The Deep History of Boxtrolls

The key is remembering that whereas Tolkien's Rohan is (of course) a fantasy version of the Anglo Saxon northlands, his Gondor is more medieval than Old English, and draws more on French romance than anything else (the horn of Roland, for instance). Let's say that in the JRRT Middle Ages, Minas Tirith looked like this:

Fast forward to an imaginary early-to-mid 20th-century Middle Earth. The town has been developed:

Its name is now called 'Cheesebridge'. Presumably 'Minas' was modified over time to 'Frominas', and thence to 'Fromage'; just as 'Tirith' softened its initial 't' and mutated into 'férié'. The white tree has long since been lost to the city, but the aristocracy maintain tradition by wearing treetunk-like 'white hats' to signify their authority.

And what of the orcs?

Well, having been repeatedly defeated in battle and subjugated, these beings have lost their more aggressive instincts, taken to wearing discarded cardboard boxes, and now reside in the sewers under the city where they work as garbage men, recycling rubbish into useful equipment whenever possible.

It's at this point that the late Tolkien fanfic movie The Boxtrolls (directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, 2014) takes up the story. The twist is that, though the cheese-obsessed citizens of new-Minas-Tirith continue to think of the orcs as monsters, said orcs are actually the good guys. The leaders of Cheesebridge agree to a policy of ethnic cleansing, putting the task in the hands of Archibald Snatcher -- perhaps an individual descended remotely from the old Gondorian king Atanatar II. It's a dark story of persecution and misery, with an improbable ending where the citizens of Minas Tirith completely revise their opinion of the Jews Orcs Boxtrolls, and embrace them all. But then again, Tolkien was always fond of eucatastrophic endings.

The only wonder is that the Tolkien Estate hasn't sued.