Oh God, I just got home and tuned in to some SciFi movie where these zombielike people were attacking someone in a darkened room. I was wondering, "Who's the hot guy in the torn wifebeater?" and then got a better look and realized it was James Van Der Beek.

I don't think I've ever felt so dirty in my entire life.

I don't think I've ever felt so dirty in my entire life.

:: shudder ::

I don't think I've ever felt so dirty in my entire life.

The Forehead? Oh, Matt, I expected more of you.

t pokes head in

For the first time ever, I appear to be caught up enough to come say hi in here. Hi!

Hi!

Hi!

Just saw Hogsfather. First of all I loved it. Very faithful to the book.

Secondly, I think this would be a problem for anyone not familiar with the series, maybe even a little hard to follow for those not familiar with the particular book.

I mean did they have to actually do the Verruca gnome ? A funny bit in the book, but not that interesting on-screen. And it takes a lot more time on-screen than on the page. Yeah, there was a point, but the only way to make was not to lift a timewaster from the book without modification.

Tim Minear once remarked in answer to a question about an adaptation not to to worry because his respect for the author would not lead him to make a book on tape with pictures.

I think this film was a bit too respectful to the letter of Pratchett; film is a different medium than print, the film equivalent of comic footnotes does not work all that well. I enjoyed it because the acting was great, the direction was skilled; and the art direction was nice. But I think this was film aimed at Pratchett fans; I don't know if anyone else could enjoy it. (If you are completely [or even mostly] unfamiliar with the Discworld series and had no trouble following the film, you are a great counterexample to disprove this.) But I think simplifying the plot would have improved the movie - even at the expense of less literal faithfulness to Pratchett.

I think this would be a problem for anyone not familiar with the series, maybe even a little hard to follow for those not familiar with the particular book.

Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing. I haven't read the book, and the first time I tried to watch, I came in at the start of the second half. I was completely lost, even though I recognized Death and some of the Unseen University characters, so I can see your point. I finally went found a torrent so I could watch the thing in it's entirety, which helped a lot. This was the first time I'd run across Susan. Yowsa!

The thing is, the bit with the gnome does help explain just what the hell Teatime is trying to do, so it didn't bother me so much, other than that I had to look up "verruca" on Wikipedia to see what the gnome actually did. But I would've had to do that if I was reading the book, too. I was thinking that the bit where Death is trying to figure out what sort of being Corporal Nobbs is is a better example of something that could've been skipped. It's a running in-joke though the whole series, but here it's probably just confusing to those not in on it, because despite the make up, Nobby still looks pretty human. I not sure it's possible for any make up artist to properly duplicate Nobby from the descriptions of him in the books.

As for it being too faithful to Pratchett, it was developed for British television. The BBC has done a number of radio adaptations of his books in the past, so he's not totally unfamiliar to audiences there.

All that said, I went to Borders and bought a few copies of the DVD to give as gifts to people who have no idea who Pratchett is. Maybe it'll convert 'em.

Did you notice that Pratchett played the toymaker?

Late to the conversation, and I must also have no taste because I quite enjoyed Jack of all Trades AND Cleopatra. Campy! Questionable Acting! What's not to love?

Although I seriously cannot get into any of those bad skiffy films. I think they just go on too long.

The thing is, the bit with the gnome does help explain just what the hell Teatime is trying to do.

Yeah, but they did 3 separate incidents of about five minutes each to get that in. They could have had had random remarks produce the gnome,fairy and thing all in the space of 30 seconds, have them right in the room, and had them figure it out. Don't know know about the god; they actually could have lost that entire subplot (including the romance),but I have to admit that there really was no other way to leave it in than the way they did.

Incidentally, they caught Susan absolutely dead right. I need to look that actress's name, because she may be my new celebrity crush.

t On Edit

Michelle Dockery [link] [link] [link]