Lord of the Rings is a book by J.R.R Tolkien which has also been developed into a Film by Peter Jackson and co, New Line Cinema and others. This will also be spawning a new TV Series on Amazon Prime, however, The hobbit, is the prequel to these which I will refer to no doubt. Tolkien did many other books and poetry so feel free to have a look at those also.

Audio and visual

Though I’m not an avid reader I have read most of the stories and actually prefer the audiobooks to them just because that’s the type of person I am, however, Tigger is becoming a very good reader and enjoys it a lot, this Christmas coming I’m planning on getting him the books, but in a special edition way for him to keep. But for me, I’m a huge fan of the films, being a movie fan its not a surprise but when I was younger these blew me away with the scale and the story.

Now I know people will love the books and for some, they like them more than the films, I have friends that do not feel the Hobbit was very good in film form compared to the books, and similar statements about LOTR, I get it, it’s down to personal choice and opinion, for me as I’ve said for many examples especially LOTR and the Harry Potter books, is that they are separate, much like Game of Thrones(don’t get me started, I’m still annoyed).

The books are the books, you can read them, take in the stories, go into extraordinary detail because they are pages and pages and pages…. but to translate that into Films can very difficult and in reality, impractical for characters and films etc. There are times and examples where I would agree, Hobbit should have just been 2 films, it didn’t need the three films, but then the counter to this is people would argue that not enough was covered in LOTR of parts of the hobbit, so as I alluded to, you can’t really win, and you should treat them as separate entities and enjoy them so.

Because of my love of films, Two towers being probably my favourite film of all time (can watch anytime anywhere), and the trilogy is one of my favourite films of all time, Tigger naturally began to watch them. He like me, loves the story the characters, the pure scale of the film. We are both Fantasy fans, Dungeon and dragons type things, and let’s be honest, our love of elves, dwarves, fantasy etc..all stems from Hobbit and LOTR, it spawned so many creative ideas, books, games, films,  so much and so many people were influenced by this.

Lego

He loves the LEGO LOTR game and helped him learn the names faster and the points of the films, I really enjoyed the LOTR Battle for middle earth games that came out years ago, they had clips of the film to help the single-player which was a new but fantastic idea.

Between us we have bought games, Memorabilia, films and funny things, I’ve bought the extended editions of the films, which I prefer, and the version with the statues, I own it BluRay, digital also. I tend to watch it at some point every year, as does Tigger and he sill plays the PS3 game every so often which keeps him up to date.

LOTR was one of the main reasons I first bought Lego, annoyingly there hasn’t been any more since or revisited, and frustratingly there Are still some set I want to buy, but these are really expensive, and with the improvements made in Lego since then, I would love this to be revived.

The Hobbit is ok, I still enjoy it, much like Tigger enjoyed the game and Film, and I’m pretty sure he will really enjoy the Book, but for me, I’m focused on the films, they were good, not as good as LOTR in my opinion. As I mentioned earlier being spread over 3 films felt a little long at times. I’m not a fan that dwarves weren’t really in LOTR so it’s nice to have them more in the Hobbit(i realise it was first).

Overall…

Overall it is my favourite thing, I’m not ashamed to say it or talk about it, and I’m so pleased Tigger is also into it, the other girls aren’t that fussed about it so its often just us. In life we all have things we really love, close to heart and big genres, films, books, games, TV series etc.. that all stay with us forever, and this one is mine, I may like Marvel a lot, and Starwars and countless others but LOTR will always be special to me.