The Movie and the Book

A Long Expected Party

Most of this chapter is very close to the version in the novel. In fact, much of the dialogue in the movie was taken verbatim from the book (such as most of Bilbo's speech and his conversation afterwards with Gandalf). There were a few minor differences in the movie. Most of these either shortened things a bit or added a bit of humour.

When Gandalf first arrives in Hobbiton in the movie he lets off some small fireworks for the children following him. In the book the children wanted him to show them a preview of the anticipated firworks display but they were disappointed. He kept it all for the party. The meeting and discussion with Frodo wasn't in the book, though parts of that conversation appeared later in the book.

The movie shows Bilbo's 111th birthday party in a lot of detail and keeps it pretty close to the book. One thing it misses though is the fact that it's a double birthday party. It was also Frodo's 33rd birthday which is a big thing for a hobbit. Sort of like our 21st birthdays. The number of guests invited to the main part of the party was 144 - Bilbo & Frodo's combined age. Bilbo described them as a gross of hobbits.

Gandalf's fireworks display ended with the dragon firework in the book just as it did in the movie. Merry and Pippin setting it off in the movie and getting in trouble was an addition though, as they had no involvement in the book version. In the book, Merry was actually portrayed as being a very mature and responsible Hobbit. Pippin was portrayed as being a little mischievous, but not as much as in the film.

After bilbo left the shire, it was another 17 years before Frodo left. In the movie there is no indication that such a large amount of time has passed. This also means that at the time of the party, Sam, Merry and Pippin would have only been 18, 19 and 11 years old, not adult hobbits as portrayed in the film (since hibbits age more slowly and aren't considered to be adults antil after their 'tweens').

When Bilbo disappered in the book, there was a flash of light caused by Gandalf. He did this to reduce the chances of anyone guessing how Bilbo vanished since he wanted the ring kept secret. Frodo also knew of Bilbo's plan before the party.

There were other minor additions to the party scene such as Gandalf performing tricks and Bilbo telling a story of one of his adventures (his encounter with the trolls in The Hobbit).