Customer Reviews

The Fellowship of the Ring Insiders' Guide (The Lord of the Rings Movie Tie-In)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is apparently intended to be the equivalent for young readers of the "Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide," which is also written by Brian Sibley (who was also the co-writer of the script for the BBC's excellent radio adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings," starring Ian Holm as Frodo). In many ways this children's version, although shorter and less detailed, is more interesting than the adult version. The "Insiders' Guide" contains some information not included in the "Movie Guide," such as the "Loom!" story mentioned by another reviewer below. Indeed, in general the emphasis of the "Insiders' Guide" seems to be a bit less on the production design of the movie, and more on the process of filming it and the experience of being on the set, than that of the "Movie Guide."

One interesting feature of Sibley's text as compared to that of the "Movie Guide" is that the chapters of the "Insiders' Guide" tend to begin with especially intriguing sentences intended to grab the reader's attention. Perhaps Sibley thinks this is more necessary when writing for children than for adults; I consider it a good technique when writing for any audience. ("Apollo 13," formerly called "Lost Moon," by James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, is an excellent example of the use of this technique in a non-fiction book for adults.)

Tolkien fans, and those moviegoers who have fallen in love with Peter Jackson's film, may well want to collect all four movie tie-in books: this "Insiders' Guide" and the "Photo Guide" (both intended for children) along with the "Movie Guide" and the "Visual Companion" (both intended for adults). Young readers seeking paperback books about the movie will find both the "Insiders' Guide" and the "Photo Guide" fairly good choices; the "Insiders' Guide" provides information about the movie's production and the background behind it, while the "Photo Guide" is the better bet for images from the film.

Having the disadvantage of living in Japan, I'll have to wait till next spring to see "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" at movie theaters. So for this Christmas of course I got three books about this movie: "Fellowship of the Rings Photo Guide", "Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide", and "Fellowship of the Ring Insider's Guide".

This Insider's Guide is mostly aimed for younger kids. This 96 pages book has 16 pages of color photographs, history of J.R.R. Tolkien, history on Peter Jackson, behind-the-scenes, about cast and crew, and much, much more! Some may be disappointed though because the book being in a way short and not containing enough stuff. But the major reason for my giving only 4 stars is that though there are 16 pages filled with 34 nice color photos and yet, there are other small pictures in the book. The thing is, the rest of the pictures are all in fuzzy, very unclear black and white photos! If they were going to put photos in this Insider's Guide, they could have at least made them nice, clean color pictures!

My favorite part is the part around the end where they were talking about the accidents that happened on the set. Actor Sean Astin (who plays Samwise Gangee) had a huge wooden loom for making tapestries fell and hit him on the head. Ever since that, his hobbit friends would make him jump by pointing behind him and shouting, "Loom!"

If you're thinking of getting a "Lord of the Rings" book based on the new movie, I recommend this book if you can overlook the most of the pretty bad photos like I described. I still love the "Insider's Guide" and I'm sure you'll like it, too.

Here are two other books I can recommend you to get. "The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide" is a much bigger book, 118 pages long with plenty, PLENTY of beautiful, color photos! Not only that but it also has lots of information on behind the scenes trivia, background, short biographies on cast and crew, and more. The "Photo Guide" is aimed for kids and is like a picture story book but still enjoyable by all with amazing photographs and lines from the movie.

At first glance, this guide to the new "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" seems like an excellent source of info and photographs from the movie.

The problem is that virtually all of the text is lifted, diluted, and transplanted from the Brian Sibley adult movie guide. This one, on the flip side, has less information than the adult one, as well as far fewer pictures; most of what it does have is in black-and-white, newspaper-quality pictures. There are admittedly some pix that are not included in the adult guide, such as a picture of the Nazgul as they really are, and a picture of Sam wading out to Frodo's boat. But these are simply not worth it.

If you do buy a copy, check the cover, which seems to bend and tear easily; also the binding and paper seem very cheap and flimsy. There is a section of color photos in the middle, but not all of them are new.

I'm not sure why quality was skimped on for the children's edition -- the adult one has high-quality paper and binding, and every photo is color. Was it thought that kids wouldn't notice? On the contrary -- I found it very frustrating to see less information, and worse quality books.

If you wish to buy a movie guide, either buy the more expensive (but worth it) adult edition of this book, or the Fellowship Visual Companion.

This is a simplified version of the Official Movie Guide, made especially for children. The cover is very handsome. It's a fairly small book, but it doesn't talk down to the kids. It's clearly written for a British audience but most American kids should be able to handle it. It gives a brief but good background on the movie, the characters, and the original book. Nice.

I've been trying to collect as many Lord of the Rings books as I can, and this one did not let me down. It was certainly an excellent addition to my collection! The 96-pages are packed with behind-the-scenes information on the Fellowship of the Rings, and with 95 photos which includes the hobbits, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf . . . etc., the bad guys, set locations, behind-the-scenes, and many more. In the middle of the book there are 16-pages containing 32 of the photos that are in color. The remaining 63 of the photos in the rest of the book are in black and white. Once I began reading, I was so fascinated by the amazing behind-the-scenes information that I found myself not even noticing the color of the pictures . The information truly IS fascinating as Brian Sibley did well taking the reader deep into the making of the Fellowship of the Ring. The 12 chapters are filled with interesting facts about the costumes, makeup, weapons, sets, special effects, cast/crew, and . . . just about everything! I enjoyed reading the "Cast and Crew" section where the author explains how each actor got their individual parts in the movie, and I also enjoy quotes - there are plenty of these. There is also a short history about how it all started - not only the movie, but also the original books as well. This is an exciting and wonderful book inviting YOU to be part of the making of the Fellowship of the Ring. If you are considering purchasing this book, you should . . . I guarantee that you will be satisfied as I was!

I loved it! I didn't really knew J R R Tolkiens work with his books, so I hadn't really read LOTR. That's why this book was so amazing and helped me to get to know the story behind it so I realized that wow, this was something increadible and big.