Customer Reviews

Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Wyrd Sisters [VHS]

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

At long last the Discworld comes to the small screen; in this the first North American release of the Brit TV series. All the humour and brilliant dialogue of the novel translated very well to this visual medium. Character visuals while not always quite as I imagined, still carried off the right impression. Voice casting is superb and included both Christopher Lee (as Death, of course!) and Jane Horrocks. I can't wait until Reaper Man and Soul Music are released to hear Chris Lee in a featured role.

No the animation is not state of the art, but still manages to exceed the basic needs of the story. This isn't about slick animation, but superb dialogue and inventive storytelling. It is about time that we got to see these brilliant stories and imaginatively crafted characters realized on screen.

Buy this video and show your support of the Discworld series. If sales on this are good, we'll likely see more released in the near future.

I have seen many books that were turned into movies and shows, both live action and animated. 90% of the time it is a complete let down. So I was highly skeptical of Wyrd Sisters. I am a devoted fan of the Discworld series and despite living in the United States I have been able to obtain just about everything printed about the Discworld. I got this video and expected the usual terrible adaptation where the animation is cheap and all wrong for what I pictured and the story is changed horribly because the movie producers think we are so stupid we will only get a joke or a plot line if its yelled in our faces.

But I was delighted with these videos. They are probably the best adaptation of a novel I have ever seen. The movie was well animated, I think, probably because it was not made in the USA! But animation aside, the story itself was a brilliant adaptation of the book, and a lot the humor is very subtle and you can miss it if you aren't careful. And I loved the British accents, because I tend to not think of the books that way when I am reading them. This video had me laughing so hard at points my stomach hurt, and I will be watching again and again to catch what I missed from laughing, if I can contain myself that is.

So in summary all I can say is get it if you like the Discworld novels, get this video because you won't be disappointed!

I've been putting off buying the Pratchett cartoons, since I was apprehensive that the images wouldn't match my own personal images of the characters.
I was also worried that the process of transferring print to screen would lose a lot of the subtlety of the original.
I needn't have worried.
Very enjoyable indeed.
Were the characters as I imagined them? Not all, No. Did it matter? Not really.
I found to my delight that the makers of the cartoon had taken the trouble to immerse themselves in the books, and hence were able to throw in the occasional allusion (for the diehard fans) and to edit the narrative without any loss of enjoyment.
Strongly recommended.
Soul Music is even better.

I've loved Terry Pratchett's Discworld from the first words of The Colour of Magic and his delightful description of the luggage. I will admit that the voice they gave Magrat is grating on the nerves and the animation could have been a bit better. Honestly, I think the only three characters they got right on were Granny Weatherwax, Death and Verence (the fool).
But to see the book brought so wonderfully to life, so many little things they retained, and they didn't cheat on the spell! I adore it. This may not be for the 'perfectionists who think they are Number One Pratchett Fans', but for the rest of us poor mortals, it's absolutely endearing.

I got this DVD because, like many, I'm a Terry Pratchett junky. At first glance I had some problems mostly do to the very made-for-tv animation and more important, many of my ideas of what the characters were like was just as idiosyncratic and those of everyone else. I stuck with it, and in short order discovered I liked this series very much - in an endearing sort of way.

Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat are nearly perfect. Especially the latter two, Nanny Ogg displaying her usual 'loosidity' and Magrat as the permanently flower-child witch. Having been roped into responsibility of the murdered king's infant son, the maneuvers, manipulations, and frontal attacks of three ladies who obey the rules only when it is convenient can't help by claim the loyalty of those of use who also believe in doing the right thing even when we have to do the wrong thing in order to accomplish it. A surprising amount of Pratchett's tongue-in-cheek sarcasm makes it through the transition from book to tube as well.

The usurpers to the Lancre throne are the enemy. Not satisfied with the country they proceed to cut down all the trees, burn the houses of non-taxpayers, and drive the witches from the kingdom. When all of this lands in the witches' laps along with the child and the ghost of its father. They pack young Tom-John off with a band of wandering players and are finally driven by a kidnapped cat to make a direct confrontation, which culminates in a war of headology and a final confrontation of Macbethian proportions. And, in the background, a fool makes a man of himself over Margrat.

I found DEATH was the least convincing character. He had all the lines right, but I had expected something more sepulchral - especially from Christopher Lee. After all, if someone goes about speaking in capital letters all the time one expects drum rolls or killer shark themes to play when you actually hear him. Well, he was OK, but not DEATH as I would live him.

Poor animation and an insufficiently dead DEATH aside, all this really is good fun. The DVD does demonstrate that Pratchett's appeal is much wider than I would have previously guessed. I may even start giving copies of the book away as Christmas presents.

The first time I saw this one, I was disappointed. I love the books, and I expected the movie to be just as good. But the second time I watched it, I thought it was hilarious! One can't reasonably expect the jokes in the narrative to be in a movie with no narrator. I think that is what I was hoping for but didn't see, the first time. But once you realize that, the movie is wonderful. The animation is good, the transitions are fabulous, the story is funny. And they did try to add some of the jokes in the narrative into the dialog. All in all, a great buy! PS. For those who say Magrat isn't pretty enough, if you read her description in the books, she's not supposed to be pretty. She's supposed to be a flat-chested, skinny girl with messy, straw-like hair. The only person who thinks she's pretty is the fool. PPS. And the freeze-frame "glitch" in the DVD is normal for DVDs. I've seen it happen in Disney DVDs, too. It's what happens when it switches layers, although I think some DVD players might be better at handling the switch than others.

The initial response of a Discworld fan might be to wince in agony, assuming that this adaptation will ruin their visualization of the characters and scenarios. Don't wince. Though far from perfect, it's a funny and cute adaptation of Pratchett's skewed version of Shakespeare.

The three witches (weird sometimes-drunk Nanny Ogg, grouchily upright Granny Weatherwax, and flutter-brained romantic Magrat) are "abroad" on a stormy night. Elsewhere, the king is murdered, and remains a ghost haunting the castle of Lancre. He was killed by the more-than-mildly-nuts advisor Felmet, and his scheming, bossy wife. They target the king's infant son also -- but a faithful soldier smuggles the boy away, and drops dead at the feet of the witches.

The witches immediately foist the baby off on a travelling band of actors, as Felmet becomes king. He grows increasingly nutty as time goes on ("Is this a dagger I see before me?" "Nay, it's just me handkerchief"), and the witches are persecuted as he blames them for his problems. The lost prince, the ghost of the unfortunate king, Death, a quick-witted Fool, and three wyrd sisters must unravel the truth.

You can probably depend on anything written by/based on something by Terry Pratchett to be hilarious. It's a delight, from the brilliant Fool to the pyromaniac guard; the ghost who misplaces his head; the psychotic Pratchettian Lady "MacBeth" Felmet with red Princess Leia buns; Death trying to convince Felmet that living people can't be ghosts; Death's lecture on being a ghost ("Don't let it upset you!" "I'll try not to..." "Good man!"); Discworld's own version of Wil Shakespeare; Magrat's love troubles; Felmet's "tea and a bun" conversation with one of the soldiers; and just about every detail of Felmet's insanity.

The problem? Well, sadly the animation is not as good as the story. Often it has a "pixelized" look, and often the characters' body proportions and height alter from scene to scene (watch Magrat's hands). Movement is often jerky and oddly done. The fade-out swirly effects were rather distracting. And sometimes the voices are out of sync with the mouths of the characters.

But those voices are delightful, except for the rather scratchy sound of Magrat's, and the fact that in some scenes Granny Weatherwax sounds a little too masculine. Christopher Lee is deadpan brilliance as Death, and it's hard to imagine anyone else managing the right way of speaking. The Fool has the right sound, as does the delightful always-quoting Prince.

Well worth the entertaining viewing, and one that Discworld fans and newbies will all enjoy. If you can get past the sketchy animation, there is little better. On to "Soul Music."

Now don't get me wrong, but maybe because I love Terry Pratchett books and I love the idea of an animated version. I was just so disappointed with this. I was actually worked up about getting this video. The story and the script are good the opening titles are great but it falls away fast after that. You know the feeling you got when you read the lord of the rings then saw the animated film. The disappointment over the poor animation and the story just stopping... Well this video made me feel just as disappointed. The production left something to be desired. The dialog sounded so wooden, spoken as if read directly from a script rather than acted (think of the cheesy Television ads you see some used car sales man read his lines from cue cards.) I can forgive bad animation but bad production is another matter. It was as if the animation and the voice-overs where two separate projects duct taped together. Despite my disappointment about the production I liked the characters and the story, pretty faithful to the book. I would love to see more adaptations but maybe not from the same production company

Good adaptation of Prachett's novel. It's not 100% on the mark since at least 25% of Pterry's humor is in the footnotes, but still enjoyable. The voice talent was good, although Magrat's gurgle made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Christopher Lee IS Death, someone who I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. (Come to think of it, I'd rather not meet Death anywhere, but that's beside the point.) Well worth the money for the three-tape boxed collection.

The animation of this video is certainly can't compare to Disney's Beauty and the Beast, but that's fine. I don't want it too. It's good just the way it is. Servicable, somewhat rough, but fun. The voices of the characters (especially Death) was well chosen and the creation of the characters is believable.

The story of the movie has been adapted from the novel exceedingly well. It loses virtually nothing in the movie translation (like some novels do...)