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So about those Hobbit items.
Jan. 2nd, 2015 11:55 pmI've been leafing through one of the Hobbit tchotchkes I picked up yesterday, a coffee-table art book for the first film entitled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles - Art & Design. I bought it mainly for the concept art of Rivendell, a movie locale dear to my heart, but I'm really impressed by the presentation of the book: just tons of beautiful Alan Lee and John Howe sketches & artwork, plus lavish photographs of props into which the usual Weta Workshop care & quality was put. The layouts & commentary got me engrossed in areas of Middle-Earth that usually aren't in my realm of interest; the photos of bearded Dwarven women and remarks on how the designers had taken inspiration from Renaissance portraiture, for instance, were terrific. (And there's even a detailed fold-out copy of Bilbo's burglary contract included.) It's a great way to experience the world of the film without...you know, the issues of the actual film. The clerk at checkout rung the wrong bar code at first, and I discovered that the book was originally $45, which initially shocked the heck out of me, since I paid only one-fifth of that (the book was on clearance). After a closer read, though, I can see that it's totally worth the original price.
(The bookstore also had the second, companion volume, subtitled Creatures & Characters, on clearance, but I skipped it because it focused mostly on the monsters. I'm all orcked out, thanks. I may live to regret that decision, though.)
The second item was a page-a-day calendar. I remember the ones I had for the LotR films fondly: big, glossy pages with striking & visually intriguing stills from the movies - someone really went over the DVDs with an artist's eye. I inevitably falter on keeping up with page-a-day calendars sometime during the year, but it's a nice little treat to be surprised with a new Middle-Earth image when you get up each morning - like an Advent calendar, but year-round.
Anyhow, I'm a bit disappointed by the Hobbit calendar. It's made by the same company as the LotR calendars, but the pages are newsprinty and dim, and the images consist just of promo shots taken from established sources, not anything "discovered" by the company itself, so to speak. Oh, well. The book was a pleasant anomaly, but I guess it's too much to ask a calendar company to escape the law of diminishing returns.
.
(The bookstore also had the second, companion volume, subtitled Creatures & Characters, on clearance, but I skipped it because it focused mostly on the monsters. I'm all orcked out, thanks. I may live to regret that decision, though.)
The second item was a page-a-day calendar. I remember the ones I had for the LotR films fondly: big, glossy pages with striking & visually intriguing stills from the movies - someone really went over the DVDs with an artist's eye. I inevitably falter on keeping up with page-a-day calendars sometime during the year, but it's a nice little treat to be surprised with a new Middle-Earth image when you get up each morning - like an Advent calendar, but year-round.
Anyhow, I'm a bit disappointed by the Hobbit calendar. It's made by the same company as the LotR calendars, but the pages are newsprinty and dim, and the images consist just of promo shots taken from established sources, not anything "discovered" by the company itself, so to speak. Oh, well. The book was a pleasant anomaly, but I guess it's too much to ask a calendar company to escape the law of diminishing returns.
.
