Putting aside our cynicism for a moment (and our dislike for brash commercialism), we bring you this new airline safety video from the folks at Air New Zealand. Why is this one of interest to us, or anyone else?

Well, it’s inspired by, and features quite a few characters from, The Lord of the Rings and the upcoming Hobbit films. Because they are all produced in New Zealand, get it?

Confused? You won’t be if you just watch and enjoy.

One aspect of LEGO games that has always stood out was the central hub location where players would go in and out of missions. Originally, this was a small location of only a few rooms that chapters could be explored by entering. This was the primary setup for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. More recently, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes changed this format with an open world Gotham for players to traverse and go into story missions when they saw fit. Now, Traveler’s Tales needs to switch up for the format again for LEGO The Lord of the Rings.

While it made sense in LEGO Batman’s world for the caped crusader to be able to travel around Gotham at his whim, that just isn’t the case with the tighter narrative that needs to be told during The Lord of the Rings. Even in LEGO format, The Lord of the Rings needs to have a clear beginning and ending location that players can’t just skip to. As anyone who has watched, or especially read The Lord of the Rings, it isn’t the destination that mattered to the story as much as it was the journey that got the heroes there.

One of the most intimidating prospects for a game developer may be the chance to work on a franchise they grew up loving. There is so much pressure put on themselves to uphold the high standards they set because they don’t want to let down themselves, other fans or the creators of it. But it also gives great opportunity for talented teams to make something special that can stand alongside other creative works associated with that franchise. Traveler’s Tales is one of those teams that has shown both love and respect for everything from Star Wars to Harry Potter in the LEGO universe and are undertaking the formidable legacy of The Lord of the Rings in their next game.

When you look at LEGO The Lord of the Rings at first, what you may notice first is the world going on behind the characters. There is a blend of both picturesque landscape combined with scenics from the films created out of LEGO. Much like they did with LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will have a large open world format with side quests for players to take part in instead of just following the story of the game.

If you are on The Flickcast, you already know the story. A band of mismatched heroes takes an impossible journey to escort the smallest of men to the most dangerous of locales all to destroy a ring that could destroy them all. How do you improve on that ageless tale? Why, add LEGOs of course.

At Gamescom, WB Games revealed the latest trailer for LEGO The Lord of the Rings. Following in the tradition of LEGO Star Wars or LEGO Indiana Jones, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will follow the events of the movies while adding in the quirky LEGO humor. In the tradition of LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, the game will also feature voice acting.

New to the LEGO brand though is having actual sound bites from the movie used in the game. While it hasn’t be revealed whether or not any new audio has been recorded for the game, it will be interesting to see how much Traveler’s Tales has fun with some of the most iconic scenes while using the current audio that so many of us have memorized at this point. The trailer below already gives a hint both at some of the epic scenes brought to life using LEGO as well as some of the lighthearted fun that the developers have had playing with some of the films’ memorable scenes.

Check out the full trailer after the break and keep it here for more on LEGO The Lord of the Rings set to come out this fall for Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Ever since the dawn of LEGO games there has been a hole. A hole in the catalog, a hole in the very hearts of LEGO fans world-wide, and that hole was a lack of a LEGO Lord of the Rings game. Thankfully, all the legal red tape has been decimated and WB Games and Traveler’s Tales look to fill that hole as soon as possible.

The debut trailer for the long-awaited game has hit and it promises a true to the movies experience. The LEGO games were long presented with out dialogue, but in 2012 the developers are breaking away from that tradition. LEGO Lord of the Rings seems to take full use of dialogue from the films, while retaining that LEGO playfulness.

Of course this trailer also shows off a couple really exciting LEGO interpretations. First we get to see the Balrog in all of his LEGO goodness, and he comes across very well in the form. We also see most of the Fellowship in LEGO form, which includes the first ever LEGO Sean Bean.

At this point I want to buy about 30 copies of this game so I can play it daily and not worry about it wearing out. Hopefully those stupid high expectations, that I no doubt share with many of you, can be met by the developers.

Take a look at the debut trailer after the jump.