Will the Real Teatime Please Stand Up

[MrsWizzard]

So, I couldn't find the Hogfather thread on the first couple of pages, so I figured if it's here it's old enough that a new thread warrants making. Anyway, after seeing the movie nth times, I finally got a hold of and read the Hogfather novel. The only thing that stood out as particularly different between the movie and the book is Teatime's character, and I was wondering which everyone liked best?

I personally adore the book Teatime over the film adaptation. I loved Marc Warren's performance, but film Teatime seemed a bit one-note and just flat out insane compared to the book Teatime. Book Teatime seemed to have so much more personality, not just insane but more childlike, and it honestly makes the character all the more terrifying to me.

Thoughts?

 

[RathDarkblade]

Comparing novels with the films they're based on is very tricky. They'll never be the same, because filmmakers have to condense the books and can't include every single joke and observation. Stephen Briggs points this out in the books of the plays based on the books. (I hope that last bit wasn't too confusing).

Having said that - yes, the film Teatime should have been less one-dimensional.

 

[MrsWizzard]

See, I've got a weird perspective on this one though, because I saw the film before I read the book. I was looking for film Teatime in the novel and ended up finding a character who seems to be more...I want to say "charming," but that seems wrong somehow, unless I've got some latent Stockholm Syndrome I haven't sorted out yet.

I think the part that did it for me in the novel was when they describe him as taking the upsidedown stairs two at a time and laughing. There's just something a bit weird picturing film Teatime doing that, while novel Teatime definitely seems more like a kid on a roller coaster. Film Teatime was a wonderfully portrayed villain, but I think more about the novel version sticks with me.

 

[The Mad Collector]

The book Teatime is a far more realised character, I was frustrated by the film version although I could see that within the limitations of the film which needed a clear 'cartoon baddie' that version worked

 

[Penfold]

I think it is one of the big problems with the DW books. Much of the humour, satire, and philosophies (for want of a better word) takes place on so many different levels and with different meanings that it is virtually impossible to convey on the screen.

 

[raisindot]

I agree. The film version of Teatime was very flat.

But then again, I thought everything in the film version was very flat. The film Susan was shrill and unlikable. The film's Ridcully was awfully--made him look like a castrated Dumbledore. The only character that seemed to have life in him was, ironically, Death. It was lethargically paced, and dull. Even the cartoon versions of the books had more dimensions than this.

 

[DaveC]

I like Hogfather the best of the 3 live action Discworlds. Strangely, I like Teatime, Susan and Death the best. Mostly for their 2 big scenes near the end.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

That is also my favorite, I wonder what the news ones from Rob Brown and the crew at Narativia will be like.

 

[Penfold]

I suspect they will be surprisingly good since Rhianna is part of the script writing team and her and Rob will be watching over it to a large extent. Sir Terry himself also said the series would be canon as far as DW was concerned.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

<Terry himself also said the series would be canon as far as DW was concerned>
Lets hope it's a loaded one I have no doubt they will be good just wondering what they're like.

 

[MrsWizzard]

I haven't seen the Going Postal movie yet. To the people who've watched it, how is it? I do like the Hogfather movie, but I honestly could not sit through The Color of Magic a second time (Sir David's a wonderful actor, but so much had to change about the character for him to play Rincewind ).

 

[Penfold]

I very much enjoyed Going Postal and thought the casting was pretty spot on. There were changes to the book that I didn't like too much but can see their reasons for doing so in order to appeal to the wider audience rather than just the fandom.

 

[SpideyGirl]

I haven't seen the Going Postal movie yet. To the people who've watched it, how is it? I do like the Hogfather movie, but I honestly could not sit through The Color of Magic a second time (Sir David's a wonderful actor, but so much had to change about the character for him to play Rincewind ).

I love David Jason but he didn't work as Rincewind for me, particularly after already having played Albert.

 

[=Tamar]

I very much enjoyed Going Postal and thought the casting was pretty spot on. There were changes to the book that I didn't like too much but can see their reasons for doing so in order to appeal to the wider audience rather than just the fandom.

I think the major change was to be more simplistically dramatic. It would have been hard to make that end scene clear, with all the clerks and people seen from above like a Busby Berkely dance scene, as a demonstration of how the system works.

That's a general problem with filming any book with more than a novella's worth of complexity. TV has to take into account that most of the audience won't have read the book and they are also distracted by everything in the environment, neighbors, phone calls, kids, etc. In a theater some of that is blocked out. Even then, a simple threat to the main character grabs the audience more than an elaborate display of complex interplaying of influences. Right from the start, Hogfather was a more cinematic book than Going Postal.