Artist Francisco Guerrero has been working on a project transforming all the characters from The Lord of the Rings into cartoon characters, and the results are a sweet mix of Disney and Rankin-Bass (who were responsible for the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit).
"It's been a long time since I did something about The Lord of the Rings, maybe a couple of drawings in old sketch books is all that I remember. I feel that Saruman was the villain of the story or at least the one you could visualize physically, but in the last chapter I felt that Tolkien downgraded the strength of character when he went to Hobbiton and enslave the villagers . In the movies, Christopher Lee was incredible, only the sound of his voice conveys great strength and authority, very impressive and is actually one of my favorite characters. Well, this sketch is really based on the film's character design, which I think is incredible."
"The fallen Hobbit. I liked when reading The Hobbit you realized that something interesting was going on with Gollum. I guess that for the children's book narrative, you do not feel him so threatening, I imagined him as a creature who only wanted to play—in a sick way—, and it was a simple and secondary character. The Lord of the Rings takes him to another level, it is a complex protagonist, vicious, addict and schizophrenic. Andy Serkis was able to give life to him in the film, and I can't imagine anyone else who could play the character so well as he did and all the animators behind him."
"This character needs no introduction. In the film, it is said that Ian McKellen was imitating the voice and body language of Tolkien to play his character, so we could say that Tolkien is Gandalf himself through the actor."
"Gimli the dwarf, friend of elves who likes little hairy women."
"Not so daily sketches but, finally here's a new one. Legolas was one of the characters in the book that I was looking forward to see in film, definitely you knew more about him due to the friendship/rivalry with Gimli and his melancholic and mysterious feeling. In the film, I think it is well characterized, the costume and physical appearance, but in acting performance it was noticeable that this was the first significant role for Orlando Bloom. He is part of excellent action scenes and a couple of lousy jokes."
"Women play a small part in the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was writing primarily a story about war, so he had to focus on developing soldiers, allies and enemies as well as the kingdoms involved. Despite having little involvement, characters like Galadriel and Éowyn are incredibly important to the events in the story.
I really liked what Cate Blanchett did with the character: mysterious, intriguing and with a deep voice that evokes the wisdom of her years. The concept and design of the city of Lothlorien is one of the most impressive and beautiful I've ever seen. It is based on the absence of corners of Art Nouveau and it was obvious for me to get inspired by the work of Alphonse Mucha for this design."
"Frodo is the true protagonist of The Lord of the Rings. Driving sometimes up to five story lines, Tolkien made us think that Frodo had died somewhere and that forced us to accelerate our reading in order to return to his chapters. This does not downgrade Aragorn, Gandalf and the others, because you feel a connection between them, so you realize that they are buying time for Frodo to fulfill his mission. For me it is a very powerful concept that one so small could do this incredible task. Like any antihero, Frodo is not perfect, he makes mistakes and suffers from an addiction that consumes him until the end of the story."
"Frodo's faithful friend. I spent a few days out of town but returned with one of the most memorable scenes from both the book and the film. It is curious that Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin), unlike the other hobbits, didn't have an English accent and I don't think it was due to lack of skill, it is kind of a mistery to me. Beyond that, I think he did a good job, it was a very demanding role in the emotional and physical aspect, unlike many others parts he has played throughout his career. Definitely the most memorable.
The fight with Shelob is one of the chapters of the book you could not stop reading,when you thought all was lost Sam grabs 'the light of Earendil' and Sting to pick up a fight. You could imagine the desperation and fear that goes through his body once he encounters this big horrible monster. Still, he fights. Definitely one of my favorite chapters of the entire book."
"These two are the comic relief of the trilogy, at least in the first two films. These two add value to the message of friendship that Frodo and Sam live, but the interesting thing about this relationship is that they take different paths after the chapter of Treebeard, each one growing emotionally by their own will: Merry in Rohan and Pippin in the city of Minas Tirith."
"This character captivates you in book and film, especially at the end. With an air of nostalgia and pessimism, Boromir is a warrior stereotype who seeks the best for the kingdom of Gondor, his people. But like all men in Middle-Earth, he is corrupted by the ring's power.
It is a scene of ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' where there is a key moment for Boromir, picking up the ring after Frodo lost it in the snowy mountains, saying 'It is a strange fate that we should suffer fear and doubt so much over so small a thing. Such a little thing'. Sean Bean had a hard time filming this scene since it was shot on top of a mountain and he is apparently afraid of heights (and helicopters). He couldn't stop thinking of the way back inside the helicopter. So, in the following scenes involving transportation by air, he decided to ride, walk or climb to the location. I guess that his fear was transmitted into the scene because it came out perfectly."
