The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was being shown over the weekend on Encore TV. It is always a good watch, but I was reminded yet again of one of the sillier things Peter Jackson did with the movie.
He put extra-large fake feet on the hobbits.
You can particularly see is here, in a scene from right near the end of the movie, when Sam returns from the Grey Havens and is greeted by his daughter, Elanor:
Sam Holding his Daughter Elanor
Floppy, floppy toes.
The thing is, Tolkien never said that hobbits had particularly large feet. Those were just added.
In “The Hobbit”, here’s how Tolkien describes hobbits:
They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it).
And in “The Lord of the Rings”, the only mention is right near the beginning, when Bilbo is greeting the various hobbit clans, and mentions the “Proudfeets”. So which one replied:
‘ProudFEET!’ shouted an elderly hobbit from the back of the pavilion. His name, of course, was Proudfoot, and well merited; his feet were large, exceptionally furry, and both were on the table.
That’s it. Because one hobbit at the party had large feet (and I’m sure that was just large for a hobbit, just as some humans have large feet), Peter Jackson put extra-super-large feet on all the hobbits in the movies. He could have just saved the cost (and gone for little foot toupees instead 
).
We also know that Tolkien thought his hobbits had regular-sized feet (for their size), because he illustrated “The Hobbit”. Here is Tolkien’s picture of Bilbo at Bag-End:
Bilbo at Bag-End
Those fake feet in the movie just look ridiculous. That is particularly true when Frodo and Sam are climbing the rocks around Minis Morgul trying to get into Mordor. Real barefooters (as all hobbits were!) would be using their toes to grip as much as their hands, and those prostheses just don’t cut it. The odd thing is, Peter Jackson was well-known for often being barefoot. You’d think he would have figured that out.
But I’m pretty sure I know where he got the idea from.
Back in the 1970s, the Hildebrandt brothers did a lot of illustrations, and in particular did Tolkien calendars for the years 1976, 1977, and 1978.
Here you can see the illustration for The Prancing Pony:
The Prancing Pony, by the Hildebrandt Brothers
It’s a nice drawing, but the feet are abominations. And they work even less well in a movie in which the feet actually have to be moved. Why couldn’t Jackson have just left them with their natural feet? (Thought I suppose it can be looked at as an example of the transmission of myths about bare feet.)
And don’t even get me started on the ears . . .
I had always wonded the same thing. From what I read, I pictured Hobbits as average dwarfs. They should look just like any other person except for a smaller stature.
I have always identified myself with Hobbits. After all, I am inclined to be fat in the stomach, fond of a good meal, have a jolly disposition, look rather young for my 41 years, and despise footwear
I must be of the Stoor tribe for certain, because I also have a beard. My feet are rather hairy too 
The rubber hobbit feet? Urgh, nasty. They took hours to glue on, had a lifespan rated in minutes, and looked terrible! What was wrong with just having them barefoot? They basically were anyway! You can’t tell me it would have been hard to get experienced barefooters in New Zealand!
I’ll bet the four hobbit actors would have been better off barefoot. In interviews they said the feet were the worst thing about the whole movie.