Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series has been around for a long time, like since 1983. The fact that I have heard of it, but never read any of the 38 novels about a coin shaped world floating on the backs of four elephants supported by a giant turtle, is-frankly baffling. I pride myself on reading the oddest bits of fiction that I stumble upon and I love sci fi and fantasy above all other genres. So how is it that I have not read any of Terry Pratchett’s damned silly books?
Well, for one thing I’m sure that I thought Discworld was along the lines of Ringworld and not along the lines of Time Bandits. So now I will have to read one or two the Discworld novels.
So imagine my surprise when the wife found the Hogfather while channel surfing the other night. One of favorite actors, David Warner, who was a star of Time Bandits as well as Star Trek The Undiscovered Country and lots of other stuff, is the head of the Guild of Assassins. David has a small role, but it nice to see him.
Mr Teatime wants to ruin children’s belief in the Hogsfather, the stability of the Discworld’s entire mythical system is under threat. for if the children stop believing in the Hogfather, the sun will not rise upon Discworld again. To help children belief, Death dons the Hogfather’s Costume and begins giving out gifts to good little boys and girls.
There are a lot of similarities to Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. Though I don’t recall a lot of pork references in the Tim Burton tale. Still, a skeleton dressing up like Santa Clause, which is basically what the Hogfather is, was the crux of Nightmare Before Christmas. But there the similarity pretty much ends. Death was a bit better at the job than Jack Skellington.
This was a fun and funny movie-there were a lot of laugh out loud moments. But it was a bit over three hours long and full of references to a world I had no knowledge of before watching The Hogfather. More than once I wanted the story to be set in our own world and the rules to be ones I could relate to. But it was still great stuff.
I highly recommend watching if you get the chance.
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