JENNA VORIS | COLUMNIST
In honor of Halloween, ABC Family aired “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” during their “13 Nights of Halloween.”
I am as big of a Harry Potter fan as anyone, and I love to relive the magic by watching the movies over and over again, but they aren’t perfect. In fact, there are a lot of things that the Harry Potter movies left out from the books.
Here are the top five things that the Harry Potter movies got wrong.
One of the major themes in the Harry Potter series is prejudice and looking past the stereotypes that define certain groups of people. Malfoy looks down on Hermione purely because she doesn’t come from a wizarding family, but she is the smartest witch in her class.
Throughout the books, Hermione’s quest with the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare is to ensure that house elves are treated equally and given the same opportunities as witches and wizard, despite the prejudice she deals with on a daily basis.
- Voldemort’s backstory
The sixth book in the series should have just been called “Harry Potter and the History of Voldemort.“ In the films, unfortunately, little of the villain’s backstory is portrayed on screen. Fans of the movies do not know about his mother’s horribly abusive family situation, the relationship between Voldemort’s parents or how his father eventually left his mother without any money.
Movie lovers could say there was no need for the audience to see all of that, but I would argue knowing the situation Voldemort came from makes him a well-rounded and more complex character.
- Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup
The third book, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” marks a dark turn for Harry and the series as a whole. With the looming threat of an escaped prisoner, Dementors and the execution of Hagrid’s pet hippogriff, Harry and his friends do not have many opportunities for fun – which is why Gryffindor winning the Quidditch cup for the first time in a while was such a big deal. Apparently, Warner Bros. had an aversion to including crazy flying scenes.
- Teddy Lupin
The last book in the Harry Potter series was an emotional roller coaster. Not only was the series ending, but a few of our favorite characters bit the dust. Among them were Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, two of Harry’s friends and mentors.
The saddest part was not necessarily their deaths, but how they left behind an infant son in Harry’s care. This is important is because it mirrored Harry’s own situation and brought the theme of war-orphaned children full circle.
- Fun sides of the characters
With thousands of pages to cram into 10 short hours of movie time, it is not surprising so many of our favorite characters get left out of the spotlight. Although they may not have added much to the plot, the dialogue and antics of some of the minor characters made the wizarding world seem real and concrete.
Among the ones left out were Charlie Weasley, one of Ron’s older brothers who has about two seconds of screen time. Winky–the slightly delirious, alcoholic house elf–and Peeves–the obnoxious poltergeist–were completely left off the screen.
The Harry Potter movies are not perfect, but that doesn’t mean that fans of the series are going to stop watching them. In fact, I will probably be sitting at home 30 years from now, wearing an old robe and whispering “you’re a wizard Harry” at 12-year old Daniel Radcliffe.
