The Colour of Magic

2008
6.9| 0h30m| TV-PG| en
Synopsis

As Rincewind involuntarily becomes a guide to the naive tourist Twoflower, they find themselves forced to flee the city of Ankh-Morpork to escape a terrible fire, and begin on a journey across the Disc. Unknown to them, their journey and fate is being decided by the Gods playing a board game the whole time.

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Reviews

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
dedeurs phonenumberofthebeast's review (2009) almost made me abandon the idea to write my own... Okay, David Jason's Rincewind is exactly as I pictured him, and Jeremy Irons and Tim Curry are quite memorable (as usual). Actually the set designers and 98% of the cast did a more than adequate job. Actors from the UK are always a delight! But the special effects look 1880's (except 'Luggage', he's amazing), the score is an attack on your eardrums, and both the orangutan librarian and Death make me wish I had chosen to watch episodes from 1970's Catweazle. (same type as Rincewind, but much funnier!) 'Death' is Pratchett's best novel character, he is mystic, dead-seriously ironic and sometimes hilariously human. And I get to see an actor wearing a cheap unmovable cardboard mask?? Come on, just some extra FX wizardry, and he would have been much more impressive, and even fearsome. Less relevant, but I always envisioned foreigner Twoflower as a little rotund semi-Asian guy. Not a robust American. (With all respect to Sean Astin)Pratchett's books constantly tickle my funny bone, even after an umpteenth re-reading. The movie made me laugh only once (and I forgot what it was).The problem, I think: Pratchett wrote novels in which the humor is not very subtle, it borders on slapstick, yet it is brilliant. Really, really funny. That man had an enormous wit. And although in the movie I heard familiar Discworld dialogues, they all fell flat. Director/screenwriter Vadim Jean clearly failed in transferring that quality.I dare not think what would have happened had Hollywood taken on Pratchett, but I do wonder what Terry Gilliam, Harry Potter's Alfonso Cuaron or David Yates (Potter again) would have made of The Colour of Magic... (Yes, it's 'colour'. It's a British title.)
doggydog2312 OK, first thing's first.This doesn't have the budget of your average fantasy movie, so don't expect good effects or masks or settings all the time. They fit 2 books of material into 3 hours of film so a lot was cut - understandable and all things considered, well enough. Colour of Magic is not the most interesting / best written of his books to begin with - which doesn't diminish its importance in the grand scheme of things, but hey, it doesn't help anything. All that considered, it's well done and I can appreciate it.But some things I can't get over.For example... the cast. The fact that David Jason and Sean Astin are fans of the book, made me like them even more. But man... Rincewind ISN'T OLD. OR FAT. You don't go and change the appearance of the most recognizable character from a very well known series and change his appearance and back story drastically so that it would fit the actor playing him :/. Heck, even in the playback he's neither ginger nor looking like the marathon runner he is. I don't buy Twoflower as an American too... And the Librarian... one of the best characters of the novels is, despite everything shown extensively as a human, and an irritating, neurotic one to boot. And as an ape... he's downright creepy. There's one exception -> Cohen does look like himself, I'll give you that. There are more completely unnecessary discrepancies but I don't care to continue with naming them all.To sum it up, David Jason as Rincewind, despite being a great actor that I respect a lot, kills the movie for me. And it's NOT his acting's fault (even if I've seen better performances from him and feel like he was overacting in some ways), it's just the way he looks. I can't imagine Rincewind like that. It's just not him.And the humor, OK, so that's subjective, but I've found that the "old" one works only occasionally in here and the newly added stuff is groan or face-palm inducing in all situations bar one (Death's last comment of the movie got a smile from me). Some things look really shoddy too, but I'll "blame" that on the budget and not take it against the movie.Strange that Pratchett would allow some these... but who knows. CoM (more) and LF (less) ARE apart in some ways from the canon he created later on to begin with. It might be OK if you look at it in that way.
ohgeebear1 I had been waiting to see The Colour of Magic since they announced it. I couldn't be happier...Jeremy Irons as the Patrician was what I imagined. Although I wondered about his choice of accent. And while I had expected Rincewind to be younger, David Jason's face is so wonderfully expressive, that I didn't care. Tim Curry's Trymon was typical to his villains and David Bradley as the Hero, wonderful..In order to have made this any better for me, they would have had to make a mini series of 4 nights at least..I believe that even non-Pratchet readers can still get the bulk of the humour, and it is close enough to the books that the most rabid fan will not object.
Badauta Until having seen "the Colour of Magic" a couple of days ago, it seemed impossible to me that the essence of a work of literature could successfully be transported into the plot-based medium of the film: this production, however, managed impressively to concentrate on the discworld novels' linguistics. The whole film is a glorious firework of puns, absurd dialogues, hilarious speeches and twisted theories, full of witty allusions to our real world's historical, philosophical, cultural, social, political, economic etc. realities, just like in the novels. The narrator's introductions sparkle playful rhetoric; the scene changes abound in funny little parallelisms; the plot follows with complete logic the discworld's crazy intrinsic reality; all characters are represented with convincing comedy, far from being ridiculed – a superb achievement especially among those "of the elderly persuasion"; thankfully, the audience is spared the usual trivial matters and unconvincing special effects; the most brilliant performance, of course, is Sir David Jason's magnificent characterisation of Rincewind in his countless dangerous confrontations from neck-romance to informal death, whose accomplishments mere words cannot describe adequately. Failing to understand the adverse criticism, I assume that many expected more loyalty towards the novels' details and maybe have not properly paid attention to the film as a whole: From hub to rim, all the important things have been preserved, the pathetic coward Rincewind, yet the only mentally sane person on the whole Disc; the ancient barbarian Cohen who has heroically survived his own legend; the frighteningly ambitious and maddening orderly wizard Trymon; the ingenuous tourist Twoflower, an expert in starting annoying discussions at precisely the wrong moments; his loyal luggage with its "homicidal attitude towards anyone who threatens its master"; and all the other peculiar personalities, officious magic devices, spells with speech impediments and curious disc dwellers carried through space on the majestic Great A'tuin... there is no reason to dwell on petty little details, when the adaptation has turned out to be the Best Film Ever. Hopefully, we will face another "near-Rincewind-experience" soon: it won't be long until he comes running past again, will it?