Abstract
The publication of The Lord of the Rings (1954-5) coincided with the start of the so-called kaiju movement in popular culture, featuring giant, sentient, and destructive creatures. Famously originating with Godzilla (1954), kaiju films have persistently cornered a portion of the popular culture market over the past 70 years; therefore, the genre would be presumed to play a role in audience expectations for the depictions of such creatures in the Jackson adaptations of the novels. In light of the June 2024 limited run of remastered versions of Jackson’s LOTR film trilogy, I analyze four of his interpretations of Tolkien’s giant creatures through the lens of kaiju theory – Shelob, the balrog of Moria, and the Watcher in the Water, along with the stone-giants from The Hobbit – in parallel with their representations in the source material. It is certainly not my intention to argue that Tolkien himself was intentionally crafting kaiju, but rather to investigate the extent to which Peter Jackson’s depictions accentuate specific characteristics of these creatures, highlighting their kaiju nature.
Recommended Citation
Larsen, Kristine
(2024)
"“A fear of anything large and alive, and not easily tamed or destroyed”: Kaiju in The Lord of the Rings,"
Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 19:
Iss.
1, Article 17.
Available at:
https://scholar.valpo.edu/journaloftolkienresearch/vol19/iss1/17
Comments
Paper presented at the 51st Oxonmoot