Abstract
This chapter illustrates The Hobbit’s evolving significance for different kinds of fans, casual viewers and critics, and presents a comprehensive understanding of the factors that led to continued engagement versus progressive disenchantment and disaffection among different groups of viewers. Drawing on the project’s unique longitudinal dataset, it shows that an increasingly widely shared sentiment was disappointment at a failed adaptation and at the missed opportunity to replicate the heady success of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Disappointment primarily centred on issues pertaining to the quality of the adaptation and crystallised around the chief controversy surrounding the second and third Hobbit films: the introduction of a non-canon female character and a controversial love triangle. This issue is explored in depth here.
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Michelle, C., Davis, C.H., Hardy, A.L., Hight, C. (2017). On the Transformation of Meaning and Cinematic Desire. In: Fans, Blockbusterisation, and the Transformation of Cinematic Desire. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59616-1_8
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