Treebeard takes bow | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Treebeard takes bow | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Wednesday, November 27, 2002

THE LEFT LANE
Treebeard takes bow

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Frodo fanatics waiting to see what new creatures will appear in "The Two Towers," the second episode in "The Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy, will not be disappointed when the film opens Dec. 18. Take Treebeard, pictured right, the walking, talking leader of the ancient race of ents, who provides shelter for our Hobbit heroes in the Fangorn Forest.

Though about 100 ents gather for a battle, Treebeard is the only one who exists beyond the frame of a computer. An animatronic replica that stands about 15 feet high was created by filmmaker Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand. Actor Billy Boyd, who says he spent at least a month cupped in Treebeard's twiggy hand, developed a fondness for his massive co-star. "That face is such a beautiful design. Big brown eyes and so wise. You can't help but love him. I felt a lot of humanity coming from him."

Porcelain from the junk Tek Sing

No one can legally acquire anything that sank with the Titanic. However, treasures from "China's Titanic," a large ocean-going junk that sank near Java in 1822, can now be seen, and purchased, in Honolulu.

When the Tek Sing went down, 1,600 passengers and 200 crew perished. Many years later, however, many of the 350,000 pieces of porcelain on board were salvaged. The blue-and-white ware dates from the late Ming dynasty through the19th century. The collection is available until Dec. 10 in the home décor department at Neiman Marcus, Ala Moana Center.

A look at New York's 19th-century gangs

A childhood obsession with the city's vanished past propels Martin Scorsese's new holiday-release film, "The Gangs of New York." But before the film opens nationwide on Dec. 20, the December issue of Smithsonian magazine (it'll be on newsstands Sunday) delves into the real history of the brutal, colorful underworld that was New York in the first half of the 19th century.

The story reveals the challenges Scorsese's team faced in re-creating the violent and poverty-stricken subculture of hoodlums who indulged in everything from piracy to murder for hire.

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