Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

We don't seem to have a topic for Hitchhiker's, so I made one. We could discuss the radio series, the TV series and the movie here too.

First off, I'd like to say that I love Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. The idea of someone being so bitter that they decide to insult every living thing in time and space is hilarious to me.

Oh, I am so big into this series, and everything about it. I love some of the twists of phrase, like the ships hanging the way that bricks don't, and I'm also fond of the seven impossible things before breakfast Milliway's description. I actually rather liked the movie, too.

Adams also did a really good nonfiction book called Last Chance to See about a tour of exotic and endangered animals that is really worth a read for anyone that likes his works.

The movie was alright. The music was excellent and the casting was great (except Zooey Deschanel, she was terrible) but overall the movie was just.....eh.

The music was fantastic. And whatever else the movie was like, it was worth every penny of the ticket for the big-screen presentation just for the presentation of "Journey of the Sorcerer" alone.

Never saw the movie, but loved the books. I also played the adventure game (You can play it here), which is both hilarious and absurd to play without a guide. The worst part is that it mocks you for not understanding the Moon logic puzzles.

Haven't played that, but I once played Starship Titanic. It was about the same speed.

Game seems buggy. I game overed early on and when I restarted, I was in a completely different area of the game.

edited 16th Nov '12 8:43:21 PM by JMQwilleran

The old Infocom game actually lies to you on a few occasions, and has a whole sequence that only takes place if you've made a typo at some point. It's both hilarious and maddening.

Adams also wrote another game for Infocom, Bureaucracy, which is ALSO hilarious and maddening.

I enjoyed the movie. I'm a hardcore fanboy. I own the radio show, the TV show, the books, and so forth, but I could see what they were trying to do.

Were there mistakes in the movie? Yes. Did they make wrong choices about what to include and what to exclude? Yes. Was Humma Kavula entire pointless? Yes.

But they got stuff right. Zaphod's characterization was great (even if the second head was implemented wrong). There was actually a decent Arthur/Trillian romance. Stephen Fry was a great Guide. The animations were good. The Magrathean factory floor was great.

Actually, Zaphod's characterisation was my biggest problem with the movie. In the books (never listened to the radio show), he was hedonistic and a bit of a loser, but of average intelligence. The movie turned him into an idiot.

True. But the idea that Zaphod signed away the Earth because he thought he was giving an autograph ("Love and kisses, Zaphod") was good for a laugh.

The movie made the plot more substantial and connected, but in doing so missed the whole point of the series.

The movie did have good comedic timing.

It works so well I kinda feel I can't complain about it being too different from the other versions.

Ford and Zaphod could have both used some more guile. But I suppose it was a bit of a different interpretation for both them and Trisha. I guess Arthur was different too, but his character kind of confused me in the novels where I couldn't exactly get a good idea of just how stupid he really was.