote to the appendices of LoTR? Me. We are barely in the foothills of nerdery here… I often wonder what Christopher Tolkien was like. Cf. Christopher Milne, tormented by his legacy as companion to the most famous teddy bear in history.
Yes, they’re a really interesting comparison. One trying to escape out from under his father’s legacy, the other living his whole life inside it. I guess C. Tolkien never had to contend with the fictional version of himself.
I share your fury at streaming services cutting the credits to tell you what to watch next. Many computer screens and coffee cups had to pay the price for that.... I shall ask them to pay for that!
Its not just the rudeness to all the people who worked on a show, or how important credits are to the sense of a completed work, like the cast taking a bow at the end of a play, but what it reveals about how the streaming services see us, the viewers. Not as an engaged audience but as passive eyeballs. https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/essays/casual-viewing/
I really enjoyed this! As a family we always read the credits, looking for the brilliant job titles (Pixar has good ones: there is a named person in charge of Fur and Hair)
Thank you! And yes, the job titles are always a delight, even the old traditional ones like Best Boy and Gaffer (also revelatory of how some of these things take an astonishing amount of work: Fur and Hair needs a whole person doing a full time job)