Hogfather (2006)

December 22, 2014 4:26 PM

It's Hogswatch on the Discworld and the Hogfather has gone missing, requiring Death to take his place while his granddaughter Susan endeavors to find out what has happened. Adapted from the novel by Terry Pratchett and directed by Vadim Jean, starring Michelle Dockery, Marc Warren, and David Jason and the vocal talents of Ian Richardson.

Can I Stream It? The answer is no, not right now.

posted by the man of twists and turns (16 comments total)

Oh man, this set such a high bar for the future Pratchett adaptations and none of them are as good - this is very nearly my favorite book to four hour miniseries adaptation ever.
posted by The Whelk at 4:33 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

(this Susan is so perfect, I mean, this is exactly how I imagined Susan, down to the little vocal intonations and eye rolling)
posted by The Whelk at 4:37 PM on December 22, 2014 [4 favorites]

Thanks to The Whelk I was up until 2am watching this. I should have known Pratchett doesn't do short films. Or even regular length ones.
posted by lysdexic at 6:27 PM on December 22, 2014

I can't really stand Teatime in this, though; his voice makes me want to scream and jump out a window. Also, I know he's supposed to be creepy, but I pictured him a more subtle kind of creepy, like all the more creepy because he seems so close to normal. That actually made it kind of hard for me to watch.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 6:30 PM on December 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

We watch this every winter solstice celebration in my house. My kids grew up with this.
posted by mrgroweler at 6:46 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

ah! I love this miniseries! I will have to watch it just as soon as i have time
posted by rebent at 7:16 PM on December 22, 2014

Marc Warren seems to be doing his best Brad Dourif impression as Teatime.
posted by figurant at 9:00 PM on December 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

I love the sly reference to Ian Richardson's role as Francis Urquhart. I'd like to watch this sometime with subtitles because some of the accents are a little tricky for me, but overall I really like this adaptation.
posted by Green With You at 8:55 AM on December 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh hey there's a Stuff You Like video review of it! (SYL is an academic-y-ish look at properties by exploring their fandoms)
posted by The Whelk at 1:55 PM on December 23, 2014

For those of you who like TV adaptations of well-loved fantasy novels, be aware that Mr. Teatime Marc Warren has been cast as the gentleman with the thistle-down hair in BBC One's upcoming production of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:44 AM on December 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have a short list of things that make it the holidays in my head. Watching Hogfather is in the top three.
posted by angelchrys at 12:15 PM on December 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Like The Whelk, I feel like the other adaptations suffer in comparison to this one. I enjoy them, but this is a notch or two up from those. I was very nervous when I sat down to watch it for the first time, as the book is one of my favorites of Pratchett's. But could tell very quickly that it was probably going to work out just fine. It got added pretty much immediately to the set of Christmas-y things I watch every year on the day of. Quit looking forward to revisiting it again tomorrow!
posted by sparkletone at 12:04 AM on December 25, 2014

This is one of my all time favorite movies to watch before Hogswatch....err Christmas. I watch it every year. It was my first exposure to Prachett and the Discworld novels. I began reading them immediately after this. Watching it this year will be distinctly bittersweet.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:15 AM on November 29, 2015

I came to this a Pratchett virgin (have never read any of the books) though I have seen Dockery and Warren in other projects (Downton for her and Musketeers and Strange & Norrell for him). This was pretty good for a long evening of telly, as it were, but it doesn't have the charm for me as a non-Pratchett fan that it has for those in the fandom. It had a very Harry Potter feel in terms of the mish-mash of English mythologies and the vaguely Victorian-y sort of feel of things. The story was enjoyable and I quite liked Dockery as Susan, but the movie didn't give me the urge to run out and read all the books. Also, I'm glad I'll be able to read my friend's Susan-related fics with an idea of what's going on now.
posted by immlass at 10:55 PM on December 16, 2015

Albert: 'course, it's a shame, really, 'cause she likes to break 'em, don't she?
DEATH: YOU MIGHT THINK I'VE ALREADY THOUGHT OF THAT, BUT I COULDN'T POSSIBLY COMMENT
posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:01 PM on January 2, 2017

This is a yearly watch and I tear up at Terry's cameo every time.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:58 PM on December 25, 2022 [3 favorites]