Talk about an unexpected start to your journey.
If you didn't already know that Air New Zealand was the official airline of Middle-earth, then you certainly will after watching their cheeky, Hobbit-infused flight safety video released today, which features hobbits (of course), dwarves, elves, orcs, wizards and one or two particularly familiar faces.
Peter Jackson cameo, anyone?
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey's director (and, incidentally, birthday boy!) sneaks his way into the entertaining spot in a rather, well, precious cameo, as does Gollum, Dean O'Gorman (aka Fili the Dwarf), and J.R.R. Tolkien's great-grandsons Mike and Royd Tolkien.
Huh, if even the flight safety videos generated by this franchise are epic, we have high hopes for the Martin Freeman-starring first installment of the franchise, out Dec. 14.
Well, if you're gonna leave Bag End, you may as well do it in style.