The Colour of Magic Movie

[Straw Walker]

I've seen it at last! I ordered COM from Amazon as a little personal treat to help drive away the winter blues. It arrived yesterday and I said to Mrs SW, 'I'll just go and make sure it's OK.' 159minutes later I went back to the kitchen with a big smile on my face.

It is as good as you have all said, nay better! The casting was great, the special effects wonderful and it was so true to the books. Cohen was just as I imagined and David Jason managed to change my 'picture' of Rincewind even though he and Twoflower looked a bit too well fed (It is a bit difficult to ignore the original Josh Kirby images.)

I'm now saving up for Hogfather!

 

[Lady Vetinari]

I've just recieved Sourcery. I didn't think they strayed too far with David Jason - the Josh Kirby illustration made him look old. I thought it was a fantastic production. I haven't got it yet, but I have got Hogfather to keep me company.

 

[mspanners]

Th trouble with the straight to DVD movie is it is to abridged for my taste and the characters bare little resemblance to the ones in the books.

Rincewind is a skinny coward who is in fear of Death in the Books...

Opening sequence of Film We see a Short dumpy Rincewind Trying to commit suicide!

This is just one example.....

There has been a lot of discussion on this forum about the Film some loved it and some found it .......... well disappointing is a polite way of putting it.

Which is a shame because some of it was well done and some characters were fine to me.... Vetinari and cohen for examples.

I originally watched it on TV.

I was given the DVD by the Wife for Christmas and it is still in the wrapper....... If it had been the HogFather it would have been opened on Christmas day.

 

[Tonyblack]

Any adaptation of any book will always only ever be an interpretation of the book. It would be impossible to make the perfect book to movie no matter how much money was spent, how many special effects you used or who you got to play the characters.

That's a fact and if we expect more we will be disappointed.

So what is the best we can hope for? I really thought they did a very good job of keeping the feel of the book. I had reservations about David Jason - but I thought he did a very good job of playing the part.

If you want everything to be the way that imagine it, then the only place you'll see that is in your own head.

 

[Byakuran]

That's why I want to become a film director

Scrawny, tall and thin. Just going on thirty... That's my Rincewind. Not to mention more than capable of RUNNING away from EVERYTHING. Sorry, but David Jason just isn't up to it!!

I also didn't like Tim Curry as Trymon either. I always imagined him to be the same age as Rincewind - isn't he young and ambitious, and drinks hot water? XD

In any case, I didn't get the feel of the book in the films at all. I thought it just went... well, mainstream would probably suit it. Instead of this bizarre and twisted world, it came across as your standard "ooh! ahh!" fantasy film (cue comparison to Golden Compass film interpretation) and just lost any power and humour the books had.

The other thing with David Jason is this: it's not even that he didn't play the role well, but the thing that annoys me me most is the way they changed the character. It seems to me that making him an old man was the easy way out, the "perpetual student" to the letter. And it just makes for cheap laughs, seeing an old man hanging from his boots in a duel to the death or whatever... Personally, I thought it was a parody of itself.

I don't know if anyone else has said this already, since I'm not about to read through eleven pages I just checked the first and the last. But that's my opinion.

I didn't actually know there was a Going Postal film coming out... any news on who will be playing in it?? :

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

I haven't seen any of the Discworld movies and I don't know if I ever will (I saw a little bit of the animation for Wyrd Sisters and didn't like the voices so didn't watch beyond the 1st episode).

I recorded The Hogfather when it first aired, but somehow I just couldn't bring myself to watch it and like many of us I couldn't see David Jason as Rincewind, so I heven't watched CoM either... yet anyway.

My experience of Harry Potter actually started with the film version of the Philosopher's Stone so I don't have that 'problem' with that series - and the casting for that is almost without exception spot on.

I think my affection for Discworld is too ingrained and after I got really annoyed with Peter Jackson and some of the stupid diversions and liberties with the LotR Trilogy (2 & 3 especially!) I decided to follow my sister's example with that and not watch the Pratchett books movie versions. So my inner vision will likely remain unsullied...

 

[Tiffany]

After seeing David Jason as Albert & he really was good in that part, he really didn't grab me as Rincewind. I loved Hogfather.
My idea of Rincewind is the same as most others, tall, skinny & able to run extremely fast, not necessarily young though, as he had been at UU for a very long time.
Having said that I still thought the film of C of M, magic.

 

[Dotsie]

My experience of Harry Potter actually started with the film version of the Philosopher's Stone so I don't have that 'problem' with that series - and the casting for that is almost without exception spot on.

Well the characters are fine I suppose, but they aren't really as described are they? Hermione is hardly played by an ugly duckling, Ron is too short, and Dumbledore is missing his kindly twinkling blue eyes. Dame Maggie Smith is, as always, brilliant (but then she is my favourite actress )

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Emma Watson? Pretty? Hmmm... She's certainly as annnoying as Hermione. And yeah - poor Rupert Grint can't hack the growth spurt but as an '11' year old he was perfect and once in the movie-goers affections it's hard to accept someone more physically correct *shrugs*

I think Michael Gambon's got a lovely twinkle! ROTF *hopes not everyone's seen the definition of 'twinkle' in the Nation thread... whoops!* :twisted:

My top favourites are Mr. and Mrs Weasley - Julie Walters and Mark Williams are such great comic actors

 

[Tiffany]

In his eye, Jan

 

[Tonyblack]

I didn't actually know there was a Going Postal film coming out... any news on who will be playing in it?? :

No news at all yet as far as I know.

 

[WannabeAngua]

I enjoyed COM far more than Hogwatch, didn't like the guy playing teatime at all!!

David Jason will forever be inspector Frost to me, and I agree that he should be younger and thinner and more sad and morose.

And by the way, where the heck have I seen Tim Curry before?? It's totally slipped my mind and I wont be able to sleep before I remember it

 

[Tonyblack]

And by the way, where the heck have I seen Tim Curry before?? It's totally slipped my mind and I wont be able to sleep before I remember it

He's been in loads of things including The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Muppets Treasure Island.

Here's his IMDB entry.

 

[WannabeAngua]

Oh dear gods, he has played in a LOT of bad movies hasn't he
I remember him from The three musketeers of course - thanks Tony, let me know next time you're in Oslo and I'll buy you a beer

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Yes he played the baddie in LEGEND with a young Tom Cruise in 85

plus the MUPPETS

 

[chris.ph]

i enjoyed him as the baddie in legend well ott as normal with tim curry

 

[feanor]

Ayup All...

Even as a Newbie here i have to say i hate BOTH 'Movies' for the way the plots have been butchered for TV. Jason and Astin just don't work as Rincewind and Twoflower, and as he's mentioned in the post above, Tim Curry only gives a cardboard Cutout villain-for TV as Trymon.

The production values seemed good, the sets, costumes and Blue screen, and even MOST CG-I, (Liked A-tuin though, and missed Tethys, so much could have been done with his character onscreen), but it never ever got close to what it does in my head. Even though i understand we ALL have differing pictures in our heads... Jason and Aston just don't get to the characters at all. And Jasons Albert is just dire too...

I think the wizards suffer too much from Josh Kirby and Jake Kidbys stylisations. A bit like some elements of LOTR were merely 'action-versions' of Alan Lee/John Howes painting and drawings... good as they are...

 

[mspanners]

Yep, Hogfather was good (alas a lot of the book was cut but such is life) but I feel it captured the essence of the book........... Colour of Magic was pants on so many levels........ wrong actors for the parts, Two Books crammed into one show with about 50 percent missing, story line altered almost beyond recognition and so on.......

And I am sure Vetinari (And I am assuming the tall thin chap with the small Dog who said "Don't let Me detain you." was Him) was Not in the early books.

Total Pants.

 

[Tonyblack]

I'm not sure you're right about Vetinari not being in the early books. Terry has (I believe) stated that it is in fact Vetinari - albeit an early draft and not named.

He's not actually named until several books into the series, but Terry just hadn't developed him at that stage.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Personally I am glad they were made regardless, I thought Hogfather was the better of the two, but that is not to say I didn't enjoy C.O.M. Afterall it's not as if they were Hollywood films with mega budgets.