<P> Treebeard has inspired a number of artists and illustrators such as Inger Edelfeldt, John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Anke Eißmann, and Alan Lee . </P> <P> In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, John Westbrook provided the voice of Treebeard . Stephen Thorne voiced the character in BBC Radio's 1981 serialization . Treebeard was originated onstage by Brian Amidei in the Lifeline Theatre's 1999 production of The Two Towers . </P> <P> In Peter Jackson's films The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Treebeard is a combination of a large animatronic model and a CGI construct; his voice is performed by John Rhys - Davies, who also portrays Gimli . In The Two Towers, Merry and Pippin run into the Fangorn Forest in an attempt to escape a band of Uruk - hai and orcs that kidnapped them . There, they are pursued by one orc . Treebeard awakens, crushes the orc, and takes Merry and Pippin to the "White Wizard" (later revealed to be a revived Gandalf) to see if they were "little orcs" or not . Assured that they are not orcs, Treebeard keeps the hobbits with him for safety . The Ents at the Entmoot decline Merry and Pippin's request for help . Treebeard is carrying the Hobbits through Fangorn Forest when Pippin gets an idea: he asks Treebeard to carry them toward Isengard, because that is the "last place" Saruman would look for them . When Treebeard gets close to the forest's edge, he sees the devastation wrought by Saruman's Orcs . The trees have all been hacked down to serve as fuel for Saruman's war machines . In anger, Treebeard summons the other Ents, who emerge from the forest . They attack Isengard and flood it . Treebeard, in addition, sends the Huorns to attack Saruman's Orcs as they retreated from Helm's Deep . In a deleted scene, Treebeard mentions to the hobbits about the Entwives and how they literally were lost . He also rescues them from a tree that holds them captive (similar to a scene in the novel of The Fellowship of the Ring, with Tom Bombadil). </P> <P> Treebeard makes a brief appearance in The Return of the King, keeping watch over Isengard with Merry and Pippin as Théoden, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn arrive to pick up the two hobbits . </P>

Who voiced the ent in lord of the rings