Hogfather
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Movie Reviews of Hogfather
Movie Review: Words from the wise
Summary: 5 Stars
Terry Pratchett fans long waited for the transformation of Discworld tales into visuals. Computer games, animations and stage productions were all right in their place, but film adaptations are the mark of success. Pratchett resisted adaptations because most producers "didn't get it". Vadim Jean "got it" and has made the story of "Hogfather" into a fine film presentation. As a TV production, there are limitations and omissions, but these do not detract from the success of Jean's efforts to bring Pratchett's story of intrigue, power and imagination to the small screen.
But what of the newcomer to Pratchett and his Discworld? Will they gain the same satisfaction from the visual presentation of one of the more compelling [and best-selling] authors of the past generation? The DVD opens with a Bang. Not a very Big one, but enough to discharge a wondrous sight - a disc sitting atop four elephants who stand on the carapace ["shell"] of a giant tortoise. The vision certainly imparts the feeling that something unusual will follow. Which it does: a young governess is reading "Jack And The Beanstalk" to a pair of youngsters on Hogswatch Eve. Tucking them in, Susan notes: "If you don't believe in the Hogfather, there won't be any presents." It is the film's key statement.
For the Hogfather has gone missing. This may be because the Auditors of the Universe, who resent life and loathe humans because they're unpredictable, have commissioned Guild of Assassins to have the Hogfather "brought to an end". The Guild's Head assigns the job to a young Assassin, Mister Teatime ["Tee-ah tim-eh, most people get it wrong, Sir."] who has already devised a plan to accomplish it. Teatime gathers a team to put his plan into effect. This scheme starts by kidnapping the Tooth Fairy. Wot?
Meanwhile, across town, the wizards of the Unseen University are experiencing some bizarre events. Strange new beings enter their lives - not entirely strange, however, since they all seem to represent tales of their childhood. Among the wizards is one who has constructed HEX, a "thinking machine". You can tell what it is from the label "Anthill Inside" pasted on one side. Archchancellor Ridcully is suspicious of such devices, but thinks he can make HEX do his bidding by mere shouting.
Throughout these events, an Anthropomorphic Personification, known as Death, feels an imbalance in the universe. Discovering the Hogfather has failed to go out on his rounds delivering gifts, Death dons a red suit, a false beard and, with his assistant Albert, undertakes the role. Death is interested in humans, finding their habits and prejudices fascinating, and he wants to know more about them. The rituals of Hogswatch [Christmas] are but one aspect. Those rituals extend from deep time and are thereby fundamental. Resolution of the Hogfather's disappearance and the Teatime Gang's invasion of the Tooth Fairy's castle are gently woven into the film's concluding scene. There are many threads and the novice Discworld viewer will note there are many levels to the story. That's what turns the first Discworld encounter into a habit.
There are "big names" in this film - listed lead David Jason does a fine job as Albert, while Ian Richardson's voice of Death is peerless. The surprise here is Michelle Dockery, who picks up this film early and keeps it essentially hers throughout. She is relatively unknown, but won't be after this. As a robed "skellington", Death is hardly visually appealing, but Richardson's inflections on Pratchett's text keep us smiling. Unlike many "fantasy" or SciFi films, "Hogfather" relies on little in the way of "special effects beyond Death's character. Some snow stops falling and a few sparkling things are used, but the story is too straightforward to need extra dazzlement. As with Pratchett's stories it's the characters and what they tell us that counts. Watch this and see. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Movie Review: one of my all-time favorite dvds
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely love anything and everything pertaining to discworld; I have 2 characters on the Discworld online game, one of which is a newbie helper. I've listened to every single one of the discworld books at least twice, and preordered the Colour of Magic DVD from Amazon.uk the very second I possibly could. With all that being said, I simply had to get my hands on this movie as soon as I heard it existed. Fortunately, I have a region free DVD player, so I ended up purchasing the region 2 2 disc edition of Hogfather. I can't say enough about how much I love this movie. It is very faithful to the book; in a lot of cases, dialogue is word for word out of the book, something which, at least in my humble opinion, is all to rare in book to movie adaptations. Another treat for me was that Nigel Planer, the narrator of the first 23 Discworld audio books, played the part of Sidney the wizard in the movie. As if that wasn't awesome enough, David Jason, who is currently one of my two favorite actors along side Hugh Laurie, played the part of Albert brilliantly. I thought that Ian Richardson did a fantastic job as the voice of death; he sounded just like I would imagine Death sounding from the books. Evrything I've already mentioned would be more than enough to earn this movie 5 stars as far as I'm concerned, but the real icing on the cake, for me at least, was when I discovered that the region 2 version of the Hogfather DVD which I had purchased included audio description for visually impaired viewers. As a blind individual, this fact in and of itself immediatley catipolted the Hogfather DVD into my top 10 favorites. It was great to know everything that was going on,
while still watching the movie by myself. Further more, I was able to watch this movie with a blind friend, and even though he knew nothing about discworld, he was still able to follow what was going on and ended up enjoying it almost as much as I did. I'm planning to share this movie with my parents over the Christmas/Hogswatch holiday and hope that they'll enjoy it too. If I were forced to come up with something negative to say about this DVD, the only thing I could possibly consider a flaw, and I'll be the first to admit that it's hardly even worth mentioning, is that I think that Tony Robinson should have played the part of Knobby Knobs; just based on the fact that he played the
part of Baldrick in Black Adder. I could be completely off base on wanting that change, though, so please feel free to take my opinion regarding that issue with a pound or two of salt.
In all seriousness, however, I would most definitely rate this movie adaptation of Hogfather 10 stars. I don't know if audio description is available on the US edition of Hogfather, but I would certainly hope so. In my humble opinion, audio description should be as readily available as closed captioning, but that's not at all relevant to this review. Incidentally, I just got the Region 2 DVD for The Colour of Magic, which is even better than Hogfather,and it also includes audio description.
Bottom line: If you even remotely enjoy good British humor, fantasy, discworld or if you're just in the market for a different kind of Christmas movie, this DVD is an absolute must buy.
In closing, I can't help adding that if you enjoyed this movie and end up becoming a discworld fan, if you're already a discworld fan or even if you just enjoy online gaming, you should come and visit the discworld online game. The address is discworld.atuin.net port 4242. My characters, Eponine and Ramie would be more than happy to talk with or help out any newcomers to the game.
Movie Review: "I Have A Report Here That Says You Nailed Sir George's Dog To The Ceiling."
Summary: 5 Stars
If Santa was a Dungeons and Dragons addict, this is what Christmas would be like. "Hogfather" is a clever satire that takes place on the parallel planet of Discworld. In Discworld Santa's counterpart is the Hogfather, the porcine gift giver of Hogswatch employing a sleigh pulled by flying boars. To set up the conflict for the film "The Auditors" have employed the ultra-creepy Mr. Teatime from the Guild of Assassins to eliminate the Hogfather. The following story involves a truly bizarre cast of characters such as the Tooth Fairy, who proves crucial to the plot, and the Hair Loss Fairy, which will amuse more adults than children. Ultimately Death becomes involved as a fill-in Hogfather, becomes emotionally involved in the Hogswatch concept and has some great lines ("I don't normally care if they've been naughty or nice.") Death is discouraged only by the the waning of belief in the Hogfather, but sets to visit the whole world in one night via a "special congruent reality" and in the process undergoes several interesting trials, ultimately becoming a very endearing character.
Along the way there are many great scenes that adults will relish even more than kids, such as the gig as a department store Hogfather ("And what do you want for Hogswatch, small human?") and the backstory that the job as Hogfather started as an animal sacrifice to make the sun come up, but currently involves giving out presents as a result of industrial retraining. The story makes reference to many human myths (Discworld exists in space atop four giant elephants standing on a giant turtle) and has strange magical and mystical elements that are quite surreal for a movie nominally aimed at children: children's teeth become amazingly powerful and there's a great scene with a wizard in detox (I especially liked the legend "Born to Rune" on the back of the wizard's cape).
After discovering that the Tooth Fairy is actually a franchise operation and dealing with a subplot about a creature that removes socks from the laundry, "an eater of socks", who looks like a possessed pangolin, we progress to an ever stranger battle for Discworld's future with swordplay and a scissor monster, ultimately dispensing just rewards to Mr. Teatime and righting the world for all. Throughout the film the dialogue is great ("Hi inner child; I'm the inner babysitter.") and enjoyable by kids and adults alike, even though kids will not understand all of the nuances. The conclusion is quite complex and odd, involves a boar and dog chase (the boar is the primeval Hogfather), the Tooth Fairy turns out to be a shapeshifting boogieman, and the Snowman of Death closes the movie out with the quote "Now there is one final question: have you been naughty or nice?" Pretty trippy stuff for a kid's Christmas movie: I loved it.
The film features several extras including an interesting but odd interview with author Terry Pratchett who has written over thirty books in the Discworld series. The film has no nudity, I didn't notice any offensive language, but there are several murders (which are largely cartoonish) which makes this better for slightly older children. The other thing that might dissuade parents from showing it to younger kids is the fact that it's three hours long. It actually has an intermission, so viewings on two consecutive nights might work very well. This is a great and very different Christmastime movie, and I recommend it.
Movie Review: Cower brief mortals . . . er, excuse me, Ho Ho Ho.
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is based on a novel of the same title by Terry Pratchett as part of his ongoing Discworld series. I've read the novel, along with a fair number of other Discworld books, so I might have some trouble addressing those who haven't.
The movie concerns Santa---excuse me---the Hogfather and the mid-winter celebration he is a symbol of. More specifically, it's about a strange group out to kill San---the Hogfather and an even stranger group determined to keep him alive. You see, if the Hogfather dies, the morning of Chris---Hogswatch, the sun will not rise.
Out to kill the Hogfather is a mysterious (literally) shadowy group known only as the Auditors, their hired assassin Jonathan Teatime (pronounced "Teh-ah-tih-meh" . . . sometimes) as well as a band of misfits in Teatime's pay, 3 thieves, one locksmith and a student wizard.
Out to save the Hogfather's life and the world as we humans know it is Death (a.k.a. the Grim Reaper), his assistant/housekeeper Albert and his (mostly) human grand-daughter Susan (it's a long story).
The main villain, Teatime, is more unsettling than actually frightening. His warped logic is effective in this equally bizarre situation. He is not so much bloodthirsty as utterly indifferent to human life, instantly ready to dispatch anyone no longer of use to him, including his followers. I won't go into detail concerning his plan, but will only describe it as both circuitous and ingenious.
Death, in order to save the Hogfather, temporarily takes over his job. His utter unfitness for the role and his growing enthusiasm for it are both comical and endearing. As his housekeeper and temporary elf advises, "Ho ho ho will suffice. You don't need to add, COWER BRIEF MORTALS."
The real hero, however, is Susan, a no-nonsense governess of the children of a middling-wealthy family. She is equally prepared for bed-time stories and basement monsters (which she thoroughly thrashes with a poker before kicking them out of the house.) Her calm, methodical determination to protect the Hogfather, and humanity into the bargain, is a perfect contrast to Teatime's lethally bent logic.
Overall, this is a wonderfully funny fantasy film about Christmas, with a fair bit of philosophical fiber smuggled in through the side door. Past fans of Pratchett's books, rest easy; it's a scrupulously faithful adaptation of the novel. Future fans, this is a great introduction to Pratchett's world; be sure to go on to read the books as well, though.
Movie Review: The utmost in English buffoonery
Summary: 5 Stars
This TV miniseries came out on the Sci-Fi channel in 2007 and is based on a book of the same name. The book itself is part of a series of books about a fictional world called Discworld which is an amalgamation of Victorian England, a netherworld of mythological beings, an imaginary world brought to life in children's drawings, and a world of wizards that connects all of them. This world happens to have their equivalent of Christmas, which they call Hogswatch, and instead of Santa Claus, they have the Hogfather. Certain spirits want the Hogfather dead, and hire a cunning assassin named Teatime to "inhume" him, where inhume is the opposite of exhume, and hence means to put into the grave.
There are 3 main plot lines that all converge at the very end. The first plot line follows Teatime from his acceptance of the "hit" on the Hogfather to his final demise. The second plot line follows Susan, the blonde lady on the DVD cover. She tries to stop Teatime. And the final plot line follows Death and his assistant Albert. Death is represented by a grim reaper, and happens to be the adopted grandfather of Susan.
The movie relies on hilarious dialogue and unbelievable logic to carry forward a story that is short on action. The special effects are limited, but quite effective. The musical score is plain, but quite appropriate for a movie built on wit, irony, sarcasm, and unexpected plot turns. The mood of the movie ranges from macabre to ludicrious to melancholy. Yet like all good British movies, there are scenes that provide important insights into the human psyche. Overall, a great movie and worth the time to watch it. My only complaint is the lack of subtitles, which is absolutely essential for any American watching a movie full of British accents.