![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article discusses the responses from people in Aotearoa/New Zealand and New Zealanders overseas to the online questionnaire of the World Hobbit Project, an international audience research project on the reception of the film trilogy The Hobbit involving 145 researchers from 46 countries. As the trilogy was filmed in their home country, New Zealand audiences were uniquely positioned to interpret The Hobbit. ‘Affective resonance’ played a role in relation to three interrelated issues that Aotearoa/New Zealand is struggling with as a postcolonial nation: the use of the landscape, the representation of race and the notion of greed. In all three cases, audiences saw parallels between the narrative of The Hobbit, the context of the trilogy’s production and longstanding issues resulting from Aotearoa/New Zealand’s colonial history.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Dr Lauren Anderson, the other New Zealand representative on the World Hobbit Project. Her contributions to the project as a whole and particularly the thinking about the different New Zealand dimensions of The Hobbit have been invaluable.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Joost de Bruin is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington in Aotearoa/New Zealand. He teaches in the areas of audience studies, popular culture, and media, place and identity. His research focuses on migrant media cultures, indigenous media and language learning, and cross-cultural consumption of popular media.
Notes
1 As there was no question about ethnicity in the questionnaire, a distinction could not be made between Māori and Pākehā (non-Māori) New Zealanders when analysing the answers to both closed-ended and open-ended questions. Respondents had the option to fill out the questionnaire in the Māori language, however, and it is highly likely that the respondents who chose to do so are Māori.
2 Possible answers to Q3: ‘I wanted to experience their special features (eg, high frame rate, 3D)’; ‘I am connected to a community that has been waiting for the films’; ‘I love Tolkien’s work as a whole’; ‘I like to see big new films when they come out’; ‘I wanted to be part of an international experience’; ‘I love fantasy films generally’; ‘There was such a build-up, I had to see them’; ‘I was dragged along’; ‘I knew the book, and had to see what the films would be like’; ‘I love Peter Jackson’s films’; ‘No special reason’; and ‘An actor that I particularly like was in them: Richard Armitage / Cate Blanchett / Orlando Bloom / Benedict Cumberbatch / Martin Freeman / Ian Holm / Christopher Lee / Evangeline Lilly / Sylvester McCoy / Ian McKellen / James Nesbitt / Jeffrey Thomas / Aidan Turner / Hugo Weaving / Another? Please specify: … ’.
3 Possible answers to Q4: ‘Children’s story’; ‘Fairytale’; ‘World of fantasy’; ‘Prequel / sequel’; ‘Star attraction’; ‘Part of Tolkien’s legend-world’; ‘Multimedia franchise’; ‘Family film’; ‘Digital novelty cinema’; ‘Action-adventure’; ‘Peter Jackson movie’; ‘Literary adaptation’; ‘Stunning locations’; ‘Coming-of-age story’; ‘Hollywood blockbuster’.
4 Possible answers to Q12: ‘Producing fan art’; ‘Blogging’; ‘Role-playing’; ‘Writing fan fiction’; ‘Collecting merchandise’; ‘Seriously debating the films’; ‘Commenting online’; ‘Gaming’; ‘Making fan videos’; ‘Visiting filming locations’; ‘None of these’.
5 All tests that resulted in p < 0.1 are reported.
6 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 35.362, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 19.292, p < .001.
7 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 23.719, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 31.316, p < .001.
8 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 47.428, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 41.577, p < .001.
9 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 17.503, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 12.222, p < .001.
10 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 14.699, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 12.503, p < .001.
11 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 8.304, p < .01. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 7.765, p < .01.
12 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 44.630, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 34.642, p < .001.
13 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 9.070, p < .01. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: not significant.
14 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 15.324, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 9.687, p < .01.
15 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 1322.185, p < .001. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 949.028, p < .001.
16 Living in Aotearoa/New Zealand versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 10.020, p < .01. New Zealand nationality versus all other respondents: X2 (1, N = 36,109) = 11.666, p < .01.