Peter Jackson's ambitious Hobbit trilogy was the perfect excuse to escape back into Middle Earth, while adapting a timeless story for an entirely new age. Unfortunately, its reach exceeded its grasp when it became clear that filming three movies based on one book meant adding in entirely new content that didn't always work.
In the midst of all this was the actual filming process, which must have been nothing short of daunting. That means mistakes are bound to creep through, just as previous entries in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings franchises. Here's ten of the most amusing that managed to sneak past everyone and make it into the final film.
10 The Disappearing Quiver
The beginning of the film finds Laketown under direct assault from the vicious might of Smaug, and it's up to Bard to put a stop to the evil dragon before it's too late. He ends up busting out of his prison cell and raiding a local armory, where he grabs a bow and a quiver of arrows before traversing the rooftops.
Bard's arrow quiver disappears in certain wide shots as he's running along, only to show up again in close-up shots, which is a funny continuity blunder. It's just another example of what can happen when filming a movie with so many moving parts and details.
9 Gandalf's Trusty Hat
Gandalf's hat keeps reappearing and disappearing throughout the entirety of the Hobbit trilogy, and the final chapter is no different. After barely escaping with his life during Radagast's rescue at Dol Guldur, the Grey Wizard is clearly seen without his hat as the sleigh drives off.
When the two finally reach a safe point in the forest, Gandalf is shown to have his hat back on his head, as if nothing happened. Either he's is capable of conjuring hats out of thin air, or someone didn't communicate with the prop department before filming these two scenes.
8 Blame It On The Bellboy
The middle act of the film was a nail-biter for audiences who wondered if Thorin and his Dwarves would take part in the massive battle, or hide away in their mountain. Eventually, Thorin warms to the idea, and prepares his Dwarves for battle. They announce it by crashing a large golden bell through the front of the fortress to allow them to pour out.
Unfortunately, the very next shot shows the Dwarves rushing forward with the smashed open wall behind them. Somehow the bell has disappeared completely from the shot. Either they caught it as it swung back, high is unlikely, or someone forgot to add it back into the shot. Otherwise, it would have swung like a pendulum.
7 Dagg-Onit
This one may have gone relatively unnoticed, but when pointed out, it's quite embarrassing. When Legolas battles Bolg for the second time, he drives a dagger straight through the latter's palm. Bolg responds by yanking his hand away so he can use the dagger to take a swipe at Legolas.
Between the stab and the pull-away, the blade magically reverses direction, with the sharp end turned straight around. It's definitely worth a laugh, as this mistake is hard to comprehend given the fact that it's loaded with CGI. The visual artist would have needed to consciously rotate the blade's orientation 180 degrees.
6 Selective Bloodletting
With so much action and on-screen carnage, it can be hard to balance out the violence with the actual amount of blood shown on screen. Perhaps this is why so many shots alternate between bloodied and squeaky-clean weaponry, especially after showing an on-screen kill.
Azog, for instance, kills Fili and draws his weapon back, showing no blood whatsoever. However, when Bolg murders Kili, it is shown stained with blood. This happens all over the film, perhaps to remain within the confines of a PG-13 rating.
5 Buoyant Azog
The climactic final battle between Thorin Oakenshield and Azog is one for the ages, and lasts a near-eternity before the former finally gains the upper hand and vanquishes his foe for good. Before that happens, Azog has one final surprise for Thorin. After falling through the ice, Thorin watches as he floats underneath, only to stab him through the foot before breaking through the ice for a killing blow.
In reality, Azog's weight and heavy armor would have caused him to sink like a stone, rather than remain buoyant underneath the ice. There's also no way he could have broken through the ice and leapt out of it as he did.
4 Radagast's Inverted Bird Droppings
One of the quirks of Radagast the Brown is his affinity for animals, including the birds who love to nest inside of his hat. As one would expect, this doesn't always lead to the most hygienic of outcomes. The character is well known to have a line of bird droppings on the left side of his face and hair, which is a design trademark.
During the scene when Radagast joins the Battle of the Five Armies with the Eagles in tow, he is shown with the bird droppings on the right side of his face, instead. This is similar to the error seen in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King when Frodo's face wound changes cheeks. It tends to happen when the film in question has been horizontally flipped, probably to showcase a particular direction.
3 Putting The Aragorn Before The Horse
The writing team suffered a miscalculation while penning the script of the final film, while attempting to link this trilogy to the Lord of the Rings film trilogy that came before. It occurs in the end scene when Thranduil tells his son, the now-famous Legolas to proceed into the North and seek out the Dunedain Ranger known as Strider.
That's a bit presumptuous given Tolkien's chronology. While Thranduil is obviously referencing Aragorn during this conversation, that character would not be more than ten years old during the events of The Battle of the Five Armies. It is possible that Thranduil was using some form of clairvoyant power, but nothing is stated as such.
2 Bilbo Is Jacked
Gold isn't particularly light, and neither is a chest full of gold coins. Yet, Bilbo Baggins, the modest little Hobbit that he is, seems to be able to carry a massive chest under his arm as if it were light as a feather. It's possible that he grew some serious muscle during his long journey with Thorin and his Dwarves, but this seems unlikely.
In Tolkien's original novel, Bilbo arrives home with two small chests of gold and silver, presumably carried by a pony. This would have made a lot more sense, given the heavy weight of the wealth in question.
1 A Thorin By Any Other Name
The final scene of the film shows Bilbo returning home to his beloved Shire, where he promptly discovers that his house has been ransacked, and his possessions put up for auction. Annoyed by the callousness of it all, Bilbo chastises them before reclaiming Bag-End as his rightful home, but not without some resistance.
The auctioneer asks him to prove if he really is Bilbo Baggins, to which he pulls out the contract of employment to prove his identity. The auctioneer asks him who this "Thorin Oakenshield" is, but in the first Hobbit film, the contract was signed "Thorin, Son of Thrain." It's quite a big continuity blunder.
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