... Don't forget your towel!
**The Plot**
Dear me, where to begin? There's not so much a plot to HHGTG, but a series of misadventures for one Arthur Dent and his alien friend Ford Prefect.
The story begins one Thursday morning when Arthur awakes to discover his house is about to be knocked ... Read review
The original BBC radio adventures of Arthur Dent (an ape-descendant whose anger at the ... more
apparently inexplicable destruction of his home planet Earth, situated in an obscure corner of the outer spiral arm of the galaxy, is expressed in frequent irritatio...
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The original BBC radio adventures of Arthur Dent (an ape-descendant whose anger at the ... more
apparently inexplicable destruction of his home planet Earth, situated in an obscure corner of the outer spiral arm of the galaxy, is expressed in frequent irritatio...
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It is the most remarkable certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the ... more
great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. More popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus better selling than Fifty Three Things to Do in Zero Gravity and mor...
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Don't panic! After twenty years stuck in development (a mere blink compared to how long it ... more
takes to find the answer to life, the universe, and everything),The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyhas finally been turned into a movie. Following the radio play, TV series, commemorative towel, and books, this latest installment in the sci-fi-comedy franchise is based on the screenplay and detailed notes by Douglas Adams. For those unfamiliar with the story, everyman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) wakes up one morning to discover that his house is set to be demolished to make room for a bypass. Little does he know the entire planet Earth is also set to be destroyed for an interplanetary bypass by the Vogons, a hideous and bureaucratic race of aliens realized in the film by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Whisked off the planet by his best friend, alien-in-disguise Ford Prefect (Mos Def), Dent embarks on a goofy jaunt across the galaxy accompanied by his trusty Hitchhiker's Guide, which looks like a really fancy PDA. The guide itself provides some of the funniest bits of the movie, little animated shorts that explain the ludicrous life forms and extraterrestrial phenomena our heroes encounter. Along the way Arthur meets the two-headed party animal/president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) and develops an unrequited crush on fellow earthling Trillian (Zooey Deschanel). The creatures and sets are inspired and answer to the sci-fi fan's primal need to see lots and lots of cool stuff. Where the story stumbles is in the telling--as books, the Hitchhiker's Guide was foremost about goofy and brilliant ideas that raised questions about our place in the universe while getting a laugh. The movie has enough trouble figuring out how to get the characters from one fantastical location to the next that Adams's funniest concepts often feel left in the dust. While the reverence the filmmakers felt toward Adams's legacy is apparent, one wonders what we could have expected had the creator of this science fiction universe lived to see it with his own eyes.--Ryan Boudinot, Amazon.com
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary Phase is a new six-part dramatisation of the ... more
third book in Douglas Adams's "Trilogy in Four Parts", Life, the Universe and Everything. We rejoin Arthur Dent--after his anticlimactic revelation of the meaning of life and his unceremonious return to earth--to find him living in a hideously miserable cave in prehistory. However, just as he thinks that things cannot possibly get any worse, they suddenly do. He discovers that the Galaxy is not only mind-bogglingly big and bewildering, but also that most of the things that happen in it are staggeringly unfair. Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for superb sequel, which features 20 minutes of material not heard in the broadcast version. The sound is crystal clear and the running time is a massively entertaining 3 hours and 10 minutes. Among the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. And even the delightful Joanna Lumley pops up unexpectedly. --Paul Eisinger
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary Phaseis a new six-part dramatisation of the ... more
third book in Douglas Adams's "Trilogy in Four Parts",Life, the Universe and Everything. We rejoin Arthur Dent--after his anticlimactic revelation of the meaning of life and his unceremonious return to earth--to find him living in a hideously miserable cave in prehistory. However, just as he thinks that things cannot possibly get any worse, they suddenly do. He discovers that the Galaxy is not only mind-bogglingly big and bewildering, but also that most of the things that happen in it are staggeringly unfair.Many of the cast of the original BBC Radio 4 series have been reunited for superb sequel, which features 20 minutes of material not heard in the broadcast version. The sound is crystal clear and the running time is a massively entertaining 3 hours and 10 minutes. Among the returning cast are Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect, Susan Sheridan as Trillian, Mark Wing-Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox and Stephen Moore as Marvin the Paranoid Android. And even the delightful Joanna Lumley pops up unexpectedly.--Paul Eisinger
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* Durable acrylic key chain is crystal-clear and double-sided so the artwork or message ... more
is seen twice.* Sturdy metal ring holds your keys securely.* Full color printed images or messages are included.* If you have new ideas or need help selecting text for your custom keychains please contact us.* Size: 1 3/4" x 1 1/2" (45 x 35 mm) plus frameShipping might take 5 business days.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Advantages: Great story, great characters, good radio to TV transfer Disadvantages: Poor special effects
...Having been a fan of the radio series when it originally aired, my Dad invariably made my sister and I listen to it - and I'm glad he did. I doubt my younger self would have understood or fully appreciated the jokes, but I did love the story. I can't quite remember when I first watched the television version, but it must have been some time ago - with several re-viewings over the years.
I've recently re-watched the entire series on ... ...Prefect.
The story begins one Thursday morning when Arthur awakes to discover his house is about to be knocked down. But that's the least of his worries - moments later his old friend Ford Prefect (not actually from Guildford after all, but a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse) shows up, with the news that the Earth is about to be destroyed.
My love of all things Hitchhikers began when I was very little. Having been a fan of the radio series when it originally aired, my Dad invariably made my sister and I listen to it - and I'm glad he did. I doubt my younger self would have understood or fully appreciated the jokes, but I did love the story. I can't quite remember when I first watched the television version, but it must have been some time ago - with several re-viewings over the years.
I've recently re-watched the entire series on DVD, including the extras and bonus features, so here's my review for you. Don't forget your towel!
**The Plot**
Dear me, where to begin? There's not so much a plot to HHGTG, but a series of misadventures for one Arthur Dent and his alien friend Ford Prefect.
The story begins one Thursday morning when Arthur awakes to discover his house is about to be knocked down. But that's the least of his worries - moments later his old friend Ford Prefect (not actually from Guildford after all, but a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse) shows up, with the news that the Earth is about to be destroyed.
From there on in, things only get worse…
Ford and Arthur are forced to listen to Vogon poetry, rediscover old two-headed friends, encounter Marvin the paranoid android, meet the true engineers of the Earth, have dinner at the restaurant at the end of the universe, get thrown back to prehistoric times and much more.
What makes HHGTG so incredibly good (and worthwhile) is the humour. It doesn't take itself seriously. The science is comically flawed. The extracts from the Guide itself are sarcastic and funny.
**The Characters**
The characters in HHGTG are wonderful. A neurotic dressing-gowned man - the only survivor of the destruction of the Earth - touring the galaxy with an alien? Brilliant!
The main character is the said dressing-gowned man - Arthur Dent. In this televised version, he is played by the original voice actor from the radio series - Simon Jones. It worked well keeping the actor consistent, because Simon Jones has a very Arthur Dent-ish look, and his voice is the one you've come to know and love.
Ford Prefect in the television series looks suitably odd, and the actor playing him - David Dixon - has great timing when it comes to delivering the alien's lines. Ford, like Arthur, is a great comic character with a silly name!
Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed president of the galaxy is a hoopy character, make no mistake. Played by the original voice-actor from the radio series, Mark Wing-Davey, Zaphod in the TV series has a silly second head stuck to his shoulder throughout - more on that later.
The final main character here is Trillian - also known as Trisha McMillan - also a human. I think there was a big mistake with the casting here - Sandra Dickinson has an incredibly annoying voice!
Other characters make up this complex and colourful cast - such as Marvin, the terminally depressed robot and Slartibartfast, the peculiarly named planet designer from the lost world of Magrathea.
All of the characters are unique, funny and wonderful in their own way.
**The Look of Things**
This series was filmed and aired in 1980, and it shows. The sets and special effects are poor and laughable by today's standards, but somehow it doesn't detract from your viewing of the series.
Admittedly, if you were a newcomer to the franchise and sat down to watch this, you might be appalled by the spaceships which are horrifyingly obvious models being zoomed around on a piece of string. But if you're a fan of the book, or the radio series, then you can forget about that and just enjoy the story.
Having said that, one of the worst - and most distracting effects - in the series is Zaphod Beeblebrox's extra head. It's creepy and oh so fake looking, and it just sits there on Mark Wing-Davey's shoulder looking silly and adding nothing to the story.
Apart from the so-bad-they're-good special effects, you know that the series is clearly filmed in the eighties from the bad hair and make-up.
The parts where the Book narrates are funny animated inserts with more text on them than there's time to read, but they look quite good - if a bit plain by today's standards and expectations.
**From Radio to TV**
Here's my order of things: listened to the radio series. Read the books. Watched the TV series. Having loved the HHGTG franchise in that order, do I think that it translated well from radio to television?
In one word: yes. Very little was changed between the original radio series and this TV-series (unlike the disaster that was the 2005 film!) - and because of that, it works very well. Whole sections of dialogue that were in the radio series can be seen brought to life visually on screen.
Even having the Book as the narrator works here, because each time the Book talks, we're shown a visual representation - usually in the form of a short animation.
This television series retains the fantastic British humour from the original, and adds a new spin to things, giving an image to this well-loved world.
**Special Features**
Disk Two of this set offers a plethora of fantastic special features that are well worth a watch.
-Don't Panic: A documentary on various aspects of HHGTG, with cast interviews. -Communicate: A short documentary about the recording of the radio series. -Behind the Scenes: Giving a behind the scenes look at the recording of one scene. -The Making of HHGTG: A really interesting and well-made documentary on the making of HHGTG. This was filmed 12 years later, and includes interviews with the cast and crew - and even they admit the effects were pants! -Pebble Mill at One: An excerpt from this programme where two members of the HHGTG crew talk about the TV series. -Deleted Scene from Episode Two: Exactly as it says! -Photo gallery: Some stills from the show. -Out-takes: Exactly as it says! -Tomorrow's World Sequence: An excerpt from this programme talking about Zaphod's extra head and how it works. -Peter Jones Introduction: Peter Jones (the voice of the book) sitting behind a desk, rambling on quite hilariously about HHGTG! -Trailer: The original BBC2 television trails from when HHGTG was first aired.
The extras are definitely worth watching - particularly the "Making Of" documentary.
**Overall**
If you're a fan of the radio series and the book, but you haven't seen the TV series, definitely watch it!
The special effects are laughable but they add to the charm, and none of the humour of the original radio series is lost in the transference to screen.
Try it out, laugh at the utter silliness of the storyline and most importantly of all - Don't Panic!
Advantages: Extremely funny, very entertaining and very well written Disadvantages: The cardboard cover
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy is a humorous science fiction series, one of the first of its kind, but unlike shows such as Red Dwarf and 3rd Rock From The Sun, its genuine science fiction - which is also funny, its full of extremely funny lines/jokes/scenes, there are so many ideas crammed into each line that’s its mind blowing, every line has an original idea that you could base a new story upon.
~~The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy~~
This ... ...writing, he proposed the idea for a radio series, called ‘The Ends Of The Earth’, each episode would end with the destruction of earth in a different way. In writing the first episode he remembered when he hitchhiked over Europe and had been lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, he had a copy of the Hitchhikers guide to Europe on him, and looking at the stars, it occurred to him that someone should write a hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. So Douglas ...
seagulls-lost-horizon 11.05.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (DVD)
Advantages: Complete series and many extras Disadvantages: Doesnt have Dont Panic in big friendly red letter on the cover
...more importantly is what’s on the discs.
Disc one contains all 6 episodes with deleted scenes and the choice between original mono sound and enhanced stereo. If you’ve read the book or listened to the radio show, you get the basic idea about what’s happening, if you have done neither, here is a brief synopsis of what happens: -
We meet our heroes Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Arthur Dent is a human from earth and his best friend ... ...being bulldozed, Dent learns of the fact that earth itself is about to be bulldozed by the evil Vogon fleet. So armed only with their Towels, peanuts and the 'Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' an intergalactic travel guide for which Prefect is a researcher, they hitch a ride on the Vogon ship. This is the start of an adventure that takes them right to the end of the universe, the beginning of the human race and a planet where planets are designed ...
Heidavey 20.09.2002 (21.09.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (DVD)
Advantages: I'm still working on this Disadvantages: low budget, terible effects, poor radio to TV trancefer.
For me the TV series really did not work (I know many will disagree with me on this). It has very poor special effects and there have been some big changes to it from the origanal radio series. Which I was and still am a big fan of.
The basic plot (Arthur Dent being rescued from the earth moments before it is distroyed to make way for a hyperspace by-pass, then trying to find the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything ... ...it would have had, the effects are no where near as good as the radio series discribed them. My favorite carator is marvin the paranoid android who is always depressed. He has some of the best one liners.
Most of the humour of the radio series seems to have been lost and there is a bit of over acting by those playing the smaller parts. Not all of the origanal radio cast are presant. The origanal radio dramatisation ran for two series (more recent ...
mjc121 04.07.2007 (22.05.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (DVD)
Advantages: None! Disadvantages: Complete waste of a couple of hours
...This was one of the worst films ive EVER seen, would rather watch home alone 2 again, and I walked out of the cinema at that one!
Arthur (Martin Freeman) was a complete drip in this film, I can see that he has become typecast already having left the confines of The Office. I dont find him funny at all, he was good in T.O. but not in this, and I actually DO rate him in Love Actually, but goddness knows what happened here, I think the director thought ... ...had to be in the exact same genre.
I cant really put my finger on what it was about this movie, maybe it was the wooden acting or the not funny lines in it; I just cant say. All I CAN say is that, if you enjoy sticking pins in your eyes, then go ahead and do that, at least it'll keep you stimulated, not like this flick!
Avoid at all costs! :( ...
balletgirl 07.11.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (DVD)
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Advantages: Some funny moments, remains true to the originals mostly Disadvantages: Read the review...
a little more weight to the characters and making them seem more realistic than I think computer-generated creatures would have done.
~~~ The DVD ~~~
The copy I own is the two-disc edition. The menus on both discs are brightly coloured, mostly keeping in line with ?The Guide? visuals from the movie. Navigation is intuitive and I doubt anybody would struggle in terms of finding their way around the discs.
The DVD comes with a fair amount of bonus material and the Special Features are: -
- Making Of The Hitchhiker?sGuideTo The Galaxy
- Additional Guide Entry
- Deleted Scenes
- Really Deleted Scenes
- Sing Along
- Audio Commentaries
- Set Top Games: Marvin?s Hangman
- Don?t Crash: Making Of? (UK Exclusive Bonus)
All the Special Features are well produced, but as is often the case, their appeal will vary from person to person ...
Advantages: Douglas Adams is funny Disadvantages: The film is a poor vehicle for him - did like the casting, acting or effects
Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guideto the Galaxy began life as a radio show, before becoming a hit series of books and a 1981 TV series. It's surprising in many ways that it took until 2005 to be made into a full-length feature film. While I'd enjoyed both the books and TV series, I'm not really a cinema goer and some rather mixed reviews, combined with the fact that I had after all read the books and seen the TV series, meant I didn't bother catching it at the cinema. When it was shown on TV last Christmas (2007) however, I was quite looking forward to it.
I wouldn't call myself particularly discerning when it comes to movies. As readers of my recent Fantastic Four review will know, if it keeps me entertained for a couple of hours that's usually enough - I'm more into pop-corn flicks than great works of art or, at least, I don ...
Advantages: Martin Freeman; Alan Rickman; Steven Fry Disadvantages: Just not as much fun as the book or radio show
Marvin being 'cute' are allayed as Alan Rickman's digitally revised voice lends the perfect depressed weight, and Stephen Fry is impeccable as the underused eponymous guide.
Others, including the pointless set-piece with John Malkovich's Humma Kavula, to retrieve a special 'gun' from Deep Thought on Magrathea, verge on being a bit contrived.
What this movie is trying to do is perhaps the impossible. It needs to appeal to the Hitchhiker's faithful, who loved the original books, tv series and radio show; while at the same time bringing in those punters who know nothing of the phenomenon, but who are promised a funny sci-fi movie.
All of which eads to the movie being pulled in too many directions. Fundamental differences though there were between the previous genres, there won't be quite enough of the past incarnations to totally fulfil ...
The complete series based on the book by Douglas Adams.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
2 ENTERTAIN VIDEO; SONY DADC
Release date
18/04/2005
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
BBCDVD 1092
Barcode
5014503109226
Screenwriter
Douglas Adams
Author
Douglas Adams
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Making Of, Extra Footage, Peter Jones Intro, Original Trailer, Communicate, Behind The Scenes, Animatronics Feature, Pebble Mill Appearance By Rod Lord And Alan J Bell, Production Notes, Out Takes, Photo Gallery, Easter Eggs
Sound
Mono, Stereo
Dubbing Sound
Mono English Stereo English
DVD Description
The comic and cosmic adventures of Arthur, an unassuming Englishman, and Ford his outwardly average neighbor who is actually an alien. Together, they are transported on an odyssey that takes them across the farthest reaches of time, through Hyperspace, as they search for the meaning of life.
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