to think that the Harry Potter are timeless literature and the films are woefully miscast?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Inflammatory title to draw you in. I hope. I just fancied some HP chat.

I'm re-watching the films at the moment. Is it me or is there something old-ladyish about Alan Rickman's mouth? I realize I am thinking about this far too hard, and I know it's practically forbidden to speak ill of him on MN. But every time I see those films, I'm disappointed again that he just isn't as sexy as his voice.

I also think the Burrow looks all wrong to me. I love what they do with the reeds in the scene where Bellatrix taunts Harry and he and Ginny run after her. But I imagined the Burrow being rural and farmland-ish, with an overgrown garden around it - not plonked down in the middle of a marsh. Am I right?

What's your favourite bit of the films/books?

Phew - I often drifted off during the nuns priest tale and was worried I missed something important.

I read on here how there was an obvious age difference between Molly and Arthur on screen and that has bothered me ever since.

Watched an interview with JK about how the mirror or erised was inspired by the death of her mother which gave me a lump in my throat. Think HP should be on the GCSE syllabus with so many themes running through it.

I sincerely doubt anyone in the world has missed something important by drifting off during the nuns' priest's tale.

phoenix - oh, that's sad about the mirror, yes.

How different are Molly and Arthur in age? Maybe I'm not very noticing, but I didn't see it.

Julia Walters in ten years older than Mark Williams irl.

Once it was pointed out to me it was all I could see.

Yeah, but no one in that film is playing anything like their age - Alan Rickman is 5 years younger than Michael Gambon but Snape is early -mid 30s and Dumbledore is more than 100!

Not in so many words Bland but it was certainly in the subtext

While we're mentioning sex and canon, were any of you on the thread about the ten weirdest Harry Potter fanfics (definitely not canon!)?

I've blocked most of them, but the one I do remember is Hogwarts (yep, the actual castle) and the giant squid. Just why would you write that?

No Polka my brain can't cope with the really murky HP fanfic.

Er, were we mentioning sex and canon?!

That is deeply disturbing.

I think there is actually some surprisingly good HP fanfic out there (probably just because so many people read the books), but it definitely covers both extremes.

Well, maybe not in the same post but they were both there, what with the dogs/wolves humping and A-level English lit (not a sentence you often have cause to type...).

There was a thread with really dodgy fanfic/self-published Kindle books - all those Ravished By a Raptor, Titillated by a T-Rex, Boned by a Brachiosaurus some of those might be made up type, as well as some of the stranger Twilight/HP ones.

Anyway, sorry about lowering the tone there.

I think the thing that I liked the least were that some of the little friendly or funny bits from the books didn't go in. I know they weren't relevant to the main plot, but they were bits I enjoyed. Like the Blast-Ended Skrewts, I don't know why, but the descriptions in the books of them trying to find out if they hibernate, or taking them for walks just tickled me.

I was kidding, polka!

Please, do lower the tone. I'm perfectly happy with it. I have hinted after (decent) fanfic recs at least twice on this thread, and no fucker has obliged.

I think the details are what makes the books really satisfying. I don't think she's a stunning writer and she does have tics that annoy me, but the detail is so much fun.

I love this thread.

Currently re-reading the books

After reading this thread I think I need to re read the books.
I hated the films at first until enough time had passed between reading the books and watching them again. I can enjoy the films now but the books are so much better.

OOh a HP thread! Just taken me nearly an hour to read through, agree with so much of these points.

The books got too big to turn into truly faithful films. I get why they had to leave lots out, I get more annoyed with the random bits they make up really.
Despite some shockingly wooden acting, I'm quite glad they kept almost all of the original cast. It makes if more 'real'

I like Rupert Grint, but think he lost his way in OOTP. She he got too old for cute face pulling, he got sh

Stupid fat fingersc

Meant to say, rupert Grint got shoved to the back of the scenes a lot when he went through his difficult teenage years.

Gambon was definitely the best dumbledore in my opinion- more flawed and charismatic.

I think most of the casting was pretty spot on

You have all seen haven't you? I watched it with my DSis and we were in fits of laughter.

Ohhh, that trailer is wonderful.

I do think the whole Knight Bus sequence with the shrunken head was better than the book. Stan and Lenny Henry were brilliant :)

I cringed at the ending of Chamber of Secrets, though - the "happy reunion" in the Great Hall - yuk!

No-one has mentioned Robbie Coltrane yet - he and Fang were good, I thought.

I'm pretty sure the burrow was better in the earlier films! Does anyone remember when the second film came out and on the website you could 'tour' the burrow online? Was way better than the one used in later films!

Robbie Coltrane was exactly how I imagined Hargrid to be.
Although shouldn't he have been taller? The full giants were huge, even as a half giant Hagrid was tiny in comparison.

Also, his house in the films kept changing. That annoys me.

Rupert Grint is completely terrible in Harry Potter, ruined any chance of me enjoying the films. He has one look and it never changes no matter what is happening on the screen. Some of the other actors were fantastic though.

Having said all this, and spent time happily pulling apart performances, scripts etc., I am so thankful that JKR did not allow Steven Spielberg to turn it into an other American High School teen movie.