Hogfather

Faithful to the book... read the book first
After much hunting I found this DVD in the US... I wasn't sure what to expect from a live action Discworld movie, I just couldn't imagine that the humor could translate properly. In the end, it did and it didn't.

A short Summary:

In the fantasy world of Discworld, their winter festival is called Hogswatch, which is ruled over by the Hogfather... a fat jolly man with tusks who doles out gifts to nice little children. An Assassin is hired to "take care of" the Hogfather, and he goes about it by invading the lair of the Toothfairy. To try to keep the world in order, Death puts on the Hogfather Costume and tries to sub in for the evening... meanwhile, Death's grandaughter, Susan is off to figure out what happened to the Hogfather.

If you have read the book, then you know that you probably laughed so hard you cried. Though the movie is funny, it is not nearly so as the book. They remain fairly faithful to the book, cutting only where necessary. But if...

Well Done
While awaiting the release of the Hogfather movie on DVD, I was amazed to run across the movie on the ION cable TV network on 12/23/07. I too expect that for those not familiar with the Discworld, it may be a little mystifying, but for those of us that are, the little details were wonderful. I particularly liked the rendition of HEX, complete with the "Anthill Inside" sticker and the little hourglass which popped out when it was processing. Getting a look at actual actors in costume playing Constable Visit and Nobby Nobbs, however briefly, was a treat--in fact, all the costuming and casting was very reminiscent of the way the Discworld is pictured in the Paul Kidby illustrations. The rendition of Susan and Bilious the Oh God inside the child's painting on their way to the Tooth Fairy's domain was excellent and very much as I had imagined it. Finally, Terry Pratchett himself makes a cameo appearance as the proprietor of the toy store where Death purchases the wooden horse to give...

Hogfather - The Movie, at Last!
The Hogfather, on the Discworld, is what Santa Claus is in the United States. Except it's called "Hogwatch" rather than Christmas. All the way back to that red and white, the colors of blood on snow.

The Discworld has Auditors, creatures who loath humanity and all the things that make us human. The Auditors engage the Guild of Assassins to whack the Hogfather, and the Guild designates the very spooky Jonathan Teatime (it's pronounced "tee-ah-tim-eh"), who hires a gang and methodically sets about this task. It takes Death; Death's granddaughter, Susan; Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers; most of the wizardly faculty of Unseen University; and the Tooth Fairy to defeat Teatime, his gang and the Auditors.

Because more is at stake than Father Christmas. Belief is what makes us human, where the rising angel meets the falling ape. And if we can't practice on little lies - the Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy and the like - we won't be ready for the big lies - that there are...

Click to Editorial Reviews