Les contes du disque-monde

As a dedicated follower of the Discworld, I awaited The Hogfather with trepidation. It's not easy pleasing those of us who have already made the movies 100s of time over in our minds (take the hitchhikers Guide for instance, I joined the phenomenon with the TV version, Marvin is clumpy, Peter Jones IS the Guide, Zaphod's second head wobbles and Ford was surely Caucasian... I'm sure the radio initiates would disagree). Hell, let's not nitpick, the casting is marvellous (if only Steptoe had been there for Death's Butler... Mr Jason could have worn a pointy hat).

I wanted to love this though and was not disappointed. My "personal Albert" is thinner and scrawnier (more like a gentle human Greebo) as is my "personal Constable Visit" but I recognised every location. The sets still require some work from the watcher but the detail is fabulous, clearly made to demand a slow-mo second viewing scrutiny, and the props (ok, not the teeth) are exquisite.

I can imagine that prior knowledge is of great benefit as some scenes defy explanation by the uninitiated; Bloody Stupid Johnson's shower is surely included to stop people like me from complaining that it wasn't but Banjo's affiliation to Teatime is vague are the examples that spring to mind. Oh what a gorgeous name Tee-a-tim-ay is when pronounced thus! Why not 10/10? Adverts... the DVD should be marvellous and well worth a Spinal Tap 11 but to be introduced to Death, immediately followed by an underarm commercial rather killed the atmosphere the makers try so hard to create. I can't believe that Sky didn't make more of it, the way I trust the Beeb (bbc) would have... and that includes a semi-nonfunctional website with low definition wallpaper. So far the smell of self-promotion after part one on Sky's behalf almost overwhelmed the scent of the hogs and curry.

But production crew, hats off! Brilliant, you deserved a better platform for your masterpiece (and perhaps a few dollars more).

Fan of Pterry? You'll love it. First time with Mr Pratchett? You'll be hooked! Fan of Harry Potter? Terry came first! Buy the DVD! At last, a good family Christmas production like we remember from years gone by, guaranteeing a very HAPPY HOGSWATCH!

This is the best Adaption of a book to movie I have seen, It is obvious Mr Pratchett and Mr Paul Kidby were closely involved in the making right down to the costumes and set design.

The first part of the movie will be a little slow and slightly confusing due to the fact there is a lot of stuff to be established, but by the second half things were happily and festively rolling happily downhill causing much laughter and merriment.

The actors have all equally taken to their roles, Everyone will have a soft spot for the main character Death as well as his school mam no nonsense Grand Daughter Susan especially.

One day, Discworld fans hoped for something like this and through out belief, It manifested. Watch it and have a Merry Hogswatch!

Set on Discworld, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather novel is brought to life. Deranged Assassin Mr Teatime (with a bunch of thieves and a failed apprentice wizard) wants to "inhumme" the Hogfather (discworld's equivalent of Santa Claus) by destroying children's belief in him. By kidnapping and holding hostage the tooth fairy in order to use children's teeth to control their belief. The only being that can take his place? Death, a depressant Anthopomorphic personification, too caught up with humanity for his own good. Assisted by his foul servant Albert and his half-human (beacause some talents, like walking through walls or freezing time, are inherited "in the bone" rather than genetically), adoptive granddaughter Susan this is fantastic mash up of magic, monsters and fantasy.

Converting anything of Terry Pratchett's to film was always going to be difficult. Getting it right for everyone, impossible. However I was pleased to give this, made for TV, movie 8 of 10 for a sterling effort. The effects were a little crummy at times, Death's face was just a mask and the monster under the bed was just a bloke. Some liberties were taken with the plot, but overall the story was given the care it deserved and the the acting was solid. I liked Michelle Dochery as the singularly stolid Susan. It's hard to be that beautiful and still get Susan's character right and Marc Warren as Teatime was excellent for the job, possessing just the right amount of menace without overplaying it. Nicholas Tennant as Nobby, too, was brilliantly cast.

There were some scenes, particularly those with Death in them, where a little more care would have been good. The Hogfather's Grotto scene and the little dead girl scenes among them, but it's hard to act in an inflexible mask (Unless you're Darth Vader).

I know that there will be millions who will disagree with me because you just can't do justice to Pratchett's imagination in a movie, but I still think this movie made an excellent stab at it.

A very silly festive fairytale for children of all ages, with a no-nonsense (in the primmest, properest sense of the word), kick-ass heroine, set in a world that looks remarkably like ours, in a thaumaturgical, Victorian Gothic kind of way, considering it's actually a disc balanced on some elephants, which are balanced on a turtle.

'Tis the night before Hogswatch - a solar festival not dissimilar from our Christmas. But where is the Hogfather to deliver the presents? What on earth is Death doing? Just how DO you subdue the monsters in the basement with a poker? Not to mention those in the Tooth Fairy's castle. Who has been naughty and who has been nice? And can Susan save the Hogfather before it's too late? Like all the best 'children's' stories, there are a slew of adult jokes - from Ian Richardson's asides about House of Cards, to the 'Ant hill Inside' ('Intel Inside') visual jokes on the, er, 'computer' - modernity is folded subtly into this wonderfully alternate world of yore.

Good performances from the famous faces, but it is Michelle Dockery as Susan who is the highly pragmatic, utterly bewitching star of the show.

There are some nice unpatronising ruminations on the nature of belief, myth, right and wrong for those who like a moral but not entirely Christian worldview.

So - who's up for a bit of magic and believing?