The Hobbit movie compared to The Hobbit book discussion

[Grand Bob]

Although the debut of the movie is still three months away, enough material has been released to begin a comparison of the book and the movie. I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread to address a comparison between the two, since discussions involving the book can get off-topic in the other (movie-based) thread.

For starters, a potential positive difference is that Jackson seems to be infusing most of the movie Dwarves with more personality than those of the book. In the novel, Dwarves such as Bifur, Bofur, Ori, and Nori went through the story relatively unmentioned and were quickly forgotten upon finishing the book.

On the other hand, from the scenes released to date, the movie undoubtedly has an entirely different "feel" than the book. Some may find this to be an improvement, but others may lament the lighter, children's story intent of the author. Although I am personally reserving judgement until I see the movies, I am wary of the liberties that Jackson and Boyens make take with the material (especially the LotR appendices material) to make it appealing to an attention-deficit general audience.