Book vs. Movie characters

[Lyta_Underhill]

i rag on merry and pippin because i don't like them. my point about mr boyd's scottish accent is that hobbits are menat to be from around warwickshire if we compare middle earth to the world. that is in england and they have an english accent there, not a scottish one. scottish is just as foreign as american.

Certainly an inconsistency, but one I am willing to allow. And I think Scotland is a little bit closer than America! [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] I suppose, if you looked at it that way, we Americans would all speak with the language and accent of Aman! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] But, I could hold with the theory that the Tooks were more adventurous than your average run-of-the-Shire hobbit and thus their stock would come from all over.

i DON'T think they're maturing nicely. they don't have that offhand, light tolkien humour of the two hobbits in flotsam and jetsam, they have stupid blockbuster slapstick humour.

Such is ever the case with a movie translation, but I rather think the portrayal of Merry and Pippin in TTT showed the proper spirit of "lighthearted hobbits in trouble" that I got from the book. I especially thought Billy's intonations when Treebeard first has him speak more than they say, so to speak. "And whose side are you on?" has that childlike wonder to it, while being to the point. I do find the subtleties lost in the movie, but the spirit is mostly maintained. The initiative is taken from Merry and Pippin by bringing them together with Gandalf at this point, but they still, all by themselves, manage to stir the Ents to war and thus fulfill their place as the "small stones" that begin an avalanche. I realize the methods are different, but this is of necessity.

The closeness of Merry to the lore of the trees and Pippin's quick thinking and acting are maintained in a different way but they are there. This is just like what I remember from Fellowship, when I bemoaned the loss of the Ford of Bruinen scene with Frodo defying the Nazgul all by his lonesome hobbit self, but still the spirit was kept later with his quiet challenge to Galadriel at her mirror. We still understand that Frodo has quiet strength but does not show it ostentatiously. Just so, I believe, with Merry and Pippin in TTT. I can't keep anyone from their opinions, but I enjoyed Billy and Dom's portrayals quite a lot!

Cheers,
Lyta