Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Collection (Soul Music
+ Wyrd Sisters/Acorn Media DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C Animated Episodes: C
Though we
missed these Discworld DVDs when
they were first released and sold separately, Acorn Media has finally reissued Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters as the Discworld Collection to pick up on the
still-vibrant interest in Fantasy genre material. We previously covered a live-action version
of one of Pratchett’s stories (with too much computer animation) called Hogfather, which you can read more
about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6642/Terry+Pratchett’s+Hogfather+(Genius
Despite
the voice of Christopher Lee, these arte no much better than the recent live
action dud, but still better despite the limits of the animation itself (good
color, limited money to animate) and the writing is fairly good, but you had
once again better be a big fan of the genre to enjoy this on almost any
level. Soul Music is a pun on words as a young man sells his soul to Satan
to become a big music star in Discworld, but may pay a big price. As a cautionary tale, it is annoying and
confused. Wyrd Sisters has the three witches of the title taking care of a
royal child whose father/king has been killed.
Shorter (140 vs. 175 minutes) than Music,
it is all over the place and also wears thin very quickly. Both are a mixed bag overall.
The 1.33
X 1 animated color images on both look good, but have some detail and depth
issues, including some aliasing errors, likely from being older transfers. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad, but
can be a bit harsh. Extras include text
bio of Pratchett, original pilot video, storyboards, stills, Discworld booklist
and text character bios.
- Nicholas Sheffo