[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

However I would say that while John Rhys Davies is tall he also has a large frame (in the Indiana Jones films he appeared substantial compared to the far from short and weedy Harrison Ford) which scaled down fairly well to my mind to a stocky but active dwarf. The actors playing the current dwarves that I know from other things are tallish and lighter built. Lanky even in some cases. Scaled down they seem a bit flimsy.

Perhaps this is why I didn't find it nearly as noticeable in the other films. I saw John Rhys-Davies at a convention a few years ago and he's definitely a large man, which probably helps a good deal.

Originally Posted by Aganzir

However, there's also a risk of making dwarves look too stocky. Last summer at the Return of the Ring, Tolkien artist Jenny Dolfen told an anecdote about somebody suggesting that the width of a dwarf's shoulders should be five times their head (while normally the width is 2-3 times the head), effectively resulting in pictures that look like this:
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(Yes I really just made it for you, I'm that bored.)

Thank you! Five heads does seem a bit excessive, although if a Dwarf had a broader head than a Man the 3 headspans scale might work a bit better. Perhaps Dwarves' heads just seem bigger due to their beards.

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Contrarily, I do think that the dwarves are just a little bit too short
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I was more bothered by a couple of scenes in the film where the techniquies to make the dwarves look dwarf-sized failed utterly, the Battle of Azanulbizar where the dwarves are charging is the worst offender in this regard. The charging dwarves in that scene are so obviously human sized that it renders the scene cover-your-eyes awful. And that really worries me as to what the Battle of Five Armies will look like.

My original complaint was just going to be 'too short' but I felt like some issue of breadth might become involved too given that the Men and Elves they encounter are more often of the 'High' variety. I just imagine Dwarves being physically imposing; in the film, however, compared to Elrond, for example, they just seem miniscule. I've always felt they should be rather burly; I suppose I almost kind of imagine that if Durin's Folk were to other Dwarves what the Noldor were to Elves and the Dúnedain to Men to some extent, and that would translate into a kind of bulk. I agree that their height varies wildly in the films. I think Azanulbizar is not helped by their CGI opponents giving absolutely no frame of reference either. I kind of imagine that the "massive" film Azog, who towers over Thorin on his Warg, might come up to an Elf's chin. It's also not helped by the fact that Bilbo appears to be about four feet tall, not somewhere between two and three feet.