Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic

Until I started watching the DVD I did not realise that I had two 90 minute episodes to enjoy - wizard!

Despite my limited travels in Fantasy I had recognised some of the parodies of typical fantasy themes, eg horse lords and so forth. However the director threw in a couple of extra visual parodies: I'm sure that the Docks of Ankh-Morpork also appeared in The Golden Compass and there was a brilliant reference to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy in the sequence when various characters galloped aimlessly over hills and moors.

Additionally the casting was a joy throughout - David Jason was brilliant and with not a hint of south London on show. It would be interesting to construct a flow diagram that linked the actors to other key fantasy films and series they have appeared in: from my quick calculation David Bradley has one of the highest scores with major roles in all the Harry Potter films, Game of Thrones and Doctor Who.



 

American Spellings

I'm pleased to see that the DVD Cover has the following:

Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic

IMDB  and Wikipedia both have the same spelling and it makes me happy: Sir Terry Pratchett's novels are definitely English, in the long tradition that includes PG Wodehouse and JRR Tolkien.

When the first Harry Potter book was published in the US the publishers changed the title from "Philosopher's Stone" to "Sorcerer's Stone" (on the basis that Americans do not understand philosophy presumably). The film follows the same naming convention, but my recollection is that the relevant dialogue was dubbed to make it work in the US.

My other grumble about name changes in books that I like involved Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The title of the first novel is Northern Lights (quite apt bearing in mind the action and plot) but for the US market it became The Golden Compass. Any fule kno that the item in question is an Alethiometer not a compass (golden or otherwise), and with this fidelity to the book the film bombed, although this was in part due to the pernicious efforts of evangelists who railed against its supposedly irreligious storylines.

I was fortunate enough to see both parts of the NT production of His Dark Materials in one wonderful day, and it will remain a high spot in my memories of plays that I have seen. I have also seen a one-man version of The Lord of the Rings, which while not particularly memorable was definitely brave.