It's almost impossible to do Terry Pratchet properly on film, because his unique charm consists of the wry observational humor of his narrative voice... and just how does one translate that to a medium that doesn't have a narrator?
Well, whatever you do, don't do what this production team did. You can feel the scriptwriters' desperation through the screen.
"Oh, my god, someone wants us to turn this into a movie.... what do we do?"
They try cringey song and dance numbers that have nothing to do with the plot. They try thinly veiled clumsy exposition. They try seasoning the thinly veiled clumsy exposition with not-at-all veiled clumsy exposition. They try going "meta", and interrupting the action to break the fourth wall and have one of the characters lecture us about stories. They try turning a prop from the book into a robot character that is basically R2D2 from star wars.
Yes, you heard me right, they put in a robot. In Discworld.
None of it lands.
Because no one loved this movie. It's transparently obvious that everyone from the voice actors to the scriptwriters to the animators just wanted to do their time, collect their paycheck, and get as far away from this trainwreck as fast as they possibly could.
You know a script is bad when even a season professional actor like Hugh Laurie can't breathe life into it.
This gets one star, not only because it's a horrifying zombie nightmare, but because it's a horrifying zombie nightmare created from the corpse of something bright and beautiful and good.
The one positive piece of hope I have for this production is that maybe they will take the price of my ticket, and book some time for the lead animator at a local cat cafe, so he can learn what an actual cat looks like.
Well, whatever you do, don't do what this production team did. You can feel the scriptwriters' desperation through the screen.
"Oh, my god, someone wants us to turn this into a movie.... what do we do?"
They try cringey song and dance numbers that have nothing to do with the plot. They try thinly veiled clumsy exposition. They try seasoning the thinly veiled clumsy exposition with not-at-all veiled clumsy exposition. They try going "meta", and interrupting the action to break the fourth wall and have one of the characters lecture us about stories. They try turning a prop from the book into a robot character that is basically R2D2 from star wars.
Yes, you heard me right, they put in a robot. In Discworld.
None of it lands.
Because no one loved this movie. It's transparently obvious that everyone from the voice actors to the scriptwriters to the animators just wanted to do their time, collect their paycheck, and get as far away from this trainwreck as fast as they possibly could.
You know a script is bad when even a season professional actor like Hugh Laurie can't breathe life into it.
This gets one star, not only because it's a horrifying zombie nightmare, but because it's a horrifying zombie nightmare created from the corpse of something bright and beautiful and good.
The one positive piece of hope I have for this production is that maybe they will take the price of my ticket, and book some time for the lead animator at a local cat cafe, so he can learn what an actual cat looks like.