[Overtaxed]

I would have to say Director's Discretion (is there anyone out there with a "scenes behind the movie" book who can answer?) I think all the rain made Bree look gloomy and forbidding to go along with The Prancing Pony's more menacing "movie mood". (aliteration, anyone?)

[DonnerT]

Did the movie have the inn keeper introducing Dwarves and other Hobbits? I don't recall.
I didn't like the gloomy Prancing Pony.

[Sam Cree]

I think all the rain made Bree look gloomy and forbidding to go along with The Prancing Pony's more menacing "movie mood"..

I don't remember exactly how Tolkien had the weather for that day, but it sounds right about Jackson setting the mood with the rain.

RE Strider, who is introduced in this chapter, I read in Shippey's book (as I'm sure many did) that Tolkien initially had the hobbits meeting at the Prancing Pony not Strider, but another more worldly and traveled hobbit called "Trotter."

I think "Trotter" was Tolkien's original idea for "Strider" and was probably going to be their guide. I'm sure that Aragorn already existed in the Silmarillion, some of you who are pretty scholarly probably can tell me.

Somehow, the idea of a hobbit named "Trotter" strikes me as extremely funny, especially after years of being used to the heroic Aragorn.

Don't get me wrong for finding this humorous, I am grateful for Tolkien's existence and have cherished LOTR for over 30 years, since the days I considered myself a liberal. Now, as a "conservative," I cherish them even more.