[Anguirel]

Very possibly I'm in the minority. But I found the Gimli of the books, Galadriel's courtly knight, hilarious, while being articulate and moving. His interaction with Eomer was among the highlights of the books for me. The contrast between his extreme charm and his gruff exterior was in itself far funnier than all the gaseous activity in the world. Perhaps it would have been harder to milk that Jackson's belch jokes. But I would have made much of his pride and prejudice before Lothlorien, used Galadriel's effect on him for tragicomic purposes, and thereafter used him as a proper verbal, as well as physical, foil to Legolas.

All in all, melancholy probably doesn't sell tickets like roistering comedy, but I was saddened by the scarcity of the sadder elements; Legolas' seagull experience being dropped altogether and Gimli's Galadriel experience only alluded to in the EE. These events are the focal points of the Elf and Dwarf, and their characters were threadbare without them, it seemed to me. (Though Gimli got off better than Legolas by virtue of being at least well-acted...Orlando wouldn't know melancholy if it challenged him to a skating contest.)