WoW Moviewatch: Murder on the Booty Bay Express
by Michael Gray 
Feb 15th 2011 at 12:00PM
This video was created by a mother and son team, which is an absolutely awesome thing to see. The idea of a parent and child working together in pursuit of something creative and fun is something unto which I must tip my hat. That's a great idea, and I bet it was a whole lot of fun to do. Here's hoping we see more from Swathe Productions.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ominous Feb 15th 2011 12:16PM
Good family fun - in all senses. I like the name changes. I've bookmarked this for later, to watch the whole thing properly.
Ice Feb 15th 2011 12:26PM
While maybe not visually stunning I really loved the story and the parody it did.
I love the fact that it has VOICES really gives bonus. Not many do that unless they are from certain people.
Well in short I could say that it shows that some love have been put into it. Also I love "murder mysteries" type of things so it felt funny to me. Keep up the good work, hope to see more from these!
ladygamertn Feb 15th 2011 12:57PM
Lots of fun to watch and had me smiling!! Nice change from music videos!! Look forward to more!
Matthew Feb 15th 2011 1:05PM
BTW, Murder on the Orient Express is a great book. The writing by Agatha Christie (we need an NPC for her - Magatha Christo? ) is dated and melodramatic, but the plot is good.
Murphy Feb 15th 2011 3:57PM
As someone who does voices for a living, i was very impressed with the quality of the voice-acting. Very expertly done, and a perfectly Python-esque amount of silliness.
Revynn Feb 15th 2011 1:32PM
Very nice.
Paulio Feb 15th 2011 2:30PM
Nice work, Swathe Productions!
While the shortcomings (slow pacing and a lot of fairly static visuals) are obvious, a lot of the nuance will be recognizable to fans of Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. For example, Poirot is always having his name mispronounced by the English, and he's often mistakenly called a "Frenchman" (he's actually Belgian.) And more than almost any other character in detective fiction, Poirot is responsible for the now-cliche'd scene where all the suspects are summoned for the great reveal. So it's nice to see that these machinima makers stayed very faithful to the mystery genre they parodied. (also q.v. the smashed wristwatch and everyone being alibi'd for the time of the murder.)
If you want to check out some Poirot, Murder on the Orient Express really isn't the place to start. I'd suggest instead "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" which is the first Poirot story. It also happens to be old enough to be in the public domain, so you can find it in its entirety here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/863/863-h/863-h.htm. If you're more visually inclined, the BBC television productions starring David Suchet (especially the one-hour episodes produced in the early 1990s) are excellent adaptations, and they're available on Netflix.
Yes, I know, I reveal myself to be a Poirot fanboy. Mon Dieu!
sprout_daddy Feb 15th 2011 4:09PM
Nice work, Swathe!
Like Paulio, I am a committed Poirot/Christie fanboy, and I thoroughly enjoyed your homage to one of the greatest murder mysteries of all time! In addition to "Styles", I might recommend "Lord Edgeware Dies" and "Ten Little Indians (And Then There Were None)" - the first is available on Netflix in a Suchet version, the second has an excellent treatment in a 1945 movie starting Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Houston.
Awesome work on this machinima - I see a whole new arena of murder mystery wow movies in the future.
shinkou79 Feb 16th 2011 4:43PM
Agreed!
swatheproductions Feb 15th 2011 7:44PM
Thanks, all! We did have fun with this one. Playing with Christie’s beloved character Hercule Poirot, paying homage to the fabulous original “Murder on the Orient Express,” mashing the movie into the rich WoW universe, and learning the ins and outs of film production and editing—it’s been a terrific experience. Kudos to the amazing voice actors, Keri Healey, Stephen Hando, and Chris Jaech. Watch for Swathe Productions' next machinima, due out soon, “True Guts,” a parody of another movie classic—you guessed it—“True Grit.”
Ronin Feb 15th 2011 9:36PM
Does one really tip one's hat "unto" something?
OK, I'll quit nitpicking at grammar and watch the machinima now ;)
Ronin Feb 15th 2011 9:53PM
Really, an awesome job of capturing and encapsulating the plot of Orient Express while doing a send-up at the same time! I suspect this will be more meaningful to Christie/Poirot fans than to those who are unfamiliar with the Dame and her writing-- but I really enjoyed it!
"True Guts" is next? Can't wait!
Nospoon Feb 16th 2011 3:14AM
I apologize if this is the wrong place to comment. I am really interested in making WOW Machinima, but I have not been able to find a model or map viewer that is compatible with my mac. When I google it, everything seems to be pre-WotLK material which is frustrating with many of the links broken or out of date.
Is it possible to run an updated version of how to create basic WoW Machinima (the one that is on insider has several busted links).
Nospoon Feb 16th 2011 3:37AM
Nevermind, just read a WMV forum that Macs are incompatible without a mac programmer. Guess I have to do everything in-game. :(
shinkou79 Feb 16th 2011 4:46PM
Loved this! I have been an Agatha Christie fan for over 15 years (yes I'm that old) and a WoW fangirl for about two years so this was awesome for me.