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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Assenpfeffer" data-source="post: 519712" data-attributes="member: 9061">In greater detail:Hobbitton – I always imagined it as being a bit more well-manicured and with a few more trees than it had in the film.  Still, the hobbit-holes are spot-on.  Very minor.Gandalf – Perfect.  Inspired casting – Sean Connery would have sucked as Gandalf.Frodo – Perfect.  Elijah Wood looks like a hobbit without the feet or makeup.Sam, Merry & Pippin – Not exactly how I pictured them, but close.  Sam in particular has generally been played as more rustic than in the film, but this doesn’t bother me.  Merry’s wig does, a little – all the other Hobbits look like they have real hair.I never questioned the sizing effects on the hobbits, even though on close examination you can see matte lines in at least a couple of scenes.  Very subtle costume effects were used to suggest their small size, and I think they really worked.Bree – A bit darker than in my imagination, but only a bit.  Same with the Pracing Pony specifically.Aragorn – As someone’s already pointed out, they could have gotten someone older.  But he’s certainly appropriately grungy.  I think Viggo does a spectacular job in the role, except in one line – “You cannot wield it,” spoken at the Council of Elrond.  His delivery of that line is whiney.Saruman and Isengard – Couldn’t have been more perfect.  Christopher Lee is a god.Orcs – I actually picture orcs as looking like some old Partha minis I have – not much like the movie orcs at all.  Still, not a big problem.  Lurtz was pretty cool – I can’t wait to see Ugluk and Grishnakh, orcs with some actual dialogue.Weathertop – The rock pinnacle itself is not how I imagined it, but the scene at the top looked exactly how it should have.The Ford of Bruinen and the Flood – Matched my picture almost exactly.The Council of Elrond – This is a funny bit.  The physical setup of the Council is not how I imagined it.  But after seeing the film I went back and read the chapter, and the movie is actually closer to fitting Tolkien’s description than my mental image of it was.   It takes place basically on Elrond’s back porch – exactly as in the book.  I do wish they would have had someone sitting in the background who we could have imagined to be Glorfindel.Gimli – Perfect casting, again.Legolas – At first Orlando Bloom appeared to have too wide a face, but actually the Elves of Mirkwood are described in the Hobbit as being “broad-faced.”  Another example of the film sticking closer to Tolkien’s description than muy own imagination did.Boromir – Again, closer to Tolkien than I’d imagined him.  I’m afraid my mental image of Boromir was tainted by the Bakshi disgrace.Caradhras – Close enough.Moria – I pictured it as more heavily worked.  The Moria of the films appeared to be half natural cavern, half dwarf stronghold.  But the Hall of Records and Balin’s Tomb were perfect.Lothlorien – A bit more extensively built up than I’d imagined it.  Still, no problem.Galadriel – More perfect casting.  Cate Blanchett is better looking than the obvious choice at the time (Gwynneth Paltrow) and can act.Celeborn – The theatrical release made him look and sound like a heroin addict.  He gets actual lines in the expanded edition, and is much cooler (as is Galadriel, for that matter.)The Argonath.  Perfect.  Again.Amon Hen – The High Seat wasn’t high enough, but other than that everything looked like it should have.</blockquote>

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