"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
Hello everyone!
We're back to our regular posting schedule!
After a full month of nothing but book-related posts, it's kind of fun to get back to movies, even though I'm looking at my backlog at the moment and wondering how the heck I'm going to even get through all of these before December, when I have the Christmas list.
I'll probably be doing these in January still.
Sounds about right!
Anyway, I'm not sure if you guys remember, but the last time we were in movie land, we were trying to learn magic and how to transfigure a mouse into a needle. Or, alternately, we were trying to figure out how a snake can possibly slither through plumbing when it didn't even know plumbing existed.
You know I'm talking about Harry Potter.
And it's now time to add extra flavour in a Prisoner of Azkaban.
In Philosopher's Stone, our Harry Potter learns he's a wizard and attends Hogwarts for the first time, where he learns all sorts of useful things, meets Ron and Hermione, and thwarts a plan by the evil wizard Voldemort to return to the land of the living using, you guessed it, the Philosopher's stone;
in Chamber of Secrets, Harry's in his second year at Hogwarts and his rivalry with Draco Malfoy is heating up, his DADA teacher is a complete hoax, there's something going around petrifying students, and eventually he duels and defeats a ghost of Voldemort's sixteen-year-old self before freeing a house Elf named Dobby.
This is how we enter our third year and Harry's situation of trying to study by night because his Muggle family, the Dursleys, won't let him get any magical items out during the day.
They also have an unpleasant relative visiting, one Marge, who's annoying and just plain mean, the kind of person you'd never consider kind even if you were just a regular Muggle, and she ends up insulting Harry's parents, which results in Harry's uncontrolled reaction - and her turning into a balloon.
Oops.
Harry packs his things, knowing doing magic outside Hogwarts will get him expelled, and leaves, but before he can have a close encounter with a rangy black dog, he calls a magical bus that picks him up and takes him to the Leaky Cauldron. On the way, he sees there's been an escape from the wizarding prison, Azkaban, but he doesn't think it concerns him until he finds the Minister of Magic waiting for him at the inn, thankful that Harry's safe, who explains that Marge is alright, they won't be expelling Harry (because really, they don't expel children who transform their aunts into balloons, don't you know), and that he should stay inside if he can.
This is explained a little bit better by the time the Weasleys arrive (with Hermione and her new acquisition, Crookshanks the cat) and Arthur tells Harry the escapee, Sirius Black, escaped to come after Harry.
As morbid as introductions go, this is nothing compared to when the Dementors stop the Hogwarts Express and come sneaking down the corridors, causing Harry to faint before Remus Lupin pops up and chases them away. Of course this doesn't lend itself well with the other teenage boys who REALLY like to make fun of people, just like at any other school.
At this point, it's worth noting that Dumbledore's actor was changed because of illness, and the new one is much more energetic, though he also explains the Dementors will be guarding Hogwarts until Sirius Black is found.
Alright, no problem, Harry has other issues anyway, like attending his classes. Lupin is probably the first DADA teacher to ACTUALLY teach the lot anything, including but not limited to the Patronus charm, which proves useful later when he begins teaching it to Harry in secret so that he can protect himself from Dementors, who already show an unusual interest in the boy (probably because he's so genuinely happy when being at school). Meanwhile, Snape is being his usual self, and Hagrid takes over teaching Care of Magical Creatures, which doesn't go so well when arrogant Malfoy irritates Buckbeak the hippogriff, resulting in a minor injury.
Of course Malfoy pretends it's the end of the word, and his father wants Hagrid fired and the beast killed.
While this is going on, the regular school year continues, including Quidditch matches, during one of which Harry ends up attacked by Dementors and barely saved by Dumbledore, though his broomstick isn't as lucky.
Not that that's the end of his problems - Black has apparently been sighted in the castle proper, trying to force his way into Gryffindor Tower (and frightening the Fat Lady half to death even though she's a painting), and on an illicit visit to Hogsmeade (Harry can't technically go since his guardians hadn't signed a permission slip) Harry learns that Sirius Black was his father's best friend and Harry's godfather, who betrayed his family to Voldemort, and caused their deaths.
As if that isn't morbid enough, Buckbeak is actually executed, much to the children's dismay, although they're distracted when Ron's rat Scabbers bites him and flees, only for Ron to end up dragged off by a big ass black dog, who turns out to be none other than Sirius Black. With the addition of Remus Lupin (who, with the use of the Marauder's Map, a map he actually help make back in the day and which he confiscated from Harry earlier), they explain that Sirius was framed with the betrayal of the Potters, and the actual culprit is Peter Pettigrew.
Who's he, might you ask?
Another Animagus (like Sirius and James Potter), the rat, Scabbers, who ACTUALLY did the betraying, and who will now get his just reward.
I mean, he might have, if not for an interfering Snape - knocked out by Harry - and Harry convincing the two adults that Pettigrew should be handed over to the Dementors. This backfires spectacularly (even as Sirius and Harry discuss the possibility of Harry coming to live with his godfather) when the full Moon emerges, and Lupin transforms into a werewolf because he hadn't taken the potion that helps him fight his animalistic nature. Snape reawakens just in time to see this and protect the children, though he misses Pettigrew disappearing as a rat again, and Harry rushes off to help Sirius, who fights Lupin in dog form.
He almost ends up sucked by the Dementors before the pair is saved by a figure he can't really make out, calling a Patronus charm to ward the Dementors off. But when he wakes up, he's dismayed to learn Sirius was sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss - aka they'll suck out his soul.
Lovely.
Of course, it isn't over until the Fat Lady sings, and on Dumbledore's advice (the Headmaster believes them, duh), they use Hermione's Time Turner (which she'd been using to attend all her classes) and go back in time, saving Buckbeak from his execution, and otherwise doing little, unexplained things from the main timeline (like throwing a stone into Hagrid's hut, howling to distract Lupin, etc.) to subtly influence the goings on.
They're also present as the Dementors attack Harry and Sirius, where Harry realizes he hadn't seen his father conjure up the Patronus, but himself, and does so now, calling forth a majestic stag to ward off the creatures. They then fly up to where Sirius is locked, free him, and Harry's godfather flies off into the night, while the kids make it back JUST in time to align back with their timeline, and thoroughly confuse Ron.
As the school year ends, Lupin resigns his teaching post before enraged parents demand it because he's a werewolf, and returns the Marauder's Map to Harry for safe keeping.
And as a final bow, Harry receives the fastest broomstick ever made, the Firebolt, from an unknown benefactor - but a grey hippogriff feather comes attached to the package.
Up, up, and away!
The third installment of the Harry Potter saga continues to expand the narration, explaining a bit more of the history which led to the death of Harry's parents, introducing items like the Marauder's Map, and of course people like Animagi, who can turn into animals at will, which is a difficult and complex form of magic. It also solidifies the friendship between our favourite wizards and begins to complicate matters with regards to Voldemort, now that one of his trusted subjects is out and about again, and since there was no appearance of the wicked wizard in this movie, we can bet there'll be a big bang in movie four.
I genuinely enjoyed this one, and the added cast members, since Gary Oldman makes for the perfect Sirius. It was also nice to see something else besides Voldemort attempting to kill Harry yet again, so of course it was an enjoyable evening when we watched the movie. And you can never just ignore Trelawney when she's spouting out prophecies!
Now it's time to buckle up - year four, long hair and puberty hit us next week in Goblet of Fire!
xx
*poster image and video not mine, screencaps by me
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