The surprising animated film inspired by Gollum from ‘The Lord of the Rings’
Most fans are always anxious about potential film adaptations, but Peter Jackson proved everyone wrong when he made his beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson set the bar too high for other filmmakers who ventured into the perilous world of adaptations and failed to match Jackson’s achievements.
Many artists have sought inspiration from Jackson’s approach to the art of adaptations, especially since he was able to replicate the sense of wonder audiences feel when they read J.R. Tolkien’s masterful works. Inspiration comes in various forms, which is how director George Miller was influenced by the iconic character of Gollum.
Surprisingly, Miller drew from Gollum’s definitive character design while making the creative decisions for his 2006 computer-animated musical Happy Feet. During an interview with Deadline, Miller revealed that the story of Happy Feet had been ready for a while, but it all clicked into place when he saw an early glimpse of The Lord of the Rings movie.
Miller revealed that he had a spark of inspiration when the cinematographer of The Lord of the Rings film series – Andrew Lesnie – brought along motion captures of Gollum with him. That initial vision of Gollum remained embedded in Miller’s mind and helped him develop Happy Feet.
In the interview, Miller recalled: “With the permission of Peter [Jackson] and everybody, he’d give little talks. When I saw that first motion capture of Gollum, I remember I’d never seen anything like it. I didn’t even know it was possible, I’d never even heard of motion capture, even though I tended to be up to date with things.”
While talking about Gollum, he added: “In that moment, I thought, ‘Oh my God, the penguins can dance.’ Suddenly, that then made it a reality, because I didn’t think we could get good dancing from animation, or we would have to do ‘rotomation,’ like they’d done when Gene Kelly had danced with Tom and Jerry.”
Miller used similar motion capture technology to create the memorable dance scenes in Happy Feet, which became a critical and commercial success. Although Miller eventually turned into a franchise, the cultural impact of the first film was too significant to be replicated.
