"After all this time? Always."
Hello everyone!
As is fitting, I chose something that I think most people have tuned into and loved to kick off the 2022 blog posts, even though I have some other topics and titles waiting on the backburner to be used and utilized.
BUT it's always good to take a look back memory lane, especially when it's something so beloved!
In case you haven't been paying attention, Harry Potter made a bit of a comeback recently, and it was SO much better than the book we won't even name.
No, seriously.
When you want to do something right, you go and do it in such a way that it actually makes sense and draws in viewers again.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is just that.
All my links to all things Harry Potter related can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual, because at this point I think I've got a fair amount of the lot!
The anniversary documentary begins with some of our beloved cast members doing their thing when they receive a letter inviting them to Hogwarts in a very similar manner as you see Harry getting his letter back in the day to attend classes.
They then all board the Hogwarts Express and travel to the castle (or, basically, they probably filmed this either on sound stages or inside Universal Studios' lots where everything has actually been built and people can go and visit).
The documentary is split into a couple of different pieces, usually working with two movies at a time and making its way further and further along, explaining what it was like to work with child actors, how they found their Harry Potter, and how the biggest names in British filmmaking industry somehow signed on to this project that no one knew would explode into such a big thing back in the day.
I mean, Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman alone would have made it a star-studded cast, and then of course as the movies continued there were others, like Helena Bonham-Carter, Gary Oldman and the like. Even Ralph Fiennes makes an appearance!
Daniel, Rupert and Emma have a large segment all to themselves, reminiscing, but they aren't the only ones we get to see interviewed, because you have Jason Isaacs, Tom Felton, Evanna Lynch, Matthew Lewis, and so many others who look back on what life was like, basically, at the time of filming these movies.
Because you have to remember, they all spent a decade or so on this project, in an unprecedented move that I don't think could have been replicated today because audiences just don't have the patience anymore to see such ambitious and large undertakings through.
But Harry Potter was made at just the right time with just the right people, and we hear all sorts of funny moments from set, as well as some really nice trips down memory lane while people reminisce, like how Emma Watson wanted to quit at one time. Say wut?!?
The most important bit, however, is the feeling that everyone who's speaking in these interviews remembers it fondly; they look back on their time on set and consider it like a second family, with most still remaining roughly in touch with their co-stars even to this day. And for some, it was the role of a lifetime and the one they'd be recognized for until the end, really.
I will admit that I was kind of hopeful we would get more of the magical setting they showed us in the trailer, of actual Hogwarts and the alumni walking in to sit down and have dinner together, of the entertainment that was obviously put together for them, etc, though I do understand why that would be kept more or less private.
Still, it would have been amazing to see, because people sitting down - even in amazing locations - and chatting is one thing, but people actively moving about, say, the Great Hall, is something else entirely!
Of course none of this minimizes the experience, and the fact that I burst into tears within the first five minutes as the familiar John Williams theme song begins playing. Or the fact that I was practically sobbing by the time we got to the 'In Loving Memory' section, because so many of the amazing people involved in these movies have since left this world.
Did I know exactly what the last scene would be before it happened? Yes, yes I did.
And above all else, I loved seeing them all together again. Harry Potter was made at a time when I was growing up, and I grew up with it. I had my ups and downs with the series and certainly kicked it into the corner for a time, but I finished it just like everybody else, and still reach for the movies (and books!) whenever I feel the need for something magical.
Because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about. And it will be passed down to future generations to come, just like it has been already.
So thank you, J. K. Rowling, for the world you created. Thank you to everyone who ever collaborated and worked on these movies to bring them to life for an audience that couldn't wait to continue their magical adventure.
And thank you to Harry Potter - the Boy Who Lived.
xx
*images and video not mine
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