Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic
Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic
As Rincewind involuntarily becomes a guide to the naive tourist Twoflower, they find themselves forced to flee the city of Ankh-Morpork to escape a terrible fire, and begin on a journey across the Disc. Unknown to them, their journey and fate is being decided by the Gods playing a board game the whole time.
匚卂尺ㄥ reviewedFebruary 3, 2025
I am a HUGE Pratchett fan in the conventional sense. I adore the discworld novels and have read the lot at least 4 times per book.
This dvd/film version of the color of magic (which is in fact an emulsion of the first TWO books) has been met with mixed reviews.
The die hards are crying about it not meeting their expectations compared to the novels. Surprise surprise; When you read a novel, the characters, their looks, their mannerisms and their traits are born of the reader's imagination. NO movie in the universe can meet everyone's ideals so whining about the film is puerile and fractious.
"Two flower is supposed to be like an Oriental character". WTF??? He's 'supposed to be' a tourist from a fictional continent on a fictional world in a fictional universe. Oriental is only opinion and interpretation.
There are sobs about the casting. David Jason isn't a good Rincewind. My eye he isn't! He plays the part extremely well. David Jason is a big fan of the novels and understands the role he undertook. His portrayal is his view on the wizard; HIS view. Personal interpretation cannot be wrong as no two ideals are alike.
Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth about this version, the actors do a fine job, and if you take it for what it is rather than watching it to pick holes, it is a comically brilliant piece of movie making that has achieved great things without the backing of a Hollywood budget. It looks like it had hundreds of thousands thrown into it, and the casting is not small potatoes. Sean Astin gives a great performance as the naive but ambitiously curious Twoflower.Tim Curry pulls off Trimon like a boss, and Jeremy Irons as the patrician was inspired.
You also get the second disc with the interviews which are fascinating, BUT; The diamond in the rough here is the tourists guide to Ankh-Morpork and the discworld. A series of small episodes delivered by the Librarian (prior to him becoming an Orang-Utan) to introduce a tourist to the various aspects of this strange and wondrous environment. It is HILARIOUS, but watch the film first to help understand it.
In a nut-shell, this is a very good dvd that will entertain and amuse even those who have never picked up a discworld book in their lives (but again, it does help a bit if you have). Imagine Lord of the Rings meets Monty Python and throw in a pinch of Game of thrones, add a dash of fantasy-fiction and top it off with Harry Potter doing a 3 hour stand up comedy routine and you've just about nailed it.
WELL WORTH THE MONEY!
(Do not bother using Amazon's next day delivery though. You will spend the cash and they will let you down. They took my delivery payment, failed to deliver, apologized and refunded the cash then delivered it a day late. Basically you pay them to bet that it will get there on time. Not worth s**t in my opinion. Still.... when it arrives you will love this cinematic fantasy/comedy feast).