Long before dwarves knocked on Bilbo’s round green door, I had already walked the edges of Tolkien’s map in my imagination. That little book, The Hobbit, was the kind you read as a child and then reread as an adult, discovering new corners of courage every time.
Today I’m marking the anniversary of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, released on December 14, 2012. It was the first of the Peter Jackson’s three films1 that invited us back to Middle-earth after nearly a decade away from The Lord of the Rings movies. And whether you welcomed its warmer tone or raised an eyebrow at its expanded length, the return itself was something many of us had been waiting for.
A Familiar Door, and the World Beyond It
Jackson opens the film gently, almost ceremonially, letting us settle into the Shire with a long breath of nostalgia. This isn’t just a prologue to adventure; it’s a reintroduction to a world that shaped modern fantasy.
Martin Freeman’s Bilbo carries the whole thing with that slightly bewildered charm Tolkien wrote into him. A hobbit who wants nothing more than his tea and his quiet suddenly finds himself hosting thirteen dwarves, a wizard, and a prophecy he never asked for.
It felt good, comforting even, to see Gandalf’s hat brushing the ceiling again.
A Slower Beginning, but a Necessary One
The pacing of this first installment has always been the subject of gentle debate. Some viewers cherish the lingering dinner scene, the music, the awkwardness, the slow unfurling of “home” before the long leave-taking. Others feel the story gets moving only once the company reaches the wild.
Both perspectives are valid, but for me, I’ve come to appreciate this beginning as Tolkien-esque in a deeper way: adventure rarely bursts through the door fully formed. More often, it creeps in by conversation, by invitation, by a map unfolded across our clean kitchen table.
The road’s weight matters more because we see what Bilbo walks away from: the lamp-lit safety of home.
Creatures, Kinship, and the Expanding World
Once the dwarves step out under the wider sky, Jackson lets Middle-earth breathe again. For a feeling of the mood, have a listen to the dwarves’ song: “Far over the misty mountains cold / To dungeons deep and caverns old…”
Howard Shore’s haunting arrangement of the “Misty Mountains” song captures the dwarves’ longing perfectly.
Trolls by firelight. Rivendell’s water falling like song. Stone giants moving like mountains shaking off sleep. Goblin-town’s rickety platforms and chase scenes that feel half peril, half carnival ride.
Some loved the spectacle. I’m somewhere in the middle: grinning at the music of the dwarves, wincing at the excess, like the extended Radagast sequences or the over-the-top Goblin-town chase, which trade Tolkien’s subtlety for spectacle. But I’m just grateful to be in Middle-earth again at all.
The Moment Bilbo Becomes Bilbo
One of the quiet gifts of this film is Bilbo’s shift from reluctant companion to real member of the company. His pivotal moment is not loud or flashy, whether sparing Gollum in the riddles or standing up for the dwarves. It’s moral, rooted in loyalty, and it marks the beginning of the hobbit we will later trust with much weightier choices.
This film is about beginnings, but more than that, it’s about becoming.
A Whisper of Things Yet to Come
This is also the film where we first sense the trilogy’s darker undercurrent. Bilbo’s discovery of the Ring. The shadow moving in the ruins of Dol Guldur. The first hint that this adventure, simple in the book, will merge with the broader arc of Middle-earth.
And so we bring in an anchor image for the trilogy:
That dragon sleeps through this entire film…
but his presence is already shaping the story.
Reflection
Looking back, An Unexpected Journey is the warmest of the trilogy: nostalgic, expansive, sometimes meandering, sometimes magical. It carries the joy of returning to a beloved place, even if the framing is larger, louder, and more modern than Tolkien’s lean little tale.
This is the chapter where we step back into the world with Bilbo, leave the lamp-lit safety of home, and take the first uncertain turn in the road.
And as Tolkien reminded us, roads go ever on and on.
That’s it for now. Thanks for showing up. It matters.
- The three films are:
The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey, Dec. 14, 2012.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Dec. 13, 2013.
The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, Dec. 17, 2014. ↩︎
Veni. Vidi. Scripsi. 