Moving Pictures (Discworld, #10; Industrial Revolution, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Feb 18, 2017 Lyn rated it really liked it

This most Lovecraftian of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books (this being number TEN and first published in 1990) and first of the Industrial Revolution books.

Moving Pictures, as a title of course makes me think of Rush’s brilliant 1981 album of the same name (Pratchett even makes droll word play just as in Rush’s cover art).

Like so many of Sir Terry’s Discworld adventures, he liberally sprinkles popular and cultural references throughout and besides the ubiquitous Lovecraft allusions, he also tu ...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2024-shelf, fantasy, 2018-shelf

Re-Read 5/21/24:

Ah, how I love Gaspode. And CMOTD. Truly, I love to hate CMOTD. He's everything we are today, and I hattttteeeeezzzz him.

Great re-read. These all tend to get better with every read. 3rd time now? Likely. And always a joy.

Original Reveiw:

This is a re-read and I'm upping my rating because, well, let's face it: this is the start of a brand new chapter in the Discworld and it follows the main style that I have grown to love over all the rest of the books. I was slow to love them at ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Can you hear that? It's the sound of a movie reel.
Discworld has it's first foray into the industrial revolution. Here, in form of the last guardian of an old portal dying without anybody being there to take up his tasks. Not long after, some alchemists in Ankh-Morpork develop clicks, moving pictures painted by enslaved little demons. Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, the sausage dealer, isn't gonna miss out on a chance to get rich so he becomes the first agent/film studio executive. Soon, first people

Can you hear that? It's the sound of a movie reel.
Discworld has it's first foray into the industrial revolution. Here, in form of the last guardian of an old portal dying without anybody being there to take up his tasks. Not long after, some alchemists in Ankh-Morpork develop clicks, moving pictures painted by enslaved little demons. Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, the sausage dealer, isn't gonna miss out on a chance to get rich so he becomes the first agent/film studio executive. Soon, first people and then animals (that can suddenly talk) are drawn to where the portal used to be, Holy Wood, without knowing why they had the intense urge to be there and be in a picture or help make one.
Holy Wood soon is growing, moving pictures are created in colour even (sound is still very complicated) and the place is becoming stronger while at least some people start noticing that something's wrong. Such as Victor, the male lead. From then on, the crack between dimensions gets larger and larger and there is a mad dash for nothing less than saving the entire Discworld - because that is what a male lead does, right?

Some old beloved characters such as the Librarian or Death as well as some new ones like Gaspode or the trolls spice up this story and it's a delight. And let's not forget that the city of Ankh-Morpork itself, technically, is a character, too - just like the Unseen University's library. Oh, and the current Arch Chancellor (who will remain so for quite a while apparently) now is Ridcully, a fantastically quirky addition to the whole bunch of wizzards.

I burst out laughing several times while reading it and could quote over half of the book.
Pratchett, in his usual deadpan humour, parodies product placements, the treatment of cast and crew on a film set, actors' behavior, the making of movies (historically and mechanically), the plot points in movies, fame, the media circus, the power of imagination ... and even more serious topics such as discrimination and racism in the industry.
There is also more than one movie reference in this, such as for Gone with the Wind, King Kong, Ben Hur, and a few others - with a Discworld twist, of course.

Truth be told, I was reluctant to read this at first. I'd heard about the industrial revolution books, of course, that form a group much like the ones about the witches or the City Watch, but I didn't think I'd like them too much because I want my Discworld to stay almost medieval in its atmosphere and feared the changes. However, that fear was completely unfounded, at least in this book. On the contrary: especially because I feared a clash of the good old with the shiny new Discworld, it was all the more funny to read about A Wild Idea arriving and trying to find a place. Thus, it's no surprise this has fast become one of my facourite Discworld books!

Once again, I've read this in the audio format; once again, the narrator was Nigel Planner; once again, he was brilliant. From the sound effects like the movie reels to the accents (especially of the trolls and CMOT), he nailed it! ...more

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May 23, 2024 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The 10th in my re-read of the entire Discworld series and the first about the industrial revolution coming to the Disc (though that is a very loosely connected inner-series serie).

One reason why I decided to re-read the series is that I can never just indulge in one of the volumes. The other is that the audiobooks were newly produced and the casts looked amazing.

Reading this 10th book (in chronological order) are:

This volume has a strange idea taking root in Ankh-Morpork. The alchemist's guild i The 10th in my re-read of the entire Discworld series and the first about the industrial revolution coming to the Disc (though that is a very loosely connected inner-series serie).

One reason why I decided to re-read the series is that I can never just indulge in one of the volumes. The other is that the audiobooks were newly produced and the casts looked amazing.

Reading this 10th book (in chronological order) are:

This volume has a strange idea taking root in Ankh-Morpork. The alchemist's guild is developing pictures that move and tell a story at a weird old place named Holy Wood Hill. Suddenly, very weird things are being invented. Like this mysterious snack that tastes of cardbord and is called banged corn. Surely, the (disc-)world has gone mad!
And how could it not what with all those poor tiny demons being ensaved to produce clicks like that. Not to mention that this means the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Best of all, an almost entirely new cast (excuse the pun) of characters (such as Gaspode, the talking dog) met some of the best old ones (DEATH, the Watch). First and foremost, Gaspode became one of my all-time favorites after this book. However, I also adored the quirky and overdrawn look at the movie industry and everything that entails - from all manner of unlogical "food" to advertising!
Weirdly, while I do enjoy CMOT Dibbler, he never became a favorite of mine. Mostly, I always wanted to see him get his. *chuckles*

So many classic movies get made fun of in here but in the best and most erudite of ways, perfectly holding up the mirror about the silliness we humans get up to on a regular basis (I marked plenty of quotes in case you need proof). Looking at the writer's strike we had only recently, all that commentary on how the industry treats actors/writers/crew hit especially hard. Typical Terry.

Rounding off this romp was Jason Isaacs (yes, him!) as the narrator of this new audiobook version and he was absolutely nailing it! :D Such a fantastic entry in the series, made all the better by this rendition. ...more

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Apr 19, 2015 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Part of the Pratchett reread with the SpecFic Buddy Reads group. This is my second time reading this book, with my first when it first came out. I didn't particularly like it much back then and I didn't realize at the time how many ongoing Discworld characters were introduced here.

In an area near the city of Ankh-Morpork the last follower of an ancient religion dies without passing on his knowledge.

In Ankh-Morpork itself a group of alchemists discover the secret of a nearly-not-explosive new tec ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Linda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018

This is going onto my pile of favorite Discworld books.

I just loved all the movie references, the typical Pratchett humor had me laughing throughout, and Gaspode the Wonder Dog is now one of my favorite characters. Most of the main characters were new, but there were plenty of other characters we met previously that made numerous appearances - The Librarian, trolls, wizards, our friends from The Watch. The ending played tug-of-war with my heart strings, but that just made it all that more excit ...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Dawn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series-finished, own, fantasy

I find it rather impossible not to like all the Discworld books but there are the good ones and the awesome ones. This is one of the former.
Somehow Hollywood, which you would think of as the perfect place to satirize, wasn't a good subject for the wit and humour of Pratchett. Or maybe the problem was that Tinsel Town is such an over the top place and has been made fun of for so long, that it required more than the usual treatment.
So while it is a good story and amusing. It's not the crazy, rid ...more

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