Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90939 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-07-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 140 minutes

Amazon.com
Author Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels offer an alternate reality that has proven irresistible to an avid, international audience--a universe where the world really is flat, after all, supported by four elephants floating through the cosmos on the back of a giant turtle. It's a world where fantasy conventions have been filtered through an antic, satirical lens that slyly warps the actions and motives of the wizards, witches, monarchs, and knaves that populate them, suggesting a sword & sorcery counterpart to Douglas Adams's venerable A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Developed for British television as an animated, six-episode miniseries, Wyrd Sisters marks the first attempt at transferring the franchise to video. As presented here on three tapes, with a running time of approximately 147 minutes, Pratchett's cracked re-imagining of familiar mythological themes retains its verbal wit and realizes colorfully stylized visual terrain, although modest animation techniques relegate its impact to the realm of older TV cartoons. Sci-fi aficionados spoiled by lavish computer graphics and the current big-screen state of the art will wonder what all the fuss is about.

Pratchett's fans, however, won't mind. An intricate plot, set in motion by the murder of King Verence by the utterly dimwitted Duke Felmet, encompasses a smuggled baby, an itinerant theatrical troupe, a kiss lasting 18 years, time travel, and other pokerfaced twists of fate, cohering around the three title heroines, a coven of rather dotty witches. A droll, sociable Death (voiced by Christopher Lee) epitomizes the breezy comic spirit that fuels Pratchett's stories. --Sam Sutherland

From the Back Cover
The Discworld, that is, as created by Terry Pratchett in his riotous series of sci-fi/fantasy books. Discworld is populated by a cast of characters straight out of folklore and mythology, only a whole lot funnier. Take the Wyrd Sisters, for instance (they don't like that handle one bit, by the way), whose story is brought to life in this animated series. A motley trio of hardworking witches, they get mixed up in a royal mess when a murdered king's baby son is entrusted to their care. Though they hate meddling, the witches must wrest the kingdom from the loopy duke and his she-devil wife. "The funniest parodist working in the field today, period" - The New York Review of Science Fiction "Simply the best humorous writer of the twentieth century." - Oxford Times

Customer Reviews

If you like the books, you'll love the video!
At long last the Discworld comes to the small screen; in this the first North American release of the Brit TV series. All the humour and brilliant dialogue of the novel translated very well to this visual medium. Character visuals while not always quite as I imagined, still carried off the right impression. Voice casting is superb and included both Christopher Lee (as Death, of course!) and Jane Horrocks. I can't wait until Reaper Man and Soul Music are released to hear Chris Lee in a featured role.

No the animation is not state of the art, but still manages to exceed the basic needs of the story. This isn't about slick animation, but superb dialogue and inventive storytelling. It is about time that we got to see these brilliant stories and imaginatively crafted characters realized on screen.

Buy this video and show your support of the Discworld series. If sales on this are good, we'll likely see more released in the near future.

Wonderful!
I have seen many books that were turned into movies and shows, both live action and animated. 90% of the time it is a complete let down. So I was highly skeptical of Wyrd Sisters. I am a devoted fan of the Discworld series and despite living in the United States I have been able to obtain just about everything printed about the Discworld. I got this video and expected the usual terrible adaptation where the animation is cheap and all wrong for what I pictured and the story is changed horribly because the movie producers think we are so stupid we will only get a joke or a plot line if its yelled in our faces.

But I was delighted with these videos. They are probably the best adaptation of a novel I have ever seen. The movie was well animated, I think, probably because it was not made in the USA! But animation aside, the story itself was a brilliant adaptation of the book, and a lot the humor is very subtle and you can miss it if you aren't careful. And I loved the British accents, because I tend to not think of the books that way when I am reading them. This video had me laughing so hard at points my stomach hurt, and I will be watching again and again to catch what I missed from laughing, if I can contain myself that is.

So in summary all I can say is get it if you like the Discworld novels, get this video because you won't be disappointed!

You've read the books - now see the cartoon
I've been putting off buying the Pratchett cartoons, since I was apprehensive that the images wouldn't match my own personal images of the characters.
I was also worried that the process of transferring print to screen would lose a lot of the subtlety of the original.
I needn't have worried.
Very enjoyable indeed.
Were the characters as I imagined them? Not all, No. Did it matter? Not really.
I found to my delight that the makers of the cartoon had taken the trouble to immerse themselves in the books, and hence were able to throw in the occasional allusion (for the diehard fans) and to edit the narrative without any loss of enjoyment.
Strongly recommended.
Soul Music is even better.