The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (or “H2G2,” as the nerds say) isn’t just a series of books or radio shows, but a whole institution of dry British comedy that, in the minds of some sci-fi fans, is as high and mighty as “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Douglas Adams, who began the H2G2 cult with a BBC radio broadcast in 1978, died in 2001 of a heart attack after finishing the second draft of the screenplay, which was completed by Karey Kirkpatrick (“Chicken Run”). The result was a more widely-palatable product for Walt Disney Pictures to distribute. Adams wholeheartedly supported the movie, though he described its preproduction as “trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people come into the room and breathe on it.”
Atrocious muse:
The finished film, however, is untainted by the bureaucratic process of its production. The result of Kirkpatrick’s script-softening is a tale that keeps to the spirit of Adams’ beloved books without following the story too meticulously. It is enjoyable on the same scale of now-aged family favorites like “The Princess Bride,” “Spaceballs” and “Beetlejuice” — hardly groundbreaking, but thoroughly and eternally satisfying.
Added to the original are a central love story, which can seem limp, but is merrily schmaltzy, and an over-the-top President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), who is moronic enough for children to love, and enough of a Bush mockery to fetch a chuckle from the rest of us. The protagonist, the introverted everyman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman, of BBC’s “The Office”), is as hapless and sympathetic as always, while Mos Def lends his own flair to the idiosyncratic Ford Prefect. Zooey Deschanel becomes the lovable — oh, so lovable — Disney romantic interest. Alan Rickman lends his voice to this film’s Eeyore, Marvin the Paranoid Android, and John Malkovich plays perhaps the film’s most restrained character, the created-by-Douglas-for-the-movie Humma Kavula.
Much of the book’s best humor remains in the movie, from the doomed-but-philosophizing sperm whale (perhaps the book’s finest moment) to the excerpts from the Guide itself (sort of the Wikipedia of the universe). Additionally, the presence of the Infinite Improbability Drive (where anything possible can and will occur) allows for extremely random happenings, similar in style to the “Family Guy” shtick.
After years of rumors, there finally is a “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” movie, and it stands alone not as a pale shadow of the book, but as its own colorful story. It is undoubtedly a Disney version of the famous tale, but still a fine example of (usually-boring) family entertainment. And man, have you seen H2G2 on weed?
