The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - 9 Reasons It Deserves To Be Remembered Fondly

7. The Design of the Dwarves

A great example of the amount of love and care put into the film is displayed through the designs of the dwarves. For those of us who know something of the lore of Middle Earth's second smallest inhabitants the detail, from the lengths of the beards to the type of clothes worn displays of the characters' pasts and ancestry.

Generally the dwarves with the longest beards come from higher classes. Oin and Gloin are members of Durin's folk, part of Thorin's family so they posses full beards. They were also fighters in the fight to reclaim Kazad-Dum and their beards reflect the honour that they earned from taking part in this legenday battle.

The main dwarves, Thorin, Fili and Kili are all direct descendants of Thrain, the last king under the Lonely Mountain. They wear luxurious materials, dark shades of bluey-purple as well as animal furs mainly to show their royal status. Armitage revealed that they keep their beards short in order to pay tribute to their dead king whose own beard was burnt off by an angry Smaug.

The working class dwarves - Dori, the matronly Dwarf, Ori, the scribe, and Bifur the... whaler apparently - all have short beards, to the point where the fat cook Bombur has all the hair from his chin shaved off despite an impressive mustache.