Differences between the books and movies

Television, Movies Games and Books Harry Potter
#1

We all know that any movie adaptation of a book is going to be different. A lot of things in books can’t work on the big screen. Authors have no budget requirements for action scenes for example. Also in movies everything has to be shown or said, internal monlogues don’t really work (except for Scrubs of course). Plus books which take sometimes days to read have to be compressed into a 2-3 hour movie. I know for some movies from books we’d be happy to sit through a perfectly accurate 8 hour movie. But the general public, not so much.
Anyway sometime these changes can be good. I don’t miss the fact that Tom Bombadil didn’t make into the LOTR movies. I also understand why the Scouring of the Shire didn’t make it, there was already a dozen endings in Return of the King, a couple more wouldn’t have helped. Although I would have liked to have seen it.

Back on topic. I thought it might be interesting discuss the changes between the movies and books. What we like, what we don’t and if your feeling creative how you would have done it differently. It’s been awhile since I’ve read the books or watched the movies, so I’m working from memory. Forgive any errors.

From what I can tell Philosophers Stone and Chamber of Secrets are both fairly accurate to the books. They’re the shortest books. There is a lack of Peeves, but its not really a big loss.

One thing I would have liked in Prisoner of Azkaban movie is a better indication on who the Marauders were. From the movie it’s not really clear. All it would have taken is 5 second throw away line to explain the map. Maybe I’m just being pedantic.

Goblet of Fire seemed to me to be the most edited for time. Obviously they need time to show the really cool dragon, but that’s ok. More Gary Oldman was needed. A major point of Goblet of Fire is to show the relationship between Sirius and Harry, so in the next book… well you know. The cutting of the house elf plot wasn’t a big loss. Although they should have shown the Quidditch world cup final. To see Ireland win something, even if fictional would have been fun :D. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the movie, but I vaguly remember the Barty Crouch both jr and sr stories needed to be expanded a little more.

Order of the Phoenix obviously needed to be cut down significantly. The audiobook takes 28 hours or so to listen to. Although it doesn’t seem that long listening to Stephen Fry. I was a little disapointed that they didn’t show the Lily/Snape thing. There’s a minor scene I would have liked to have seen, when Umbridge gives Harry detention for the first time and gets sent to McGonagall’s office, and gets offered a biscuit. I think it’s a great scene in the book that shows how cool McGonagall is. Althogh I loved the scene where Harry is standing over Bellatrix and Voldermort is encouraging him to kill her (at least that’s the impression I got). It reminded me so much of Return of the Jedi with Luke, Vader and Papaltine “Give in to your anger”.

Anyway, I’m not trying to be a hater. I understand that it’s difficult to make a movie adaption. But no adaption is perfect.

#2

I think for Order of the Phoenix the movie, it would have been cool if they could figure out a way to put in more of the emotional growth of the characters instead of focusing on the final battle. While the final battle is important and probably cool to watch on the big screen, that wasn’t really the point of this book. I think this book showed the most emotional growth and development of a lot of the characters (not just Harry, but everyone, from Ron to McGonnall to Neville to the Order, etc, etc) in the book, and the movie didn’t do it justice. As a result of the major cuts, I think the movie didn’t flow as well as the other three (GoF also suffers from cuts, I think, to a lesser extent, due to the theme of the book), and loses a lot of the emotional weight.

I think it’s understandable the longest book of the series would be the most difficult to portray in a movie, especially given the weight of the non film friendly scenes, but it doesn’t stop me wishing that they did manage to portray it better.

For the most part, the first three films did a good job of cutting parts out and keeping a coherent storyline. Though, obviously, now that we’ve all read the whole series, I kind of wished the filmmakers had a chance to do that, because there are some obvious continuity issues with all the callbacks they have in the final book that would be tough to work around, given all the cuts they had to make in the first movies.

And, I don’t remember since it’s been a while since I’ve watched the first 2 movies, but did they ever mention Hermione’s SPEW club in the films?

#3

No - that part never made it into the movies. Neither did the bewitched coins that they used for notification of the DA meetings. Which I think is funny 'cause that is how they get everyone to come back to Hogwarts to fight in the Deathly Hallows book. I’m curious how that’s going to be accomplished in the last movie!

#4

I’m a big fan of the fifth movie, Order of the Phoenix. It’s my second favorite right after Prisoner of Azkaban. I think it’s impressive that the filmmaker managed to take the longest of the books and adapt it into the shortest of the movies, all the while delivering a coherent and compelling storyline. I didn’t miss most of the stuff that was cut–most things were simply cut down, not eliminated, like one big show-offy prank for the Weasley twins instead of several–but I did miss SPEW. Related to that, I missed some of the social/political themes that started to emerge in the fifth book, about how witches and wizards tended to condescend and discriminate towards their other magical brethren; but that’s heavy stuff to get into a movie without bogging it down. I don’t know though, how they’re going to deal with the absence of those ideas in the last movies, seeing as how they play out dramatically by the end of series.

The one thing I really wish they had included in the OotP was the more dramatic confrontation between Harry and Dumbledore at the end. Every book ends with a “wise words from Dumbledore” moment, but Phoenix’s was particularly heart-wrenching. Dumbledore let Harry take his anger out by wrecking his office, and then sat patiently with him to help him through his grief and apologize for his distance that year. This scene was distilled to, really, a couple of lines for the movie which got the basic point across but had nearly no emotion. That was the only point that let me down in an otherwise neatly crafted and enjoyable movie.

#5

SPEW is no great loss. More Kreacher would have been nice because of how the House-Elf develops over time and hwo it shows that Sirius, like Harry’s other surrogate parents, is not perfect.

I generally like how the films do a good job of taking some complex ties and put them forth in very simple form; they also make the magical success of some characters, like Luna, more believable.

My only real complaint is that I would have liked the movies to get a LotR-style treatment and have another 10-15 minutes at least added back into the actual movie if you wanted it. There are deleted scenes, and I care more about the overall story than how each film flows, like how the theatrical cut of Fellowship is tight and thrilling, but the extended cut gives more insight into Middle Earth and its inhabitants.

#6

I really can’t believe that they’ll complete the series without a single reference to Peeves the Poltergeist.:frowning:

#7

I was not happy with the fact that Beauxbaton & Durmstrang were portrayed as an all girls school & all boys school, respectively. It has caused confusion for the fans, especially those who post on the websites and produce podcasts. I know that it “looked great” cinematically, but it just pollutes the canon.

I did like the job the movie did of portraying school life at Hogwarts. The DADA lessons with Mad-eye, study sessions/exams with Snape, and the interactions of the students between classes all contributed to making Hogwarts seem almost as special as it seemed to be in the books.

As for OOTP, I was not happy with the hatchet job they did on Dumbledore and Harry’s final scene after they get back from the Ministry. Harry’s rage at Dumbledore and Dumbledore’s sense of guilt and failure were key moments in the series. That, and the loss of the explanation of the prophecy and how it came about, does the later movies a real disservice. Oh- and making Cho Chang into a victim instead of a strung-out, jealous piece of work? Cop-Out!Hopefully, Steve Kloves can pull the fat out of the fire.

Otherwise, I was happy with the overall tone of the movie. I think Umbridge will go on my top ten Villain list. She’s scarier than Voldemort in some instances- at least he doesn’t even try to appear harmless!

(psst- How’s my first GWC Forum Post?)

#8

I’m with you there. I loved the way they dressed her set for the movie: so cutesy it’s damn creepy.

(psst- How’s my first GWC Forum Post?)

You’re doing fine so far. :wink: Welcome aboard!

#9

I believe he was mentioned in Chamber of Secrets when Harry was describing why no one had died from seeing the basilisk.

#10

In all of the films, they’ve kind of rushed through the Pensieve exposition scenes, which makes me wonder how they’re going to get through all of them from the sixth book. I’ve always thought that Half-Blood Prince would be the most difficult adaptation, more-so than the fifth, because so much of the book is crucial but not visually entertaining set-up material.

#11

Really? I think I missed that. I believe there is a deleted scene on the Philosophers Stone dvd (or maybe Chamber of Secrets, I dont’ have the DVDs I’m just going by what I’ve read) that has Peeves in it. Played by Rick Mayall if I’m remembering correctly.

#12

That was Nearly Headless Nick

#13

I forgot about my biggest movie gripe! Thanks to the film’s literal display of the Ravenclaw emblem, most HP memorabilia for my house is a raven, when it’s supposed to be an eagle, and to top it off, the movie color scheme is intentionally wrong (silver instead of bronze).

#14

Really? I thought he said Peeves. Watched it the other night on ABC Family.

Just went and looked it up and yup, it was Nick. Still could swear he said Peeves. To be honest thought I can only understand about 1/4 words that kid says anyways.

#15

Right, all of Rik Mayall’s bits went unused.

#16

Umbridge looked as though they dipped her in a vat of Pepto Bismol.

#17

I think I heard that Chris Columbus was unable to figure out a way to include him within the first 2 movies, so that set the precedent for the subsequent ones. I don’t mind him being excluded since he’s not integral to the development of the story. He’s just an awesome character in the book. Winky’s exclusion from GoF hurt the movies more.

Although, I would’ve loved to see him chant/yell/scream “Potty Loves Loony” in HBP. :slight_smile:

#18

I think what they chose to do with the movies is to follow the “A” storyline only. The rest of the stuff in the books is awesome and would be really cool to see on the screen but then we would also have absurdly long movies. So they pretty much stick with the Voldy/Harry story and whom ever is the main villain from that particular story.

#19

For the most part, yeah. They were careful to consult with JKR to make sure that anything they cut wasn’t going to show up in future books in a critical way. That was the source of a lot of interest to the fan community back when the movies and the writing of the books overlapped, since if something wasn’t shown (like SPEW) it hinted at the future plot direction.

#20

True, though it brings up another thing I was thinking as I re-read Deathly Hallows - how are they going to split it into two movies? Where would the climax be in the first one? In my mind, the whole book is basically A storyline, so their previous strategy wouldn’t really work.

That, and I’ll be really upset if they shorten the action/battle scenes.