Hogfather-What did you think? (Mild spoilers of film)

Discussion in 'THE DEATH BOOKS' started by Angua_rox, Dec 18, 2006.

  1. Angua_rox New Member

    So, we're halfway through now. . . at will be finished after tonight.

    What are peoples impressions?
    I thought it was good. Not perfect, but good.

    I liked Susan, although I thought she came across a little whiny, I didn't envisage her like that. . . but it's a valid viewpoint.

    Death was suprisingly accurate I thought.

    The Rat Death was disappointingly computery looking, but copable with.
  2. Victimov8 New Member

    Pretty impressed so far, only Nobby spoilt the casting, but not too badly...

    We shall see tonight though
  3. Dane New Member

    Im dissapointed. I didn't envisage susan like that at all. I always though of her as more... sharp, her face is too rounded i think. Its weird but she just doesn't seem right. Plus her acting is god awful, along with pretty much all of the UU cast but the worst is probably teatime. He sounds like jhonny depp in charlie and the chocolate factory, not good at all. He looks the part but sounds like a pillock. I think Deaths voice should be deeper aswell.

    However Albert is very good and i thought that the wizard (the one that picks the locks, can't remember his name) was brilliant, I think he may make a decent rincewind.

    It was watchable, but it certainly doesn't live upto the book in my view.
  4. spiky Bar Wench

    I don't suppose the poll can be changed to add an option for those that can't see it but want to see how others voted? Please.
  5. Maljonic Administrator

    I added an option to the poll, I wanted to see the results too. :)
  6. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    I haven't got SKY but a packet of bikkits and a new toy yak encouraged a friend of mine to record the show on video for me. Great performances all round and considering the limited budget, an excellent job by the production team. There were, as always in many adaptions from books, a few slight changes and omissions, but I don't think thay made much difference to the story.
    I noted a comment by Dane on the voice of actor Marc Warren being a bit Johnny Deppish. I remember an actor called Peter Laurie who appeared in lots of horror films with Boris Karloff (check your history books, kiddies) who actually spoke like that most of the time, and he was a very popular actor.

    The MOB team did a good job and I hope Terry may consider letting them have a go at adapting more of his works.

    Final thought...."Never judge a movie by its book" :)
  7. RebelwithoutaPause New Member

    In an interview I read with the acotr who played Teatime he stated that he had just watched Johnny Depp in Charlie and the cholate factory before his audition and used it along with a bit of Peter Laurie as his influence. :)

    So well spotted guys:)


    Personally I like him even though the voice wasnt as Id imagined it.

    And As for Susan Im the opposite to Dane I thought her face was more pointed than rounded than what I imagined................... I actually put this down to me liking girls to have a bit of meat on them so I Imagine that way in books I guess...regardless of how good the authors description may be.
  8. Tephlon Active Member

    [quote:d2115745f7="RebelwithoutaPause"]In an interview I read with the acotr who played Teatime he stated that he had just watched Johnny Depp in Charlie and the cholate factory before his audition and used it along with a bit of Peter Laurie as his influence. :)

    So well spotted guys:)


    Personally I like him even though the voice wasnt as Id imagined it.

    And As for Susan Im the opposite to Dane I thought her face was more pointed than rounded than what I imagined................... I actually put this down to me liking girls to have a bit of meat on them so I Imagine that way in books I guess...regardless of how good the authors description may be.[/quote:d2115745f7]

    I'm going to be going into asshole mode here for a second.

    Rebel, you seem to want to be a part of this community. Your posts are usually pretty well written. (I'll forgive the "acotr" typo, I make spelling mistakes too, although I usually catch them before I post. There is a preview button for a reason.) You're not afraid of giving your opinion.
    You seem to try and fit in.

    Shame then that your keyboard doesn't seem to have an apostrophe key, nor a comma. It does have one for periods, apparently.

    What I'm trying to say is: Punctuation is your friend. See also HERE and HERE

    Just speaking for myself here, but I'll start reading your posts better if I don't have to mentally insert commas.
  9. Angua_rox New Member

    Thanks Mal :) , I thought I put that option in, but. . uh. . didn't.
    :(

    Yeah, I really liked it. The end felt a little strange, kind of like it was drawing to a close. . and then it kept drawing. . . and drawing. . I do recall the book being like that too though, so I wouldn't go so far as to call it a fault, just something I noticed.
  10. Electric_Man Templar

    I finally managed to get round to watching it and, to be honest, it was slightly better than expected. I liked the change they did with the Hogfather initially delivering, then just disappearing. The wizards weren't done very well, they just didn't seem like the same group as those in the books at all.

    Teatime was good, I think the voice suited him as someone who hadn't quite grown up and learnt the difference between right and wrong, especially compared to the rumbling Banjo, who did (sort of). The only disappointment from Teatime was that he didn't correct people's pronunciations of his name enough.

    Death and Albert were done particularly well, as were Banjo, Mr Brown and Sideney. Susan was generally good, but at points seemed a little stilted, such as when facing the auditors.

    My only concern about it is that those who don't read the books may have got lost at points. The whole of UU and the Oh God of Hangovers were just dumped upon us with very little introduction, ok, I know that's meant to happen with the Oh God - but at least he gets a chance to say his own name in the book (Susan does so here). The cut to the chase also seemed to be a bit rushed as if you were just meant to know that the auditors were in the dogs.

    But overall, I enjoyed it. I'd probably give it a 7/10, though considering I never rate other TV shows, that's pretty meaningless :razz:
  11. frankie New Member

    [size=12:83862b8cf8][/size:83862b8cf8] I am so envious of all those who have seen it. We don't have Sky anymore - athough I seriously thought about getting it just so we could watch Hogfather.

    Really interested in the comments about Marc Warren who played Teatime - I think he is a good actor and I was pleased that he was in it. (He is apparently amazing as Dracula which is on over Christmas) I remember watching Peter Lorre back in the day - if you dont know him watch The Maltese Falcon - a brilliant story and he is superb in it.

    I wasn't impressed by the pictures of Susan - one of my favourite characters because I thought she didn't look 'icy' enough but its hard to tell much from a picture.

    Anyway I am eagerly anticpating seeing the DVD.
  12. drunkymonkey New Member

    My fear is from watching the trailers--my friend taped it so I'm going to watch it at his after Christmas--is that it sort of humourfies Pratchett's works, so much so that the morale messages and serious nature of the books is massively over-taken by the humour.

    The humour in the Discworld books is top-notch, and bloody brilliant, but I can't help thinking that TV land would focus more on this than the parts of the books you really remember.

    Is this true?
  13. TheJackal Member

    Having eagerly awaited the showing Hogfather for months, I was rather disappointed. Sure it was great to see it on TV & all that, but some things seemed wrong or badly done.

    For example, I thought it was badly edited at times. Once or twice, the director cut to a scene that lasted only for about 2 seconds, and then switched back to something else. I wonder if viewers not familiar to Discworld or the book would have fully understood all that was going on?
  14. John New Member

    Yes sure people, there may be nits to be picked with the Sky 1 version of [b:8d1aeea02f]The Hogfather[/b:8d1aeea02f]. I have my own ideas what I think the characters should sound and look like.
    I did enjoy the production, I believe because I knew the plot. It may have more difficult for first timers.
    However my wife started reading the book, "The Hogfather," the same evening as the second part finished. Now that to me is a real bonus.
    I'll give it eight out of ten. ;)
    Well done Sky.... Come on British film makers before Hollywood jump on the Terry Pratchett band waggon.
  15. Mordros New Member

    My first post and I'm probably not going to gain any respect from most members here.

    I am opposed to any Discworld books being televised, partly because everyone views the books differently and no one seems to be able to do them any justice. As predicted, I thought it was terrible. Marc Warren's voice grated against my ear drums so much that I ended up with a headache, he seemed to try too hard to act like Johnny Depp. The Wizards were lifeless, where was the bickering? Ridcully wasn't nearly as bloody minded as he should have been. Nobby, where to start.......the casting of him was so dire that I'm not going to comment. I don't think Susan looked to bad for the part but that her acting in it was worth wooden, not nearly strong minded enough. Although David Jason is a great actor, I didn't get the "angry old man" background, he seems far too jolly and "rounded". I understand that there were budget problems, but I still feel that aspects that don't reall concern 'how much money could be spent' let it down.

    The film, in my mind, drained the book of all its humour and personality, leaving only the skeleton story to be played out by actors that don't really understand their parts. Half way through I was torn between deleting the recording or braving some more later.

    Pratchett relies on speech and descriptive writing, something that is hard to transcribe into a visual broadcast. I personally feel that anyone who hasn't read any Pratchett but has seen this will not be that inclined to investigate further.

    I think my problem is that I want any Practhett adaptation to be almost as good as the book, which is very hard to achieve. Everyone is entitled to their enterpretation of the books, but this didn't really fit with mine. Ahwell, hopefully I shall enjoy the next attempt more.

    Nigel Planer would make a good Rincewind. :p
  16. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    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.
  17. jaccairn New Member

    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.
  18. Pixel New Member

    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.
  19. missy New Member

    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.
  20. Delphine New Member

    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.
  21. drunkymonkey New Member

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

    Go figure.
  22. Donald New Member

    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.
  23. jaccairn New Member

  24. Mithras-Kosmokrator New Member

    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]
  25. mr_scrub New Member

    I have the calender but I haven't seen the movie cuz I live in Canada.
  26. dididave New Member

    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.
  27. Katcal I Aten't French !

    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.
  28. Stercus Stercus New Member

    Marc Warren claims he had just watched the new Charlie & The Chocolate Factory film and the Teatime character got based on Willy Wonker.
  29. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Like that's an excuse !
  30. Electric_Man Templar

    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.

  31. Roman_K New Member

    Thanks, Ben.

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