Hey everyone,
Welcome to another instalment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’ll be discussing the top 10 mistakes that the first Harry Potter film made that
the new HBO Max SHOW can FIX.
When The Philosopher’s Stone movie came out in 2001, Harry Potter fans all over the
world flocked to theatres to see their favourite boy wizard brought to life.
And while the film truly was magical in its day, it made a fair amount of mistakes when
compared to the novel.
With so much detail to cram into a two-and-a-half-hour movie, it’s completely understandable that
certain aspects of the book were unable to make it into the film version of The Philosopher’s
Stone.
But in addition to some of these omissions, there were also just other, well, MISTAKES.
Today, I’ll be taking you through 10 of the most obvious mistakes from the first Harry
Potter film, which I believe the new reboot of the series can FIX.
Harry's eye colour Harry is described in The Philosopher’s
Stone as having his mother’s bright-green eyes, a detail which turned out to be actually
quite a big focal point throughout the series due in large part to the fact that Severus
Snape loved Harry’s mother dearly, and Harry’s green eyes reminded him of her.
So, with so much description of, and focus on, the colour of Harry’s eyes, it was rather
surprising for fans when The Philosopher’s Stone introduced Daniel Radcliffe—a decidedly
blue-eyed boy—as Harry Potter.
Couldn’t they have given him green contacts or something?
Well, as it turns out, the filmmakers did try to use coloured contact lenses to correct
this mistake but, unfortunately, the young actor was allergic to the coloured lenses
and he was unable to wear them without incredible discomfort.
In any case, fingers crossed, this should be an easy fix in the upcoming television
series!
Wrong snake at the zoo This has got to be one of the most trivial
mistakes in the entire movie series, but a mistake it still is!
At the very beginning of The Philosopher’s Stone, when Harry joins the Dursleys on Dudley’s
birthday trip to the zoo, the boys peer into a giant snake display.
This is the scene in which Dudley pushes Harry out of the way, and Harry inadvertently makes
the display glass disappear with his magic.
The snake escapes—but not before thanking Harry in parseltongue.
Now, in the films, there’s a small sign beside the snake’s display indicating that
it’s a Burmese python, a species native to a large area of Southeast Asia.
But in the books, the snake is actually a boa constrictor, a species native to South
America.
As I said, it's trivial.
But it is a mistake.
Quirrell and Harry’s initial meeting Accompanied by Hagrid on his way to Diagon
Alley for the first time ever, Harry met a large number of witches and wizards as they
passed through the Leaky Cauldron pub.
Among them was the nervous and eccentric Professor Quirinus Quirrell.
In the movie, we saw Quirrell effectively recoil upon the very sight of Harry during
their first interaction, as he withheld his hand from shaking Harry’s.
Yet, in the book, Quirrell enthusiastically shook Harry’s hand like everyone else.
I imagine this choice was made by the filmmakers in order to highlight the fact that later
on in The Philosopher’s Stone Quirrell was unable to touch Harry’s skin without incredible
pain—but this was only after Voldemort fully possessed him.
At this earlier point in the story, the Dark Lord had yet to take up residence on the backside
of Quirrell’s head, which means he SHOULD HAVE been able to touch Harry—which, of
course, in the book, he did.
Ron’s personality If there is one mistake that I’m STILL upset
about from the Harry Potter films, it would have to be the inaccurate way that Ron Weasley’s
character was represented.
Ron’s personality was absolutely destroyed in the movies, with the young wizard being
essentially reduced to a walking punchline.
And while book Ron was funny and endearingly eager to prove himself, he was never overly
goofy or foolish.
So much of Ron’s loyalty, wizarding “street” smarts, and bravery were completely omitted
from the films, and it resulted in a version of the character that was quite simply inaccurate.
In fact, some of his greatest lines and pieces of wisdom regarding wizarding culture were
given to Hermione or others.
In my opinion, this is a huge mistake that the show can FIX!
Hermione’s appearance Played by Emma Watson, the movie version of
Hermione was never going to be quite as “plain” as the books described.
However, there were certain aspects of Miss Granger’s physical appearance that the movies
didn’t accurately portray, but could have.
For example, in the novel, Hermione is described as having rather large front teeth—that
is until they were eventually shrunk down in The Goblet of Fire.
In the films, Emma had quite beautiful teeth throughout the entire series, which made for
a rather poor unveiling of her “makeover” at the Triwizard Tournament’s dance in the
fourth movie—although that whole concept is a little dated now, so perhaps there won’t
be much emphasis on it in the show.
But we’ll get to all that in a later video!
As it turns out, the filmmakers did try to start out Emma Watson with larger front teeth
but the actress, who was only 11 at the time of filming the first film, was understandably
unable to speak very well while wearing the large fake teeth.
In addition to her teeth, there’s also Hemione’s hair to consider, which in the books is described
as brown and “bushy”.
While Emma’s hair began somewhat frizzy in The Philosopher’s Stone, as the films
progressed, it became less and less so.
When it comes to the new television series, these are simple mistakes that I hope will
be more accurately represented.
Mispronunciation of Voldemort A completely fabricated moniker, Voldemort
was created by Rowling for the Harry Potter series.
She has said that her imagined etymology of the name is that of French origins with “vol”
meaning “flight” or “theft”, “de” meaning “of” or “from”, and “mort”
meaning “death”.
The mistake in the films is apparently in the way that the name is pronounced.
Being that it is an invented French word, evidently the “t” at the end of Voldemort
should be silent.
Of course, once The Philosopher’s Stone was shot and released with the actors pronouncing
the “t”, before this clarification was made, there was no going back.
But this could be an easy fix for the new HBO show!
I’m personally fine with the hard t but I know that others are not.
The Sorting Ceremony Call it what you will—an omission or a mistake—the
Sorting Ceremony in The Philosopher’s Stone movie left much to be desired.
In the movie, students are called up at random to be sorted into their house, rather than
alphabetically as they are in the books.
We also don’t get to see the whole ceremony, which I personally felt was a mistake.
Since the television show is likely to have much more screen time available to pay tribute
to these more understated scenes, I hope that we’ll get to see the ceremony in its entirety!
The rules of quidditch In the film, Oliver Wood—Gryffindor captain
in Harry’s first year at Hogwarts—tells Harry that when the Seeker catches the Golden
Snitch, the game ends and that team wins.
This is not technically correct.
While the team who secures the Golden Snitch is MORE likely to win, they do not automatically
take the game.
In the books, the rules are more thoroughly explained.
Harry learns that when a Seeker catches the Golden Snitch, the game ends and they earn
their team 150 points…which may or may not win them the match.
For example, if the opposing team were leading the game 180 to 5, and Harry caught the Snitch,
the match would end and his team would lose 180 to 155.
The Mirror of Erised The Mirror of Erised is seen only once in
the movie.
A young Harry looks upon the glass and sees himself in the company of his parents, Lily
and James Potter.
In the books, Harry makes multiple trips to the Mirror and sees his ENTIRE extended family
reflected back at him.
It’s my opinion that without these multiple trips and additional figures represented in
the Mirror during the movie, there’s a bit of a misrepresentation of what Harry and his
deepest desires are.
He clearly feels so transfixed by the idea of having an extended family of relatives
who understand him, love him and support him—the opposite of the Dursleys.
I hope the show takes more time to accurately portray these scenes.
Norbert(a), Hagrid’s dragon The final mistake that I’ll be covering
in today’s video from The Philosopher’s Stone is about Hagrid’s pet dragon, Norbert—or
Norberta to be exact.
In the book, Hagrid and the trio go to great lengths to safely get Norbert off the grounds
of Hogwarts, meeting Ron’s older brother, Charlie Weasley, atop the castle’s Astronomy
Tower.
Charlie then discovers that Norbert is in fact a female dragon, leading to her name
change of Norberta.
Norberta leaves with Charlie to Romania, where she can be safely cared for among her own
kind.
The movie cut most of this and gave a completely different explanation of where Norbert—never
revealed as Norberta—had gone.
Hagrid vaguely explains away the dragon’s absence by saying that he was sent away to
Romania after other Hogwarts staff found out about him.
I think it would be rather fun to correct this mistake.
Audiences would get to meet Charlie—who actually never appeared in the movies—and
we’d get to see more of a dragon.
Win-win!
And, with that, we’ve come to the end of another video!
What did you think?
Did I miss any mistakes from the first film that you’d like to see the show FIX?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
And, as always, if you enjoyed this video, don’t forget to like it and subscribe to
the channel!
Until next time…remember
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."