Terry Pratchett’s Discworld – The Wyrd Sisters

After watching The Wyrd Sisters I will admit to feeling a bit lost. Terry Pratchett’s reputation as a humorous writers is well documented, and after spending over 2 hours scouring for the comedy in the first edition of Discworld I was bewildered that I had come up so short.

It wasn’t until I took a stroll through the disc’s bonus features that I figured out what had been missing. Within the special features there’s a brief informational video that explains what the Discworld. It had a kind of Hitchhiker’s Guide style narration, and was actually pretty funny at face value. And that’s what it was: It was missing Pratchett’s voice (not to say that I’d expect him to actually narrate this thing himself, but the author’s voice can go a long way to putting some of the questionably funny dialogue into context.)

What can I conclude from this? Had I watched Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Collection
after reading the book, I might have had the requisite knowledge for all the jokes and scattered plot points to come off the way intended.

To Pratchett’s credit, the story is well structured, with many errant strands that manage to wrap themselves up come the story’s end, most of them Happily Ever After. Based on the novel of the same name, The Wyrd Sisters centres mostly on the adventures of three witches and their involvement in a King’s assassination and eventual return of his son to claim the throne from evil usurpers. When a loyal servant of the freshly slain king happens upon a witch’s coven just before being slain himself, he hands off a baby prince to the three witches. In order to maintain their arm’s length relationship with mainstream Discworld society, they entrust the baby to a travelling troupe of actors. The complex plot meanders out from there, introducing an array of sinister characters and hapless fools. It’s familiar fare to fans of fantasy, and could perhaps do a “comfort video”, especially for those already well-versed in Pratchett’s work.

The special features offer a healthy array of supplements, including the aforementioned explanation of exactly Discworld is. I was disappointed with the 2.0 audio mix, but I suppose that can be attributed to the source material.

The Verdict:While I would like to give this DVD a strong endorsement, especially due to the rarity of material like this, and also for Terry Pratchett’s relationship my my litterary hero: Neil Gaiman. Sadly, I can’t really recommend this to anyone unless they are already a fan of Pratchett’s work.