When the first Harry Potter book came out in 1997 it was an overnight sensation. They were a must-read at Primary Schools during reading class. Then a few years later there was an announcement that they were going to do a film on it.
There was a huge studio fight to get the rights to it, knowing that the film- if a major success- would make the studio lots of money. Disney nearly ended up getting the rights to it (thankfully, that never happened) but they lost out to Warner Bros who successfully nabbed the rights from them.
Originally, Warner Bros had plans for an animated film when Steven Spielberg was attached to it but ideas changed and Spielberg was dropped in favour of Christopher Columbus. At the end of the decision making, all that had been left of the Spielberg group was John Williams doing the now iconic score for the film.
The film itself was a huge success upon its release and sparked the making of the rest of what was to be the most successful from page to screen adaptations ever (other than Peter Jackson’s amazing ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy of course) (I will pretend that those horrible ‘Fantastic Beasts’ spin-off films don’t exist).
The story starts off when one night, a old man (the late Richard Harris) is seen walking down a street. Said old man isn’t what he seems as a few seconds later he extinguishes the lights around him by magic. After he does this he finally notices a cat that has been watching him. The cat suddenly transforms into a old woman (Maggie Smith) who says good evening to him.
The reason for their meeting soon becomes clear; a flying motorcycle suddenly flies into view carrying a huge man on it (Robbie Coltrane). The large man- that we now know is Hagrid- hands over a small bundle to the old man. This bundle is an important bundle, as it contains a sleeping baby boy. A sleeping baby boy with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. The sleeping baby boy who is a very special little baby; Harry Potter.
Ten years have gone by since Harry was left on his aunt and uncle’s doorstep. He’s woken up one morning in his cupboard under the stairs by his cousin who is running down the stairs overhead. “Wake up cousin; we’re going to the zoo!” Dudley yells happily before shoving Harry back into his cupboard as Harry tries to get out.
This is a brief insight to the abuse that Harry has been receiving from his relatives ever since he had landed that night as a baby although the abuse was heavily toned down in the film compared to the books.
It’s clear from the moment that we enter the sitting-room that it’s Dudley’s birthday; there’s presents everywhere. The spoiled boy screams at his parents for not giving him more presents than the year before. “But last year, last year I had 36!” he screams. Harry just ignores Dudley’s tantrum as he prepares breakfast.
A few moments later, we see the “family” visit the zoo where Harry’s real adventure starts.
Much like the book it was based on, ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ (or ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ in the US), was an overnight success. As I said earlier, it quickly spawned the most successful onscreen adaptation of a book series along side Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ films. It was also helped by John William’s excellent and iconic score for the film and he stuck around to do ‘Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’…the third film’s soundtrack being the best out of the three before he was replaced by Patrick Doyle for ‘Goblet of Fire’ due to retirement.
Hard to believe that this film came out twenty years ago. Twenty years on and I still enjoy watching it as an adult. Yes I think there’s some scenes that they should’ve kept in the film that were on the book so I’ve no arguments there. It’s what directors, writers and- most importantly- the studio do with these sort of projects that matters. As for the games…well, it’s a bit awkward calling them “in-game tie-ins” when they closely resemble the books more than the films! I’ve only just started replaying ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ and ‘Chamber of Secrets’ on the old PlayStation…and can I just say that I hope when ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ is finally released, they fix those horrible dueling mechanics???
Sadly, the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films have nothing on the main Harry Potter series and it will be a very long time before anything like that comes along again.
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