Lord Of The Rings: 10 Smartest Changes Peter Jackson Made From The Books
7. Adding A Prologue Was A Stroke Of Genius
With a world as weird and wonderful as Middle Earth, there's an awful lot that might confuse someone with no prier-knowledge of Tolkien.
Diving head long into Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring would probably have baffled and confused viewers, without at least some exposition. But explaining all the relevant background context would require something a little more exciting than a mere scrolling-screen of text. We're looking at you, George Lucas...
Peter Jackson devised a Bond-style opening that delivered all relevant information, while simultaneously getting the viewer hooked. He managed to introduce Sauron, Elrond, Isildur, the Ring and Gollum without leaving people completely flummoxed by all the ridiculous and hard to pronounce names.
But Jackson and his team can't take all the credit. American director Ralph Bakshi did the same thing with his 1978 animated version of the Fellowship. Although Bakshi's version was universally panned, Jackson took more than a few pointers from his prologue; he just had the benefit of better animation techniques...