10 Things The Hobbit Does Better Than The Lord Of The Rings

3. Including Characters That Were Difficult To Transition To The Screen

Simply put, Radagast the Brown could have been left out of The Hobbit entirely. He's a bit silly, a bit off, if you will - and even though it's a story originally for kids, a lot of people probably would have welcomed the more serious tone. We'll let you in on a little secret, however: Radagast is one of our favourite guilty pleasures of the new films. Yes, he's an oddball, but watching him rush through the forest with his team of sled-rabbits was, simply put, fun. Compare that to how another "silly" character, the singing Tom Bombadil, was dropped from the Lord of the Rings adaptations, much to the disdain of Tolkien purists. Yes, that was a longer, darker work, but we feel Jackson made the right choice this time around. It's not just Radagast, either. Getting twelve Dwarves to stand out is no easy task, nor was Beorn. These were issues The Lord of the Rings simply avoided.