Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
57 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I think they've cracked it ..., 3 Nov 2008
... and I think I know why. You see I watched this with a degree of fear, the thought of David Jason as Rincewind made me shudder, but they got it right. Even former hobbit Sean Astin was well suited to the role of Twoflower.
I loved the Hogfather, it was one of my favourite books but after the film I found I couldn't bring myself to read it. That film failed in my eyes. The Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic, on the other hand, were never my favourites, in fact, they are probably the books I know least well. And I think this was the key.
Because I don't know these books as well as the others I enjoyed the interpretation.
I found that David Jason played his part well. We learn in the interviews that he wanted to play Rincewind over 20 years ago and is a Terry Pratchett fan, which only goes to show that you should hire people who know the books, or at least read them (Marc Warren take note - just passing them in the airport is not good enough).
Overall a great interpretation and a wonderful surprise - I actually picked up the books and read them again.
|
|
|
29 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
4.5 stars for movie in general, but at least 100 stars for David Jason's portrayal of Rincewind!, 7 Nov 2008
I preordered this DVD as soon as I heard it had become available, and just received it in the mail yesterday. It doesn't seem to be available at Amazon here in the states yet, so I'm extremely happy that I have a region free DVD player.
As a blind Discworld fan, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered audio description on the Hog Father DVD. The Colour of Magic also has audio description, but somehow, it just wasn't quite as good, best example, the credits were never read, so apart from David Jason and Sean Astin, I couldn't readily place any of the other characters. I read that Nigel Planer was in this, but it took my mom reading the credits for me to figure out that he was the arch astronomer. Never-the-less, I was extremely greatful for the audio description that was provided.
I have now watched this DVD 3 times, and have also reread The Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic books. Surprisingly, reading the books again was quite a struggle. I won't say they were bad, exactly, but as a previous reviewer said, they're the discworld books I'm the least familiar with. Before I reread the books, I mistakenly thought that The Colour of magic hadn't been quite as faithful to its source material as Hogfather was, but now that I've watched it multiple times and reread the books, considering the fact that this movie was trying to cover 2 books instead of just one, I think they did an admirable job. Once again, as with Hogfather, I noticed that the actual text from the books was used as much as possible, and the majority of the parts that were cut out of the books to make the movie weren't at all missed, at least not by me. Personally, I would have liked it if less time had been spent on the scenes with the wizards at UU, and more time put into Rincewind and Twoflower's adventures. For example, the driads weren't mentioned at all, and the whole sending of 8 section was left out. It was mentioned, though, so I definitely won't complain about that, especially since there are so many book to movie adaptations, most noteably for me those of Stephen King novels, that are far less true to their sources.
In spite of the very minor complaints I have regarding this movie, I have no trouble rating the movie as a whole with 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. I'm primarily giving this movie a 5 star review for one reason, however: David Jason. His portrayal of Rincewind, at least in my humble opinion, was simply spectacular! based on the way he sounded in the Discworld audio books, I was never fond of Rincewind. While Nigel Planer more often than not did a great job reading the discworld novels, he made Rincewind sound like a weird cross between Neil from the Young Ones, Eeyore and Marvin the paranoid android. In contrast, David Jason brought Rincewind to life for me, capturing perfectly the perpetual state of terror that I always imagined Rincewind would be in. Consequently, the character of Rincewind became much more likeable to me.
Bottom line: The Colour of Magic was well worth the money I paid for it, and I'm already looking forward to watching it again.
|
|
|
36 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a patch on Hogfather but worth a look., 23 Nov 2008
It breaks my heart to rate anything Discworld with less than 5 stars but I could only bring myself to give this one 4. It would only have been 3 but for the beautiful end scene when you find out what the 'spots' on the star are. I thought that bit so incredible it deversed a star all of it's own on top of my rating of the film. I have been a Discworld fanatic for some years and was pleasently surprised by how well Hogfather was made. Unfortunatly The Colour Of Magic just doesn't seem to have quite the same impact. Firstly on the casting, David Jason as Rincewind, what were they thinking? Though I love David Jason and his performance in the film is superb he's just not and never will be Rincewind. Besides anything we're led to believe in the book that Rincewind is only 33 (see were Twoflower's dragon dissapears and they fall into a parralel dimension). Add to this the fact that Rincewind must age significantly over the Discworld series if he had been as old as David Jason he'd not of lived long enough to et to Sourcery where he teams up with Conan and Bethan's GROWN UP daughter. Having said all that he will always be a fine actor and a pleasure to watch, even in such an unsuitable role. And what of Rincwind's companion, Twoflower, the Disc's first Tourist (or idiot)? An American? What!!!!!????? The Counterweight continent, described to a T as the Discworld's China, even down to it's very own Terracotta army (see Interesting Times). Not even an Asian American but Sean Astin, a very western looking, blonde, young AMERICAN actor! What happened to our sweet little pot bellied, balding accountant? Sean Astin is an excellent actor but he is not, never will be, should never have tried to be Twoflower. Tim Curry makes an excellent Trymon (of course) and pretty much all the rest of the casting was fine if you allow for a little lee-way. I still can't make up my mind about Jeremy Irons as The Patrician, though of course Vetinary shouldn't really have been there at all. But the film itself seemed somewhat rushed. An unforgivable amount of the book was missing. Where was Hrun? Why did Liessa take over her brother's roles? Where was Druidia, Tethis...? And the temple of Bel Shamaroth? And Bethan's role was cut drastically short. Ank-Morpork looked fantastic as did all of the scenery but the direction seemed a little too 'epic', too much sweeping landscape when so much of the story was missing and could of filled that screen time better. If you're a fan of the Discworld Novels you'll probably find this film dissapointing. If you're watching the films as an alternative to reading the books my advice to you would be READ THE BOOKS. Overall, though this film was a lot of fun and I enjoyed watching it, I was disapointed with it. Especcially after how good Hogfather was. One thing that was perfect though was Old Grandad, he looked exactly as I would have expected an ancient troll that's been sleeping as a mountain for hundreds of years to look. If you found this review helpful then you may be interested in reading my review of Hogfather.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![The Colour Of Magic [DVD] [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516MquU7T7L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Hogfather (2-Disc Edition) [2006] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HVG2rDcOL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Colour Of Magic (2-disc edition) [DVD] [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61l6Z3fmAeL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Hogfather [DVD] [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sE6SoTazL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Hogfather (2-Disc Edition) [2006] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HVG2rDcOL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ David Jason
by Jacqueline Simpson
by Terry Pratchett
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
