2. Greater Variety Of Whimsical Characters
If there is but one defining factor that determines the popular success of a movie or a movie franchise, it is the characters themselves. It has to be said that the supporting characters and cast of Harry Potter wipe the floor with The Lord Of The Rings efforts. Rowling's wonderful franchise is inundated with a diverse range of stunningly quirky and colourful characters which results in not a single dull page for the reader. Also the fact that the creme de la creme of English acting talent portray these characters on the big screen, brings them to life for the global audience. Characters such as Gilderoy Lockhart, Dolores Umbridge, and Professor Trelawney all go some way in explaining the worldwide success of Harry Potter. They are all so wonderfully different and eccentric that one does not have to be a fantasy fanatic to relish them. What such characters exist in Lord Of The Rings? Sadly, almost none. Perhaps I'm being a tad unfair to Tolkien, in the sense that Harry Potter has a much larger wad of material therefore the audience has a much larger time frame to meet these characters and J.K Rowling has had more of a chance to create them. However, In The Lord Of The Rings, the supporting characters seem so samey. Essentially, they are either Riders of Rohan, Men of Gondor or, well actually that's all I can think of really. Also, none of these characters create humour or liven up the tone of the books or films. In Harry Potter, even the villains are amazingly colourful characters. The brilliantly evil Bellatrix Lestrange, is actually one of the most popular characters in the franchise.