Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is an average bespectacled 11 year old boy who has lived with the Dursley family ever since his parents died. For some reason the family has always mistreated him. On his 11th birthday a giant man named Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) hands him a letter telling him that he has been accepted as a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that his parents were wizards and were killed by an evil wizard Voldemort, a truth that was hidden from him all these years. Hilarity ensues as he embarks for his new life as a student, gathering two good friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) along the way. They soon learn that something very valuable is hidden somewhere inside the school and Voldemort is very anxious to lay his hands on it.

Trivia: Richard Harris only agreed to taking the part of Albus Dumbledore after his eleven year old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again. Author J.K. Rowling insisted that the principal cast be British and she got her wish, with two exceptions - Richard Harris was, of course, Irish, and Zoe Wanamaker, though she has made her name as a "British" actress, is actually a US citizen. Other non-Brits in the cast include Verne Troyer, born in Michigan, USA, who plays Griphook (the second Goblin in Gringots' Bank) and Chris Columbus' daughter, Eleanor Columbus, who played Susan Bones. There was a huge media outcry in Gloucester, England when it was decided to use the local Cathedral for some of the Hogwarts scenes. Protesters wrote letters by the sack-load to local newspapers, claiming it was blasphemy and promising to block the film-crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up. Among the portraits on the shifting staircase, you can clearly see a painting of Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII's second wife and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Boleyn was popularly believed to be a witch. The inscription around the Mirror of Erised says: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". Reading the inscription backwards it says, "I show not your face but your heart's desire." The Hogwarts motto, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus" means "never tickle a sleeping dragon".

No, I am not going to go watch Harry Potter And The Order Of The Pheonix tonight at midnight when it opens in the U.S. because one, I actually have a job that I have to go to, two, I am not as young as I used to be, and three I am not crazy (or at least not that crazy). I plan on seeing it Saturday morning and hopefully by then the young kid crowd will only fill up 3 quarters of the theater. So I thought as a good way to get ready to watch it would be to go back and rewatch the first four (and report back to you, my loyal readers, what I rethink about them). So here goes. First off, how many of you noticed that I used the world wide title The Philosopher's Stone? That is the title used everywhere EXCEPT The U.S. (We aren't that dumb people, we could have figured out what a philosopher was. Of course, they did this for the original book also but we still could have figured it out). Did you know that they had to film each scene that contained the word "philosopher" a second time with the word "sorcerer". Pretty sad if you ask me. Anyway, I don't really remember if I originally thought the actors matched their characters but by now I can't see Harry, Ron, or Herminone as anyone else other then Dan, Rupert and Emma. But boy, they were young in 2001. We really have watched them grow up in the last 6 years. I also think it is pretty amazing that just about every secondary character is still being played by the original actors (except Richard Harris, but that was due to his passing away). All in all I think they did a great job creating the world of Hogwarts and the film is a very entertaining film. Well, it is getting pretty late and I have to work tomorrow so I will stop now.