eShop USA > VHS > Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Wyrd Sisters
Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Wyrd Sisters
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781569383056
Format: Animated, Box set, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 1569383057
Label: Acorn Media
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Acorn Media
Release Date: August 11, 1999
Running Time: 147 minutes
Studio: Acorn Media
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Editorial Review:
Author Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels offer an alternate reality that has proven irresistible to an avid, international audience--a universe where the world really is flat, after all, supported by four elephants floating through the cosmos on the back of a giant turtle. It's a world where fantasy conventions have been filtered through an antic, satirical lens that slyly warps the actions and motives of the wizards, witches, monarchs, and knaves that populate them, suggesting a sword & sorcery counterpart to Douglas Adams's venerable A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Developed for British television as an animated, six-episode miniseries, Wyrd Sisters marks the first attempt at transferring the franchise to video. As presented here on three tapes, with a running time of approximately 147 minutes, Pratchett's cracked re-imagining of familiar mythological themes retains its verbal wit and realizes colorfully stylized visual terrain, although modest animation techniques relegate its impact to the realm of older TV cartoons. Sci-fi aficionados spoiled by lavish computer graphics and the current big-screen state of the art will wonder what all the fuss is about.
Pratchett's fans, however, won't mind. An intricate plot, set in motion by the murder of King Verence by the utterly dimwitted Duke Felmet, encompasses a smuggled baby, an itinerant theatrical troupe, a kiss lasting 18 years, time travel, and other pokerfaced twists of fate, cohering around the three title heroines, a coven of rather dotty witches. A droll, sociable Death (voiced by Christopher Lee) epitomizes the breezy comic spirit that fuels Pratchett's stories. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Don't Bother
Too bad there aren't negative star ratings. I had great hopes for this after watching Hogsfather... I was extremely disappointed! The voices were annoying (especially Magrats which was akin to a dentists drill and fingernails on the chalkboard... at the same time) and the animation childish at best. Coming from a genious like Pratchett I was expecting great entertainment geared towards adults, but this was so dumbed down for children that it was painful to watch at times. But I did watch it ... Read More
Rating:  - Should have been MUCH better . . .
Somehow, I missed knowing about this until recently, even though I've read most of the Discworld books. The sisters in question are the somewhat austere Granny Weatherwax and her associates, the fun-loving Nanny Ogg, and the much younger Magrat Garlick, all of them witches. The king of Lancre has just been murdered by Duke Felmet and his Valkyrie-like Duchess and the infant prince has happenstantially come into the hands of the three witches, who decide to place him with a traveling theatrical troupe ... Read More
Rating: - Flawed...But Fine For Die-Hards
I had always wanted to snag this little set of three BBC-produced videos. As is obvious, the production is an animated adaptation of 'Wyrd Sisters,' one of satirist Terry Pratchett's many popular Discworld novels, and one of his better works featuring the irrepressible "witches of Lancre": Granny Weatherwax; Nanny Ogg; and Magrat Garlick.
Read the product description above in order to gather plot details, and then by all means buy & read the actual book. The sole lovely aspect of this ... Read More
Rating: - buy the books, burn the dvd
Isn't there a rating below 1 star?
Don't buy this, don't rent it, don't even borrow it for yourself if you like any Pratchett book. It is perfectly suitable for children under about the age of 9 if they aren't very smart and can sit staring at Saturday morning cartoons for hours at a time.
The screen writer apparently didn't realize that leaving out all the great puns, hilarious allegory, and brilliant dialog created by Terry Pratchett, would leave you with a really pathetic movie. ... Read More
Rating: - Very disappointing
With Terry Pratchett's great writing and Cosgrove Hall doing the animation I figured this had to be a winner, but sadly this is not the same stop-frame-puppet-animation Cosgrove Hall brilliance that brought us 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' or 'The Reluctant Dragon'. This is their second-rate cartoon team who brought us the highly overrated Dangermouse. Wyrd Sisters exhibits the sort of mediocre paint-by-numbers animation that Hanna-Barbera was infamous for. In my opinion Discworld could have been well-served ... Read More
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