On or about 2 January, 2002, Decipher submitted final card images for the Mines of Moria expansion to New Line Cinema for approval. New Line approved of the majority of these cards, with only minor adjustments required for some. Some cards ended up having their portraits further adjusted by Decipher artists, and these were also sent in later for late approval.
These faxes were fortunately included within the New Line Fax Proofs dump courtesy of Kreg Miller, and are presented below with commentary.
The opening salvo of the Mines of Moria approval process.
Standard Product Approval Form provided to New Line.
Another cover letter. Apparently this was faxed to two separate IP owners, in this case Tolkien Enterprises to get the lore itself proofed.
Standard Product Approval Form provided to New Line.
The only notable change here besides a typo in Fror's lore is that the Ring of Power shown in the Dwarven Bracers (2U3) portrait has been photoshopped out.
Jarnsmid saw a rewording (likely to prevent Shadow possessions from also being discounted), and Wielder of the Flame (2U28) has a portrait that was later reworked. A similar (tho not exact) version of this portrait was later used in Glamdring, Foe-hammer (11R35)
Ripples in the Pool had its portrait rejected by New Line for using a shot of the size doubles for the Hobbits rather than the main actors. Rather than selecting a new one, the card was apparently scrapped.
Final Cry (2R57) had its wording adjusted for brevity and clarity.
Troubled Mountains (2U72) apparently might have gotten its portrait rejected depending on whether the shot displayed the body doubles on a close inspection.
Interestingly, Southern Spies (2C91) was apparently originally a fully splashable anti-mill card. However, its usage was eventually recycled into Old Noakes, Purveyor of Wisdoms (3C111) while Spies itself was reworked into a very situational milling card itself.
Someone apparently objected to Merry's subtitle of "Mr. Meriadoc Brandybuck". Presumably it was New Line, as Tolkien Enterprises would have little reason to object to accurate lore. Perhaps it was to preserve "brand identity" and avoid usage of Meriadoc due to not being used in the movie?
Of Very Little Importance appears to have been approved, but was cut for other unknown reasons.
"Invited to the Party" was renamed to Practically Everyone Was Invited (2U111). Pippin, Mr. Peregrin Took, apparently ran into the same issue that Mr. Meriadoc Brandybuck did above. The fact that the final version was simply "Mr. Took" lends credence to the theory that the objection was to the use of Meriadoc and Peregrin.
Pippin, Mr. Took (2C110) also had its lore rejected, although both parties would potentially have reason. The quote "How do we know Strider's a friend of Gandalf's?" is almost a line from the movie, which is "How do we know this Strider is a friend of Gandalf's?" as spoken by Merry, which is itself a paraphrase of "How do we know you are the Strider that Gandalf speaks about?", spoken by Sam. Perhaps the objection was that it wasn't spoken by Pippin? If it's not that, then the fact that it's not a strictly accurate quote of either source could potentially have been the issue.