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