First Trailer for 'The Hobbit' Released

(NewsCore) - The first widely-anticipated trailer of "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" was released late Tuesday.

The first of two 3D films adapting JRR Tolkien's "The Hobbit" is scheduled for release next December, with the second -- "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" -- due for release in 2013.

Both movies are currently in production, shooting back-to-back, in New Zealand.

Within hours of its release the trailer was a trending topic worldwide on Twitter, and had attracted mostly favorable comments on fan blogs and news websites.

The Wall Street Journal noted that with the film to be released in 3D it was hard to completely judge it from the short, 2D trailer, "but certainly the production looks epic, with wide inviting landscapes, and bright gleaming swords."

In the UK, Britain's Daily Mail said that if the teaser trailer was anything to go by then the return of New Zealand-born director Peter Jackson "to Middle Earth should be successful both critically and commercially."

On New Zealand news website stuff.co.nz fan feedback ranged from, "It looks kind of ridiculous," from John, to
"been waiting years for this" from Adam, and "spine tinglingly brilliant, brought a tear or two to the eye ... can you wait a whole year ... my precious....??" from Kiwibeetle.

A prequel to Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Hobbit" tells the story of Bilbo Baggins -- played by Martin Freeman -- as he and a group of dwarfs head to the Lonely Mountain to retrieve their lost kingdom from a giant dragon called Smaug.

Watch the "The Hobbit" trailer.