You guys do realize, I hope, that the "unexpected journey" aspect of the story is, by design, a light-hearted tale. It isn't going to have the weight of LOTR, nor should it.

I think the poster looks awesome.

The Hobbit as written by J.R.R. Tolkien was more of a fairy tale for children. I read the novel after the Lord of the Rings and was surprised at how innocent the book felt, not really as dark as the Rings trilogy. From what I seen in the trailer, it does seem to keep the tone of the Novel but then again with Jackson padding with the appendices content, who knows how dark the actual movie will be. I think the Dwarves look fine.

Yeah...it's an adventure in tone. Not an epic w/ massive things at stake.

Bilbo's journey with the dwarves will most likely remain light, to juxtapose the portions of the film showing the growing darkness in Mirkwood, and also to add more emphasis to the riddle scene (which is obviously the center-point of both film series).

I know it's going to be lighter in tone, but that poster looks like it should be for a Muppets movie.

It already is.

I disagree -- I never pictured the dwarves in the book looking that doofy.

But the bigger problem is that not all the dwarves match -- Fili, Kili, Thorin and Chad Kroger next to him all have natural looking hair that would fit perfectly with Lord of the Rings, but the others (especially Bombur and the Amish-looking one) are incredibly fake.

There are 13 dwarves being featured -- I imagine the character designs are to differentiate them from one another. Maybe they should wear helms with their names listed like Black Hawk Down?

.....It's fucking hair..on a bunch of dwarves. Did we honestly expect them to all look alike and have the same hair? Really?

I thought that was Harry Knowles.

Naw the dude on the poster is way too skinny to pass for Knowles.

I've no issues with the poster. The book, as others have said, was always more lighthearted in tone than LOTR.

Second guy from the left on the top of the poster looks completely out of place.

The little guy on the top left of the poster is the Yosemite Sam lookalike.

Yep, that is my only beef with the character design. I understand that Fili and Kili are supposed to be "youngsters" (in Dwarf years), and that Kili's beard might not have fully grown in yet, but still. The way he is portrayed here seems like obvious "heartthrob" pandering. Besides, Both of them had yellow hair and beards.

Fili looks awesome. Kili, not so much.

I can't wait for the scene where Thorondor and Gwaihir fight Black Hawk Down.

Going the Black Hawk Down route didn't work to well for Legolas. Just sayin'...

Yeah, it looks like he thinks he's too cool to be there, as if he's rebelling against his dwarf nature.

Fili and Kili look like Bill and Ted.

I can understand why all of the Dwarfs (Dwarves?) look so different; with thirteen of them, they're going to need to be easily distinguishable from each other. But even so, yeah, Kili does sort of stand out and doesn't look properly Dwarfy.

Dear Gawwwwd. Soma U bitches are NEVER happy. Always gotta piss on something.

Poster looks alright, but I am not sure if I am invested enough in the Hobbits to wait 2 years for all 3 movies.

New poster.

Obviously they are doing themed posters for the different races of characters with this one being for the Istari and elves.

I cannot help but get the feeling that they are expanding this movie into a bit more than needed to try and tie it in to LOTR.

That's the 'White Council'. Which Jackson expands in the movie beyond what was in the books.

Ian McKellen is the only one in that shot that shows any sign that it's been 10 years since they made LotR. The others look identical to me, without actually doing a side-by-side comparison. Incredible.

But where's Radagast? And I am assuming that Círdan is not included in these films.