Hogwart Hysteria (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (DVD))

Member Name: robinlawrie

Product:	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (DVD)
Date:	13/11/01 (144 review reads)
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On Saturday 10th November, like many others, I attended the first showing of the eagerly awaited “Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone”. The fact that I was one of the massive audience of 22, yes TWENTY-TWO, calls for some explanation. While the rest of the country were fighting over the few seats available, you could have played a game of quidditch live in my theatre. The simple fact was that the management in its wisdom thought that it was unnecessary to advertise the film and therefore no one knew it was on at out local. Theatres in Newcastle meanwhile were being besieged.

Joanne Rowling is one of that extremely rare breed of animals that many others aspire to. She tells a bloody good story. This fact is often forgotten when her work is held up as “children’s” stories. Well let me state at once in that case I must still be a child as I enjoy every word she has written. If she can get children back to reading books rather than watching TV, she ranks very high in my estimation. The first of her works on the phenomena known as “Harry Potter” is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone. This book is the first of a proposed series of seven, all of which are anticipated to be films of gigantic moneymaking proportions.

How then will the film live up to the expectations of thousands and thousands of young fans who know every word of the books? It is always a notorious task to convert a favourite book to film. I suppose that in all honesty I cannot think of a single example where I prefer a film to a book. The medium of film makes the transition impossible and it is exactly the case in this instance. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, and some of the scenes are, to coin a phrase from Ron Weasley, bloody marvellous.

There will be very few people who are unfamiliar with the Harry Potter story, but for those who have recently returned from Mars, it is the story
of a boy who discovers that he is in reality a wizard who lives in the world of Muggles (that’s you). It is necessary that his magic education require that he attend the world famous school of Hogwarts, from where his adventures begin. You will notice that I do not include myself amongst you common Muggles....the very idea.

Knowing the story makes this film truly awe inspiring, as your mind is trying to recall what is going to happen next, and some of the scenes are exactly as you imagined them. The Grand Hall at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat, the Hogwart Express, all marvellously captured and depicted on screen.

My favourite scenes are the quidditch match and the chess game. The quidditch match, and other scenes, was shot at Alnwick castle, which is only a mile or so from where I live. If you watch as the quidditch players are flying round, you will see scenes of the Northumberland countryside. The film captures the excitement of the game perfectly; in my day it was an honour to be picked for the first team, but we did not have the advantage of the Nimbus 2000.

Words cannot describe the marvellous wizards chess game. Imagine huge chess pieces which attack and fight at your command. The realism of the animation is truly breathtaking.

The cast are all flawless in their interpretation of their various characters. I pick out those of which were my favourites, but no doubt you will have your own once you have seen the film. I am sure that I will run out of superlatives in a very short space of time:

•Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter. It was said that Rowling selected him because he was exactly as she had imagined Harry Potter to be. He is exactly as I had imagined him to be also, but probably because he is a ringer for the illustration on the book cover. Be that as it may, his performance was perfect and I am absolutely certain that he will develop the character as each film is produced. He will p
robably be typecast and forever more be Harry Potter but there are worse things in life.
•Maggie Smith as Prof. Minerva McGonagall was for me the star of the film. Her portrayal of McGonagall is perfect as is to be expected of an actress of her calibre.
•Robbie Coltrane as the enormous Hagrid, makes the part his own very early in the film. He is exactly as I had imagined him to be and the humour of the character shines through…oooohhh I don’t think I should have told you that.
•Richard Harris as Prof. Dumbledor…perfect. The deep voice and quality acting bring the endearing Dumbledor to life.
•Rupert Grint who plays Ron Weasley and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, have two pivotal roles in this and subsequent films. They are to grow up with the young Harry Potter and will become stars in their own right. I place my cap in the ring now and say that Rupert Grint is one of tomorrow’s top stars in the movie world.
•Alan Rickman plays the difficult part of Snape perfectly. Is he evil? Or not? Those who have read the books know exactly, and the rest of you will have to shell out to find out.

Other parts, which will come to the fore in subsequent films include: Zoe Wannamaker (Madame Hooch), Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley), John Cleese (Nick the Nearly Headless Ghost) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy).

The part of Peeves the poltergeist was reputedly dropped from the film on the grounds of time, a pity, as I believe Rik Mayall took the part.

Do I advise you to see the film? Unquestionably yes. I make the following proviso however, that you see the film before taking the very young. Some of the scenes are not, in my opinion, suitable. The film has been given a PG, and quite rightly so.

The only things that I found disappointing in the entire film were the wands. A wand is a slender, highly complex and delicate instrument. In the film they looked
quite frankly like sticks of wood. Ah Well nothing is perfect.

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