Tweekums This Discworld story follows Rincewind, a student wizard who is expelled from the Unseen University for failing to reach the first level of wizardry after forty years of study, and Twoflower, the Discworld's first tourist. The pair meet the Broken Drum tavern where Twoflower's large trunk full of gold coins has attracted more than a little attention. Rincewind agrees to show Twoflower the sites but does a runner after being paid… however a few words from the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork explaining that he is to ensure Twoflower has a good time and returns to his homeland with a good impression of the city he returns. It isn't long before the two of them get involved in a series of adventures that will lead them to have encounters with dragons, a troll and even discover what is over the edge of the disc amongst other things. While all this is going on we see the politics of the Unseen University at work as the devious wizard Ymper Trymon murders his way to the top then seeks the ultimate power of learning the eight powerful spells in the 'Octavo'… there is just one problem; one of the spells is in the head of Rincewind.I have read a few Discworld novels but not 'The Colour of Magic' or 'The Light Fantastic' on which this is based. I thought this adaption nicely captured Terry Pratchett's Discworld even if the relatively low budget does show at times. Since it is based on the first two books one doesn't need to be familiar with the Discworld as things are nicely explained. The story is an enjoyable adventure that can be enjoyed by all ages as the scary bits are more comic than frightening and there is no crudeness to the humour. The cast do a solid job; David Jason is likable as Rincewind, Sean Astin nicely captures the stereotype of a slightly annoying but harmless foreign tourist who wants to see all the sights and Tim Curry delightfully hams it up as the villainous Trymon. Overall I found this to be enjoyable; I hope we'll get more adaptions of Disc World novels… hopefully based on the activities of the Night Watch.

siderite I've never been able to read Terry Pratchett's books, mostly because they were too ... British. All those large words and phrasing that seems to always say more than one can possibly understand. So I was grateful for a chance to grasp a little of what all this Discworld business is all about.The film is clearly a TV movie, the special effects are simple and either completely CGI or weird mashups (like the fire breathing dragon bit), but that never bothered me because the acting was great, the story fun and the people in it clearly enjoying every moment of its making.Bottom line: like the old Shakespeare plays that BBC was doing and I gobbled up as a young child or like Doctor Who or any other of those shows that Brits do, which are cheaply done, but with a lot of soul, I really liked it. I am looking forward to watching Hogfather, next.

baba44713 One thing I don't understand. Pratchett wrote quite a lot of Discworld novels, and some of them are simply begging to be put on the big screen. Most of the "Watch" novels for example. "Small Gods" as another. However, when Pratchett actually gets on the big (ok, small) screen, they seem to make the worst choices possible. First it was the "Hogfather", which is probably one of the most esoteric and confusing Discworld novels out there. Now they take the very first Discworld novels which - while perhaps being the funniest in the series - do not really present what Pratchett's work is all about. These early two novels are basically Terry taking a jab at (but also making homage) to a fantasy genre in general. Well, perhaps the entire Discworld series is like that, but in "Color of Magic" and "The light fantastic" this parody takes the front seat while a coherent story and characters sit in the back. And this works well in written form, but as a cinematic narrative it simply fails; clever jokes get cut, simplified and/or drowned in the overall chaos, the plot has to move quickly so it is nearly impossible to absorb everything that happens (let alone enjoy it) and overall it represents a rather frustrating experience, both for the Pratchett fans as well as the general audience.The first thing that bothered me is the casting. Sean Austin is a fine Twoflower, even though I think it perhaps should have been cast by a more exotic-looking actor. David Jason, sadly, is a complete miss as Rincewind. This particularly bothers me since David is probably my favorite British actor; however he is just too likable to pull of a Rincewind. Someone like Rowan Atkinson channeling his Black Adder persona (but with less malice and much more cowardice) would be perfect. The thing is, you need to take pleasure in Rincewind constantly being put from one peril to the next; David's Rincewind is like a kooky old grandpa that you feel bad for when he gets thrown from a cliff, threatened or trampled on. And whenever he does something Rincewind-y (like taking off with Twoflower's gold), it actually feels out of character.The rest of the cast is hit-or-miss. Death is horribly puppet-like - I endured him in Hogfather but here the rubber skull should really have been lees pronounced. Vetinari is on par (even though in those early Discworld novels he most probably wasn't the "Patrician", but that's fan service for you). Tim Curry overplays Trymon to the extreme, but I guess this is due to the bad direction - many characters seem to be overacting their bits probably to infuse a sense of lightness and silliness. Just check out the faces leader of the Krull makes while doing his speech; inexcusable.However the biggest culprit is the plot. It is just too hectic, too chaotic and doesn't let the characters to develop or even establish themselves. This perhaps has a lot to with with (un)necessary exposition given by both the narrator and the characters - the plot hardly gets a chance to move along before the next bit of exposition has to get its turn.It's not all bad however. There are some superb actors involved in this, the sets and effect look fantastic (especially for a TV movie). And even though I said Jason makes a bad Rincewind, it still is a joy to watch this fine actor doing his schtick. And it IS Pratchett, after all.So I guess that bottom line I can give this a passing grade, but it's still a deeply disappointing venture. I hope they do "Guards! Guards!" next, and I hope they do it good.

Marko Pudina This movie was a huge disappointment for me....it's slow, boring, and long......the characters are somewhat funny, but that doesn't make the movie much better.....slow, boring, and barely watchable. If you want to watch this movie cause you enjoy magic and you are extremely in love with it you could have some joy out of it....now i understand why this movie was distributed directly to the TV... . . . .I was shocked when I had seen that this movie has more than 7.2 average score...i was really really interested when i saw this, but then as the movie started I realized that this is not the movie I expected it to be. It has a nice story, i really love disk world but it should have been done much better than this, so I rate it 3 out of 10