Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Alright, just to clarify everything, I'm not blogging about the movie. I'm not blogging about the books. I'm not blogging about the BBC TV series. I'm not blogging about the BBC Radio drama. What I am blogging about is the whole franchise that is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

For some reason there are HGTTG purists out there, and for some reason they hate the movie, or they hate the TV series, or they make a huge deal about how the books are different from the radio drama. Here's what I say about that. Don't Panic. Here's the real skinny for these purists: Douglas Adams wasn't a purist himself, and he wrote the thing. Adams was obviously OK with a little flexibility in his stories, and this can be seen by the fact that while he was writing Salmon of Doubt, he wasn't sure whether it was going to end up as a Hitchhiker's story, or a Dirk Gently story, and he was planning on altering it to fit his purpose best. Also, Life the Universe and Everything originally started out as a Dr. Who movie script called Dr. Who and the Krikkitmen. You need to go take a nice long lunch break and just relax a bit.

So disclaimer aside, HGTTG is really enjoyable nonsense. There are some really funny jokes in this series, and the typical British style satire really makes the whole thing great. There are some really great lines, like Adams describing the ability to fly as "The art of throwing ones self at the ground and missing." Also the thought of a mutant star goat, always entertaining.

For the movie, it must be understood that I do understand that some stuff that people really wanted to see was left on the cutting room floor, and I feel for them. I also understand that a lot of people just didn't like the movie much. I however liked the movie quite a bit, and here's some of the things I think they did right. First, the casting was good. Alan Rickman is best Marvin ever!. Mos Def plays a nerdy geeky Ford Prefect really well. Martin Freeman and Sam Rockwell are also excellent. But the shining star among the cast has to be Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. She is a wonderful actress, and I got to say I really like her big blue eyes. Thank God she doesn't have her sister Emily's fivehead.

For the TV series, I think it's really the campiest part of the franchise. The whole production looks like it was comprised of old Dr. Who sets that had been repainted and shifted about a little bit, and then bad Brit actors did their best to keep audiences awake. To be honest, I love watching the series if you haven't figured it out yet. What makes the series though has got to be the book animations. They are priceless. They are so 80's and just so kitschy.

The books are fun. I always was amazed at Adams' ability to write the shortest chapters. Life, the Universe and Everything and Mostly Harmless were actually a bit of a letdown to me, but I liked So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish a lot.

The radio drama was sorta the origin of the whole phenomena. I'd just like to point out, some stuff works in radio that wouldn't in a book, or visa versa. The same is true for film. Somethings just work and other things just don't. Just look at each presentation as an artist's representation of the original, and you will be OK.

Finally, just got to say, I like the song Journey of the Sorcerer a lot, and I think it's a great addition to the franchise.