Privyet! Bilbonigyeh Bagginseroffsky

Bilbo unsuccessfully declining to adventure with some crazy ass wizard. Image credit: Shore Leave Media

Leave it to the Soviets to make the Hobbit look like it's been sanitized of bourgeois extravagance, like good acting, directing, sets, presentation, &c., &c.

I didn't quite know what to make of this piece when I came across it, until I read the description. The subtitles you're looking at are not exactly accurate, though perhaps they capture the spirit of the Soviet version - my Russian's a little rusty, so I'll have to take the poster's word for it when he says in the comments:

1985 Soviet version of The Hobbit. Subtitled in English by me for the Russian-impaired.

The me in question here is Greg Steele, who is a humorist and cartoonist. He is the creator of These Bears Are Happy.   Check it out and get as happy as those bears... unless you'd really rather keep smoking weed...

More on Martin Freeman

Hobbit feet all up in Martin Freeman's neck. No Joke.

In all the excitement of the premier, I missed this fantastic interview with Martin Freeman, Biblo Baggins' portrayer in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. Freeman continues to interview exceedingly well. My favorite part:

There is a lot of fun Hobbit memorabilia and things in the fandom, did you perchance listen to Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins?" 

Yeah a long time ago, I'm still baffled by it. 

Did it help you prepare for the character at all? 

No it didn't. [Laughs] It helped me enjoy that three minutes of listening to it.

And thank you to io9 for posting the Nimoy vid.

Now they'll all be shouting Bilbo at you...

Martin Freeman
(c) New Line Cinema and MGM, h/t about.com

I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen T. Colber's interview with the one and only Martin Freeman during Hobbit Week. Here are my initial observations:

Freeman's real accent sounds identical to Christopher Guest's fake accent as Nigel in Spinal Tap. That's a pretty good fake accent Mr. Guest, or else your character was so influential on anglophone society as to influence Freeman's modes of speech. Either way, kudos to you. 

Colbert has an easy beginning. He asks Freeman, who has played many luminaries, form Tim on the original Office, to Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to Dr. Watson on the BBC's most recent iteration of the Sherlock Holmes franchise, does he ever worry that these characters will consume him?

Of course Freeman is simply happy people don't yell, "Hey TIM!" at him on the street.

But that's about where Colbert's control of the interview evaporates. Freeman truly spars with Stephen. He keeps Colbert on his toes with reminiscence and almost details some questions. This is not your run-of-the-mill interview where the subject rides the rapids of Stephen's interview. Freeman could guide groups of elder adventurecationists through those rapids, such was his adroit handling of it.

Not only does he take the agenda and run riot with it, but he even calls out Colbert for not listening while he prepped his next gag.

The end of the interview is as solid as they come. Enjoy...