December 09, 2003

• I'm kind of worried about the coming Harry Potter movies. I've seen the trailer for the next one and the kids look older than they probably should. I can't imagine how they're going to look in the 5th one.
• Here is the new trailer. I think Azkaban looks fantastic. The first one I didn't care for, the second one I liked quite a bit more. The third was my favorite book before the fifth came out (and now I am not sure which I prefer). Lots more Azkaban info at Greg's Previews
• < insert debate on merits of various books and movies ..... here > I'll spare y'all my opinions on the specifics. They are quite detailed and boring.
• I'm fairly indifferent. I've read all the books, but not through any effort of my own: they're terrifyingly easy to read. I sat down with the first one, and a couple of hours later: Bam! I'd read it. It's like I inhaled it or something. However, I refuse to see the new movie until Draco Malfoy's hair is reinstated into the violent comb-back. That kid had style.
• Kimberly, I'm pretty sure I remember hearing that this was the last one the boy who plays Potter is going to be in. I don't know about the other main characters, but that might help the age problem. I'm not a huge fan of the books or the movies. I've read them all and think they're... eh... okay. For kids I imagine they're great, but she's not much of a writer. More like Scooby Doo mysteries with a magical flavor. The movies I thought were best summed up by a NYTimes review likening them to a really good cover band. All the notes are right, you know the song, but the inspiration is missing.
• I'll spare y'all my opinions on the specifics. They are quite detailed and boring. Come on! That's what we're here for isn't it? Tell.
• All the notes are right, you know the song, but the inspiration is missing. I would certainly agree with that for the first one. I think that has always been the case with Chris Columbus though.
• stupid me. that first para is supposed to be italicized.
• I've read the first book and I found it entertaining and finely detailed yet the similarities between Harry Potter's story and Ender's Game (the first book of Ender's series only) are so striking that it ticked me off eventually. EG is far much better than HP, since EG reaches far more deeper than a simple growing kid's story. Still I didn't like EG so much. I think HP is a rehash of many kiddied-down young adult themes but well versed. That's all.
• Switching actors would hurt the series. Did they do as LOTR has, and film them all at once? That would have been good for the first 4 or so. Or maybe we could have dispensed with the movies altogether. I did like the first in a "that was a fun movie" sort of way, but the books were showing for the first time in a long time that kids would read something without a film/tv tie-in. As for their literary merits - based on reading much too much children's fantasy and science fiction even into my suposed adulthood, I would give the books an A on plotting, though only a C+ or B on orginality or clarity of world creation. The language is heavily influenced by British children's classics, like Roald Dahl, which is what gives the books the feeling of being more classic than other recent publications. Not as sophisticated as Diane Duane's earlier Wizard series, but damn exciting reads. However, I am still waiting for the potential to blossom, and starting to get worried with each book in which it doesn't. The only thing that makes me sad about all the attention to Harry Potter is that now when everyone thinks of an unhappy, fictional British boy with round glasses and potential for magic, they won't be thinking of this. On preview - sorry for preempting Kimberly
• SO THEN, this brings us full circle: Is anyone from MonkeyFilter going to the try-outs?!
• I'm going... now I just need to find a twin... and someway to become Asian or Indian... then profit!
• Well, not being Asian, or in Britain, or having time to do it... yeah! Totally!
• As far as I have read (which is a fair bit) there are no plans to switch out Dan Radcliffe. They were not shot together and films 3-7 will likely all have different directors. The current release schedule is June 2004: Prisoner of Azkaban Christmas 2005: Goblet of Fire June 2007: Order of Phoenix and so on, once the names of the remaining books become available. The series was originally supposed to be one per year in December, as the first two were done, but the increasing complexity of the series and an attempt to age the actors are commonly cited as reasons for thier current 1.5 year release schedule. Remember that most 'high school' kids in movies are played by actors much older, so I don't see any real problems with the cast outgrowing the characters. I will go to the tryouts if naxo buys my ticket. I don't have a twin, but i figure i could pull a 'Superman' to give the impression that my twin and i are both there while never quite being in the room together. Oh wait. I'm 25 and not female and not Indian. save your money Naxo.
• i keep getting the various "harry potters" and the numerous "lord of the rings" mixed up.
• Come on! That's what we're here for isn't it? Tell. Ok, but remember that you asked for it. I should preface this by saying I'm a huge children's literature fan and prolific reader of it since I was a child. I still have most of the books I loved as a child and I've already started a collection for my as of yet unborn children. I'm an uber fan. A super uber fan. I think J.K. Rowling is a fabulous children's writer. When I read the books I was sucked in and wished that I could have gone to Hogwarts too. The third book is by far my favorite. She finally moved away from recapping everything at the beginning of the books and started her in-depth exploration of the more grown-up magical world. I had a really hard time with the 5th one. It was so freakin' depressing and dark until last hundred pages--at least the other books interspersed good with bad. The fifth book was everything sucks for Harry and he's screwed for most of it. However, that was just a matter of expectations--as a childrens' book I didn't like it, reading it from a more adult perspective, it was very good. I loved the first movie. I went on opening night with a bunch of friends who loved the characters from the book as much as I did. I felt like they were old friends by then, and I was pleasantly surprised when the movie was faithful to them and to the story. I have no idea what I would have thought of it if I hadn't read the books though. I can't imagine bringing kids younger than 8 or 9 to the second one. It was scary with all those spiders and snakes and kids getting petrified. If I had seen that when I was little I would have had nightmares. I liked it, but not as much as the first one. I was never all that attached to the second book so that doesn't surprise me. I'm looking forward to the third movie immensely. I hope the guy they have playing Professor Dumbledore does Richard Harris justice.
• p.s. Ender's Game is my favorite book of all time. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I felt so comfortable with the Harry Potter series. I think y'all need to start reading like kids instead of jaded grown-ups. mwaah!
• Kimberly - My only problem with Ender's Game is the ending, which I'm not going to spoil. I just feel that it betrays the excellent story. Anyway, it is a excellent book that I don't happen to like too much the way it ends. And I read Harry Potter as a kid would have done and I enjoyed it that way. But as soon I ended reading it I judged it like an adult since that's the only way I can get any value from it.
• Damn you and your derail Zemat! I almost had a seizure not responding. I had to settle for this.
• Hey, jb, I didn't realise anyone else had read the Books of Magic.
• I saw both movies before finally picking up the first book. The first movie was all right - very long, of course and I thought it got a little bogged down in places, but it had the coolest actor ever, Alan Rickman, so I'm not complaining. (I'm a total fangirl when it comes to Alan Rickman.) I don't think the second movie was memorable at all, since I really don't remember a thing from it except that my nephews were bored silly (but they were really too young to be there at 6 and 8, I think). As far as the book went, Kimberly's right: it was a good read from a kid's viewpoint. Plenty of adventure, good description, nothing too complicated. I have no great urge to read the rest but I suppose I will, someday. I don't think I'd rush out to see the other movies, either but I learned a long time ago that my taste is not like other peoples'.
• Well our tastes run along the same lines about Alan Rickman. He's one of my absolute favs. I was really happy they made him Professor Snape. Perfect!
• Tracicle - Not as many as Sandman, but they are around. I had heard about them for years, but had only read the Gaimen four issue series before finally getting a chance to borrow the rest from a friend this fall. Funnily enough, like Harry Potter, the Books of Magic sometimes annoyed me by seeming to go over the same things, but I was absolutely obsessed with finding out what happened. Hitting the end, I just sat there in shock. Wow.
• jb, I picked the first one up from the local library at random -- I believe Gaiman's name was on it and that's what made me pick it up. Of course, the same library doesn't have the remaining books and I've got to track them down, preferably for free because I can't justify buying them until I've finished collecting the Sandman books (one to go!).
• I'm a His Dark Materials fan myself. And I pray that the movie never gets off the ground. Even if Tom Stoppard is scripting it. It just seems like the type of story Hollywood screwing up.
• "Hollywood loves screwing up." that is.
• My twin is evil.
• You know, I never really understood comparisons of Harry Potter and His Dark Materials. One series is clearly written for a grade 3-5 reading level, the other is far more complex in its language, structures and ideas; that is why so many adults prefer it. I don't know if I could have even read Pullman in grade school, and I was reading above my level. I admire that Pullman never writes down (the importance of treating children as people is, of course, a running theme in the series), but I wonder how accessible the books are to children. Does anyone know someone under 12 who has read them?
• I'm a huge Pullman and His Dark Materials fan myself. I have some hope for the movie because Stoppard is such a fantastic writer, but it'll depend on who they get to direct it. I can't imagine getting lucky like we did with LOTR, though. And Kimberly, thanks for your long post. We have completely different views on the books (I'm also a big fantasy and children's lit fan myself). Suffice it to say, which I guess I already said, that while I appreciate Rowling's storytelling, and imagine that from a child's point of view it's very captivating that on a nuts and bolts craft level find her to be a competent writer, whereas I think Pullman is an excellent writer. I do agree that they're writing for different audiences, and imagine that Potter fans will "graduate" to Tolkien and Pullman as they get older. I also hold similar views to Pullman in regards to religion, which can be a big turn off for people as well...
• I've never thought about the parallels between Ender and Potter before. Both explore similar themes of outcast boy turns saviour...and what adolescent can't relate to that? I liked EG okay (someone ruined the ending for me before I'd read it), but I really, really loved Speaker for the Dead.
• Since I took EG and HP almost at the same time I spotted some of the similarities more clearly. And they go beyond the theme of outcast boy turns savior. Other examples are the training, the teams/houses/tribes and, of course, the games.
• kimberly and tracicle: alan rickman as 'snape' is damn sex-ay. He
• So what does everyone think of Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events"?
• I read the first Lemony Snicket, and enjoyed it well enough, but haven't been able to read past the first fifteen pages of the second. I find the language increasingly irritating. That aside, I like the characters quite a bit, and enjoyed the playfulness of the first. Further on the language, it is not that I think he is a poor writer at all. I appreciate the way he tries to make sure all of the readers are able to follow the story and takes time to help foster vocab words in them. It just gets annoying when every fifth or sixth sentance defines a word. Jim Carey is playing Count Olaf in the film adaptation that comes out next christmas. An early teaser trailer comes out in a few weeks. I hear Carey looks pretty good and they have embraced the goth-lite feel of the books. Could be cute... Script is by the author.
• Shotsy, thanks for the news about the Lemony movies. Regarding his writing, I couldn't agree with you more about the annoying convention of defining the
• I have volume 10 of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" in manuscript.
• So, now that it's out, what do all the Monkeys think of Goblet of Fire?
• I have volume 10 of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" in manuscript. Oh yeah? Well my copy is professionally printed and bound in hardcover. And I only had to wait an extra year to get it!