Question: Was any reason ever given as to why Gandalf chose Bilbo to go on this journey and not someone else?
Answer: In the film, Gandalf tells the dwarves he chose Bilbo because hobbits are light on their feet, and because Smaug would not recognise the scent of a hobbit as he would a dwarf. Also Bilbo is the most adventurous of the hobbits in the Shire. This reason is not in the book but is from the story "The Quest of Erebor" in Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.
Question: When Gollum is wrestling with the orc, does he happen to be at just the right angle for the Ring to fall out of his pocket, or was it the Ring's choice to leave him, as in the book? Also, why does Bilbo just leave Gollum in the cave if he recognizes that Gollum is "miserable, lost, and alone?" Why not take him along and give him to Gandalf, then have Gandalf take him away so he could be with company, yet not hinder their mission?
Answer: Galadriel's narration at the beginning of "The Fellowship of the Ring" states that the Ring "abandoned Gollum", so yes, it chose to leave him in the film. Thorin's company had left Gandalf at Rivendell when they went to the Misty Mountains, so he was not there to hand Gollum over to. Also Gollum had just tried to kill Bilbo, so it would not be practical to bring along a hostile, murderous individual out of pity for his loneliness.
Question: The Hobbit trilogy takes place 60 years before Lord Of The Rings, and it is shown that Bilbo takes the Ring from Gollum and escapes the Misty Mountains with it. What exactly has Gollum been doing for the past 60 years?
Chosen answer: It took Gollum a few years to summon up the courage to leave his cave to try to find Bilbo, but, unsurprisingly, he found that the trail had gone cold. Wandering in the hope of picking up the scent, he ended up on the edge of Mordor, where he encountered Shelob and became her servant, spying on her behalf, luring food into her lair and so forth. Eventually, captured by Sauron's forces, he gave up the names of Baggins and the Shire under torture, alerting Sauron to the existence and potential significance of Hobbits. He was freed, only to be captured again, this time by Gandalf and Aragorn who wanted to question him about the Ring before placing him in elven custody in Mirkwood. Escaping from there, Gollum hid out in Moria where he first picked up the trail of the Fellowship.
Question: Where is the director's commentary on these movies? I've looked several times on YouTube, but no luck.
Answer: Directors commentary would be on the Extended Editions of the films, not the Theatrical releases.
Question: There's something that Bilbo says that confuses me greatly. When he's speaking to Gandalf about how mad he is at the dwarves for invading and destroying his house, he says something like, "I won't even mention what they've done to the bathroom. They've all but destroyed the plumbing." I'm pretty sure that toilets and plumbing weren't invented back then. They used chamber pots or went outside to do their business. So what is Bilbo talking about?
Chosen answer: This isn't Earth, this is Middle Earth. This is a totally different place and Middle Earth could have anything, including toilets.
Question: During the barrel water scene, Bomba is catapulted through the air and fights a bunch of orcs, he discards his barrel because it is all smashed up. Where did the extra barrel he jumps into come from? We never see extra empty barrels following the dwarves.
Answer: When they are all getting into their barrels from Bilbos plan an extra barrel can be seen in the bottom right screen but Bilbo did not see it possibly because he just didn't notice.
Question: At the end when Thorin is fighting the Orc, he is knocked down and drops his sword. Bilbo and the others come to his aid. They are then rescued by the eagles. We never see him pick up his sword, but when he's thanking Bilbo he has it. How did this happen?
Chosen answer: It's a mistake. While Thorin does have the sword (Orcrist) throughout the flight, during the initial shot when the eagle is picking him, Orcrist is nowhere on Thorin's body. Both of the eagle's talons are in view as they roll Thorin toward the camera, and his entire body can be seen down to his boots. Orcrist is not on him.
Question: This has confused me ever since I heard who Balin was in the movie. While Gimli doesn't necessarily look young in Lord of the Rings, his cousin Balin in the Hobbit looks much much older than he does, and not to mention the Hobbit was 60 years prior to the events in Lord of the Rings. There must be a huge age gap between the two or perhaps Balin's white hair has no significance on his age? And for that matter, what are the life expectancies on dwarves, they are pretty much the only races in Tolkien's creations that I've never really heard. Judging from their contrasting age appearances in the movies he would seem to be about 100 years older than Gimli?
Chosen answer: While the most common usage of the word cousin is to describe the children of siblings, known as "first cousins" who would be of the same generation, "cousin" actually covers quite a wide range of relationships, which can readily cross generations. In this case, Gimli's father Glóin is Balin's first cousin as their fathers, Gróin and Fundin, were brothers. Gimli is therefore Balin's first cousin once removed, making the age difference between them (113 years, to be specific) quite reasonable. Dwarves in the Tolkien stories generally live to around 250 years old, with correspondingly longer generations than humans.
Question: How much material was added for Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies that wasn't in the original novel?
Answer: Quite a bit, though much of what was added was alluded to in the film as being done elsewhere, especially scenes with Gandalf. This was likely to pad the length, as the book is rather short (around a quarter the length of the Lord of the Rings). Galadriel, Radagast, Saruman, and the Necromancer are not seen in the books, though Radagast and the Necormancer mentioned. Azog is already dead by this time. Tauriel is a new character. Legolas is never mentioned, but as Mirkwood is his home, he was likely there. Dain Ironfoot is mentioned as there, but isn't seen doing anything except taking kingship after the death of Thorin. The White Council scene is also mentioned but not seen.
Question: In the final scene with the Lonely Mountain in view, is the sun rising or setting? Does either actually work with their location?
Answer: The sun is rising. The sun is in the East which does make sense, but because Middle Earth is a fictional world it is possible for it to break the rules of our world. The important thing is that the sun remains more or less in the same location for the entire scene.
Question: I'm partly deaf, so I am dependent upon reading closed captioning on TV or movies. My wife and I rented a DVD of this movie. I saw on this DVD where Benedict Cumberbatch was said to be the Necromancer; my wife claims not to have heard the name "Necromancer" said out loud. This was when the Necromancer made a very brief appearance. Was this a mistake in captioning?
Answer: The name Necromancer is said specifically at that point in the movie, by Radagast as he narrates what happened to Gandalf. Your information is correct in that the character is indeed being played by Benedict Cumberbatch, in addition to his role as Smaug.
Question: Is it known if there is still an ongoing feud between Peter Jackson and Christopher Lee? I ask because they had a well documented falling-out after the original LOTR trilogy, stemming from Jackson cutting Lee's character Saruman from the theatrical release of ROTK. In this movie, there's an odd part where Galadriel and Gandalf have a telepathic communication, basically ignoring Lee as he is delivering his lines. This happens more than once and I found it to be unintentionally comical.
Answer: While Lee was unhappy about being cut from the theatrical cut, the character's restoration in full to the Extended Edition, generally deemed to be the definitive version of the movie, went some distance towards settling the issue; most allegations of an actual feud between them are considerably exaggerated, mostly by irate Lee fans. While Lee did ask Jackson for assurances that he wouldn't be cut out this time, assurances that Jackson was more than happy to give, given the key nature of his scenes in The Hobbit, any feud between them is long gone. After all, Lee could easily have just refused to appear if there was a real issue there. He didn't.
Question: When Gandalf is telling Bilbo about the Istari, he first discusses Saruman the White and Radagast the Brown. Then he mentions the other two wizards, the _____, and says he can't remember their names. What is the word Gandalf uses to describe these two wizards? I've seen the movie twice now but can't catch it. It sounds like he says they're "bruisers", but that doesn't seem like a word anyone in Middle Earth would use.
Chosen answer: He says "the two Blues". Jackson did not have the rights to the Unfinished Tales where the wizards are named (Alatar and Pallando) so he could not mention them in the film.
Question: What happened to Radagast? One minute he's running away from the Orcs, but then the Orc is standing on a stone and then Radagast disappears for the rest of the movie.
Chosen answer: We are never told, but given his confidence in his rabbits and the fact that he is a wizard of equal power to Gandalf (even if he has gone a bit odd), we can presume he escapes. Radagast doesn't appear in the book, his presence was pretty much invented for the movie, however he does appear very briefly in the first book of the Lord of the Rings (though not in the movie), so as far as the overall story goes, he must survive.
Answer: Hobbiton is the village where Bilbo was born. Overhill is on the northern edge of Hobbiton and Underhill is at the bottom of said hill. Built into the hill itself is Bag End, the Baggins estate. The Shire is the name of the Hobbit lands overall. So, he's from the village of Hobbiton in The Shire, and his home is Bag End, which is in the midst of the hill that forms both Overhill and Underhill.
Captain Defenestrator