The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is a fascinating experiment in adaptation. It's not adapting a novel of J.R.R. Tolkien's, but rather two pages from his Appendices, which lay out the last great stand of one of Rohan's most famed kings, Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Succession 's Brian Cox ).

The War of the Rohirrim proved me wrong. The new animated movie, directed by Kenji Kamiyama ( Blade Runner: Black Lotus ), raises the scare factor on the classic monsters by lowering the stakes. The first glimpse of an oliphaunt we get in Jackson’s Lord of the Rings is a brief glimpse in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Those two groups are Sauron's allies in the War of the Ring, helping to take Osgiliath from Faramir's ( David Wenham) forces in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and fighting at the Battle of Pelennor Fields in Return of the King.