Description:
Young boy discovers he is the son of two powerful wizards and has powers
himself. Harry goes off to study wizardry, but also stumbles upon a plot
involving his parents' murderer.
As you can see from this
month's book reviews, I read the Harry Potter
books (all four) before I saw the movie. The books offer a deeper insight
into character and plot, but the movie is lots of fun for the whole family.
I saw it both with friends and with my grandmother.
I think everyone knows the
plot. Harry is miserable with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, living in a
cupboard under the stairs, till the day he gets his invitation to study
at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The characters and atmosphere
of the story are brought to life beautifully in the movie. Harry is brave
and adorable, Hermoine is plucky and bossy, and Ron stole the show with
his dismayed faces and classic one-liners. I liked all of the casting choices,
and it was great to hear lines straight from the book spoken just an I
had imagined.
The scenery and effects were
the second great accomplishment in this movie. Hogwarts is huge and mysterious,
and the game of Quidditch is fast-paced and exciting. Attention to details,
like pictures moving in the background of several shots and random ghosts,
make the look and feel of the picture very complete and convincing.
As for the plot, of course
they couldn't include everything from the book in two and a half hours.
The main points are hit, but I think the movie is vastly improved if you
have already read the book. Your mind fills in the plot holes and details
that just don't fit into the movie. I'm guessing on this point, but I'd
still highly recommend the movie to anymore who likes fantasy, kids, and
fun.
Description:
They scare because they care. Turns out that the boogie man is just
a working shmo, who comes through the closet door to scare children to
harness their screams as an energy resource.
This is a clever movie with
heart. When I left the movie theater, I felt all warm and fuzzy, which
when you figure I really didn't want to go out that night, is saying something.
The animation was great.
I loved Sulley's fur. You just wanted to reach into the movie and pet him.
There were some nice in jokes.
From Ray Haryhousen's restaurant to the Abominable Snowman modeled from
the old Claymation Rudolph movies. And okay, I like movies that can be
funny without being unduly mean. There's some pratfalls, but they're handled
with enough good humour that I didn't feel guilty for laughing.
The voice talent was well
chosen. John Goodman's (Sulley) voice just has nice guy/average joe just
wired right into it. While Billy Crystal (Michael "Mike" Wazowski , Michael
"Mike" Wazowski , Michael "Mike" Wazowski ), as his wacky one-eyed sidekick,
had great energy. And the widdle girl was just uffy, wuffy cute. Ahem,
nothing to see here folks, move along.