Hogfather on sky this christmas

nothing

My housemates made me switch over to ER, wouldn't even let me watch the last part! ARGH!

JIZZLORD

They are true to the novel, but it seems to drag. unfortunately i'll miss tomorrows episode due to work.

Karl Hungus

Have to say, I'm kinda suprised people don't like Mr. Teatime, I think he's especially good, though as my sister pointed out, sounds rather like Johnny Depp in the new Willy Wonka.

It's David Jason as Albert I don't quite like. He's just not the bitter grumpy old bastard from the books. You could never really imagine Jason as a former Arch-Chancellor.

Joss Ackland seems great though.

BKtje

The auditor's voice seems wrong to me but everything else seems fairly spot on.

Was talking to me mum (who has read the book btw) and said that people who haven't read the book may find it a little hard to follow. I think i could agree with that.

Overall i've enjoyed it

pretty*monster

Susan was totally spot on (as well as being pretty hot).

B-ut, I think they tried to cram a little bit too much into two hours, the story was jumping around a lot which was a little annoying and I think those unfamiliar with the book might have been a little lost at times.

Ba_barbaraAnne

B-K-DzR wrote:

...

Was talking to me mum (who has read the book btw) and said that people who haven't read the book may find it a little hard to follow. I think i could agree with that.

Overall i've enjoyed it

I think the little bits as 'links' do quite a good bit of explaining. My 13 yr old hasn't read the book but I and my eldest have read it more then once, and the younger lad has had no problem following the storyline.

nothing wrote:

... My housemates made me switch over to ER, wouldn't even let me watch the last part! ARGH!

Time to move house!!!!

The_Minister

Teatime was grand, it was the auditors that did my head in.
Still, a really good adaption

Ba_barbaraAnne

They weren't 'grey' enough

doctor evil

Auditors voice was wrong, teatime voice annoyed me. I thought your man from Time Team was good in it. I like the death of Rats.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

were we supposed to pick up on an anti smoking message in this first part? albert kept throwing his away or having the wind blow skins out of his hand... too much license taken!

A few points of notes from this;

Teatime is perfect I think. He is supposed to be the type of character you love to hate, plus his voice seems to give off this strange innocence, much like the character from the book.

I don't think Death's mouth is supposed to move whatsoever. Is the whole point behind it that his voice would beam into your mind (as it were)? I think the voice-over fits this to a tee.

The auditors voice were wrong. They should have a Death-like voice, the grainy, strange one- but not a comical one.

Nobby's face was spot on, though I imagined him to be smaller and fatter, with a possibly greenish armour. But I am willing to forgive this.. for now. Mwua ha ha ha.

Susan is the best part. She looks as you would have imagined (bar the hair, but that's probably in the book -- I need to re-read it as soon as I find it). I particularly liked the effect when she used the voice.

Only grief I have is with Albert. He should be more grumpy, plus I always imagined him to be a smaller version of Alfred from Batman.

MarVeL

Have to say I thought this was very good with a few slightly wrong notes, Albert and the auditors (now there's a name for a band) spring to mind. Some of the explanations grated, such as being told that Hogswatch=Christmas at the beginning, but I can see why they were needed.

As for Mr. Teatime's voice it bugged the hell out of me but it seemed spot on. I wouldn't imagine talking to Mr> Teatime to be a pleasant experience

GuanYin

Teatime is a sad rip off of Depp's Wonka - the actor even admitted that he'd just come from the film when he auditioned - it shows and not in a good way.

NotWormBoy

Yes, that was most excellent. Even if Pratchett couldn't act for twaddle.

8.5 / 10 overall.

Didn't think the Wizards got enough time, bar Ridcully (who was well cast and acted - you can see him as the outdoors type with no sense yet buckets of brains when he chooses to use them). They were also far too skinny (especially "Two Chairs" Dean) - and we didn't get to see the LIbrarian at all! I was looking forward to that. The Auditors weren't really menacing at all. Tony Robinson shouldn't have done that role. Teatime was a little girly for my taste - though he was one freaky motherf*cker at time - so I'll give him a thumbs up more or less. Death was spot on, as was Susan. Both of them were brought out really really well. David Jason did well as Albert, I thought, had more moments in the second half to be the cynical observer from the books. Banjo could've been a little bit more childish - though very good all the same. Medium Dave I liked in the books in the lot - though not as much in the show. Though he looked the ****. Nobby - while acting like Nobby really well - didn't really look like Nobby. Too... human.

The world itself was perfect too. Seems a lot of effort went in there, and it showed. Occasionally the action lacked a bit of pace and style - but you don't read Discworld for the action - though its gets must better in his later stuff.

The ending bit the the boogeyman was a bit ... pants - but the final scene with the Auditors/Wolves chasing Susan and the Hogfather was really well done - just like in the books. I loved the nod the Hogfather gave Death the end.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

funky penguin

I enjoyed it alot. 8/10

Susan was perfectly cast, Death looked amazing and as already mentioned, the world looked as if alot of work went into it.

A few gripes would be how drawn out it felt, Alberts general jolliness and the fact that I had to exposition the world of the Disc to my mother quite often (although that could be more her inquisitive nature than anything else).

Best delivered line....."Its the expression on their little faces...."

Heres to more next year!

Pugsley

funky penguin wrote:

Best delivered line....."Its the expression on their little faces...."

I'd go for "Its a sword, it isn't meant to be safe"

Really enjoyed it, Teatime was a bit irritating at times, and Nobby didn't look the part, albiet he acted it pretty well, but otherwise excellent, kudo's to Death and Susan who were both superb. Quite liked Albert too, he may not have been grumpy enough, but he was good to watch, think they got Ponder Stibbons spot on aswell.

Manny7

I enjoyed it too, a couple of things were a bit off though. Auditor's sounded more goofy than impersonal which was a letdown, plus did they use a dwarf instead of the Librarian? When Stibbons (who I thought was perfect) started talking about apes I thought he may get at least a mention but no.

Also I'd be interested in hearing what someone who'd never read Discworld got out of it, I know I was doing a lot of explaining during it, would it make sense if you're starting from scratch.

Any ideas whether they have more planned?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

friend of mine who doesn't read at all thought it was good... i was pissed off to see albert THROW AWAY his cigarette at the end of the movie.

fascists!

Zaph

I think some people are missing the point about the Auditors voices. They're civil servants, and as such they have the typical reedy, whiny voices that are often associated with career civil servants or similar jobs where pettiness is a virtue.

I have to say I enjoyed the adaptation, although I too would have liked to have seen Nobby more, well, Nobby-like. I thought David Jason was ok as Albert and Joss Ackland was superbly cast as Ridcully, but the best casting was that of Michelle Dockery as Susan. Casting an unknown allowed her to make the part her own.

It's funny how everyone has their expectations of what the characters, or indeed Discworld itself, look like. I've always imagined Lord Downey as being a bit more sinister than he was, but that didn't really spoil my enjoyment as it was only a small part. As for Ankh-Morpork, I always think of it being a lot more medieval, rather than Victorian, so it looked a lot more civilised tan I expected.

Overall, 8.5/10 and looking forward to more adaptations

Cormic

Was it just me or did anyone else think the Auditors sounded a bit like Daleks?

Really enjoyed it though. However I did have to explain a few things to my wife and friends, especially the fact that Susan was Death's granddaughter.

Mr Teatime sounded too much like Willy Wonka.

BlitzKrieg

only saw the first part so far.

Enjoyed it enough simply because its discworld.

but a few things bugged me and they all tie into one large fault.

- I found the acting very theatre like, how the actors moved and more importantly how they talked, apart from a few characters, it all comes across as very artificial and chugs up the pace a bit.

-I found the music to be very intrusive it pretty much screams to be the centre of attention in every scene and it shouldnt be in a lot of cases.

-The editing is very poor, most clearly in that the show has a very sagged pacing, it doesnt help the narrative and its made worse when the narrative is trying to tell up to 4 storylines at once and its timing to jump back and forth from them makes most of them feel impotent, most clear is the wizards storyline which is in the book the humour relief for most of the first half and most of the humour is lost because the show cuts away from them without letting the humour of the characters shine.


All these points tie directly into what I find wrong with the show, the directing, discworld has always thrived because despite its far fetched fantasy setting, its characters have always been quite realistic, casual and above all believable. None of that is coming across in this, everything feels very formal and *dare I say* like some Fantasy epic, which it shouldnt be, there should be a much more relaxed tone to the characters, the narration at the opening sums up the fault, if you read discworld it reads like someone at a bar telling you about something they clearly know very well, but are talking about it casually. But here its all GRAND and proper with the shining bells of how magically this is.

But thats my opinion, and its what I always cherished most about the discworld novels and I thought it was something that was possible to bring to the screen, but alas it appears it isnt.

GuanYin

BlitzKrieg wrote:

But thats my opinion, and its what I always cherished most about the discworld novels and I thought it was something that was possible to bring to the screen, but alas it appears it isnt.

Honestly I think you're forgetting this was a Sky production.

Fair play to them for doing it, but I've never seen a sky production that didn't seem cheap and crappy. This was about the best effort they've made. Do you remember their Blackadder NY special? They took something with very limited production costs in its BBC incarnation and made THAT seem cheaper and tackier.

Its a pity HBO/BBC wouldn't offer Pratchett a similar deal on a production. My understanding is that the main reason he ok'd the Sky attempt was because they promised to be faithful to the books and he had script approval - apparently Hollywood haven't been so generous (they wanted to omit Death from a production of Mort!!! *boggle*)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

(they wanted to omit Death from a production of Mort!!! *boggle*)

I'd like to see that...

BlitzKrieg

wikipedia has it up that Sam Raimi will be directing a version of Wee free men after he's finished with spider-men 3.

Tar.Aldarion

Hmm, I haven't read Hogfather yet, would it spoil it if I watch this first?

Doctor DooM

I'd read the book first, some of it is almost word for word...

I think it was deifintely the best adaption of discworld so far. I always find my enjoyment of the jokes are seriously stunted though because I can always see them coming, having read the books.

It didnt look cheap at all to me, I thought it was a bit slow, but I watched it with 3 non Terry fans and they all thought it was great, so I guess it was all good.

I thought Susan and Death were GREAT.

Wasn't a huge fan of TeaTimes voice, it was more off putting than disconcerting, but there you go.

Otherwise I thought this was great, and hope to see more!

Fysh

Have to admit I really enjoyed this, Teatime's voice was annoying because he sounded exactly like a complete muppet I know but he worked very well as the disconcerting and demented character he's meant to be.

Overall my only disappointments were a couple of the excisions made to the book (but that's just nitpicking) and the slight feeling of Darby O'Gill-ness I got with some of the funny bits. The wizards weren't quite up to scratch, although Ridcully & Ponder Stibbons were brilliantly cast. Really enjoyed it as an adaptation and want to buy a DVD of it now.

Plus, it's better than at least 99% of normal christmas tv programming...

kittex

I loved it when the Lecturer in Recent Runes turned around and he was wearing the "Born to Rune" jacket from 'Soul Music'.

KdjaCL

Loved it, gonna watch it again with kids over xmas. Thought everything was perfect for a tv show.

Best bit when Nobby came out with the crossbow



Shame Sky didnt have the sense to release a HD version on the web for a tenner or somfin the day after, save me downloading it from torrent and watching it ad free.


kdjac

r3nu4l

I only saw some of it but I thought I saw something in the top corner of the screen about it being available in HD?...not that I'd have been able to avail of it anyway.

I loved what I saw, thought it was great but would have liked to see it all before offering an opinion. Ah well, at least Discworld has made a screen appearence, perhaps now Hollywood will pick it up and go with it