The Hogfather
I got an awesome gift this Christmas from my Britophile wife: (okay, we're both Britophiles, but that's beside the point.) Terry Pratchett's Hogfather on a special edition 2-disc DVD set.
Now, for those of you who don't know who Terry Pratchett or what the
Discworld is, the easiest explanation is that he writes fantasy novels the same way Douglas Adams wrote Sci-Fi. If you don't know who Douglas Adams is, who are you, and why are you reading this?
Pratchett is HUGE in England. They put on plays of his stuff all over the place, do special gatherings, there is a GURPS system that was collaborated on by the author, etc. Not so much here in the States. I discovered him in College, courtesy of the Science Fiction Book Club, and have been hooked ever since. My first book was Mort, a story about Death's apprentice. What's not to love? If you're still reading this post, and are wondering what the hoopla is across the pond, I'd suggest dedicating yourself for the next 6 months to reading his stories. There are currently 36 that have been published, and 2 on the way. They fall into 4 major storylines, corresponding with the primary protagonists of the line, but the stories interweave constantly. It's great fun, and the reads are elegantly sophisticated and fall-down funny at the same time.
Hogfather is the first real major film production of Pratchett's work, and it's gorgeous. It appeared as a 2-part miniseries lasting a total of 3 hours, and cost 6 million pounds to make. Good news is that it won several awards in Britain, and the next production is already underway, with double the budget. What fun!
Of course, there was the issue of the DVDs being Region 2 PAL disks, so I had a bit of transcoding to do before I could watch them on the HD set. Best $30 ever spent? AnyDVD. Ripped that nasty region encoding right out of the disk, and let me do a nice clean transcode into NTSC format. Gotta love technology...
Now, for those of you who don't know who Terry Pratchett or what the
Discworld is, the easiest explanation is that he writes fantasy novels the same way Douglas Adams wrote Sci-Fi. If you don't know who Douglas Adams is, who are you, and why are you reading this?
Pratchett is HUGE in England. They put on plays of his stuff all over the place, do special gatherings, there is a GURPS system that was collaborated on by the author, etc. Not so much here in the States. I discovered him in College, courtesy of the Science Fiction Book Club, and have been hooked ever since. My first book was Mort, a story about Death's apprentice. What's not to love? If you're still reading this post, and are wondering what the hoopla is across the pond, I'd suggest dedicating yourself for the next 6 months to reading his stories. There are currently 36 that have been published, and 2 on the way. They fall into 4 major storylines, corresponding with the primary protagonists of the line, but the stories interweave constantly. It's great fun, and the reads are elegantly sophisticated and fall-down funny at the same time.
Hogfather is the first real major film production of Pratchett's work, and it's gorgeous. It appeared as a 2-part miniseries lasting a total of 3 hours, and cost 6 million pounds to make. Good news is that it won several awards in Britain, and the next production is already underway, with double the budget. What fun!
Of course, there was the issue of the DVDs being Region 2 PAL disks, so I had a bit of transcoding to do before I could watch them on the HD set. Best $30 ever spent? AnyDVD. Ripped that nasty region encoding right out of the disk, and let me do a nice clean transcode into NTSC format. Gotta love technology...