Disney's Discworld Confirmed

Well, this does it, pretty much. As soon as I'm done with Mogworld, I'll get cracking on Discworld.

I will read them in order. Don't nobody try to stop me!

I read the first four books in order, then I just read whatever was at the library at the time, then I bought all the ones not at the library and read those in order I damn well pleased.

Really, order means very little with Discworld.

Also, here was my Facebook status upon learning the news:

So, it was recently announced that Disney's next animated film will be based on one of the Discworld books. Most likely Mort.

...

FUCK. YES! FUCK YES! OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME! YEEEEEHAW! YES! THIS IS HEAVEN! I HAVE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN! FUCK YES!

This was one of my friend's responses:

wow i thought you would be more excited than that

edited 10th Nov '10 3:56:27 PM by LizardBite

Legendary.

The first few books are a little rough around the edges, so be sure not to bail out too early.

—R.J.

This is long overdue.

Really, order means very little with Discworld.

Some books are clearly meant to be read in sequence You can skip, but you'll be missing a lot of references and some things will just seem plain weird.

I think our Discworld page details nicely which books are connected and how. The main arcs would be: Rincewind and the wizards (begins with Color of Magic, but Sourcery and Science of Discworld make good jump-in points too); City Watch (begins with "Guards! Guards"); Death's adventures (begins with "Mort"); witches (begins with "Wyrd Sisters", though the main character first featured in "Equal Rites").

"Pyramids" and "Small Gods" are sometimes said to be the "religion" books, and "The Truth" and the Moist von Lipwig series the "industrial revolution" ones, but the big arcs are the above ones. Well Moist von Lipwig and Tiffany Aching have went on to become their own ones too, and are very new reader friendly themselves, so they are good starting points too.

edited 11th Nov '10 3:13:00 AM by Vree

I'm really hoping all goes well with this. In my opinion, Terry Pratchett's works could always use more love.

Disney's animated features are always technically brilliant, but The Company doesn't always grasp the idea behind a literary work very well. Their versions of The Wind In The Willows and The Sword In The Stone (not to mention the phenomenonally ill-conceived adaptation of Notre Dame de Paris), for instance, were travesties — and much as I enjoyed The Jungle Book myself, I imagine it had Old Pop Kipling rotating like a rotisserie in his grave. Let's hope that the very hit-and-miss Corporation-with-ears manages to retain at least some of the flavor of the books (as they largely failed to do in their Narnia adaptations).

edited 6th Dec '10 3:21:19 AM by Tannhaeuser

Hopefully, they'll have a grasp of how big the fanbase is for Discworld. Plus, Terry Pratchett, unlike those other authors, is still alive: Disney would be frigging blasted by Terry to the media if they did something stupid like make Death the villain.

edited 6th Dec '10 4:39:05 AM by punchy

Wasn't Death a villain in the first book or something, though?

I heard he was more a nuisance. Showing up while Rincewild is on a flagpole and saying It's a bit slippery, is it? Maybe you should spit on your hands.

I haven't read the book, though, so I can't say definitively.

No, he wasn't much more of a villain in the Colour of Magic, if that's what you're referring to. He does help an idiot to his death by handing him a match, but aside from that he's his usual deadpan, "force of nature" self.

Even as early as The Light Fantastic, he had sympathetic quotes like: THE DEATH OF A WARRIOR OR THE OLD MAN OR THE LITTLE CHILD, THIS I UNDERSTAND, AND I TAKE AWAY THE PAIN AND END THE SUFFERING. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS DEATH-OF-THE-MIND.

Wow finally switched your avatar eh!

^ Yep. Finally got the site to work, Eh?

edited 6th Dec '10 10:45:28 AM by AlirozTheConfused

It'll be a while before we get any concept art, huh? What a pity... I'd really like to see what kind of aesthetic they go with.

To be truthful, I am not familar with the story. But however, a fantasy animated film thats actually having fantasy is something you dont see everyday. Anyone know if the dude behind the Discworld series is going to do the script for this?

He'll probably be involved, but I doubt he'll write it. I don't think he's written the scripts for any other adaptation of his work, and he's actually pretty sick...

The original storyline was dumb. Instead, let's make it an action movie. This whole business with the princess and Death's daughter? Let's lose this. Instead we'll combine them into a single character, a badass Action Girl who fights the hard fight and flirts with danger. And Death? I don't think so. Instead we'll replace his part with a Columbian drugdealer. And his name isn't Mort, it's Steve.

Coming this fall, Discworld's Mort. When Steve Michaels learns that his boss is actually a Columbian drugdealer, it's up to him and local rebel leader Isabella Foreign Sounding Last Name to fight their way through his army of guards and confront the evil man in a fiery duel to the death in the burning remains of his compound. Based on a novel by Terry Pratchett.

edited 7th Dec '10 10:37:14 PM by Anaheyla

Considering this is supposed to be an animated Disney film, that still sounds pretty entertaining.

Can't wait to see the Columbian Druglord's big musical number!

edited 8th Dec '10 12:22:58 AM by punchy

^ With a singing fleet of parakeets in pope hats singing along with him?

Some of the posts suggest you haven't heard of the Sky 1 adaptations yet.

^ Yeah, if any of you haven't seen the Sky 1 adaptation of Hogfather, watch it NOW! It's on Netflix, I know, and maybe it'll show up on BBC America in the coming weeks.

And I wouldn't bother with the Colour of Magic movie. It's nowhere near as good.

The Skyone Hogfather was great. As was Colour of Magic(at the very least, it's better than the book(s) which put me to sleep). Going Postal was good but not great.

edited 10th Dec '10 9:45:04 PM by Anaheyla

"Rumors are that the movie will be a general-purpose Discworld movie, roughly based on Mort."

So...how the hell do you make a "general" Discworld film? It requires somehow fitting Death, the witches, the wizards, and the Watch into the same story and giving the main characters of each party an important part. Even with Mort as a main plot thread how many of the other characters do you think could be shoved in?

I personally think they should just adapt one of the books, or conflate two which feature the same main characters. If it's successful they can move on to the series other Cast Herds.

edited 21st Dec '10 10:01:43 AM by Wackd