Lord of the DVDs

Well, I did finally find the time to watch the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring last night, although I haven't even started going through all the extras. And, no question about it, the extra scenes are definitely a Good Thing. Actually, given that I suppose they pretty much had to cut the movie down to something approaching a reasonable length, the choice of which scenes to cut was overall pretty good. The movie worked perfectly well without them, so they obviously didn't contain anything overwhelmingly important in terms of plot. But having them back in the movie does add quite a bit of depth to the characters and the setting. In particular, the extended and loving look at the Shire at the beginning, while totally unneccessary in terms of plot, goes a very long way towards bringing home just what it is that Frodo is taking this journey for: the preservation of this timeless and innocent way of life that he loves so dearly.

Among my favorite additions (warning: if you haven't seen the extended version yet and want to be all surprised, don't read!):

A scene between Bilbo and Frodo at the party, where Bilbo hints to Frodo about what he means to do and offers a vague apology. Without it, one does kind of get the impression from the movie that Bilbo just took off and left him without anything at all in the way of a goodbye, which seems a little unfair to poor Frodo.

Getting to meet the Sackville-Bagginses and Gaffer Gamgee, however briefly.

The reinsertion of what I always (for some reason) found to be one of the more memorable lines from Book I: Frodo's comment that a servant of the Enemy would likely "look fairer and seem fouler" than Strider.

More of the poems and rhymes that were such a major part of the original books, including a lot of singing in Elvish, which sounds just as beautiful as it's supposed to. I found Sam's little rhyme in memory of Gandalf particularly touching; it actually brought tears to my eyes, whatever its artistic qualities or lack thereof.

Frodo asking Gandalf whether Mordor is left or right, as he ceremoniously leads the Fellowship out on the start of the quest, which made me laugh out loud.

Galdriel's gift-giving, of course. Everybody who'd read the books noticed that was missing (or at least, most of it was).

Gimli revealing how smitten he'd become with Galdriel. Now, if you ask me, that was a real shame to have cut out in the first place, given how nicely they'd set up his initial anatagonism towards elves in general, and this "elf-witch" he'd heard rumors about, specifically.

A few more lines of verbal sparring between Legolas and Gimli, aka the Odd Couple of Middle Earth. Also a few more scenes between Aragorn and Boromir, which is another really interesting and complex relationship.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole bunch...

Man, now I really can't wait for The Two Towers!