The scene that provides a preview to what’s next

For my scene of enchantment, I have to go with the dragon firework that goes awry in The Shire—as seen here:

Things are relatively normal as we start out, Frodo and company are just having a good old time at Bilbo’s party, letting off small wholesome fireworks, but things take a turn for the wondrous when Mary and Pipin abscond with one of Gandalf’s more wild fireworks. It takes to the sky, the shire folk’s curiosity turns to horror as it crescendos, unleashes its wings and swoops down upon the partygoers, almost turning the scene into a massacre, missing them and exploding over a field, instantly bringing relief and humor back to Bilbo’s party.

While it is not necessarily magic, the fact that the firework turns into the form of a dragon is itself incredible, and terrifying and that is enchanting—to me and to everyone at that gathering, in a way not easily attained though the printed word. The camera shows us the apex of the fireworks leaping into the air, showing us the face of the dragon as it transforms from fire into the shape of a lizard’s head. Then we are taken back to a shot of the terrified townsfolk as the thing sprouts wings and starts to soar back towards us.

Howard Shore’s music also plays a part by changing quickly from jolly to intense, making us feel as if something momentous is happening. And seeing as how this scene is in many ways more additive than transformative adds tension/enchantment in the film where there is none in the book. The scene in the novel is minor at best, Gandalf just lights off the firework and it turns into a dragon with no fear or danger involved. Giving control of the Dragon explosive to the unwieldy and clumsy duo of Mary and Pippin makes it seem more chaotic and experimental, and out of hand.

There is recovery and escape too, but not from the real world to a more fantastic world but vice versa. The dragon firework is a taste; an illusion of the perils beyond the shire, and while it ultimately proves harmless and functions purely as entertainment, it reminds us, the viewers that beyond the sleepy everyday lives of these gardeners, sheepherders, postmen and farmers, there are real threats that don’t just poof away to a round of applause.

In this very same film we will encounter monsters that are so powerful that even Gandalf can’t face them and live. That’s what this scene is really, a preview of things to come, a reminder that; just like Bilbo’s birthday, this is not some farcical comedy… but something else entirely.