The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Summary
VFX artist James Willingham explicate how Smaug ’s demise inThe Hobbit : The Battle of the Five Armieswas at one tip going to be dissimilar and more hard to create . After being the main scourge inThe Hobbit : The Desolation of Smaug , the minatory dragon is kill shortlyintoThe Battle of the Five Armies , as he needs to be dealt with before the movie rivet on the eponymous conflict that takes up the majority of the story . Smaug is slay by a black arrow fired by Bard the Bowman .
One of the most challenges sequences I ’ve ever done is the tartar Smaug destroying Lake - townsfolk when he crashed down into the Ithiel Town . I pitched this idea to the VFX supervisor about the flying lizard crash down like a 747 , butit was this long sort of convoluted idea where I had him cough up lava blood and creep around . I just kind of went off the rail , and he was like , have ’s bring that back down a bit , and have him crash down , but just kind of get his wing up and fly up and then just die because Peter [ Jackson ] always want him to fall directly down .
How Smaug’s Movie Death Compares To The Book
In thebook by J.R.R. Tolkien and in the thirdHobbitfilm , Bard kill Smaug by firing his final sinister arrow into the one berth on Smaug not cover in protective scales . The novel and the movie take different approaches to how Bard discovers this helplessness . The book features a talk thrush who flies toward Bard as Smaug assault Lake - town . The talking bird informs Bard of Smaug ’s weak spot in the hollow of his left white meat . With the knowledge provided by the thrush , Bard lie with how to defeat Smaug , and uses his bow to fire the pointer accordingly .
There is no thrush that help Bard in the picture . As Smaug taunts Bard , he notice the dragon ’s weakness through his own observations . Before Bard makes this discovery , the motion picture makes the scene more dramatic and more dire as he realizes that his bow has broken , and he has no way to save himself , his son beside him , or the town from Smaug . Bard has to craft a jury-rigged bow and steady the pointer with assistant from his Logos to successfully can the arrow .
WhileThe Battle of the Five Armieshas its break , the movie successfully clear Smaug ’s end more striking and more personal for Bard than in the rule book . It give him more agency with the makeshift bow , work with his boy , and realizing Smaug ’s weakness without rely on the thrush . Willingham ’s vision could ’ve made the scene more of a spectacle , but the concluding rendering works , and is one of the more memorable scenesfromThe Hobbittrilogy .
Source : Corridor Crew
