Terry Pratchett films

While watching this with my friend, I felt I had to tell you about this. Not many people seem to know that there have actually been films made after the books of Terry Pratchett. That's right. Not just one, but two Terry Pratchett films. As far as I know.

The first is called The Colour Of Magic. Starring Rincewind and Twoflower (those of you that know the T.P. books will recognise the names), taking off in the beautiful Ank'Morpork and going around the whole Discworld.

Second is The Hogfather. Also setting off in Ank'Morkpork, t'is The Night Before Hogwatch (this is similar to our Christmas, as some of you may know) and the granddaughter of Death himself will face some serious trouble.

Have you seen them? And if yes, what were your thoughts on these movies? Myself and my friend thought they were absolutely amazing. Even though, after reading his books, I thought the Terry Pratchett books were not filmable. However, it has been done in such a way no-one could discuss the awesomeness of it.

Your thoughts please

The Hogfather was actually done before The Colour of Magic .... just FYI

I have seen them, and I thought they were good but I wouldn't go so far as to say they were amazing. I think the Hogfather was far better than the Colour of Magic, if only because the book is somewhat better written and has a more coherent plotline. Also, the Colour of Magic is an amalgamation of the Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic so it was condensed and whatnot.

I think the main problem with them is that so much of what makes the Discworld books great is the humour of the narration and the asides from the author to the reader about the world, which just cannot be translated onto the screen. You can't film a style of writing, unfortunately, and while the characters are brilliant in their own right and the scripts of the films are well adapted, for me a lot of what makes Discworld so funny is lost.

I also felt that with the Colour of Magic, David Jason, as excellent an actor as he is, was miscast as Rincewind. He was far better suited to playing Albert - or Alfred? Death's cook-person-who's-actually-a-famous-wizard-whose-name-I-can't-remember anyway - in the Hogfather. Rincewind, in my mind, is taller, skinner and far more weasel-like and completely cowardly than David Jason portrayed him. So that did somewhat mar the adaption for me.

However I thought that visually they were excellent, and that they tried very hard to stay true to the spirit of the books so full points there. I just don't think Discworld can ever truly be done justice to on the screen.

I've never seen either one, but I did see the animated version of Soul Music. It was pretty cool.