Soul Music 

Based on Terry Pratchett's Novel. On Discworld (a world carried by four elephants standing on a huge turtle in space), a small girl, Susan Sto Helit, has got a major problem. Her ... See full summary »

Stars:

Christopher Lee, Graham Crowden, Debra Gillett

Cast

Series cast summary:
Christopher Lee	...	Death 7 episodes, 1997
Graham Crowden	...	Mustrum Ridcully 7 episodes, 1997
Debra Gillett	...	Susan Sto Helit 7 episodes, 1997
Andy Hockley	...	Imp y Celyn 7 episodes, 1997
George Harris	...	Lias Bluestone 7 episodes, 1997
Neil Morrissey	...	Mort 7 episodes, 1997
Bryan Pringle	...	Albert 7 episodes, 1997
Bernard Wrigley	...	Asphalt 7 episodes, 1997
John Jardine		7 episodes, 1997
Rosalie Williams		7 episodes, 1997
Maggie Fox		7 episodes, 1997
Jimmy Hibbert		7 episodes, 1997
Maggie Fox	...	Ms. Butts 7 episodes, 1997
David Holt		7 episodes, 1997
Rob Rackstraw		7 episodes, 1997
Melissa Sinden	...	Ysabell 7 episodes, 1997

Storyline

Based on Terry Pratchett's Novel. On Discworld (a world carried by four elephants standing on a huge turtle in space), a small girl, Susan Sto Helit, has got a major problem. Her grandfather is Death, who wants to forget that he has just "processed" his adopted daughter and her husband, who was Susan's mother and father, as this is causing him great grief, and Death is a person that can remember everything, much to his chagrin. Susan finds herself pressed into taking over Death's "duty", but finds that she is falling in love with an elf/human, Imp, who is slowly being taken over by a kind of "musical" force that is forcing Imp and his friends to play rock music to the Discworld. The rock music is proving to be a great success, but iit has plans for Imp and everybody wanting to play it, and it is up to Susan, the head of the wizards, the Archchancellor and Death (that is, if he can be found and made to remember who and what he is.) to stop it before it conquers the entire Discworld.

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Plot Keywords:

cult favorite | rock 'n' roll | parody | spoof | cult tv | 

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Taglines:

A story of reality, fantasy and the bits in the middle

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Fantasy | Music

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

May 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Soul Music

Company Credits

Production Co:

Channel 4 Television Corporation, Cosgrove Hall Films, ITEL

Technical Specs

Runtime:

172 min (total run time) 25 min (7 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Death: I need to imbibe vast ammounts of alcohol.

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Alternate Versions

Edited into a seven-part miniseries for television; also seen on the DVD release.

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Connections

References A Hard Day's Night (1964)

User Reviews

A decent movie with an excellent soundtrack

I actually thought that the movie was pretty good. I didn't notice the looped animations that several people have mentioned and the animation itself was pretty good for what is essentially a low-budget production (probably due to it being a relative unknown in terms of success).

A lot of my favorite jokes were in. Of course not all of them could make it, but it was still pretty good at conveying the weirdness and dry sense of humor that the book possesses, especially about the music industry.

I would ordinarily give this movie (or series, however you want to put it) a seven. It has decent animation, the voices are well done in some places and adequately done (at best) in others, but the soundtrack made all the difference.

The soundtrack is a work of art. I only wish that they had included the full length songs on the DVD. The parodies are excellently done, with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Beatles, the Blues Brothers, 60's flower power, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Halen-like songs all being represented. The songs are all masterfully done. Terry Pratchett himself said that he wanted a copy of the soundtrack.

All in all, a decent recreation of the book with a 10-star soundtrack.

If someone could post in the forum on whether or not a soundtrack CD was made (and where to get it), I and many others would be grateful.