Thursday, October 2, 2014

Lord Of The Rings: Midgets Among Men


Lord Of The Rings: Midgets Among Men
            Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King is an epic fantasy movie with animation is almost every scene.  The biggest example of this throughout the movie is the height of each character.  Animation is used to make actors look different heights when in reality they are the same.  Another example of this is the scene when Legolas climbs the Oliphants, which are massive elephants about 50 times the normal height, and kills all the people riding as well as the Oliphant itself.  This animation was poorly done.  The elephants did not look real and the scene when Legolas climbed up its leg looked to be unrealistic as well.  One of these examples enhances the movie, and the other hinders it. 
            In Lord Of The Rings, Hobbits are 3 foot 6 inches tall; dwarfs are 4 foot 6 inches tall; and the men are average human height at 5 foot 6 inches.  This immediately intrigues me because I know in real life these actors are all the same height.  The difference is created so well that there is no visual tell that it is not real.  When an “argument makes a plausible claim and offers good reasons for you to believe it” logos is established (107).  This realism is the basis for the argument, because if the animation is done poorly, then there is no argument; the movie is terrible.  By the animation being done right, more people want to see this epic movie.  This movie won an Oscar.  That right there has enough Ethos to say that the animation regarding the height of the characters enhanced the movie.
            Oliphants are larger than life elephants.  They are used as a use of transportation by evil men in one of the fighting scenes in this movie.  They are unbelievable in many ways, one of which being that there is hundreds of arrows in its hide.  Elephant hide is very strong, but I don’t believe that it is that strong.  Legolas seamlessly climbs up the leg of the Oliphant, using the arrows to get up.  The way his body is perceived to be weightless looks computer animated.  The only Logos that can be found in this scene is that the Oliphants look similar to elephants, but even then they are 50 times larger and seem nearly impossible to take down.  According to Lunsford, “people usually prefer arguments based on facts and testimony to those grounded in reasoning alone”(73).  These animals may resemble a real life creature, but in the movie they are way too large to be believable, and the animation behind creating these Oliphants was done very poorly and takes away from the Logos of the movie.  Because of this the movie is hindered from this example of animation. 
            Because the first example I gave is more prevalent throughout the entire movie, I am giving this movie three pickles.  The way the characters were perceived to look different heights was done very well and created Logos for the movie.  The reason it did not get more was because the animation used to create the Oliphants was done poorly, and the scene where Legolas magically climbs this creature looks beyond fake.       


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