Book:Moving Pictures

Moving Pictures
File:Cover Moving Pictures.jpg Cover art by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)
Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	1990
ISBN	0552134635
Pages
RRP
Main characters	Victor Tugelbend, Theda Withel, Gaspode
Series	[[:Category:|]]
Annotations	View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic of the silver screen. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill?

It's up to Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little") and Theda Withel ("I come from a little town you've probably never heard of") to find out ... Moving Pictures, the tenth Discworld novel, is a gloriously funny saga set against the background of a world gone mad!

Cover

The cover was painted by Josh Kirby, and the front features many characters filming a moving picture: Victor (with sword), Ginger (lying languorously), Silverfish (with megaphone), Gaffer (with picture box), Gaspode (by Ginger's leg), CMOT Dibbler (with sausages-in-buns), Oswald (behind Victor), a troll (under Ginger), and several imps and dwarves.

The back cover has three Wizards riding with Windle Poons on his wheelchair, chasing Gaspode (who seems to be on both covers) and Laddie, passing the Resograph.

Major Characters

• Cut-me-own-Throat Dibbler
• Thomas Silverfish, President of the Alchemists' Guild, whose name parodies Samuel Goldwyn (who used the name "Samuel Goldfish" for a few years). However, Dibbler acts more like Goldwyn than Silverfish does.
• Victor Tugelbend aka Victor Maraschino
• Detritus
• Ruby
• Gaspode
• Theda Withel aka Ginger aka Delores de Syn
• Oswald, a parody of the Academy Award of Merit, also referenced as Osric and Osbert (Oswald is the most frequently used name, but not necessarily the guardian's true name)

Minor Characters

• Deccan Ribobe
• Death
• The Librarian
• Marietta Cosmopilite
• Gaffer Bird, handleman, whose name parodies gaffer, the head of a film's electrical department
• Galena, troll actor, named after galena, who also experiments with the names Flint and Rock Cliffe (a la Rock Hudson)
• Laddie, parody of Lassie
• Soll Dibbler, Dibbler's nephew

Cameos and Mentions

• Tento
• Mustrum Ridcully
• The Bursar
• Windle Poons, currently the oldest wizard in the world (Greyhold Spold held the title in The Light Fantastic until he died)
• Patrician Havelock Vetinari
• Lully, alchemist
• Sendivoge, Alchemists' Guild secretary
• Peavie, Alchemists' Guild treasurer, inventor of banged grains
• The Dean
• Ponder Stibbons (first appearance)
• Yob Soddoth (mentioned)
• Tshup Aklathep (mentioned)
• Lord Henry Skipps
• Sham Harga
• Genghiz Cohen (mentioned)
• Morraine, troll actor, named after morraine
• Riktor aka "Numbers" Riktor, wizard
• Mrs Whitlow
• Ksandra
• Nodar Borgle, Klatchian who runs a "restaurant" in Holy Wood
• Fruntkin, short-order chef who works for Borgle
• Thunderfoot, actor
• Breccia, troll actress
• Sniddin, actor
• Fred Colon
• Nobby Nobbs
• Bezam Planter, owner of the Odium, and his daughter Calliope Planter, a reference to the muse of the same name
• Crullet, a fisherman from Jowser Cove who helped keep Deccan Ribobe fed
• Meggelin, former Keeper of the Door
• Jasper, a troll (perhaps the one from The Light Fantastic?)
• Amber, a troll named after amber
• Magma, troll king with legendary, uh, scepter, referencing magma
• the Sphinx (mentioned)
• Evil-Minded Son of a Bitch, camel
• Azhural N'choate, stock dealer (in elephants and other wildlife)
• M'Bu, N'choate's assistant
• N'gru, M'Bu's uncle
• Googool, M'Bu's aunt, possible reference to the word googol, since they are moving a large number of elephants
• Kck!, M'Bu's second cousin, whose name references an African click language popularized in the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy
• Muluccai, another stock dealer
• Tazikel, another stock dealer
• Banana N'Vectif, a great hunter who designs a better mousetrap (literally)... only to have his house demolished by elephants
• King Leonid of Ephebe (mentioned)
• other Unseen University wizards:
  • Chair of Indefinite Studies
  • Lecturer in Recent Runes
  • Dean of Pentacles
  • Greyhald Spold (mentioned)
  • Pimple (mentioned)
  • Cucumber Framer
• Blanche Languish, stage name of click actress
• Scummidge, once porter of the Assassins' Guild
• Chondrodite, troll god of love
• Gigalith, troll god of wisdom
• Silicarous, troll god of good fortune (an avatar of The Lady?)
• Monolith, troll folk hero
• Cohen the Barbarian (mentioned)
• Elves

Things and Concepts

• Octo-cellulose, Discworld equivalent of film
• Imps, used in cameras to paint film frames and blow them dry very fast
• Salamander, light-producing animal
• Banged Grains, Discworld equivalent of popcorn
• Old Tom (mentioned)
• Necrotelicomnicon Discussed for Students, with Practical Experiments, book
• Battle of Pseudopolis (mentioned)
• Century of the Fruitbat, current century (in Ankh-Morpork)
• Holy Wood Magic
• The Resograph, a "thingness-writer" which measures disturbances in reality
• Handlemen's Guild
• "Hiho" song, reference to Heigh-Ho song
• The Boke of the Film, parodying the "instant books" that come out when a popular film is released
• Movie studios:
  • Untied Alchemists, parodying United Artists
  • Century of the Fruitbat, parodying 20th Century Fox
  • Fir Wood Studios, parodying Pinewood Studios
  • Microlithic Pictures, another parody of Paramount (microlithic = small stone [entirely appropriate for a studio run by dwarves], paramount = large mountain)
  • Floating Bladder
  • In describing a recurring dream to Victor, Ginger also refers to Columbia Pictures and MGM Studios ("“It always starts off with this mountain—”...“—and there are stars around it, you know, in the sky, but one of them comes down and it’s not a star at all, it’s a woman holding a torch over her head—”... "...and then there are a lot of lights and this roar, like a lion or a tiger or something...” -Excerpt from Moving Pictures)
• Passion's Plaything, a cheap perfume
• Howondaland Green, a type of parrot
• Basic Canine, language spoken by dogs
• Octavo (mentioned)
• Bumper Fun Grimoire (mentioned)
• The Joy of Tantric Sex (mentioned)
• Necrotelicomnicon by Achmed the I Just Get These Headaches
• Cripple Mr Onion (mentioned)
• Howondaland Smith, character played by Victor, referencing Indiana Jones
• Silicon Anti-Defamation League (mentioned)
• Gindle's Effortless Elevator, levitation spell
• Adventures with Crossbow and Rod, book
• Aurora Coriolis
• Wellcome to Ankh-Morporke, Citie of One Thousand Surprises book by the Guild of Merchants
• Achmed the I Just Get These Headaches's Book of Humorous Cat Stories, book
• We Can Rule You Wholesale, Ankh-Morpork civic anthem

Clicks and their Roundworld references

• High Jinks at the Store, in the general style of early Charlie Chaplin films
• Pelias and Melisande, a Belgian play
• The Interestinge and Curious Adventures of Cohen the Barbarian, parodying the Conan the Barbarian series of films (Cohen himself being a parody of Conan), later renamed Sword of Passione
• A King's Ransom
• The Dark Forest
• Mystery Mountain
• A Bolde Adventurer, probable reference to the Indiana Jones films
• Tales of the Dwarfes, references Snow White, given the "Hiho" song (there are many movies about dwarves, but the "Hiho" song is unique to the Disney version of Snow White). The "And that includes you, Dozy!" line near the end of the book references Sleepy the dwarf from this movie
• An Exciting Study of Pottery Making, probably refers to the awful Open University self-study films of the 70s in which men with beards and tank-tops showed us how to do everything, using blackboards. But might also be a reference to the BBC film "The Potter's Wheel", shown when there were technical problems in the early days of broadcasting.
• Bad Menace of Troll Valley, possible reference to Lightnin' Smith Returns, American title "Valley of the Bad Men"
• Shadowe of the Dessert, referencing The Shadow of the East, UK title "The Shadow of the Desert"
• The Third Gnome, referencing the The third man by Orson Welles
• Golde Diggers of 1457, reference to "Gold Diggers of 1933" and its sequel The Golde Rushe, reference to The Gold Rush (note the 57 reference as well)
• Turkey Legs, reference to Duck Soup (given that it's a comedy and later referenced along with A Night At The Arena)
• Blown Away, referencing Gone with The Wind, and based on the Ankh-Morpork Civil War
• Valley of the Trolls and Beyond the Valley of the Trolls, references to Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
• A Night At The Arena, referencing A Night At the Opera
• Burninge Passiones

Locations

• Rim Ocean
• Circle Sea
  • Ankh-Morpork
    • Street of Alchemists
      • Alchemists' Guild
    • Unseen University
      • Uncommon Room (mentioned)
      • the Library
      • Tower of Art
    • Mended Drum
    • Plaza of Broken Moons
    • Brass Bridge
    • Harga's House of Ribs (mentioned)
    • Odium, movie house, reference to the Odeon chain of theaters
    • Temple of Small Gods (mentioned)
    • The Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons (mentioned)
    • Easy Street

• Holy Wood, reference to Hollywood
  • The Blue Lias, troll bar, which also has a geological meaning on Roundworld
  • Holy Wood Bay, a circular bay (reference to the swimming pools that are so common in Hollywood?)
  • The Cthinema, whose names combines "cinema" and Cthulhu
• Dungeon Dimensions
• Quirm (mentioned)
• Klatch (country) (mentioned)
  • The Rhoxie (mentioned)
• Golden River (mentioned), a troll river (and thus possibly a river of lava, not water)
• T'etse (mentioned)
• Mt F'twangi, mountain
• Mountains of the Sun, mountain range
• Great Nef (mentioned)
• Sto Plains
• N'Kouf (mentioned)

Sentient Species

• Camels
• Dwarfs
• Elves (mentioned)
• Gnomes (mentioned)
• Humans
• Trolls
• Yeti

Supernatural Entities

• Demons (mentioned)
• Death
• Balrog (mentioned)
• The Gods
• Imps
• Things from the Dungeon Dimensions

External links

Moving Pictures Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File

Previous book Eric	Discworld Series	Next book Reaper Man