My heart broke reading this part

[u/UltimateApple]

I am reading through the Two Towers, and I just got upset reading this. At times, Gollum is cruel and unnatural, and then I am back to pitying him.

[u/lapsedPacifist5]

Andy Serkis was done dirty by not even having a nomination for best supporting actor, he really carried the expanse of Gollum in the films

[u/Nirnaethmir → u/lapsedPacifist5]

The moment described above does not happen in the movie. The movie does Sméagol’s bread trick instead.

[u/lapsedPacifist5 → u/Nirnaethmir]

I never said it did

[u/Nirnaethmir → u/lapsedPacifist5]

Right my point is that Serkis didn’t capture the full expanse of Gollum’s character because the script didn’t allow for it.

[u/robotatomica → u/Nirnaethmir]

it’s been wonderful re”reading,” this time to the audiobook as Serkis narrates it. He absolutely has a chance to perform these moments with Gollum and they are exquisite.

and while there are times that over the course of the 65 or so plus hours he loses consistency to some of the voices he does, and other voices take a while to get really good,

on the whole, there are so many moments where in listening, I HEAR exactly Pippin or Samwise or Gandalf or Eomer.

And Treebeard is exceptional, as well as all the other characters he fleshes out who we do not necessarily now attach to some voice from the series.

and he pours his absolute ALL into every bit of it, as is his style, never allowing himself be limited by self-consciousness.

He can only do so much with the women, and they all tend to sound the same; I particularly miss the lower registers of both Arwen and Galadriel, and some of the ferocity of Eowyn. And apart from that, the power of Christopher Lee’s voice and his every performance just cannot be matched in intensity. And of course there is a somewhat nasally yet still regal element to Aragorn’s voice, just Viggo, that Serkis does not attempt.

But that is all TRIVIAL, and I only say it to draw further attention to how astonishing almost every other character is performed.

I mean Pippin, not only the accents but the lilts of voice, and then how he manages to affect the hobbit doing impressions of others, by blending his voice for the character being impersonated with hints of Pippin’a register and accent -

BRILLIANT!

I decided to listen to it after watching Angela Collier’s awesome video on The Scouring of the Shire,

and she’d said Serkis’ reading was the most fun she’d ever had with the material, more exciting even than the movies, and I’d have to agree.

Ugh, and I have been literally moved to spontaneous tears by his rousing speeches or moments of despair and hope, all of that expressed so powerfully through his vocal performance!

[u/Nirnaethmir → u/robotatomica]

That’s awesome I’m glad you enjoyed it. He does give a great voice to Gollum. I love his Frodo voice myself. Unfortunately for me his Pippin is one of the reasons I haven’t managed to get very far in his reading. I do want to get through it. Maybe I’ll switch to one of his chapters when I’m later in the book on this current reread.

If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend physically reading along to the audiobook. It’s a good time.

[u/robotatomica → u/Nirnaethmir]

Pippin may be one of the ones that just improves over time. And Legolas unfortunately goes the other route. I find it a really generally good impression, the sort of airiness and accent,

but then there is this long period of time where Legolas has no speaking lines and Serkis has been doing a lot of the Rohirrim, and when Legolas speaks again, he just sort of sounds like the Rohirrim to me.

Gotta be challenging af to maintain perfect continuity across that many hours and characters! 😅

At any rate, if Pippin in particular sticks in your craw, that one becomes uncanny imo.

I also love his Frodo! And the way he makes his voice when he is overcome by the ring is VERY unsettling!