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OhioDude72
The Shire
Apr 20 2018, 2:51pm
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Was anyone else slightly disappointed with Smaug's design?
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Let me start by stating that I love these movies, despite their flaws, and actually prefer them to the LOTR films. I love the visuals, set design costumes and makeup, including Smaug. The CGI for him is some of the best since Kong. However, I wasn't initially thrilled w the way his face looked. Like the Rankin and Bass cartoon, it was slightly mammalian. I was really hoping for a strictly reptilian classic dragon look. More specifically, I wanted him to look meaner. That being said, what they used works and he still looks fantastic, and his interaction with Bilbo and Bard were phenomenal. It didn't break the movie, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. Is that how he is supposed to look based on the book?
(This post was edited by OhioDude72 on Apr 20 2018, 2:52pm)
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Apr 20 2018, 4:16pm
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Oh, I don't mind the overall design, though I was still hoping to see a six-limbed Smaug (four legs plus a pair of wings). The final design worked well visually. I do think that both Smaug and the treasure/treasure chamber were just too big. Our dragon is as much as five times the size he appears to be in the book according to Tolkien's own illustrations. This exaggeration was the reason why an over-sized Black Arrow needed to be introduced along with all the baggage that went with it (the windlance and Bard's improvised ballista). Smaug's design in the animated Hobbit television movie was deliberately a bit cat-like to reflect his nature (avaricious and evilly playful).
"I may be on the side of the angels, but do not think for one second that I am one of them." - Sherlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Apr 20 2018, 4:17pm)
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Noria
Gondor
Apr 20 2018, 8:00pm
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No I was not disappointed at all
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I was thrilled. I liked everything about Smaug and think he was probably the crowning achievement in special effects in these movies. That he doesn't conform to the book dragon or that he's impossibly huge doesn't bother me at all. In the book the dragon was just another plot point to me and not particularly interesting in himself. But to my surprise, I loved movie Smaug - his appearance, the way he moves, sounds, speaks and ultimately dies. The Smaug and Bilbo scenes and the dragon's attack on Laketown are amongst my favourite and for the most part I even like the battle between Smaug and the Dwarves.
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AshNazg
Gondor
Apr 21 2018, 10:59am
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Smaug needed facial expressions...
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Because Smaug is a talking dragon he needed two things.. 1. To be able to convey various emotions with his face. If he had a mean reptilian face the entire time he would just be looking angry too much. Think about a reptile looking happy or sad or surprised, it's a difficult facial structure to work with. 2. To speak convincingly. Lizards don't have lips and their tongues move very differently to mammals. If Smaug's snout was too long then it ends up looking like a hand-puppet flapping open and closed, it would be too comical. However, while a smaller snout is more convincing it can look too human or too cutesy like in Dragonheart. They really pushed the reptilian features further than I thought possible while retaining those expressions and mouth movements. He has a realistically reptilian look to him, like a real lizard, rather than a "designed to be scary" look and I think it works really well. My favourite feature on Smaug is his jaw line. Lizards, particularly crocodiles, have very weak muscles for opening their mouths (part of why its hard for them to talk). But incredibly powerful lower jaw muscles so that they can snap closed very quickly. I gives them this very distinct jawline and I loved seeing that on Smaug, I'd never seen it on a dragon before and it makes him look so powerful and dangerous. My least favourite, I agree with Otaku, I would have liked to see four legs plus wings, to set him apart from the Nazgul's beasts and to look more like Tolkien's illustrations (and the picture on the map).
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OhioDude72
The Shire
Apr 21 2018, 1:50pm
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Couldn't they have made his face less square and smiley though? His grin is a bit goofy.
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AshNazg
Gondor
Apr 22 2018, 1:37am
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I don't see any square or goofiness personally. Except in the first trailer, his face looked odd at that angle But I personally love what we got. Have you looked at some of the concept art for Smaug? I'm sure someone here knows a good link to some. Or you can google "Smaug Concept Art". The art for The Hobbit is astonishing. Designs for everything, from Beorn to trolls and even dwarven armour are fun to look at and wonder what could have been I'd be interested to know which Smaug designs you like?
(This post was edited by AshNazg on Apr 22 2018, 1:46am)
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Petty Dwarf
Bree
Apr 22 2018, 7:03pm
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It is very popular in fantasy movies these days to have "realistic" beasties, and since there are no six-limbed vertebrates in nature, that means all dragons have to be two-legged, two-winged wyverns. I was hoping that the Hobbit films would buck the trend and give us something close to Tolkien's own designs, which they did in AUJ's prologue, but Smaug somehow lost a couple of limbs between films.
"No words were laid on stream or stone When Durin woke and walked alone."
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mae govannen
Tol Eressea
May 8 2018, 12:32pm
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Totally agree with you on all your points//
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'Is everything sad going to come untrue?' (Sam, 'The Field of Cormallen', in 'The Return of the King'.)
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Silmaril
Rohan
Jun 10 2018, 10:30am
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GDTs Smaug would have been very different...
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I wonder how he could get out of his contract after Warner had put a lot of money into his films?
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Otaku-sempai
Immortal
Jun 10 2018, 3:02pm
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And I still to this day want to see the 6-foot tall maquette that was made from del Toro's design!
"I may be on the side of the angels, but do not think for one second that I am one of them." - Sherlock
(This post was edited by Otaku-sempai on Jun 10 2018, 3:03pm)
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Silmaril
Rohan
Jun 10 2018, 5:03pm
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I hope we will see this too...
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And more some day!
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