Frith O’Steen

I may not be able to code or speak in binary numbers like my husband, but I will fully admit to having a large proportion of geek blood in me all the same. I like shows like “Lost“. I read fan fiction on occasion. I refer to Harry Potter books/movies by their acronyms. I know all the words to They Might Be Giants “Flood“. And I am not embarrassed to admit that I (along with Sean) had been counting down the days till opening night for “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

Seriously - this was huge for me. When I was in about 4th grade, my uncle gave my dad some tapes of a radio show from BBC a few years back, which turned out to the original version of “H2G2”. We listened to them a LOT going back and forth from Utah, and I was hooked. Add to that my dad letting me stay up and watch the tv version (wonderfully low budget, also BBC) on PBS, and by 5th grade I was making mixed juices and putting masking tape on the glass labeled “pan galatic gargleblaster”, and using names from the series as the theme for my map project (”create your own island”) in Miss Martin’s class. I’m pretty sure she had no idea what the hell I was doing. Especially b/c my dad helped make my map look all hella cool and real, while the other girls were making things like “bunny rabbit island” and “musical note island”. Please - I had the Sea of Zaphod, Minsfrain Mountains (yes, I used secondary characters, not just key players!)…yo. I hung that thing up in my closet until I got married!

So yeah, I was very psyched about seeing this film. And I’m pretty impressed with how they adapted the book. Obviously the story is convoluted and rambling enough that a straight page to film interpretation wouldn’t have really worked. But things I especially liked:

1. Shout-outs to old school fans! They used the original theme music (cue the strains of plinky plunky banjos in the opening) for the credits and the original title artwork. They used the original Marvin the Paranoid Android, and just had him in various scenes during the part of the movie while everyone was lined up on Vogsphere. The original actor who played Arthur showed up as the ‘answering machine’ for Magrathea. They kept saying “Belgium” when they wanted to swear, but didn’t worry about explaining it - it was just there to be picked up on. I’m sure there’s tons of stuff I missed, too.

2. They didn’t dumb it down or go to too much effort to explain stuff. It may have made it much more confusing for the uninitiated who haven’t read the books or anything, but it made it feel much more respectful to those of us who knew the story and just wanted to see it up on the big screen.

3. They kept the awesome bits from the radio/tv series, like the part with the whale and the bowl of petunias. Would have been a sin to leave those out.

4. The factory floor in Magrathea was sooooo cool. It was exactly like I pictured it when I listened to the tapes.

Anyway…it was awesome.And yes, I did go online afterwards to find out what other people thought of it, and to read about the production of the movie, etc. Yes I did. And I’m damn proud!