Since there are seven books in the series, this blog will only be about the first three, The Sorcerer's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban. With no exagerration here, I have read each of those books at least four times. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban reaches the highest of any book with a grand total of eleven times.
Why should I reread the books? Well first, because I first started reading them in fourth grade, second, because everytime you reread them you get to find things you never even noticed before, third because I like to refresh before I watch the movies. Again.
Almost everyone I have talked to has read Harry Potter, so I won't bore you with the plot of the books. Here are a list of my favorite scenes that the movies don't show though:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:
-When Harry, Ron, and Hermione all go to stop "Snape" from stealing the Sorcerer's Stone, they don't show a couple of the tasks that Harry has to solve before he can enter into the room with the Mirror of Erised.
The first is Snape's: Harry has to figure out which of the potions he should take before moving on to the next room: one will kill you, while the other will not.
Another is the Defense Against the Dark Arts one, or Professor Quirrell's: Harry is supposed to fight a troll, but since Quirrell had already bee through there so the troll was just lying on the ground, already knocked unconscious.
Maybe those weren't necesary to the plot of the book, but I thought that it really helped you see the intelligence of Hermione, and the bravery of Harry.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:
-My favorite part in this entire book was the Valentine's Day part, where Harry gets chased around by a (I think it was an elf?) dressed as a cherub that Ginny sent Harry. I thought this part was so funny and it showed how Ginny liked Harry (foreshadowing future event?). They completely disregarded this scene though.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:
-This was my favorite book, is my favorite book, of the series. I really love the Marauder's and I really like how you start to get to know them a little bit in this book. Sirius, the "massed murderer" is revealed to be his godfather, and Lupin is shown as James's friend. What was missing in this book was any description of how they new Black betrayed the Potters or a description of the Fidelius charm, or how Sirius escaped from Azkaban (his animagus form).
Another issue I have with the movies is that they leave out characters like Peeves the Poltergeist (who is amazing) and Pigwidgeon (Ron's owl). They also put Padma and Parvati Patil in the same house, when one of them is in Ravenclaw, and the other is in Gryffindor.
The first chapter in the book is my favorite in the entire series. It's the chapter where Harry is dropped off at the Dursley's and I think that the movie did a really great job of accurately portraying this scene.
Here are the trailers for all three of them:
I think the movies did the best the could for book's of this length (particularly number 3), and are really good but again, I think that the books indeed pass up the movies because you get to know the character's far better.
Books: 4 Movies: 1
Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite too! The entire series of movies actually make me pretty upset because the books are just significantly better, but of course I've seen all of them multiple times! I really like how you pointed out the things that are different in each book and movie. Great post!
ReplyDeleteEvery book four times -- that's commitment!
ReplyDeleteI think Harry Potter fans like me and you (and...the majority of our age group) came to the sad conclusion that Harry Potter movies are a culture almost entirely separate from Harry Potter books. I take pride from recreating the books in my head and kind of pity those who just watch the movies. While I watch the movies, I fill in missing plot details and laugh at the subtle (but blatantly not subtle) foreshadowing. People who just watch the movies completely miss out! I was hoping you would write about Harry Potter, I can't wait to read what you think about the 7th book and the first of the two movies for it.
ReplyDeleteThough I don't read a lot of the books that get turned into movies, I can still agree with you. The ones I have read have always been better than the movies. Obviously, if you think about it, movies only have a short period of time compared to a book to be able to detail every event and situation. Great post!
ReplyDeleteWow. I haven't read the books in so long I forgot about all the deleted scenes. I remember sitting there in the movie theater thinking WHY WOULD YOU CUT THOSE OUT!? Thanks for the refresher! I will now have to go back and read all seven books....maybe when school is over. It's so funny to watch the movies now from the very beginning and look at the noticeable changes in all the characters. I will cry when the Part 2 comes out. By the way, I'm in the same boat as you, I re-read books over and over again.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with britt! SOME movies do do a pretty good job for their time restraint if they showed eevery scene from the book in great detail that would be an extremely long movie! WOW four times for each...thats amazing!
ReplyDelete