Harry Potter

It's odd, but I do often feel fantasy stories lends themselves better to an animated treatment than a live action one.

Oh gosh, the anime. The eyes just kept getting bigger, and bigger...

malickfan wrote:

Source: http://rogerregorroger.deviantart.com/art/Dumbledore-s-final-strategy-70458759

I didn't realize people were that upset over Deathly Hallows. I guess it has some issues, but I remember rather linking it.

Bah humbug, everything happened for a reason!

I've seen a lot of anime-esque HP fanart, but that's gotta be one of my favorites.

Bluebottle wrote:It's odd, but I do often feel fantasy stories lends themselves better to an animated treatment than a live action one.

I have mixed feelings on this, but I certainly wouldn't be averse to seeing an animated HP adaptation when they inevitably reboot it.  Or even another crack at LOTR, though I feel somewhat apprehensive saying that despite my affinity for animation, given how badly that went the last two times.

malickfan wrote:Why am I not surprised you went and checked?

If that was an 'outake' I'm not entirely sure I wan to know the context...

You know me too well, Malick.

As for context ... horny teenagers kept in close confines, maybe?  Maybe just a joke. Rupert Grint's eyes really make that picture, whatever the truth of it is.

I've purchased the series for kindle and I've started book one. Lots of little details I don't remember.

Coolios, I've not yet gotten a copy and now I'm heading out of town for a week, so I won't have one there either.

I'm curious as to how knowing the end of the series affects the reading experience. For example, with how much Rowling developed Snape's character, I can't imagine disliking him nearly as much in the first few books.

Eldorion wrote:I've seen a lot of anime-esque HP fanart, but that's gotta be one of my favorites.



I have mixed feelings on this, but I certainly wouldn't be averse to seeing an animated HP adaptation when they inevitably reboot it.  Or even another crack at LOTR, though I feel somewhat apprehensive saying that despite my affinity for animation, given how badly that went the last two times.

That was a great find Bungo. I kinda have a soft spot for the Bakshi/R-Bass animations, tonally messy and illogic at times (well, alot of the time) but very atmospheric and straight to the point, I agree with Petty that Bakshi's effort 'feels' truer to the book alot of the time, and I found alot of the designs rather striking in an offbeat way

Animated Potter would work very well I think (perhaps as an anthology of miniseries's, one for each book), I'd always pictured Hogwarts as a bit more stylized and gothic than live action allows, much of the fan art I've seen of Potter paints the world rather darker and fairytale esque than the movies, and I'd assume animation would be cheaper and allow greater focus on character beats and side plots, handrawn animation is a relatively niche and expensive format nowadays, but still retains a charm I personally find lacking in CGi animation, its shinier no doubt, but often feels a bit dead to the eyes...

I'm not entirely convinced Rowling will ever greenlight another adaptation though (that is, assuming Warner Bros don't retain a veto over creative control), i.m.o it's still too early to tell whether the films success was tied in with the books as a generational thing, or were simply blind luck in a way (I'm not convinced Potter will ever pass as 'great literature' ala LOTR, 1984 etc), 30 years down the line the studios may feel differently, I think it's rather more likely Rowling (or the studios) will use Fantastic Beasts as a springboard to expand the universe while its still a hot property.

And personally, I'd rather Rowling wrote that Encyclopedia she talked about a few years ago first...

I adore 2D animation, mainly stuff that is still mostly hand-drawn.  Obviously with computers as an available tool they're gonna be used for some things, and most studios are probably drawing on tablets and editing digitally, but that still counts as hand-drawn in my book.  You make a good point about Hogwarts.  Other than a couple moving staircases in the early films, live action wasn't really able to portray the constantly changing architecture of the castle.  Animation might have a better shot at it.

I do think that several of the HP films look great as they are, so I don't think live-action is necessarily unsuitable to epic fantasy adaptations.  LOTR looks amazing, and while there were limits to what they could do with scale (which feels almost petty to complain about, given how mangificent Minas Tirith ended up looking), I think it manages to convey the sense of Lee and Howe paintings come to life mangificently.  But LOTR is comparatively very grounded and earthy next to HP.  PJ and co. struggled a bit with trying to find a good way of portraying the Elves as otherworldly rather than just disinterested, but when it clicked (like the wood-elves scene in FOTR) it really worked.

I don't really know what to expect from Fantastic Beasts, but I'm not getting overly hopeful about it.  I imagine it will be tonally very different from HP, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  I'm not really in a hurry to see a reboot of the franchise but if and when it happens I'll be there, at least for the first installment. On that note, I'm pretty sure that Warner Bros. owns basically everything about HP other than the publishing rights, though assuming a reboot happens in JKR's lifetime I'm sure they'd want her onboard as with the original films, the theme park, etc.

Agreed about the Encyclopedia too, especially since she sued the HP Lexicon to stop them from making one (with a really shaky rationale IMO). But I imagine that it's been replaced by Pottermore.

Eldorion wrote: Other than a couple moving staircases in the early films, live action wasn't really able to portray the constantly changing architecture of the castle.  Animation might have a better shot at it.

Were the staircases phased out of the films? I can't really remember, though they certainly missed a few opportunities there with the Battle of Hogwarts (I found the film versions a tad disappointing...)

Thinking about it, there's probably a risk in using animation, it's easier to show the 'magic' of the stories in the format, but it risks making things a little twee...

I don't really know what to expect from Fantastic Beasts, but I'm not getting overly hopeful about it. I imagine it will be tonally very different from HP, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not really in a hurry to see a reboot of the franchise but if and when it happens I'll be there, at least for the first installment. Razz On that note, I'm pretty sure that Warner Bros. owns basically everything about HP other than the publishing rights, though assuming a reboot happens in JKR's lifetime I'm sure they'd want her onboard as with the original films, the theme park, etc.

I'm not sure If I'll even watch Fantastic Beasts, there's nothing to really judge the story on, but it just feels like a cynical cash grab, and although I'm certainly a bigger fan of Yates than others on this forum, he's not really a director I'd personally assign to a film about magic and discovery-Yates strengths were in the technical department, directing actors (he definitely got the best performances out of the trio) and grounding the films in realism (some say his films were lacking the magic, but I think that was the point), since this is a kinda reboot set in the golden, pre Voldemort days (not to mention being set in North America) It would have been a good opportunity to bring in fresh blood...

Agreed about the Encyclopedia too, especially since she sued the HP Lexicon to stop them from making one (with a really shaky rationale IMO). But I imagine that it's been replaced by Pottermore.

I vaguely recall registering for Pottermore when it first opened, but found the site confusing and childish,I ended up reading the new info on Wiki I think, maybe she'll compile the writing for charity or something...

If Yates is doing Fantastic Beasts, I will give it a miss.

I've never been quite as much of a Yates critic as some (I've always enjoyed DH1 and HBP has grown on me somewhat, in large part due to GB's influence), but I'm not sure how to feel about the decision to bring him back.  I suppose maybe they wanted to bring the whole band back together.  But since they seem to be deliberately trying to make the content of the film as far from being a retread as possible, I agree with Malick that a new director would have made a certain amount of sense.

Half-Blood Prince is my favourite film in the series, I don't what you're all on about!

The romance parts don't annoy me like they used to but I do think they eat up an inordinate amount of screentime.

The raid on the Burrow still baffles me. I assume they wanted to illustrate the increasing danger of the Wizarding World but it's like no one responds or even really mentions it for the rest of the film.

I recall thinking that the film was extremely dark and murky and that it was hard to tell what was going on onscreen, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't really say right now.

Part of the problem for me is probably that my expectations were too high when it came out. I was super hyped for it (it had been two years without an HP book or movie release! ) and I dunno that any of the films could have lived up to it. Maybe POA, though when that first came out I had mixed feelings on it due to changes from the books, which I've come to care far less about it over time (for HP before Tolkien).

As always, your acronyms continue to puzzle.

My parents didn't let me, or at least never encouraged, my seeing the films growing up. Which is too bad really. Before the local drive-in theatre shut down they showed up to, I think, the fifth film. It would have been a memorable place to see them in.

HP = Harry Potter

PS/SS = Philosopher's Stone/Sorcerer's Stone
COS = Chamber of Secrets
POA = Prisoner of Azkaban
GOF = Goblet of Fire
OOTP = Order of the Phoenix
HBP = Half-Blood Prince
DH1/DH2 = Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2

Appropriate avatar to have right now Eldo.

I only enjoy the first three films. Yates makes them dark and dreary.

Eldorion wrote:The romance parts don't annoy me like they used to but I do think they eat up an inordinate amount of screentime.

Yeah, I found it a bit cliche and cheesy, since they dropped most of the Horcrux flashbacks and subplots, the HBP film just seemed like a character peice and set up for DH, there's nothing bad about it per se (I actually rather like the film) but not alot really happens...

The raid on the Burrow still baffles me.  I assume they wanted to illustrate the increasing danger of the Wizarding World but it's like no one responds or even really mentions it for the rest of the film.

I assume since they dropped the skirmish with the deatheaters in Hogwarts (because they didn't want to clash with DH's big finale) they wanted to create a new set piece, attacking the Weasleys house points out how close to home the upcoming war will hit Harry, and varies the scenery a bit. I actually rather liked the principle behind the idea, and it was shot quite well, but yeah...it didn't make much sense...

I recall thinking that the film was extremely dark and murky and that it was hard to tell what was going on onscreen, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't really say right now.

IIRC HPB got an Oscar nod for best cinematography, I don't recall any issues personally (though I can't remember what it looked like in the cinema, and I tend to fiddle around with the settings when watching DVDs anyway) but I'll take the darker, more stylized cinematography of the later films over the bland cut and paste camera work of the first two films anyday.

Part of the problem for me is probably that my expectations were too high when it came out.  I was super hyped for it (it had been two years without an HP book or movie release! ) and I dunno that any of the films could have lived up to it.  Maybe POA, though when that first came out I had mixed feelings on it due to changes from the books, which I've come to care far less about it over time (for HP before Tolkien).

For some reason I never really cared that much about changes/missing stuff from the HP books growing up (I was born in '92, and I think I read Philosophers Stone before the film came out, but I can't be sure), at least not to the extent of The Hobbit (which is kinda odd, I read Potter long before I got into Tolkien, and I watched the LOTR films first, multiple times before reading the books I'm quite a weird guy anyway...) But unlike LOTR or the TH (which despite being rather at times did feel like they had more spirit and artistry than the majority of the Potter films imo-Azog The Fork Monster and Radghastly were at the least more imaginative than the film making by committee sense I got from the majorirty of the HP films) I just don't think the Potter films by and large are that memorable in terms of filmaking, or on their own terms as stand alone films, sure they are fun but also awkwardly paced, generally (i.m.o) quite blandly directed, far too reliant on expositionary dialogue and knowledge of the book, and I'm not overly fond of the way Steve Kloves wrote the main trio.

I think I may have cared more/less about the changes if they were more creative films.

Forest Shepherd wrote:Half-Blood Prince is my favourite film in the series, I don't what you're all on about!

I think its a very enjoyable, competently made film, but without many of the subplots from the book and ramping up the focus on the romance, it comes across as a bit...empty...kinda like its killing time for DH to start, almost feels like a rough cut at times.

My favourite Film (and book) in the series is POA.

Well that does have Mr. Crumbly-delicious Tennant, so I'll give you that at least.

I read the first book a couple days ago. It was far shorter than I remembered, and I finished it in an afternoon and a morning.
More discussion to follow, I need to go have dinner!

Yeah, I read the first in about a day as well.  I still haven't started the second one though.  I was trying to catch up on anime in time for Otakon but then July hit and it's been insane at work (ended up having to take stuff home with me to work on which I normally never do).

Eldorion wrote:Yeah, I read the second in about a day as well.  I still haven't started the second one though.  .