Tennant brings out the best of Fogg’s curiosity from the novel, as well as his tendency to turn minor conflicts into major situations. Whether you love Tennant as the Doctor or Crowley, or were scared by him as Kilgrave, there’s going to be an element of his Phileas Fogg that will appeal to you. Chances are very high viewers will end up planning their post-pandemic travel based on the locations Fogg, Fix, and Passepartout visit. The cinematography and set design are made to immerse audiences in the places Verne described. The antique methods of travel pose more risk than today’s options, but the struggles are still relatable. Fogg, Passepartout, and Fix take audiences to France, Italy, Egypt, and more. Around The World In 80 Days reflects on our own unfulfilled wanderlust. Many of us have been stuck at home unable to take a vacation, let alone travel outside of the United States, because of the pandemic. We need an escape to places beyond our couches In the following episodes, Pharoah added details based on what was happening in 1872 at each stop on the trip, or expanded on location details Verne didn’t spend a lot of time describing.Ģ. The advantage of having eight hours to tell the story versus two is that the series starts by depicting Fogg’s progress on the boat to France whereas the novel begins on the Red Sea steamer. After years of missed opportunities, he wants to prove his fellow Reform Club members wrong. She balances out Fogg’s view on the world while being relatable to audiences in a more active way: in an interview for PBS Books, screenwriter Ashley Pharoah said women would be half the target audience for the new series.įogg’s character motivations remain the same to balance out these character changes. Fix’s change is inspired by Nellie Bly, a female journalist and contemporary fan of Verne’s novels. Passepartout’s character will also be in a good position to counterbalance the novel by addressing or challenging racism, colonialism, and British imperialism tropes in later episodes.įix, the dogged police investigator in the novel, is revamped as Abigail Fix (Leonie Benesch), a female journalist who is assigned to document Fogg’s adventures. Some may argue it is problematic or demeaning to cast a Black man as a butler, but domestic service jobs were common occupations for men of color during this era. This is an example of color-conscious casting as his backstory was changed to give additional context to 1870’s French history. He takes on the job accompanying Fogg to run away from some personal conflict with his last employer. Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma), Fogg’s butler/translator, is now a Black Frenchman who moved to London for employment. Those who read the original novel or the older film adaptations will notice two main characters have been remixed for modern sensibilities. New adventures & characters expand book canon while preserving the story If that’s you, here are five reasons why you shouldn’t miss this show:ġ. While period drama and classic lit nerds probably don’t need much convincing to watch, science fiction and fantasy fans may need a bit more persuasion. David Tennant steps into Phileas Fogg’s famous traveling shoes for a series filled with natural wonders and dangers. Longing to escape his overprotective mother (a wonderfully designed creation that looks half like a haute-bourgeois grande dame and half like a marmoset with a streak of white hair), Passepartout runs off with Phileas when the latter accepts the challenge to circumnavigate their “world” (revealed at the end to be really just an island) in 80 days.This article contains mild spoilers for Episode One and some details from the book.Īround The World In 80 Days is a new adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel that will appeal to nerds and geeks who may have stopped watching MASTERPIECE after Sherlock said goodbye. When Phileas (voiced in the dubbed English version by Rob Tinkler) washes up on a beach, grade-school macaque-ish kid Passepartout (Cory Doran) is entranced. For example, the froggy version of Phileas Fogg has legs that go on for miles, but that doesn’t stop him from being an ace surfer. To be fair, it’s hard to hate on this gentle, goofy interpretation, populated by simply designed animal characters with exaggerated features. Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? There’s never been an animated version where the lead characters are played by a frog and a monkey, and live on an island community mostly made up of land-dwelling shrimp! G iven there are so, so many film adaptations of Jules Verne’s infinitely malleable 19th-century adventure story, you might wonder why the French-Belgium production team behind this latest iteration felt the need to add yet another one to the pile.
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