The Hobbit: 20 Blunders That Ruined An Unexpected Journey

9. Radagast

Radagast the Brown is only mentioned in Tolkein's novel, and never actually appears in any scenes, but yet, Jackson opts to give him a fairly significant presence in the film, making for easily the film's trippiest scene if also one of its most maddenningly superfluous as he aids an ailing hedgehog and rides a rabbit sleigh. Jackson came up with his own set-piece for Radagast that appears later on in the film, as he shows up out of nowhere to draw the Orcs away from the intrepid heroes, a character who had no need to appear being thrown in because apparently the kiddies need a rabbit-drawn sled or they might not be having enough fun... The rabbit sled provided plenty of incredulous laughs during my screening, presumably out of sheer bewilderment at what we were watching, and the Internet has already been quick to label Radagast as "the new Jar Jar Binks", though we perhaps wouldn't go that far, at least not yet...
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.