Review of Hogfather (2007) by Shannon M — 01 Sep 2009

Okay, let's get one thing straight first off: You do kind of have to be a fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels in order to enjoy this movie fully. If you are not a fan because you just haven't read these books, you will likely be a bit confused, as the movie assumes a certain level of familiarity with the books' characters and institutions. If you're not a fan because you have read them and didn't "get" them, this movie is not for you.

That said, for the discerning (or even the semi-discerning) Pratchett fan or fantasy fan, this miniseries-length movie made from the novel Hogfather will probably go over quite well. It benefits from being (a) one of the Discworld novels that most closely mirrors an aspect of the real world (in this case, Christmas and the myths of childhood like the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus) and thus one of the most generally accessible to all audiences, and (b) one of the closest novels Pratchett wrote to being a nonserial standalone. (Within the Discworld series are several subsets of books, each focusing on a different group of characters, such that in order to follow a later book involving those characters it is very helpful to have read the earlier ones. Hogfather is not a member of one of these subsets, though characters in it have also appeared in other Discworld novels.) It also features Death, one of Pratchett's best-loved and most easily recognizable characters. Moreover, it's funny, the characters are well-crafted, and the plot ties itself together in a very clever Dickensian fashion.

Really, there's only one problem with this movie: it's LONG. It doesn't lack excitement or drag its feet over its 3+-hour length, but unless you're doing an extended Lord of the Rings, 3 hours in one sitting is just a long time to be watching a movie. As with Tin Man, I'd recommend hitting this one in two nights, as it was when released for TV.