The trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has created a buzz of excitement and nostalgia amongst Potterheads. But one scene which shows wizards apparating inside Hogwarts, despite clear mention in the Harry Potter series that they cannot, has left us scratching our heads because we can’t believe that J.K. Rowling could have overlooked something so apparent. Discussions of course turned to some of the glaring differences between the Harry Potter books and movies. Here are the ones that really annoyed us:
YULE BALL FAIL
There was absolutely no reason why Hermione’s robes for the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie could not have been the “periwinkle blue” it was in the book. Is it just because pink is a “girly” colour?! The book also has Hermione saying in a “matter of fact” way that it was too much of a hassle to do this makeover every day, which would have been nice to hear in the movie because we like that it took her that much trouble to look pretty too! We would also like to point out that Padma Patil’s dress in the book was supposed to be turquoise and Parvati’s shocking pink. It is not so much the colour that we have taken issue with but how hideous those lehngas were!
DEAD, NOT ALIVE
We loathed Peter Pettigrew, and his death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was really satisfying. He was choked to death by the silver hand Voldemort gifted him for his role in resurrecting him in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 we saw Dobby stun him, but we didn’t see him in the final film. Is he dead? Is he alive? Is he in Azkaban? We would have really liked the satisfaction of seeing him pay for his betrayal.
DUMBLEDORE’S REACTION
In the Goblet of Fire movie, we see Dumbledore screaming and shaking Harry while asking him if he put his name in the Goblet of Fire, but in the book, it is mentioned that Dumbledore asked Harry “calmly”. The sentence in the books actually reads: “‘Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire, Harry?’, asked Dumbledore calmly.” It was not just unnecessary, it was also completely out of character for Professor Dumbledore, so this change made absolutely no sense to us.
HERMIONE’S POTION CHALLENGE
We get that a movie can’t include everything from the book, and we get that with the Devil’s Snare challenge Hermione had her spotlight in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone movie but we really didn’t understand why Hermione’s potion challenge was left out, because that’s the one that showed off her intelligence. If Ron got to show off his strategy skills with chess, and Harry his flying skills with the keys, then why not Hermione? So unfair!
PET PEEVE
One of the most annoying absences, and there were many, was that of Peeves the poltergeist. The bane of all the students and the perfect blend of humour and malice, Peeves would have made the films just that much better.
JAMES POTTER’S BACKSTORY
We don’t get a lot of information about James Potter in the movies, apart from occasional mentions by Sirius Black and that bullying scene with Severus Snape. It makes him seem like a terrible person, completely different from his portrayal in the books. A lot of that backstory is lost because we never get the story of the Marauders, except for some vague mention by Remus Lupin.
THE LOOK OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
This one makes us sad. The books describe the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic as “a very long and splendid Hall with a highly polished, dark wood floor” — not the black-tiled monstrosity we got in the movies, which made the whole place look like one giant bathroom! We think they forgot that it was the Department of Mysteries that was supposed to be the black-tiled affair, and not the whole place! We were also disappointed with the enormous poster of Cornelius Fudge, which we think is out of character for him. It just doesn’t make sense that he would follow this mode of tyrannical self-assertion!
A SKEETER DETAIL
We really don’t want to crib about what the movies left out but we do think that leaving out Rita Skeeter’s identity as an unregistered animagus took away from the horridness of the character. It’s in her beetle form that she got most of her stories after all.
THE FATE OF THE ELDER WAND
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, after defeating Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry snapped the Elder Wand in two and threw it into the abyss. But in the book, Harry used the Elder Wand to mend his own damaged holly and phoenix feather wand, which he said he was “happier with”, and then returned it to Dumbledore’s grave. It was so much more meaningful, because if Harry died a natural death and no one defeated him, then the power of the Elder Wand would automatically expire. So much better than just breaking it into two, and being done with it.
Text: Debolina Banerjee, Madhumita Ghosh, Rushati Mukherjee, Ravjit Singh and Vedant Karia
Do you have a Harry Potter book-to-movie difference to add to this list? Tell t2@abp.in
