I'm a big fan of the Discworld, and have been hoping for a film/TV series for many years now. I've not managed to see the animated versions of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters, so when I heard Hogfather was coming to town (ho ho ho) I was excited, but cautiously so.
Having now seen the finished article, I have to say I have some reservations. The casting seemed slightly off to me in places - Michelle Dockery and David Jason were great, as was Tony Robinson, whose brilliant narration of the audio versions somewhat gave me unreasonable expectations of the performances in this. Ian Richardson was a fair choice for Death. But the wizards, with the exception of Ponder, were all wrong. They didn't give the impression of lazy, but powerful men - they all seemed doddering old fools. And where was the librarian? (The lack of final closing scene in the bathroom was disappointing). Chickenwire is meant to be a street tough who regresses as his fears take over, which didn't really come across. Nobby is supposed to be inhumanly ugly. What happened to the Death of Rats and why did Quoth live in Death's house? As for Teatime's accent...
Having listened to the abridged audio versions of several of the books, I think it would have been better if the script had used these as more of a base - too much of the story was lost in transition (Susan's detective side-story dropped, they just waltz off to the Tooth Fairy's castle) and all the humour in Death's deliveries was lost - all the subtlety of Albert's attempts to teach Death the real meaning of Hogswatch was gone. And the growing sense of malice in the Tooth Fairy's castle was rushed too - the nightmares weren't explained fully and so seemed tacked on.
On the plus side, Michelle Dockery is almost exactly how I pictured Susan appearing and behaving. I look forward to seeing her in future productions (Discworld or not).
A fair attempt, and I hope it does well enough to fund further trips to the Discworld. But don't be fooled, it's like most book-to-film fantasy translations (and I include Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter here) - don't expect it to look and sound like it did in your head.
Having now seen the finished article, I have to say I have some reservations. The casting seemed slightly off to me in places - Michelle Dockery and David Jason were great, as was Tony Robinson, whose brilliant narration of the audio versions somewhat gave me unreasonable expectations of the performances in this. Ian Richardson was a fair choice for Death. But the wizards, with the exception of Ponder, were all wrong. They didn't give the impression of lazy, but powerful men - they all seemed doddering old fools. And where was the librarian? (The lack of final closing scene in the bathroom was disappointing). Chickenwire is meant to be a street tough who regresses as his fears take over, which didn't really come across. Nobby is supposed to be inhumanly ugly. What happened to the Death of Rats and why did Quoth live in Death's house? As for Teatime's accent...
Having listened to the abridged audio versions of several of the books, I think it would have been better if the script had used these as more of a base - too much of the story was lost in transition (Susan's detective side-story dropped, they just waltz off to the Tooth Fairy's castle) and all the humour in Death's deliveries was lost - all the subtlety of Albert's attempts to teach Death the real meaning of Hogswatch was gone. And the growing sense of malice in the Tooth Fairy's castle was rushed too - the nightmares weren't explained fully and so seemed tacked on.
On the plus side, Michelle Dockery is almost exactly how I pictured Susan appearing and behaving. I look forward to seeing her in future productions (Discworld or not).
A fair attempt, and I hope it does well enough to fund further trips to the Discworld. But don't be fooled, it's like most book-to-film fantasy translations (and I include Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter here) - don't expect it to look and sound like it did in your head.