Download Summary 3: Pleasure, disaffection, ‘conversion’ or rejection?

Pleasure, disaffection, ‘conversion’ or rejection?
The (limited) role of prefiguration in shaping audience
engagement and response
Big budget films like The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey are preceded by considerable marketing
and promotional hype designed to shape viewers’ experiences in strategic ways. However, prefigurative marketing and promotion is not the only factor involved in shaping audience
responses. As we found, audience receptions of The Hobbit film were also shaped by specific
constellations of media consumption, personal affiliations, and intertextual and paratextual
knowledges, all of which develop through a dynamic relationship with the film itself. In our
ongoing research, we wanted to understand how prior hopes and expectations impacted on the
way audiences experienced and responded to The Hobbit: AUJ. We found that whilst Hobbit previewers were often deeply familiar with various materials and intertextual resources circulating
prior to the film’s release and often formulated expectations based on these, a significant
number were clearly delighted, confounded, impressed and distressed by the film in ways that
exceeded and/or superseded their pre-existing imaginings.
Surveying The Hobbit’s Pre- and Post-Release Audiences
Our findings draw on research undertaken both prior to, and following, the release of The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. An initial pre-viewing survey was conducted in English and ran
for three weeks prior to the film’s screening, while a subsequent post-viewing survey was
carried out in English, French, Spanish, German, Danish, Dutch and Flemish in the months after
the film had opened in cinemas. The analysis presented here draws on the responses of 277
individuals who completed both surveys. Our findings suggest that while reception processes
potentially begin prior to and continue beyond ‘moments’ of viewing, it remains important to
engage – theoretically and empirically – with the complex specificity and fluidity of actual
reception experiences.
Major pre- versus post-viewing perspectives on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit
The clear majority of respondents completing both surveys were originally identified as LotR
film fans, with another large group of Tolkien aficionados. We contrasted these two groups with
the oppositional group of Jackson Critics.
Confirmation and ‘conversion’: The transformation into Enchanted Hobbit fans
Consideration of our post-viewing survey data revealed four principal viewpoints, the most
common being shared by Enchanted Hobbit fans who greatly enjoyed the film and felt
pleasurably (re)immersed in the magical world of Middle-earth. Many were drawn from the
large, enthusiastic and sympathetic pre-viewing audience of LotR film fans, 89.4% of whom
became Enchanted Hobbit fans post-viewing – illustrating the close alignment, for these viewers,
between prefigurative expectations and the subsequent viewing experience. However, whilst
united by their appreciation for Jackson’s latest adaptation of Tolkien’s works, this group
remained internally diverse: For some, AUJ presented an opportunity to return to Middle-earth;
for others, it offered the chance to re-live the amazing LotR phenomenon, or to see Tolkien’s
literary milestone inspire the imaginations of another generation.
Keenly attuned to any differences between the novel and its film adaptation, the pre-existing
Tolkien aficionado group splintered upon viewing The Hobbit: AUJ, with 56% becoming
Enchanted Hobbit Fans. Concerns about Jackson’s ability to successfully retain the essence of
Tolkien’s work were a major factor in shaping the prefigurative disposition of these
respondents. For those who were successfully ‘recruited’ into Enchanted Hobbit fans, such
concerns were pleasantly alleviated upon viewing. However, existing reservations were
reinforced among other Tolkien aficionados, some of whom were deeply disappointed by what
they felt was a failed adaptation (see below).
Disrupted pleasures: Bored and disillusioned Hobbit critics
Overall, only seven respondents expressed a critical perspective on the film that was, in essence,
the inverse perspective to our Enchanted Hobbit fans – that of a bored and disillusioned Hobbit
critic. Not surprisingly, relatively few of our existing LotR film fans were seriously disappointed
by the first Hobbit film; most Bored and disillusioned Hobbit critics were drawn from other,
generally less positively pre-disposed, pre-viewing groups.
Textual Infidelity and The Hobbit as a failed adaptation: Disappointed Tolkien readers
13 respondents loaded strongly as Disappointed Tolkien readers in the post-viewing survey. For
three LoTR film fans, The Hobbit: AUJ failed both as an adaptation and prequel, with the novel
and the LoTR film trilogy providing dual intertextual reference points in judging the film to be
ill-conceived and unfaithful to the original work(s). This post-viewing perspective was shared
by nine Tolkien aficionados, who were especially critical of the film’s many diversions from
Tolkien’s original novel. Essentially, then, The Hobbit was judged by these respondents in
relation to the literary and film works which preceded it, and found lacking.
Critics of technological ‘enhancements’
12 respondents adopted a post-viewing perspective that we have labelled Critics of
technological ‘enhancements’, comprising equal numbers of pre-release LotR film fans, Tolkien
aficionados, and crossloaders. All shared an unanticipated negative reaction to the visual effects
utilised in The Hobbit, which characteristically drew them out of the cinematic experience.
Key findings
What we found, overall, was that the key factor shaping positive receptions of this highly
anticipated and extensively prefigured film was the degree of alignment between viewers’ predispositions and affiliations to particular intertexts, the nature of their imagined pre-texts and
psychological investments in them, and the fully-realised text itself. While the vast majority of
existing LoTRs film fans were successfully assembled in anticipation of experiencing immersive
(re)enchantment upon viewing, a small number ultimately rejected this preferred viewing
mode, despite having had a similarly favourable pre-viewing perspective. Others were less
enthralled, if not actively repelled by prefigurative materials, leading them to lower or actively
moderate their expectations. While some more cautious pre-viewers were ultimately recruited
to the preferred reception mode, a significant number were not. This was often because AUJ
failed to live up to their prior expectations of genre (for many Tolkien aficionados, it was a poor
adaptation), but for others it related to the film’s displeasing visual aesthetic. And while there
were far more ‘converts’ among our sample, dissatisfied viewers may have been less inclined to
complete the post-viewing survey: Our subsequent studies suggest a significant group of
disenfranchised ‘former’ Hobbit/Jackson fans has since emerged.
For a fuller discussion of our findings, please see:
Michelle, C., Davis, C.H., Hight, C. and Hardy, A. (forthcoming). Pleasure, disaffection, ‘conversion’ or
rejection? The (limited) role of prefiguration in shaping audience engagement and response.
International Journal of Cultural Studies.