Wyrd Sisters

Witches by their nature are not prone to social organization and certainly do not have their leaders. Granny Weatherwax was most respected among the leaders they did not have. But even she discovered that interfering in royal politics hides much more fuss than some drama writers claimed.

Terry Pratchett is one of my favorites, and certainly the funniest writer whom I have had the good fortune to read. His gigantic series of novels about Discworld is an extremely funny satire of the entire humanity and everything that makes human civilization. This animated mini-series quite faithfully follows one of the first and best novels of Discworld series. The animation is nothing special, and just over two hours can not conjure up the magic of reading Pratchett, especially because his genius metaphors are impossible to show on screen, but you won't regret if you take the time to see this.

7/10

I wanted so much to like this movie but I can't say that I did.

Terry Pratchett's book is wonderful and the film follows the plot pretty much exactly and for that it gets four stars. The characters are drawn reasonably and are not jarringly different from how I would imagine them.

That's what's good about it but everything else was disappointing.

First of all; a great deal of TP's humor lies in imaginative similes that do not translate visually at all. "Lighting stabbed at the mountains like an inefficient assassin" how do you visualize that in a cartoon? It just becomes lightning. In the books the weather is cast as if it were a character but it has no lines so the film ignores that running gag and the Shakespearean parody aspect of that completely.

Perhaps more important than that, though, is the cartoon style. My problems with that are difficult to describe but try to imagine the difference between Scooby Doo and The Simpsons. The Simpsons doesn't try nearly so hard to be drawn in any detail however the faces, stances, and expressions are carefully drawn to help convey the emotions of the characters, with excellent comic timing for adults. That's what is missing. This film has no comic timing whatsoever. None. Expressions of surprise, for what they are worth, appear on characters faces a full second after the surprise has passed and dissipated. Other expressions likewise don't convey any useful information or emotional content. Like a Scooby Doo cartoon.

Voice acting likewise appears uncoordinated. Although the voices individually aren't bad (except for the actors - especially Tomjohn and Vitollier who sound embarrassed to be on stage) - in concert they do not sound at all natural. Real conversations overlap. This sounds like everyone is reading a line and then pointing to the next person instead of acting out an entire conversation. Example in point when Magrat and Granny are arguing and Nanny is "coo cooing" the baby... The baby talk is a separate line, spoken in isolation, while the arguers wait for it to be spoken. That's not how people argue. That's just bad acting. Very, very, bad acting.

The opening dialog of the book, "When shall we three meet again", "Well I can do next Tuesday" is a good joke when handled well which the film spoils by putting another scene in between the lines.

I'm sorry, but this just is not good.

I'm a longtime fan of Pratchett and his worlds, and that's why I write to steer people away from this abomination. I give it a vote of 1 only because I can't post negative numbers.

"Wyrd Sisters," the book is a complex interweaving of the plot of "Macbeth", and the lives of the people of Lancre, but none of this subtlety comes through in the adaptation: it's just a -pardon me- two dimensional portrayal of the witches, and everyone else, as stock figures that you can't possibly come to care about.

The animation is quite bad, on the level of a children's Saturday morning cartoon show.

The voices don't fit the characters at all. Granny Weatherwas never screeches - she has a hard flat voice that doesn't come through here at all.

The editing is non-existent. The producer and screenwriter simply took the book and stuffed it onto film, so it appears disjointed and random.

As a result, a finely nuanced piece of literature comes through flat, lifeless and annoying. If you're already a Pratchett fan, stay far away from this ghastly thing, and if you're new to Discworld, don't judge Pratchett's fiction by this movie. Go rent "Hogfather" or "The Colour of Magic" for a real introduction.

While the cartoon follows the book's story, I can't help but to feel something's wrong. You see, as one review also pointed out, Pratchett's genius is in creative and very funny descriptions of what people do, think and say and you can't really portray that by showing it, you could narrate it, but what's the purpose then. When you remove those things, well, you get this. It's not bad, but it lacks the soul which makes it perfect. Even though Pratchett himself said he liked this, I cannot really recommend it, books far more wonderful experience by miles. Watch only if you are really curious how does it all look like, but don't expect nothing more than it being passable and OK... Barely...

I loved this animation! After reading the book first, I totally agreed with how the characters were represented.

The three witches are by far the best characters, Magrat and Nanny Ogg are so funny. The story is good too. Taking elements from stories that have included witches in the past. In particular Macbeth and sleeping Beauty.

I talked to Terry Pratchett online last year when he was doing a guest chat on yahoo. I asked him if he was happy with the two animated versions of his books Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music and he said he was extremely pleased with them. So there you have it.

Some people may be put off because it's animation, thinking "It's for kids" Although there is nothing nasty in it to make it unsuitable for kids, I think it appeals to an older audience and that kids might not understand all the subtle and clever jokes. The books themselves are definitely aimed at adults.

In conclusion just go and watch this now if you are a discworld fan.