From Page to Screen: the Wizarding World Part Three

In part two we discussed the worst installment of the Harry Potter story. Good news is we can go nowhere but up from there. This time we are going to dive deeper into the story by exploring Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

The Prisoner of Azkaban, in my opinion, starts us on our real journey. This is when you need to start to remember the history of the previous stories. This installment is where the stories start to get darker. They discuss how Peter Pettigrew betrayed Harry’s parents. We also get to meet Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, who are Lily and James Potter's best friends. These two characters play very integral roles in the rest of the book, as they mentor Harry through his teenage years. Now I know a lot of people do not like The Prisoner of Azkaban because of the time turner aspect but, I am a sucker for time travel and I enjoyed it. In the end Pettigrew gets away and starts his journey to reuniting with his master Lord Voldemort, just as Professor Trelawney predicted.

Now when we make the jump from page to the screen, this is the first book that they really needed to start to trim the story for the movie adaptation and think long term. I think they did a great job of only giving us what we need to know. The creators hit the nail on the head when they created the Dementors. They were just as terrifying on screen as I imagined them on the page. As the movie went along we really get to see how Harry, Ron, and Hermione are starting to become a tight knit group. One thing that I did not understand was in the first two movies they had the students in their wizarding robes. In this movie they switched things up and have them in muggle clothes. This is a small thing but I feel like it is something that as the movies continue is a big inconsistency. In the books they discuss how awkward the wizards feel in muggle clothes however, that seem to have been brushed under the rug for the movies. In my opinion this is the last movie that represents the book well.

Next time we dive into year four of Harry Potter’s adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This will lead us closer to the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which hits theaters November 18th.

Till next time,

-The Mad Scientist, Bryan Banner