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Unit 4 Text Question

This document contains critical thinking questions about The Lord of the Rings. The first question discusses why it was better for the story to be adapted to film using human actors in the 21st century rather than animation, noting that human actors can express more emotion. The second question discusses how Baksi's 1978 animated adaptation simplified the complex novel to make it accessible to wider audiences. The third question asks whether it's better to see the movie or read the book first, with the response favoring seeing the movie first to get a sense of visuals and plot before reading.

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91 views2 pages

Unit 4 Text Question

This document contains critical thinking questions about The Lord of the Rings. The first question discusses why it was better for the story to be adapted to film using human actors in the 21st century rather than animation, noting that human actors can express more emotion. The second question discusses how Baksi's 1978 animated adaptation simplified the complex novel to make it accessible to wider audiences. The third question asks whether it's better to see the movie or read the book first, with the response favoring seeing the movie first to get a sense of visuals and plot before reading.

Uploaded by

zhiyu sun
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Critical Thinking Questions

1. From a creative cinematic viewpoint, why was it better that a production of The Lord
of the Rings using human actors rather than simple animation did not take place until
the 21st century?

From the perspective of creative cinematic, human actors are far more emotionally expressive
than anime characters, and they can express emotions and actions in detail. Animated
characters can be stereotyped and lack emotional expression, which I think is why The Lord
of the Rings chose to use human actors. On the other hand, the difficulty of animation is a
way to create an imaginary character, and this imaginary character requires a lot of character
settings. The difficulty with the movie is that it is almost impossible to add a lot of character
settings in a limited time without deleting the plot. Therefore, I think the character settings
issues made the film's choice to use human actors.

2. How does the use of simple animation tend to affect the presentation of a story? For
instance, Baksi first presented an animated film version of The Lord of the Rings in
1978. How did his use of animation affect the story? What advantages can you think of
for using simple animation in filming some stories?

The use of simple animation makes the presentation of the story simple, rather than a
complex and philosophical novel. Baksi uses simple animation on The Lord of the Rings,
which provides an interesting novel for all ages. A child can't understand Lord of the Rings
novels, however, they can understand anime. Meanwhile, simple animations eliminate
complex plots in order to make the story more easy. Therefore, changing the Lord of the
Rings into a simple anime definitely boosted its popularity and made Lord of the Rings
accessible to all ages.

3. Based on what you have learned in this unit, which do you think is best for your
situation: to read the book first and then see the movie? Or to see the movie first and
then read the book? Why is this choice best for you?

I think watching a movie before reading a book suits me better. First, when I finished reading
the book, I already had the basic idea and structure of the story and the best actors for a
character. When I go to the movie and discover the structure of the story and the actors of the
certain character that I had in mind, I may have a resistance to this movie. On the other hand,
I love the visualization of movies. Reading a book is easy for me to forget the plot, however,
watching a movie makes me easily remember images, plots, colors, etc. When watching a
movie, it's easy for me to get emotional thinking about a certain plot. Meanwhile, I had the
experience of watching a movie and then reading a novel. I was attracted to the movie
“Rational Person” and started looking for pre-adapted novels. However, after reading the
entire book, I felt the storyline was too protracted and the plot kept repeating. Therefore, the
movie will present effective content to the audience, making it easier for the audience to
understand and accept. And I prefer to watch the movie first and then read the book.

4. From Sam’s point of view, who was Gollum and what was his motive for helping the
hobbits? From Frodo’s point of view, who was Gollum?

From Sam's perspective, Gollum is the villain controlled by the Lord of the Rings, who is
controlled by the Ring to kill anyone who tries to take over the Lord of the Rings. Gollum's
primary reason for assisting Frodo was to find a way to regain the Ring and kill Frodo. Frodo
believed that Gollum was Smeagol and that Gollum was a victim of being controlled by the
Lord of the Rings. He imagined that Gollum would be so by his actions that he would give up
the fight for the Ring.

5. Give an example mentioned in this unit where the director, Peter Jackson, changed
the nature of a conflict in the story.

In the book, Saruman and Gandalf do not have a physical conflict, and they only debate
throughout. In the movie, when Gandalf realizes Saruman's mutiny, he directly violently
fights.

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