I think these guys work in my building.

That is NOT how Zaphod Beeblebrox is supposed to look. And they completely messed up the Babelfish. And Arthur’s robe is clearly meant to be red.

Heh. Just kidding. With the breathlessly geeky reviews I’ve been known to write about well-known book adaptations (**cough**Lord of the Rings**cough**) it SEEMS like I should be really nitpicky about Douglas Adams’s beloved science fiction/comedy classic, doesn’t it? Surprise! I’m not. And, you know . . . what a relief!

But enough about me . . .

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the story of one Arthur Dent, English every-man, who wakes up one morning to find that bulldozers are about to smash his house to make way for a bypass. So he’s a little preoccupied when his best friend, Ford Prefect, confesses that he’s actually an alien, and that Earth is about to be destroyed to make way for . . . a bypass. (See what Adams did there? Funny!) Ford rescues Arthur just before things go boom, and they hitch a ride on a passing spaceship.

I'm no robotics engineer, but doesn't this guy look a little top-heavy to you?

After that we meet all the delightfully quirky, inventive characters, devices, species and worlds that populated Adams’s book, or at least as many of them as could fit into a movie: The bureaucratic Vogons, the galaxy’s third-worst poets. Marvin the Depressed Robot. The less-than-brilliant galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox. And, of course, 42, a very important answer in search of a question.

If you’re a fan of the novel, you’re probably wondering how the movie compares. Pretty well, I think. I’d have likely made a few different choices about what to cut, but since Douglas Adams himself wrote the bulk of the screenplay I’ll defer to his judgment. What missteps there are I’ll blame on Karey Kirkpatrick, who took over after Adams’s death. The ending, in particular, doesn’t seem quite right. 

Of course, by then I was in too good a mood to care. First-time feature director Garth Jennings has brought this galaxy to life so fully and with such a sense of fun and whimsy that I was completely swept into it. Let’s face it, it’s not the story or even the characters that make the book so much fun, it’s the humor and satire. That’s all in there, and Jennings even manages to find the humanity – and sometimes Vogonity – of his characters as well. The special effects are good without being too slick, which adds to the charm.

Okay, you can panic a little.

Martin Freeman of TV’s The Office is just right as the non-descript Arthur. Mos Def is an inspired choice for Ford Prefect, combining puppy-dog friendliness with excellent comic timing. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite character actors. Sam Rockwell has the flashiest role as the flamboyant Beeblebrox, playing him as a glad-handing showboat with a vaguely Texan drawl, an 80’s hair-band version of . . . someone. “Turns out you can’t have a whole brain and be president,” he informs Ford. Explains a lot.

The movie’s title, by the way, refers to the galactic guidebook that Ford writes for. Animated entries are sprinkled through the film, narrated by Stephen Fry. My one real complaint is that I wish the filmmakers had done more with this. (And I said I wasn’t going to nitpick.) But I suppose that’s what DVDs are for.

If you haven’t read the book and are wondering whether you’ll get the jokes, don’t worry. You may not be laughing in advance of them, but you’ll be up to speed in no time. Hitchhiker’s Guide should satisfy Adams purists and novices alike.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3.5 out of 4 bananas