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The Colour Of Magic [2008]
![The Colour Of Magic [2008]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516MquU7T7L._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £11.98 (subject to change)
Great for Pratchett fans - an excellent adaptation
Review date: 2008-11-10 Rating: 10 out of 10
I LOVE the Disk World series and was very much looking forward to this film. It's a great adaptation of the first two books AND there's an interview with Terry at the beginning, which is almost worth the price of the dvd on its own. The man is seriously funny.
I know that Terry endorsed the choice of David Jason as Rincewind, but I'm sorry, he's just not Rincewind. He gave it his best shot, and David is a national treasure and a great actor - but he just wasn't the best man for the job in this case.
Sean Astin did his best as Twoflower, the Tourist.
The Luggage was excellent, but didn't feature as much as I would have liked.
It was great to see Tim Curry brought out of seclusion to play Trymon, the baddie and all the other wizards were suitably kooky as well.
The Librarian/Orangutan was a leetle bit artificial ... it was clearly a man in a mon (oops!) ape suit, which was rather a shame, but you can't have everything, I guess, and maybe there wasn't an orangutan available for filming.
The scenery was great, the humour was there in abundance and I highly recommend this to all Pratchett fans.
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Reviews
An okay adaptation of a flawed book
Review date: 2008-11-08 Rating: 8 out of 10
This second live action adaptation of the Discworld brings the first and second books of the series, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, to life in a good if not great adaptation. While it is true that The Colour of Magic isn't as good as the previous adaptation of a Discworld book but then Hogfather was a far better book than either The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic so that is only too be expected.
In The Colour of Magic, Rincewind the Disc's worst wizard is forced into being the guide for the Disc's first tourist Twoflower as the naive traveller arrives in the great city of Ankh-Morpork. Complicating matters however are ambitious wizards, legendary heroes, a box with many legs and a living spellbook with its own plans.
In a similar manner to Hogfather, this adaptation of The Colour of Magic has an all-star cast with David Jason playing Rincewind and Twoflower being played by Sean Astin. In addition to this Tim Curry and Jeremy Irons both make an appearance as does the voice of Christopher Lee as Death (a role he also voiced in the animated adaptations of both Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music). This casting is mixed with Tim Curry and Jeremy Irons both great but I am still somewhat unconvinced by David Jason who although better than I thought he was going to be still doesn't seem right for the part.
The special effects used in this adaptation very considerably. The effects range from the spectacular such as those for the dragons and those at the finale through the somewhat mediocre Luggage to the truly disappointing such as when anyone is on a horse. As well as this I do feel that they could have done the Librarian better than they did. The writing and acting is also somewhat hit and miss but then so was the dialogue in the original books. There is also quite a bit left out of the adaptation, such as everything with the gods, and although this is somewhat disappointing it is nonetheless understandable as they were trying to cut two books down into three hours of screen time.
Overall this adaptation is good but is definitely something for fans more than casual viewers. Personally I would say that to fans this would probably be worth a low four but people who haven't read the book would probably only give it three stars at best.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Jeremy Irons
Tim Curry
Sean Astin
David Jason
Brian Cox
Creators:
David Jason (Primary Contributor)
Sean Astin (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036039000
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-11-03
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 184 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2008