6/4/04 "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

Oh, Niki has been waiting to see this FOREVER. I like the Harry Potter pictures, too, so I've been looking forward to it as well. Not as much as Niki, because Harry Potter to Niki is Lord of the Rings or Star Wars to me. But I was extremely flattered that I got to go with her on her maiden viewing. BEWARE THE PHANTOM SPOILERS.

6-04-04 "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"

Notes from the Red Book

trailers-"Catwoman", "Vanity Fair" (I wanna see this...love those period pieces.), "The Aviator", "Thunderbirds", "The Princess Diaries 2" (Dying to see this movie!), "A Cinderella Story", and "Polar Express" (Niki was lamenting long trailers until she saw this one and it made her happy-astounding CGI!!!)

cool WB logo
cool set dressing
Marge blowing up-finger, stockings run, buttons pop off, ha!
flying like a balloon in the sky
Stan is guy from Ever After
fast bus=smushed face, heh
a shrunken Jamaican head
stirring coffee w/out touching spoon
Fudge has pinstripe robes
Monster book of monsters...well done!
cool Egypt picture
Sirius picture in foreground is somewhat distracting...
choir and singing frogs...sounds good
great CGI use on Hagrid's height
new Dumbledore looks good, like old one
cool picture art
nice animal candy scene in dorm
oooo...cool scary flying dementors
that's a huge pile of teacups
nicely done grim in tea leaves
Neville has grown up nicely
cool flying scene with hippogriff
"You and your bloody chicken"
HA! Snape in granny's clothes!
beautiful soundtrack...almost Irish or Celtic..you go John Williams
cool sketch/bird from Malfoy
eeeeeewwwwwww-dementors have CREEPY mouths!
cool merge of seasons change
twinspeak-heh
wow, lotta swears for a kid's movie
Ron's sleeptalking..heh
Peter Pettigrew? What?
Ok, Draco's a big pansy.
Go Hermione!
gorgeous scenery....but pumpkins in spring? Well, they are wizards.
shrieking shack sways
interesting werewolf
is that a body mike on Hermione?
"Come get the nice dead ferret."
"I'll have a nice cup of tea or a large brandy." "No small glasses in this house, Professor." Heh.
"Professor Lupin's having a really tough night."
funny jazz music
abrupt ending

Obviously, this movie was an adaption of the book by JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's my favorite book so far in the series, and Niki's too, so she was extremely nervous about seeing it. The movie covers Harry's third year at Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. But this year there is a dangerous escaped convict, Sirius Black, on the loose, and dangerous guards from the wizard prison, Azkaban, hanging around the school looking for him. Hagrid has been promotes to a teacher, in the Care of Magical Creatures, and there is a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor as well, Professor Remus Lupin, who has dark secrets of his own. Harry must discover the secret of why Sirius wants him in particular, what his links to him are, and not get killed doing it.

This movie did very well as a MOVIE. The acting was great. I love the three main characters, especially Ron. They really have grown into their roles and act them with ease. It's been fun to watch the kids grow into teenagers. I hope they can stick around for awhile. And the new Dumbledore was great...he really looked like Richard Harris! But I read somewhere that Michael Gambon was actually his stand in, so that would make sense.

The special effects were also great. A lot of the CGI was well done CGI. If there's one thing I can't stand is cheesy or unecessary CGI, makes me crazy. But Buckbeak, the dementors, the invisibility cloak, the boggarts, the moving pictures, Hagrid's height, the Marauder's Map, Malfoy's sketch/bird, and all the wizarding effects..I loved it all. It fun to see CGI done in good ways, because it can make abnormal things look perfectly normal, and hence, much more believable.

The cinematography was amazing...Alfonso Cuaron gives the most beautiful vistas and wide shots...nice. It also seemed like Hogwarts had moved it's setting from some lawn in Britain to the Pacific Northwest...hey, they're wizards, they can do it if they want. Not a bad change, just different.

I just really enjoyed all these little things, like a huge pile of teacups in Professor Trelawney's room, or the fact that the Minister of Magic wears pinstripe robes. I wish I could've seen more of the Quidditch game, looked like a good one. For the first time I noticed Harry's number seven on the back of his robes. Ron's talking in his sleep was hysterical and I think we all cheered when Hermione punched Malfoy. Yeah...simple things make me smile.

Now I did have just a few problems, and mostly they fall in the category of things left out of the movie that were in the book. one of the biggest things was therevelation that Peter Pettigrew was still alive. This is done completely different in the book, although I can see how it worked in the text of the movie. But I was disappointed how it was never revealed that Lupin, Black, Pettigrew, and Harry's Dad were the Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs of the Marauder's Map. I thought this was key info. Niki was also disspointed with the scene in the Three Broomsticks where it's revealed that Sirius Black killed Harry's parents. Apparently it was her favorite scene she was looking forward to. I can understand, I had the same kind of reaction when I saw Return of the King, and my favorite scene was when Sam find Frodo in the tower and rescues him. I was a little disappointed there, too. But I guess that's the risk you run when you go see a movie adaptation of a book...you're always seeing someone else version, and not your own. Sometimes they mesh, but most of the time, they don't.

So, not a bad movie, all in all. I'd go see it again, if only for the reason that Cuaron had SO much going on in the background I wanted to take a closer look at.

Until the next time, this is Sarah, saying "Mischief managed!"