I don't know, Mordros, it sounds a bit like you were determined to dislike it anyway, which may have skewed your judgement a bit!

Are you opposed to any books being made into films, or just Discworld? Because the problem you give is the same for all book-to-film conversions.

Mrs G
The Garner who cares.

I enjoyed the film and thought that Death and Albert were particularly good. It seemed better on a second watching as I was able to relax and enjoy it more rather than wondering what was going to be missing.

My brother and nephew, who have had very limited previous exposure to discworld, both found it very funny and picked up what they thought were sly references to some actors previous role which I totally missed. Albert saying 'you can call me uncle' refering to only fools and horses and Death's line 'I couldn't possibly comment' was something Ian Richardson character in 'House of Cards' said a lot. I'm not sure whether this was coincidence or not. However, my brother has asked to borrow the book to read.


Does anyone want to borrow the video. It's on one tape though missing the first 10 minutes of the second bit (Mum forgot to start recording). You only miss the synopsis of the previous episode and the general introduction bit.

I think this poll should have had more options than "Good", "Bad" or "Didn't see it" - it should have been graded.

Generally it was good, but certain things did annoy me (Spoilers):

Susan was just too insipid - her generally barely suppressed anger at the universe for not getting it right didn't come through.

Apart from Ridcully and Stibbons, the Faculty were effectively indistinguishable from one another - how can one recognise the Dean, for example, if he doesn't look as though he had "swallered a bed" or can "sit on two chairs at once" (both Ridcully quotes)?

One of the group of thieves was written out and his fear of the Scissorman transferred to Sideny - I can see no reason for this.

The sequence with the Canting Crew was omitted - I was waiting to see Foul Ole Ron and the others.

Nobby - giving him a set of false buck teeth (at least, I hope for the actor's sake that they were false) goes nowhere near representing the total Nobbyness of the character.

Other dropped sequences - Susan and the Oh God! at the Y.M.P.A - the Good King Wenceslaus bit - and of course, no attempt to incorporate the footnotes.

However, I think Teatime worked well - the voice was just so irritating as to fit with the character.

On the whole a good try - I just hope any further ventures have enough budget to do the whole book - running time should not have been a constraint since it was intended to be done in episodes - another episode could have been added.

I really enjoyed this (to the point of watching it a second time over Christmas)
The one and only thing that spoilt it for me was the damned ad breaks. Dave managed to record the first one and that was what we watched over Christmas, he did it without the ads in, it was a whole hour (over the 4 hours) shorter.
The charecters were brilliant, Teatime especially, Nobby was the one that let it down a bit but hey you can't be perfect all the time!
We had tears in our eyes when Banjo got his puppy, that scene was absolutly perfect in my view. Just to see the big lump rolling round on the floor with the puppy at the end really brought the story to a happy conclusion for me.
A well made/directed/written film. I really hope they do another one, perhaps one with Feegles in, just for the challenge.

I liked it.

Susan only appeared to have one facial expression, which bothered me a bit. The first Auditor's voice startled me. I didn't imagine it anything like that.

The eater of socks was extremely cute. Ridcully was good too. I got used to Death's voice very quickly; like others I expected it to be more BOOMING, but it still worked for me.

Albert didn't seem old enough.

I liked Nobby and Visit, although Nobby seemed very smug.

Perfect casting for the Oh God

I loved the beginning sequence of the Discworld in space, so I was pleased they showed it twice. The synopsis of the first episode at the start of the second did take a very long time, and the preview of epidsode two pretty much told you everything you needed to know rather than offering teasers. But that's nothing to complain about really.

I adored Banjo, and like Wendy, loved the bit at the end when he got the puppy. Nigel Planer was excellent as Sidney. Hex was well done as well.

The voice of Teatime was a bit annoying at first, but I got used to it. By the end it didn't seem as if any other voice would suit him at all. He certainly looked the part.

I didn't think they cut out anything too important, but I do agree that anyone who hadn't read the book may have been a bit lost at times. A peril that faces all book to film translations.

All in all I thought it was pretty good.

That would also be... CONDENSATION.

I have the apparently completed screenplay, even if it differs from the actual showing on Sky One.

Go figure.

I got to watch a copy of it and found it lacking. There were good bits no doubt. The opening squence in space was Holywood blockbuster good and Albert was spot on as was the Oh, God. I liked Susan but thought she could have used a greater range on exasperation. The Auditor's voice took me by surprise, I would never have thought of them having an annoying, nasal voice, but it worked and made sense. The rest of the cast was... not so good. Ridcully wasn't nearly robust and hearty enough to have gone three rounds bare knuckles with Deitruis. Ponder was too snotty and the rest of the wizards were, as mentioned, characterless. The Bursar showed hints of his book self, but he didn't have enough screen time. The boogeyman under the bed was terrible, and old man with barely noticeable horns and teeth and Nobby was totally off. Teatime was the biggest disapointment. Marc Warren was in an episode of the Highlander series as Morgan D'Estaigne, an assassin and thief, and that character is who I pictured for Teatime when I read the book. He played Morgan loud and expansively, acting like everything he did, using poison gas to rob a jewelry store to trying kill McLeod, was absolutely normal and couldn't understand why anyone wanted to stop him. The whiney Peter Lorre (or Peter Truck here in the US) voice made him seem wooden and sullen. There were too many scene cuts as well, two minutes in the tooth fairy's tower, two minutes at the university, back the the tower for two minutes, back the university. It didn't allow any flow to the story. I'm not sure anyone who didn't read the book would be able to follow the plot either. It didn't mention who Susan was until halfway in and there were parts the were out of order compared to the book. Granted it is a hard book to adapt, it uses characters that have a lot of history that you can't cram into the story. I hope it is a success so they make more movies, but I hope they learn from this one and they are better than this one.

If they make another one they're going to have to find another actor for Death's voice as Ian Richardson has just died. :( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6346301.stm

Overall I was impressed. It generally had the right look - I got the impression they'd been quite heavily influenced by Paul Kidby's work. I wasn't worried overmuch by the cuts, although it was a shame that after making the reference to the glingleglingle noises, we never actually got to see the relevant fairy. David Jason wouldn't have been my first choice for Albert (though don't ask me who [i:5f2fcfcf4a]would[/i:5f2fcfcf4a] have been!) but he carried it off well.

Marc Warren looked fantastic. His voice was... unexpected, but I quickly got used to it. Likewise the Auditor's voices came as a surprise - the multiple-voices voice was exactly as I'd imagined it, but the nasal aspect, no - but it made sense as the stereotypical bureaucratic jobsworth's voice.

I thought Susan worked, and Death turned out splendidly - I actually had a lump in my throat when Susan thought the pig-Hogfather had died, and the pair's little farewell scene at the end was very touching.

It did annoy me rather that all of the UU wizards but Ridcully and Ponder were reduced to ciphers. Judging from the calendar, there was at least one scene at the Assassin's Guild that was filmed but cut from the broadcast version.[/i]

Choose your companions carefully, you may have to eat them.

I have the calender but I haven't seen the movie cuz I live in Canada.

"No, a proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven." - Actual quote by Jean Chretien, former Canadian Prime Minister.

It had the right feel and atmosphere but I would echo what everyone else said really, David Jason is a crackin actor but he was more Del Boy than Albert, DEATH was good but Susan not as rock hard as I would have liked. Nigel Planer was superb and Teatime spot on for me. I liked the darkness of it but I suppose it could never be perfect for any Pratchett fan.

Incidentally, I think non-Pratchett fans enjoyed it more, my wife loved it and finally understandw a bit of what makes me his work so.

Globally, I enjoyed it, of course it will never be spot on, if the Marthter was pleased with it, I guess we should be too. One thing annoyed me: Teatime's voice/accent, I don't know why but it bugged me all through the film.

Damn Spider pig

Marc Warren claims he had just watched the new Charlie & The Chocolate Factory film and the Teatime character got based on Willy Wonker.

Y'know what they say. Red sky at night, Ankh-Morporks Alight.



Nullius In verba!

Like that's an excuse !

Damn Spider pig

Posting this convo for Roman's benefit - the mobile-using-whatnot that he is.
I repeat some of my earlier points, so sorry bout that.

(Playing blind Pictionary, me drawing)
Ella: Is it a giraffe?
Me (stops drawing): No
Ella: Star Trek?
Me: Yes!