Too much of everything

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

In many ways this Discworld cartoon is perfect -- for example, who else could play Death but Christopher Lee? And the soundtrack, which charts the history of rock n' roll from Elvis, through the beatles and psychodelic rock as 'Music With Rocks In' is introduced to the Discworld, is simply brilliant.But there are times when it just fails to capture the same atmosphere and intelligence that is present in Pratchett's writing. Maybe someday soon a film with be made, after the success of Lord of the Rings, and particularly if the upcoming Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie is successful. And cast Christopher Lee as Death!!!

After stumbling across Pratchett completely by accident two years ago ("Sourcery" was my first book), I underwent a 5-month long intensive crash course in getting *anything* discworld that I could get my hands on. This was quite a feat, as not all the books were published in America at that time. Once I got all the books, my fervor diminished to an extent, but it was still enough to inspire me to actually *buy* both the Soul Music and Wyrd Sister's DVDs.I was hesistant to watch Soul Music for fear that it would destroy my mental image of my favorite Pratchett book. But between the two, Soul Music does a better job of adapting the book and pacing the jokes. I felt that Wyrd Sisters was a little too rushed, and some jokes were even mumbled at points. Soul Music favored pacing over cramming in every little detail. (My favorite part is probably the scene where Death is talking with the guru-guy on the mountain and they're arguing about the color of the infinite.) The musical numbers were quite entertaining as well, and I loved how each of the tour concerts they did had a specific parody theme. The casting was good and bad. Susan was good, the Band members were good, though I do agree that the Dean and Quoth the raven grated on my nerves very quickly. Christopher Lee as Death totally made up for any poor jobs in casting, and in fact it was these movies that introduced me to Lee and made me realize how cool he is. And suuure, the animation is, frankly, weak-sauce. However, though I enjoy artful quality as much as the next guy, you don't need eye-candy to tell a good story.

I watched the videos all the way through, and somehow I feel them to be an embarrassment to the books - I found the animation to be a bit crude, and not as I had imagined the scenarios. But of course, it's impossible to make an animated film that's totally accurate, as everyone's view of the Discworld and the characters who people it is entirely different, and nothing could capture the humor in the narrative of DW books. The animated version of Soul Music is something to watch once if you like Terry Pratchett, but I don't think I'll be watching it again. Long live Great A'Tuin!

One of the rare films I've seen which really does justice to the book upon which it was based. 'Soul Music' is particularly suited to a small-screen transfer, and much time and effort has obviously been lavished on this production.A great, funny, intelligent film. Don't miss this one.