And when Tolkien went back to expand on the concept, it turned into a much darker storyline. The fact that The Hobbit was later referred to a "An Enchanting Predlude to The Lord of the Rings" suggests the challenge Jackson has in merging the two story archs. How do you take a very light, almost frivolous children's book and merge in with a dark, epic fantasy trilogy while retaining the tone of both. You don't. It's really not possible.

If he had truly made The Hobbit, it's probably about a 90 minute movie and it's very close to a G rating. It could almost be done by Pixar. Whether he should have tried to truly merge the two storylines, and create one epic tale...well...fanboys would probably say no because it's an almost impossible task.

But Jackson is not writing novels, he's producing unique works of art based on the storyline. In that perspective, it's not such a bad task to undertake. It certainly has made bank...and with the exception of art movies, the bottom line is the bottom line. How do you attract more kids, you include a pooping on Radagast scene. I didn't care for that either...but it's not completely out of line with Radagast as outlined in Tolkien's work.

Jackson has undertaken an impossible task, and it's not hard to see why he was in and out of the project at various points. He nailed LOTR pretty effectively...but this was a far more difficult task, somewhat ironically. As I stated, I don't think he has really nailed these movies, although I do respect the effort to merge what is almost oil and water.