the Dalaverse

This is probably one of the least timely posts I've ever made. I got a LotR jones last night, so I popped in the DVD and decided to watch the cast commentary - which I've never seen, despite the special edition's having been out for several years and in my possession for nearly one year. It's really very clever the way they had the separate commentaries running and cherry-picked the best bits from each party - I was afraid it was going to be confusing when I saw how many of the cast were listed in the commentary, but it's seamlessly integrated.

Even if you're just a casual fan, the story behind the making of these films has got to be one of Hollywood's greatest. A brief impression of some of the different bits:

Hobbits: *are funny and charming and geeky and what's this thing called Lotrps?*

Ian McKellan: YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND LISTEN TO SIR IAN SPEAK, RIGHT NOW + hobbit slash (I mean that with the highest degree of respect)

Orlando Bloom: *gigglegiggleblahfanboy* (he did settle down, but the poor boy really needed somebody to interact with)

Christopher Lee: *is walking Tolkien dictionary with the voice of a Norse god*

Everyone else was wonderful as well, very insightful about the process and incredibly into their characters. You know, John Rhys Davies would've been a great choice for the voice of Aslan, maybe even better than Liam Neeson. I wish I'd brought the discs with the supplementary material with me.