I just saw a video capture image from the Third Hobbit film trailer of dwarves riding into the Battle of the Five Armies mounted on sheep! The ignominy of Tolkien dwarves mounted on anything is difficult to bear but sheep? The sheep question was cleared up for me by a friend who explained that in World of Warcraft every race has a particular animal they ride and dwarves ride sheep. So it would seem that thanks to World of Warcraft I will now get to watch dwarves prancing about on sheep in the latest film depiction of my most favorite Tolkien battle scene ever written.
You can find the image here
http://lordoftheringsarmies.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-battle-of-five-armies.html

Rams not sheep. Better or worse than boars? idk

too… many… jokes

Not a very inspiring trailer that...

I've sort of lost hope for The Hobbit ever becoming much. Dwarves on armoured sheep are just one more on the camel's back, which was broken long ago.

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Rams are simply male sheep. I can't decide if they are better or not.

So pj thought we love this thing so much he could ram more nonsense down our optical nerves.

Also I never thought the Dwarves would be just short welsh men...

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Yeah, because Thorin's Company certainly don't use ponies to travel throughout the book. Oh wait...

It genuinely amazes me how quick people are to forget large portions of the book whilst in the same breadth claiming to defend the integrity of the text. Presumably you would rather sheep were used as they are in the book? Walking into Beorn's house with dinner on their backs whilst dogs on their hind legs lay the table? That's perfectly realistic of course, dwarves on rams though, utterly ridiculous.

It might work, it might not, let's wait and see the film before we tear it apart eh?

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Personally I like the visual of the Rams. Far more excited for that than I was about the prospect of boars

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I can remember seeing the rabbits for the first time in the AUJ trailer and I wasn't sure. However in the context of the film I loved them and it all became clearer when PJ explained further in the extended version, re large feral rabbits.

As for the Rams I've every confidence they will work!

My only sadness is this may be our last adventure in middle earth on the big screen.

So I'm certainly gonna go alone with the ride and embrace the moment!

I would have been perfectly happy with ponies it would visually tie in with the first movie. Now all the grumbling about riding ponies in the first movie like the grumbling in those very same chapters in the book are no longer grumbles about riding animals in general as was suggested in the book, but about riding ponies because proper dwarven riding sheep couldn't be had.

My only concern is that our last adventure into Middle-Earth on the big screen is going to be this!

I was pleasantly and surprisingly enthusiastic about An Unexpected Journey, I thought it was a well-rounded, enjoyable and visually stunning piece of film. I'd perhaps even go as far as to say it was one of the best films I'd seen in almost a decade.

Desolation of Smaug, while again visually a masterpiece, fell short of all my expectations. I disliked almost every scene of the film that took place after the Mirkwood escape, excluding the Necromancer/Nazgul scenes, and the Smaug conversation scene. Laketown was impressive, admittedly, but I felt it was almost useless and little more than a byway for the Dwarves to speed ahead into Erebor. I did not get that sense in the books, but in DoS, I certainly did not care about Laketown at all, and frankly Smaug can turn it to cinders in The Hobbit 3 for all I care. I felt the Mirkwood scenes were overrated, too cumbersome, and almost 60% were unnecessary, but I enjoyed them mostly. I simply would have preferred it if we spent less time in Mirkwood, and more time in Laketown and with characters like Bard and Beorn. In terms of narrative, this would have also made more sense.

I'm a little indifferent about this trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies. Again, it's stunning and a majestic piece of film, but after being completely disappointed by DoS I don't know what to expect anymore. I'm looking forward to the rounding off of the Dol Guldur scenes, and I can imagine Thorin's death will be acted very well by Armitage who has worked wonders so far, but overall I'm not as excited about anything else. With more trailers and sneak-peaks that might change, but for now, I haven't been too inspired by this fairly amateurish trailer.

Apologies for my blunt honesty, but after being completely wowed by PJ's LOTR trilogy, I had very high expectations for the Hobbit trilogy, especially when considering the advancement in cinema and film in is almost 15 years since the LOTR films. But up until now, I have almost lost interest in the Hobbit films, so hopefully The Battle of the Five Armies will rekindle some of my former enthusiasm and awe.

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those rams look really cool, so I love them.
Doesn't matter if they are in the books or not.
If it helps making the movie better, it's all fine by me!

Dwarves and big horn sheep are a suitable combo as both are mountain dwellers. I buy it. A better question is will they be d5, have an attack, or have a similar ability to the war camels... and will the Iron Hill Riders have lances?

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I am unsure about the rams. As a fantasy fan I think they are cool, and if it was a D&D game I would have no problem seeing a clan of dwarves that had made this concept. In the hobbit I can still undertand it, but I liked the idea of the dwarves sending Roak (unsure of spelling) the Raven/crow to tell Dain of what is going on. And then Dain marched day and night to get there in time to help. It showed the stubborn strength and speed of dwarves on the march. I also think that it would nod toward Gimli talking about Dwarves being sprinters as the dwarven charge would be epic on foot, to march all that way and have the strength of will to bolster and charge the enemy head on. So... They didn't need the rams, or boars either. It is all over the top fantasy which is very much Del Toro and Peter Jackson's typical dish. Since I have long ago accepted that Peter has not been making a film based on the Hobbit, I can at least enjoy the ride he is giving me from a fantasy sense.

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I'll have to agree with this in a run of the mill fantasy here isn't anything wrong with dwarves riding to town on male sheep. But that reduces Tolkein's well thought out racial physiology down to the D&D concept that dwarves are just short guys with beards rather than a people made from the bones of Middle Earth and fundamentally different than elves and men.

Well all I got to say is it's about time the dwarves got some cavalry. When I first saw that quick snip in the trailer I thought it was orcs riding some beast, then I paused it and saw armoured dwarves on armoured rams, my thoughts were "cool".

My only concerns were the CGI effects of Smaug burning up Laketown in that trailer.

Some people have complaints about this trilogy; some people think it's utter CGI fest Devlan Mud, some think it's fine but not on par with Lotr, some love it just as much. I fall in the middle of these three categories.

Book adaptation aside, my problem with this trilogy so far has been real prosthetics being replaced by animation, Stone Giants action, Escape from Goblintown, Kili/Tauriel love interest, ridiculous barrel ride action, Thorin wheel barrel, Smaug a supposed intelligent dragon being goated by dwarves (makes it look like anyone can beat Smaug in a game of SBG).

I have adaptation problems from the source material as well, but I'm not a book nut and understand things get lost in translation from one medium to another. So all the negatives aside, there's still plenty of positives; it's Middle-Earth. I know the tone of this trilogy now and know what to expect and I don't expect BotFA to be an Oscar contender or have it rival any of the LOTR films. I expect plenty of eye sore CGI grudgingly, more Tauriel and Kili. If PJ would just stop with over the top nonsense everything would be fine, but I know that's not going to happen. My expectation is best film of the trilogy, the worst it can be is Transformers 4 CGI action fest.

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Yes I have some serious issues with the Abbot & Costello meet Smaug the Dragon scenes too.
I liked the LOTR films on the whole very much sure I have an issue or too but not with its CGI. I thought it was very well done because it wasn't in your face. These Hobbit films are a different animal relying more on a CGI wow effect rather then story telling. And CGI sheep really aren't going break my back the horrendous CGI orcs in the first 2 films all ready broke it. They just seem so unnecessary.

I don't mind rams at all. What annoyed me the most was the Kili/Tauriel love story. I mean if animals can walk and talk on two legs like in Beorn's house then I'm sure rams don't fall short of being a dwarven cavalry.

Sithious, as for the word reaching Dain, i would imagine there's no "Roak the Raven" but rather that that is the goal of Balin's Chariot. Balin is sent to warn and summon Dain, so he magically obtains 6 trained boars to pull a chariot....

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The word you're looking for is "necessary" as in there is a battle of no less than five armies with orcs riding wargs, giant eagles, a monstrous bear, a wizard and a dragon but apparently that won't bring in the crowds without adding a boar chariot and some armored sheep.