Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic, 31 Dec 2008
I got this two-disc version as a Christmas present and really enjoyed watching the movie. We took our time and watched the first episode one evening and the second episode the next morning. This way it was not too long or overwhelming than if we had watched it all in one go. David Jason and Sean Astin, in my opinion, did a really good job portraying Rincewind and Twoflower, and the landscapes and the city were just brilliant.
The only thing I was a bit disappointed with was the second disc with the special features like the Tourist Guides, deleted scenes, images and bloopers. Some of the deleted scenes I believe should have been kept in the film because they did explain things a bit further. However, like Hogfather I enjoyed the film itself and hope there will be more Discworld novels turned into movies.
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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.
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DVD ~ David Jason
by Jacqueline Simpson
by Terry Pratchett
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
