Customer Reviews
A great adaptation of the book 
2008-05-12
The book was written by a brilliant word-smith who crafted each phrase with care and cleverness. The movie does not deviate from the dialog in the slightest and is all the stronger for the faithful trust in the source material. The movie is clever in music and photography to the great enjoyment of my gladdened eyes. Well worth purchasing even if the DVD lacks the standard extras found amongst the more common DVD releases.
"The Ho, Ho, Ho Could Do with a Bit of Work." 
2008-05-10
In Discworld, the winter holiday is Hogswatch, which bears a remarkable resemblance to our Christmas. This particular Hogswatch, something is amiss, however. The Auditors have approached the assassin's guild and taken out a contract on the Hogfather (you know, Santa.) How do you kill a potentially mythological creature? Well, the guild decides to send their craziest assassin, Teatime (Marc Warren) to do the job.
As Teatime goes about his mission, the body count begins to rise, which catches the attention of Death (a wonderful puppet voiced by Ian Richardson). Over the years, Death has grown fond of humans, so he sets out to fill in for the suddenly missing Hogfather.
And Death's antics catch the attention of Susan (Michelle Dockery), his granddaughter. When Susan learns what is happening, she sets out to find the Hogfather and save his life, a mission that takes her to the Tooth Fairy's castle. Will she be in time?
While I'm not normally a fantasy fan, I had heard of Terry Pratchett's popular Discworld series. This British TV miniseries is based on one of his stories. I'm pretty conflicted about it. On the one hand, there was plenty of fun in the story and setting. The acting was wonderful. And the movie looked incredible. It was very state of the art and has plenty of eye candy. I especially loved watching the "computer" write on parchment with quill and ink. While there are some discussions about belief that will fly over kids' heads, there's nothing here that should really frighten them.
However, it moved pretty slowly. It is three hours long and could easily be cut down to two if they wanted to make the effort. There is a whole sub-plot involving a wizarding college that could have been cut and the needed information worked in some other way. Really, very little happens there that we need to know, although there are a couple fun scenes set there.
I'm sure the books' many fans will love this movie. Fantasy fans in general will enjoy it as well. The rest of us can do worse then this miniseries, but a good editing job would have made things more enjoyable.
True to the spirit of Terry Pratchett 
2008-05-06
Being a Terry Pratchett fan, I gritted my teeth on this one: one the one hand, intense curiosity about how well the book might be made visual; on the other hand, a cringing memory of just how badly such things have turned out in the past.
To my delight, this is a BRILLIANT rendering of the book. The wit is all there. Susan, Albert, Ridcully, and even Death fit their written characters, bang on. Mr Teatime is perfectly psychopathic. If there was any room to quibble, it would be that Nobby looks more human than one might expect.
The imagery is also vividly done, and a picture being worth a thousand words is probably how the screenplay manages to capture so much of the book in the time available.
If you're not familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, you might find the film a bit confusing, but highly entertaining. In my house, Hogfather has joined the short but prized list of must-watch films for Christmas, er, Hogswatchnight.
Pratchett and the Novel were served well 2008-05-05
Most book adaptations are twisted into unrecognizable lumps by cheap producers. Fortunately, someone locked the "suits" in the elevator and got on with making "Hogfather" as a film wonderfully true to the Novel.
I can only hope that the Discworld Series becomes more widely known because of it. Pratchett is an unsung genius. If you haven't read his
work - stop cheating yourself. I'd thoroughly recommend getting both this film and the book it's based on. Then Pick up a copy of "Guards! Guards!".
That will set you in the right direction for a supremely fun journey.
Hogfather is GREAT 2008-05-04
This movie makes a difficult shift from novel to film with great success. The story is faithfully told and much of Pratchett's very dry humour is interspersed everywhere. It is a fine stand alone film - it does not require that you have read any of the Discworld books, but obviously some of the jokes won't be obvious if you don't know to look for them (The Death of Rats, especially).
Great special effects and really well done acting. It is a long movie (two discs) but really riveting - the time flew by. It is definitely a movie I would watch again and agin.
Capital Movie!!! 2008-05-04
Hogfather is the magical menacing wicked and witty family story unlike anything else you could ever imagine. From the imagination of best-selling author Terry Pratchett comes Hogfather. It s the holiday of Hogswatch the night when kids anticipate presents from the beloved Hogfather. But someone wants the Hogfather out of the way. Now it s up to the most unlikely of heroes to get the holiday back on track. Just in time for the Easter season Hogfather is a cross between Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter that s sure to be a family favorite you ll be watching for years and years to come. System Requirements:Run Time: 189 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY UPC: 796019806046 Manufacturer No: 80604
Excellent adaptation 2008-05-04
If you haven't read the Terry Pratchett books, you MUST do so. Then watch this. Or watch this and then read the books. Either way you're in for a treat.
This is probably the best of the adaptations of Pratchett's works to date and it's one of the most easily "accessible" for most fantasy fans. It's funny, moves quickly, has fascinating characters and a solid plotline. The characters of Death and Susan (his grand daughter) in particular are very well done, though I wasn't as impressed with the Wizards of the Unseen University.
Highly recommended, and Happy Hogswatch!
Our new holiday favorite! 2008-05-03
We all really enjoyed "Hogfather". I haven't read the book, so I didn't miss what wasn't in the movie. Very funny stuff and great characters!
A Fairytale for Adults 2008-04-29
We saw a "preview" for this at the beginning of another movie, and I immediately went online and purchased a copy of it. I have not read more than a couple of the Pratchett Discworld books, but thoroughly enjoyed them, and they are on the list for more reading as time allows. We both also enjoyed the Gaiman/Pratchett endeavor Good Omens.
So, once I was made aware of this, it was a "how soon can I get it?" sort of thing. The movie arrived very quickly, unfortunately, the length of the movie meant that it was a few weeks before we could sit down and enjoy it, which we just did on Sunday.
COOL!!!
I found that the little I had read of Discworld was more than sufficient, and my partner has not read any of them, and he had no questions about it. Pratchett writes firmly in fantasy, with a heavy dose of mythology, and it all seemed perfectly normal to us (as much as fantasy is normal). I very much enjoyed the strong female protagonist, she was crucial, but didn't beat you over the head with her sword. There is also a neat interview with Pratchett in the extras - a fascinating glimpse into his mind.
Watch, enjoy, and know the fantastic joy that comes with awareness of Pratchett's world.
Even better than you would have guessed 2008-04-28
I will start by saying I am a HUGE T. Pratchett fan. I am a science teacher who has to keep trying to describe his body of work to friends. They always get this glazed look when I start to describe a "Discworld" on the back of 4 Elephants, on the back of a Turtle.... Well, if you are a fan you probably know my pain. The team who made this movie are also, obviously, fans. The attention to detail, the unapologetic celebration of T.P.'s wit, and some of the visuals are awsome. I probably should have given this product 4 stars because I understand how the non fan may not get details (like HEX) that I did, but I give it the 5th star because is ever my friends are at home when I am trying to explain discworld, now I have the ultimate visual.
