Rating: 
Summary: A small step in the right direction
Review: I have read every book in the discworld series, and own all of them that harper-prism has published. I believe that soul music (the book) is one of the best of the series. What makes this series unique is the fact that it is a comidic fantasy series that is not directed toward children. Making anything from this series into a cartoon takes it closer to the realm of children's fiction. However, a well done cartoon could still draw an adult audience. The problem with this cartoon is that it is not well done. The librarian looks as if it were animated by someone who still hasn't ever even had an orangutan described to him, and the wizards defy the discriptions given in the books. Nobody has a colored upper lip, and Susan, who should be skinny to the point of being nearly skeletal herself, is slightly overweight. Althought the soundtrack is a nice touch, you may find yourself embarrased to watch this movie with people not well-read in the series itself. Even the discworld games are better. At least Pratchett is attempting to get his series into more diverse media. I hope the discworld movie is good when it comes out, but I won't hold my breath.
Rating: 
Summary: People had me worried for a minute there...
Review: I must say, with all the negative reviews that this animation was getting, I was almost afraid to watch it. But my insistance on seeing Death animated persuaded me to buy it anyways, and I'm glad for it. So I will address some of the main negative commentary. First, the quality of animation. Perhaps I've become desensitized to bad animation (thanks to some low-budget Japanese anime) but in my experience, Soul Music's animation is not at all bad. If anyone could stomach Scooby-Doo or Johnny Quest, then this is nothing. The adaptation itself (while I would rather have seen Reaper Man or Mort animated) was exquisite and followed the novel almost exactly. Sometimes the cuts or execution of a particular scene in the novel didn't translate exactly, but for the most part seeing it in action actually clarified aspects of the book. I was particularly impressed by how well things such as Death's house and time travel were handled. And finally, the voice acting was very well done. Christopher Lee as Death was a piece of casting that could not have been done better, not to mention the design overall was done well! Susan, although her character design fluctuated a lot, was also very good. The musical aspect of the story -- going through all the 'stages' of rock music since it started -- was handled surprisingly well also.
The only gripe I had was the fact that the Death of Rats didn't have a rat skull. Nor did he, er, SQUEAK properly. He looked more like a Death of Lizards. And Quoth didn't really look much like a raven, and talked more like a parrot. But otherwise, everything was spot-on.
Rating:
Summary: An Amateurish Mess
Review: I never had high expectations for the animated 'Soul Music.' Unfortunately, it was even worse than I expected. The entire series is a low-budget, poorly-planned, ill-considered translation of a story that should (in all honestly) be left in prose. Let me explain... The animation is horribly amateurish. At its best, it is on par with an old Hanna-Barbara cartoon, and at its worst it resembles a Flash animation. All of the characters are blocky and move with a tense jerkiness. The show seems to lack any cohesive sense of style to pull it all together. Things look off-scale and out of place, especially the glaring computer effects. The voice acting itself is downright grating. It all seems too loud, too shrill, and too overdone; Its as though the actors were so worried about making themselves sound like their characters that they forgot they also need to sound like normal people. The choppy dialogue only makes the problem worse. The dialogue, along with the script itself, moves along at such a fast pace that vital details are left out. It all seems to be the sort of stuff that moves the action along, but never gives the audience enough nuanced conversation to give us a clear view of what is driving the characters to do the things they do. In fact, there are some strange parts of the story which are never explained at all. The entire series carries a choppy, spliced-together feel. All of the scenes feel too short and the jokes are rushed. Not only were some truly dramatic shots weren't given the time they needed, but other shots end too soon or begin too late. It's as though the editing room simply couldn't get the timing right and switched to a new shot before the first one was finished, or dropped us into a shot that was already in motion. The jerky, start-and-stop feel never lets the audience settle into a familiar pace and serves as just one more nervous distraction. The series might be entertaining for the first few minutes, as fans of the series see their favorite characters come to life, but once the novelty of it wears off the viewer's interest begins to wane and never returns. The only saving grace of the series is that there are a handful of good, solid, laugh-out-loud gags. Unfortunately, they are few and far between, as opposed to Pratchett's novels in which the comedy comes with a metronome-like pace. And, also unfortunately, it doesn't even begin to make up for the sloppy presentation of the story itself.
Rating:
Summary: impressive
Review: i was terrified that the cartoon could never be as good as the book but i must admit i was pleasantly surprised. some of the subtle nuances of the written word are lost but you also gain sight gags and facial expressions. also, you get to compare the artists' vision of characters and places with your own; the same with the voices.
the setting was well done. it was pretty much what i'd imagined: twisty, turny and in complete denial of the laws of physics. cheers.
as far as characters go, they really did a great job. death had me the most worried. how do you do the voice of a guy who TALKS LIKE THIS? but they did it and they did it well. imp y ceylon was a good composite of the more popular brit-rock stars with a pretty decent singing voice and the decision to make cliff sound like an old jazz man was brilliant. the animation was a bit simple (or so it seemed at first) but it really worked. there were some pretty creative shots and angles used that made the most of a simplistic style. i was also concerned that the music would be generic tv sitcom rock but i found myself wishing for a soundtrack. the songs eren't parodies, per se, but they were strongly reminiscent of music you know. each concert is a different sound: the stones, the beatles, jimi hendrix; it's all in there. but the one shining moment is hearing Buddy announce "we're more popular than cheeses." probably the finest animated moment ever.
if you pass up a chance to see this you're making a big big mistake.
Rating: 
Summary: "Music With Rocks In" lives!
Review: If there was any Discworld novel that desperately needed to be translated to screen, it was "Soul Music." Terry Pratchett is a great writer, but it is nearly impossible to convey the experience of a rock concert (or rather, a Music With Rocks In concert) using words alone. You need to hear and see it for yourself in order to get the full effect. Now, at last, you can. When Buddy, Cliff and Glod explode onto the music scene, you can feel it happening. The loud music, the screaming fans, and the hip swinging "elvish" rock star - it's all there, larger than life and adds so much to the story. I had read the original book a number of times (I've read all the discworld books a number of times - I'm that sad), but I truly felt like I was experiencing the story anew. Keith Hopwood and the folks at Pluto music did a FANTASTIC job with the music - creating songs that remind you of great artists like the Beatles and Hendrix without completely imitating them. ("Good Lovin'" - an homage to the Blues Brothers, had me grinning and tapping my feet). You won't be able to get enough of the musical numbers - and it's a darn shame that they don't play their music for long enough. Animation-wise, "Soul Music" is nothing special, but that's a small quibble. If you've seen the other Discworld film, "Wyrd Sisters," you'll know what to expect. This film is more concerned with story and character than the visual "wow" factor. However, the artists still manage to do a great job. Bird's-eye views of the city, long, empty trails leading off into the distance, and crowded concert halls all manage to convey a great sense of scope and space. The animation isn't Disney or even Dreamworks quality, but you won't find yourself caring. Now we come to the voice work. I'm sorry there's no way to sugar-coat this. It's a mixed bag. The voices range from perfect to merely good to ear-numbingly bad. The main characters are voiced pretty well. I liked listening to Buddy and Cliff, and Susan was nice to listen to as well. Christopher Lee, once again, does a FANTASTIC job as Death. And the wizards' voices, frankly, are AWFUL. They sound like young men making their voices squeaky to sound like old men. And, unfortunately, you'll be hearing them a lot. Especially the Dean. Ugh. Keep some cotton swabs handy in case your ears start bleeding. Ridcully's voice is very well done, though - deep and booming, just as he's portrayed in the books. Don't let the spotty voice work stop you from nabbing this video (even if I had to dock the movie 1 star because of it). Christopher Lee and the excellent rock concert scenes made this a must-buy, especially if you're a Pratchett fan.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: If you've read the book and you're a Pratchett fan then I believe you will enjoy this. It keeps the spirt of his books, characters and dialog. I believe it's close to three hours total and truthfully I would have liked it to have been even longer. I was a bit sad when it was completed. Cons? Well, the dvd itself. All episodes are broken down which wouldn't be so bad if you just had the option to continue on. You don't though. You have to go back to the menu, episode listing, select the episode, fast forward through the opening...It gets a bit tiredsome when you just want to watch several straight through. The animation is rather bad. I've REALLY tried to think of it as "stylized" so as to forgive much of it but I failed. That being said. Would I buy it again knowing the above in advance? Yes, yes I would. I anxiously await to see if other titles will be featured as well.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly lousy
Review: Now, I wasn't expecting a whole lot, since I never considered Soul Music a great Discworld book; it's one of the handful that are based far too clumsily on real-world stories. But this disc is terrible. The animation is crude, and has consistency problems (e.g., in the back room at the Drum, crates disappear between one shot and the next; throughout the movie, the black streak in Susan's hair moves from one side of her head to the other--funny how the book never mentioned that she was followed around by a fairy hairdresser). The producers made some strange editing choices. They cut some funny throwaway lines; the largest I noticed was the late-night diner scene, based on the fried chicken scene in The Blues Brothers (as if they wanted to avoid being too derivative), but then they made the concerts be *more* derivative than the book (the Band keeps coming up with costumes patterned on various 60s bands), and added a scene based on John Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" comment (admittedly, very funny, but also very derivative). Oh, and they cut all the great bits about conflict with the Watch in the various towns, and most of the scenes with the other bands, which are essential to the book; they show how Music With Rocks In is spreading. And they cut out most of the explanation about how the Music is the heart of creation, leaving us with incomprehensible mysticism. Finally, the DVD implementation is pathetic; they left the credits at the start and end of each episode in place, which means what could be a smooth movie instead gets chopped up into 24-minute chunks. Oh, and the start of each episode includes a recap of the previous one, which is (a) not necessary when you've got the whole disc in front of you and (b) done so badly that it's useless if you don't. And there are no chapter boundaries within the episodes, which means that, if you skip forward, you're going to the start of the next episode; you can't skip from scene to scene as you can on most discs.
Rating: 
Summary: Soul Music - I only THOUGHT they couldn't do worse
Review: Since Acorn's last Terry Pratchett release "Wyrd Sisters", you would think they could only do better. You could at least say they "stuck to the book". though missing the feel and character of his novels. Well rub your hands together and get a load of this one. Not only does the quality of the animation, voice work, and character design feel "done in an afternoon", (I think by someone that hasn't read the book(s)), but they made every feeble attempt at touching on the little nuances from to book like a 4 yr old tellng dirty jokes... just don't get it. I do understand the production environment and executive producers just slapping things together, but wouldn't it save a lot of people money, stress, embarrassment and dignity to not even bother? I believe most would be luckier to wait for this one in a 7a.m. saturday morning run.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, poorly done DVD
Review: Soul Music is a faithful and entertaining version of Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, part of the Death subseries of Discworld books. It is also an amusing pastiche of the history of rock and roll. However, the designers of the DVD made a really dumb decision. Soul Music is made up of a series of episodes. At the end of each episode, you must return to the main menu, select the next chapter, and then play it (and each starts with a short recap of what came before). There is no way to just watch the whole thing from start to finish (something you could do in the previous Discworld DVD, Wyrd Sisters). Why, oh why, did they do something so dumb?
Rating:
Summary: HALLLOOO, ANKH-MORPORK!
Review: Soul Music is one of my favourite Discworld books ever (it's a comedy fantasy series that takes place on a flat planet) and I must say that this animated version was pretty decent. The story of Soul Music, basically, is that Death, while trying to "FORGET", runs off, leaving his grand-daughter Susan (don't ask) to do his job--whether she wants to or not! Meanwhile, a young bard named Imp goes to the city and joins up with a dwarf named Glod and a troll named Lias to start a music band. He finds a strange guitar in a mysterious wandering shop. It seems to play of itself... Imp is destined to die on stage during the band's first gig, but Susan--as Death--doesn't WANT him to die! (He's a cute teenage boy, she's a teenage girl...) Before _she_ can save him, though, something _else_ does... ...and _rock and roll_ breaks loose in a _medieval_ society! This causes about as much chaos as you might expect, and the rock-fan wizards among other things, are just about the FUNNIEST thing you could think of. This story--the original book, especially--pokes fun at just about _every_ rock or pop cliche of the genre you can think of. Examples include a song called "Pathway to Paradise", the Dean with his leather robe that says "BORN TO RUNE" and a _new_ twist on the idea of a rock star "redecorating his hotel room." The musical jokes are HILARIOUS, but you will only get them if you know about rock history! Those of you whose knowledge only goes as far back as Britney Spears and 98 Degrees--you won't get it. (Me, I wasn't born in the '50s or '60s, but I have good _taste_, see. ;)) However, "Soul Music" also has its serious side: The story with Death, Susan, and Mort and Ysabell is very tragic and parts of it will have you sniffling. The frailty of human life and the inability to change your fate are big themes here, and they give the comedy a solid emotional underpinning; they save it from being mere fluff. And Imp the bard is now living fast; will he die young? Wait and see... Did I mention that he renames himself "Buddy"? Um, not the best omen... Now, for the animated version: It wasn't perfect; I really did not like the way they did the wizards, a lot of the best jokes from the book weren't included--but to balance that, you get to actually HEAR "Music With Rocks In" _songs_...something the book could only TELL you about, in words. They are really catchy and sound just like real, legitimate songs off the radio (BETTER than many, actually...) and...yes, there IS a soundtrack album! Hard to find, but worth it. :) (My favourites are the _extremely_ catchy "Cover Girl", the early-Beatles-esque "She Won't Change Her Mind" and the rather dark "The Messenger", among others.) In short, if you like fantasy, if you like to laugh, and if you like rock and roll, buy this DVD! You'll be glad you did.
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