Hitchhiker’s Guide Mini-Review

Originally Published: May 9, 2005

Not sure how many of you have made up your mind on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but Kourtney sent me a really good commentary on the feature. Here it is:

As you said I didn’t have any problems and you
were so right about getting there early. I got
 there at 6:30 and the line was already around the
corner.

The theater was gorgeous (Ziegfeld Theater, NY), and gilded and huge. I sat
toward the middle. As as far as celebrity spotting:
there was a whole section roped off, with
official-looking types
checking ids — so I sat right
next to that area hoping maybe… but to no avail- the
only people who ended up sitting in the section were
adolescent girls with horn-rimmed glasses with their
dog-eared copies of the guide. (SIGH)
 

Secretly I had my doubts about the movie, because
 the book is written in a way that could easily lend
itself towards over-the-top-camp. (Admittedly its part
of the charm of the book. What do you expect from
a Sci-Fi Space comedy where one of the main characters is named after a car?) I shouldn’t have been
surprised when the opening theme was performed by
what were supposedly opera-singing dolphins just
before they jump into the night sky to abandon Earth forever. Right.

Besides that it wasn’t as camp as I feared. (some
of the characters and puppets were a little over the
edge– but then in the credits I found they were Jim
Henson’s, and not only forgivable, but cool.)

I’ve read
the book a few times so it was hard not to
get caught up in the : “He didn’t really say that!” or
“That didn’t happen ’til later!” But I imagine I was
in an audience of die-hard Adams fans who didn’t seem
to mind, even applauded at the
end, (and at the beginning, and during kissing scenes…)

The animated scenes of the “Guide” itself were
hysterical, with the voice-over and simple silhouetted
scenes so matter-of-factly portraying a space fact that
might have been pages long in print
(or at least a half-page foot note).

Overall I was not disappointed, even if the movie’s
happy ending wasn’t quite true-to-the book, it leads
the audience to assume a sequel is on the way,
which I could never complain about.

Thanks Kourtney for the commentary/ review!