It’s pretty obvious that all this Hitchhiker’s Guide second head nonsense has thrown me in a panic. I can’t help it Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is massively important to me, and given the opportunity I’ll easily spend a couple thousand words waxing poetic about just how much that damn book has meant in my life. Let’s just sum all that up though by saying a lot.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, go here to catch up. To summarize, Zaphod’s head (Zaphod being the three-armed, two-headed president of the galaxy from Douglas Adams books) is not exactly there. Well one of his heads is there, but the other head isn’t so much of a head in the movie as it is a second face… sort of. This obviously filled me with dread. Reports from test screenings last week did nothing to lessen it. But, this morning AICN’s Moriarity finally chimed in with his take on the film, and offered the following words of Zaphod’s head encouragement (avoid it if you don’t want spoilers):
“The way they decided to handle Zaphod’s second head is more than just a clever way of keeping the budget down. As Zaphod explains, when he was elected President of the Galaxy, he was told that he was going to have to give up half his brain, since no President is allowed to have a whole one. Zaphod wanted to keep the excised bits close, so had the second head crafted and hidden under the first one. The parts of his brain they put into the second head are the unbridled libido... the temper... all the most volatile pieces of his personality. When that second head comes rolling up, someone’s likely to get punched in the face or some button that shouldn’t be pushed is going to get pushed or something’s going to get stolen. The effect is groovy, but more importantly, it’s character-driven. It’s not just a cheap excuse for a CGI gag, as so many effects seem to be these days.”
Now that folks, sounds pretty good. A lot better than some of the other claims that we saw last week, dismissing it as a move to save a CGI buck. Mori really seems to love the movie, so if you want a little HHG positive energy, click here to read his test screening review.
