Moving Pictures

Poor Detritus really went through the wringer in this one, or would that be the tumbler?

It's hard to say for sure, but I think this might be my favorite Discworld entry at this point. A ton of elements really come together to tell a complete story, and by reading chronologically, the cast of characters and the setting and even the sort of rhythm of the book coalesced into an addictive read. A true culmination, you might say. I was laughing out loud, I was trying to anticipate where we were headed, I was enjoying the new entries into our cast of characters, it was great. I literally did not put the book down for the last 150 pages. Good stuff. Really fun, easy reading.

I always enjoy Pratchett's books that are clearly set in a Discworld equivalent of a real Earth place. In this case, Hollywood. People and animals alike ae being drawn out into the desert and don't know why until they get there - get to Holy Wood. The alchemists discovered how to make moving pictures and moved out there to get away from the ever judgmental wizards (although one of them ends u becoming one of their biggest stars). I enjoyed all the references to popular classic movies and the commentary on the movie making process. With all of Pratchett's signature chaos, randomness and puns of course. I loved all the cut throat competition, crazy ideas and general weirdness of it all. With the mysterious darkness lurking underneath. And show more I loved seeing more of Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler and his manipulativeness. I loved getting to see his ambition and how his mind works a bit after so many appearances in previous books. And of course the ever present flawed reasoning and somehow exceptionally functional some of the time reasoning of the wizards in the background.

If you like movies, movie humour or just a crazy weird ride of the book this is definitely worth a read or listen. This is a standalone book in the Discworld series. While we do see previous characters, you can enjoy this book without knowing anything about them. show less

This is such a brilliant take on movie making. I kept putting off reading this one for some reason or another (even though I totally love each and every single one of this mans books) and as these thing go, I loved every second of it. The characters are always amazing with Terry Pratchett (got to state the obvious.) I could almost believe this was the real telling of how the moving pictures started (ha ha) and even if not then at least a funnier better version.
Holy Wood (ha ha) has a dark secret. Everyone is drawn to the making of pictures. Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little") and (Theda Withel (I come from a little town you've probably never heard of") go to discover what this is (This is brilliant, show more I love when authors write things like this in a book, you know the 'what they have said' after a name or the 'the name and what is written on graves' etc when talking about someone (if you don't know what I mean never mind haha)..). These two could very nearly be favourite characters of mine, very nearly. I can not stress enough how much this made me laugh. He uses real things and changes them to his own marvelous funny things (Holy Wood and so on.) In this instalment we get The wizards, Gaspode, Dibbler, Actually these are great but a lot partake in this book ( like I said nearly everyone wants to be involved) they even walk from Ankh Morpork. If you like real things with a real good twist read this book in fact read them all. Terry Pratchett knows everything about everything and is willing to make everything his own. He is a masterpiece of knowledge and wit. Just Pure Brilliance! show less

Terry Pratchett takes on Hollywood, er, um, Holy Wood. This book was great fun, and if you are familiar with old movies, it is even more hilarious. The last third of the book had me laughing so hard, I don't think I'll need an ab workout tomorrow.
Suddenly ideas are coming forth into Discworld. Whether they are new ideas or not is up for debate, but their effect is undeniable. Lives are changed, countries moved, inspirations for the masses, or are they? Chimera or reality, is the debate in this novel, and a worthy debate it is. What is real? What makes it real? I'm not sure we find the answers here, but it's a lot of fun exploring them. Victor shines in this book, I wonder if we ever meet him again? Gaspode is a great hero as is show more Detritus, though neither are what I've come to expect from the Watch series. The Patrician is as sensible as ever, and Death is faithful. show less

Loved loved loved this one. Pratchett's spot-on skewering of Hollywood, the motion picture industry, and the "anything for a buck" marketing moguls was both ridiculously accurate and hilarious.

Moving Pictures - Pratchett
Audio performance by Jason Isaacs and others
4 stars

My introduction to Discworld started with Pratchett’s later Ankh-Morpork books. I’m tackling the back list with more recent audiobooks that have been recorded since the author’s death. This was an especially good recording. Jason Isaacs does a great job with the main character voices with Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz filling in the voices of Death and the various footnote explanations.

The basic premise of this book’s essential silliness is that the opening of an ancient portal allows the alchemist’s guild to develop an imp driven moving picture technology. Alien ideas from a revived Holy Wood compel familiar characters to behave in strange show more ways. Strange even for Ankh-Moorpork. Lots of satirical humor aimed at the crass commercialism of the entertainment industry. Many (possibly too many) silly references to classic Hollywood movies. At the climactic final premiere of the biggest production a Lovecraftian monster invasion brings the house down.

Two things saved this book from the boredom of overkill and increased my star rating. (Pratchett does love to over-egg the pudding.) First, the audio production was very good. It was just fun to listen while I went about my mundane round world chores. And there was Gaspode, the amazing talking dog. I love Gaspode. If I’d realized that this was his first book, I would have read it sooner. I’m very glad that Gaspode somehow manages to retain his human speech abilities for future books. show less

After the cotton-candy bit of nothing that was “Eric” (I later learned that while my copy had no pictures, it was originally written as an illustrated Discworld book. Stripping the pictures out of a book with heavy reliance on visual humor should be a crime.), “Moving Pictures” restored my faith in Terry Pratchett. It’s not wall-to-wall laughs, and there are some slow parts in the middle, but he builds up a head of steam and the last fifty pages contain images that are impossible not to laugh at.

There are magical forces escaping from the sand dunes of Holy Wood. They start to call to people from Ankh-Morpork. The alchemists figure out how to harness imps to paint images really quickly, so that if you run them fast and project show more them on the screen, they seem to move. People are hypnotized by the phenomena. Overnight, a city of facades springs up out on the dunes. Specifically Victor the perpetual wizard student, Ginger the former milkmaid, and Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler are all drawn there. Dibbler goes into production, finding his early stars in Victor and Ginger, amateur actors who can be possessed by the magic.

As Victor becomes aware that the magic may have sinister intent, he teams up with Gaspode the bright talking mutt, and Laddie the Wonder Dog to save the day. There are also trolls acting as stunt men, dwarves doing the prop work (who came up with that HiHoHiHo song?), frustrated directors and a machine (made by the wizard Riktor), indicating that not all is well with the fabric of reality.

The in-jokes and movie references come fast and furious throughout the story. Yellow brick roads, thousands of elephants, “Play it again, Sham,” you name it. By the time the Librarian (an orangutan, not a monkey!) is being carried up the side of a tower by a fifty-foot tall woman, I was literally laughing out loud. That’s the kind of book this is. Usual warning: I wouldn’t start reading the Discworld series here; although it almost acts as a standalone, a lot of the humor surrounding the Wizards and dennizens of Ankh-Morpork is better if you’ve read the earlier works. show less