Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. Today, we’re going to be discussing three
major differences between the book and film versions of Hermione Granger.
Of course, if you know even a little about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter,
you know – or have at least heard of – the name Hermione Granger. One of Harry’s two best friends,
Hermione is the highly intelligent Muggle-born witch
who has a reputation for her love of books and academia.
After being sorted into Gryffindor alongside Harry and Ron Weasley, the three develop a close
friendship that only grows stronger as their years together at Hogwarts go on. Throughout the series,
Hermione spends plenty of time at the Weasley home, along with Harry, and is present during most
of Harry’s epic adventures. And, while all of this may be true in both the Harry Potter novels and
films, there are actually many major differences when it comes to this main character’s traits.
Naturally, slight differences between a character’s physical appearance and personality
are to be expected when translating a story from the page to the screen. It can
be a difficult task indeed to adapt the dynamic characteristics of multiple beloved characters,
especially, when you’re dealing with a lengthy manuscript. For example,
what can be expanded on in 800 to 900 pages of a novel, is incredibly difficult to cram into the
confines of a two-hour movie version. And to that end, I’ve often encouraged fans of Harry Potter
to, at least to some extent, view the novels and the films as two separate entities. Yes,
of course, they are both set in the same Wizarding World universe. And, yes, the main characters from
the books are present and accounted for in all of the movies. But, if you want the two
stories to be the exact same representations of each other, you will be sadly disappointed.
And the depiction of individual characters is no different. HOWEVER, certain liberties taken with
the character of Miss Hermione Granger do bother me quite a bit – no matter how I look at it.
So, with that in mind, let’s dig into some of the key differences
in Hermione’s character portrayal between the novels and the films.
MAJOR DIFFERENCE #1: Her Appearance
So, yes, let’s start off with one of the most obvious differences
between book and movie Hermione: her physical attributes.
In the novels, especially in the first few books, we are often reminded of Hermione’s large front
teeth and big frizzy hair. In fact, her teeth are a topic of so much discussion in the novels
that when they’re shrunk down in The Goblet of Fire, Ron and Harry instantly notice. This
happens after Draco Malfoy hexes Hermione using “densaugeo,” a spell which elongates
one’s teeth at an alarming rate. The incident sends her to Hogwarts’ Hospital Wing where
Hermione lets Madame Pomphrey shrink her teeth down to a size noticeably smaller than before.
In the films, Hermione is portrayed by actress Emma Watson- who certainly isn’t
awkward looking. And her teeth are, and have always been, well – not large. This,
of course, cannot really be helped. Emma Watson won the role, and she did not have big teeth.
And yet, you may be wondering – since it was such a focal point in the books – why
didn’t they make her wear fake teeth for the first few films? Well, actually, they tried.
According to an interview that Chris Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter films,
gave to Entertainment Weekly, they did attempt to have Emma wear a set of fake teeth
to better match the novel’s description of Hermione – however, young Emma found it
difficult to speak when wearing the teeth, so they decided to nix it. Fair enough.
In terms of her hair, however, I would argue that as the films went on,
it got substantially flatter and straighter. This definitely could have been helped. What started
out as rather bushy in The Philosopher’s Stone, was noticeably less so by The Chamber of Secrets,
and what I’d simply call wavy by The Prisoner of Azkaban. This, I can only chalk up to Hollywood
leveraging Emma Watson’s natural good looks as she grew into a young woman. Frizzy hair be gone!
MAJOR DIFFERENCE #2: Her Muggleness
Now in the books, Hermione and Harry often find themselves unaware of Wizarding World practices
or cultural differences from Muggle society, and Ron is frequently taking it upon himself
to educate them. This makes sense since Ron was born into a wizarding family and both Hermione
and Harry grew up away from the Wizarding World in Muggle homes. Everything from reminding Hermione
that she’s a witch who doesn’t need wood to start a fire to explaining the offensiveness
of being called a Mudblood comes from Ron, the trio’s resident instructor on all things magic,
in a cultural or societal sense – in other words, pretty much everything about the Wizarding World
that one could not learn in a book. Because, of course, Hermione remains
the group’s most studious member in terms of academia in both the novels and the films.
In just the movies, however, Hermione seems to be incredibly well-versed in ALL things magic,
from academic learnings to wizard culture. And, I must say, I do take issue with this difference.
I’ve heard a few fans say that they believe this modification came about due to the film
wanting to simplify who the audience learned wizarding facts from – but quite honestly,
I just don’t agree that it makes sense to have a Muggle-born witch explaining things that she would
have had no experience with, and quite frankly no knowledge of. What’s more, by taking many of
Ron’s more prominent moments, in which he explains ways of the Wizarding World to Harry and Hermione,
away from him in the films, it really doesn’t leave him with much. He becomes somewhat of a
goofy, bumbling fool in the movies – something he is NOT in the books. And by contrast,
it makes Hermione seem almost unreal. I mean, WHO is this 11-year-old who knows EVERYTHING
about a world she has only just discovered? It makes her rather unbelievable if you ask me.
MAJOR DIFFERENCE #3: Her Character Flaws
The final major difference between Hermione in the books versus the films has to do with her
character flaws – or lack thereof. What I mean by this is that in the Harry Potter novels,
Hermione is – well, flawed. But in the movies, she is pretty well perfect.
Now, in the novel series, Hermione – although brilliant – is often portrayed as panicky and
fearful. In particular, you may remember how panicked she became in the scene mentioned
earlier, from The Philosopher’s Stone, in which she quite forgets that she is a witch
and can start fire without matches and wood. So, although she knows the element – that is,
fire – that could save her, Ron, and Harry from the Devil’s Snare in which they are trapped,
she completely panics that they don’t have the materials to make it.
It’s then Ron who points out to her that she has the capabilities to create fire
with magic. You then compare this moment to the movie version, in which Hermione both knows how
to escape from the Devil’s Snare and the spell to conjure it, taking charge to free them.
In terms of fear, in the books, Hermione is afraid of many things. This can be seen in her
fear of flying and how scared of Voldemort she is – which is quite a normal thing,
considering at the beginning of the series she’s a child. In the movies, however, we never really
hear much about Hermione being afraid of, well, anything. Her fear of flying is not focused on.
In fact, in the movie, it’s actually Hermione who comes up with the trio’s escape plan from
Gringotts Wizarding Bank in The Deathly Hallows – which in the book is a plan that belongs to Harry,
and Hermione is so scared of flying that she almost doesn’t get on the dragon.
Another example of her fear in the book, which is absent in the films is,
as I mentioned, her fear of Voldemort. In the novels, she is among the majority of witches and
wizards who refuse to say the Dark Lord’s name for fear of what he represents and his infamous power.
In the movies, however, she not only says Voldemort aloud, she is given what is actually
Albus Dumbledore’s line in the books: “Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.”
All this to say, that by removing some of these character flaws of the novel-version of Hermione,
the movie-version of her is almost too perfect.
She’s no longer relatable – rather, she’s this beautiful, incredibly intelligent, talented,
and resourceful young woman who seems too good to hang out even with “the boy who lived.”
In fact, I think that all three of these major differences between book and film Hermione
amount to the same thing: each alteration makes her less and less relatable .
What did you think? Do you agree? Did the movie “ruin” Hermione or improve her?
Let me know 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