Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | |
|---|---|
| File:Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban poster.jpg Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Alfonso Cuarón |
| Written by | Novel: J.K. Rowling Screenplay: Steven Kloves |
| Produced by | Chris Columbus David Heyman Mark Radcliffe |
| Starring | Daniel Radcliffe Rupert Grint Emma Watson Michael Gambon Gary Oldman David Thewlis Timothy Spall Tom Felton Alan Rickman Robbie Coltrane Maggie Smith |
| Cinematography | Michael Seresin |
| Edited by | Steven Weisberg |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date | June 4 2004 |
Running time | 142 minutes |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $130 million |
| Box office | Domestic: $249,541,069 Worldwide: $789,804,554 |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third fantasy adventure film in the popular Harry Potter films series, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It was released on 31 May 2004 in the United Kingdom and on June 4 2004 in Mexico, United States and Canada, and was directed by acclaimed Mexican film director, Alfonso Cuarón. It stars the actors from the preceding films in the series, except for the role of Albus Dumbledore, which saw Michael Gambon taking over from the late Richard Harris. Much of the original crew also returned, including screenwriter Steve Kloves.
It was nominated for two Academy Awards; Academy Award for Original Music Score and Academy Award for Visual Effects but won neither.
Synopsis
The film opens with Harry again staying at the Dursleys for summer break. Uncle Vernon's sister Marge visits,and viciously insults Harry and his parents. Harry's anger and unconscious powers cause her to inflate and float off. Harry flees his uncle's home. The quirky Knight Bus suddenly appears and takes Harry to the wizards' pub "Leaky Cauldron." Harry learns that Sirius Black, an alleged Lord Voldemort supporter, has escaped Azkaban prison. Harry meets Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Harry fears he will be expelled from Hogwarts for using under-age magic. However, the matter is surprisingly dropped ["The Ministry doesn't send students for blowing up their aunts]". While at the Cauldron, Mr. Weasley warns Harry about Sirius Black.
Harry, Ron, and Hermoine board the train, discovering the sleeping new DADA teacher. Harry explains to the two about Black's escape. In a suspenseful scene, the train to Hogwarts is stopped on a bridge, and Ron looks to see something entering the train. Everything in the room turns to ice in just a matter of seconds. The train is violently shaken and a dark shape opens the door. A rotten, skeletal hand opens the door and a cloaked creature begins to suck on Harry. The DADA teacher suddenly stands up and repulses the creature with a blue light. Harry hears a woman screaming, but no one else seems to have heard it.
There are a few changes at Hogwarts as Harry begins his third year. For one, Hermione is taking nearly twice as many classes, including some taught simultaneously. In addition, two new teachers join the staff: Professor Remus J. Lupin for Defense Against the Dark Arts and Rubeus Hagrid for Care of Magical Creatures. While Lupin's lessons are enjoyable, Hagrid's are dreary. During hagrid's first class, Draco Malfoy deliberately provokes Buckbeak, a half-horse/ half-bird, into attacking him. Draco's father Lucius Malfoy, a powerful Ministry of Magic official, files a complaint, and the unfortunate beast is sentenced to be killed.
Because Black is at large, Dementors, the inhuman Azkaban Prison guards, patrol Hogwarts. Dementors drain happiness from anything they approach. During a Quidditch match, several Dementors approach Harry, causing him to faint and fall off his broomstick. Albus Dumbledore stops Harry's fall, but his Nimbus 2000 flies into the Whomping Willow and is destroyed. This causes Harry to choose to fight against them. Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus, a shield that repels a dementor and has him test on a boggart. Harry fails the first time, but conjures one on the second attempt.
Later, Harry is unable to keep himself from going to Hogsmeade and attempts to sneak aboard the train, but is caught by Fred and George, who give him the Marauder's Map. In Hogsmeade village, Harry overhears that Black was his parents' best friend and is still his godfather and legal guardian. Black supposedly divulged the Potters' secret whereabouts to Lord Voldemort and murdered their friend Peter Pettigrew, as well as twelve Muggle bystanders. Harry vows to kill Black. The next night he is astonished when he later sees Pettigrew's name on his Marauder's Map.
As Harry is talking with Professor Trelawney, after returning a divinations orb Hermoine knocked out of the class, she goes into a trance and predicts that the Dark Lord's servant will return to him that night. When the Trio learns that Buckbeak will be executed, they visit Hagrid to console him. While there, Hagrid returns to Scabbers and the Trio are forced to leave and watch Buckbeak's execution. Scabbers bites Ron and he chases after him, which leads them to the Whomping Willow. A large dog attacks Ron and drags him and Scabbers into a hole at the tree's base. Harry and Hermione follow, finding a tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack. Inside, Harry finally confronts Sirius Black, who, as an illegal Animagus, can transform into an animal at will. In this case, the dog. Professor Lupin, who had spotted the group on the Marauder's Map, suddenly bursts in and embraces his old friend Black. Confronted by Hermione, Lupin admits to being a werewolf. Lupin and Black explain that Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form. He is Voldemort's servant, and he betrayed the Potters, framing Black for the crimes. Harry is skeptical until Black and Lupin force Pettigrew back into his human form. Black explains he discovered that Pettigrew was still alive and escaped Azkaban to kill him. As the two are about to kill Pettigrew, Harry stops them, but tells him that afterwards, he can be sent to the dementors
As the group heads back to the castle, the full moon rises, causing Lupin to turn into a werewolf. During the ensuing commotion, Pettigrew escapes. The wolf and Black have a viscious fight. Harry unwittingly attracts its attention, but it later leaves by hearing another wolf cry. Sirius, injured, walks down to a nearby lake. Dementors suddenly attack. As they move in towards a small orb hovering above Black's mouth, Harry a mysterious figure in the distance casts a powerful stag-shaped Patronus, scattering the vicious creatures. Black is captured and taken to the castle where the Dementors intend to suck out his soul.
Hermione reveals she possesses a time-turner, which is how she has been taking so many classes. She and Harry travel back in time three hours, watching themselves go through the night's previous events. They set Buckbeak free and return to the Whomping Willow. As the dementors are about to attack the "other" Harry and Black, Harry, suddenly realizes that the mysterious figure he saw earlier is not appearing. Against Hermoine's advice, Harry runs down to where he saw the figure. He casts the powerful Patronus that disperses the dementors. Black and Buckbeak escape as the timeline restores itself to normal. Harry is deeply disappointed he will be unable to live with his godfather, but takes comfort in knowing that Black is safe—for now. Lupin announces that he is resigning, knowing that the parents will not allow someone like him teaching their children. Harry later recieves a gift from an unknown source: a Firebolt, an extremely fast racing broom. Hermoine holds up a large feather, confirming that Sirius has sent it. Harry tries it out and is whisked away from sight, ending the film.
Soundtrack
The score was composed and conducted by John Williams and released on CD on May 25, 2004. In general his music for this third film is less lyrical and more sombre (and at times more frightening) than that of the previous films. Other than brief quotes of "Hedwig's Theme" and the "Broomstick" theme, Williams' score also consists of entirely new themes.
Production
Some of the sets for the film were built in Glen Coe, Scotland, near to the Clachaig Inn. The indoor sets, including sets built for the previous two films, are mainly in Leavesden Film Studios. The Hogwarts lake was filmed from Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. Incidentally, the train bridge which was also featured in the Chamber of Secrets movie is opposite Loch Shiel and was used to film the sequences when the Dementor arrived on the train. A small section of the triple-decker bus scene, where it weaves in between many different cars, was filmed in Palmers Green in North London. Some parts were also filmed in and around Borough Market and Lambeth Bridge in London.
The set of Honeydukes seen in this film is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the set of Ollivander's from the first film.
Director Alfonso Cuarón originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry, and worked with master puppeteer Basil Twist, particularly on the depiction of the Dementors. Once it became apparent that puppetry would be too expensive and unable to portray the specific elements of the Dementors, Cuarón turned to CGI; however, he and his team did use footage of Dementor puppets underwater as a basis for the flowing movements of the computer-generated Dementors.
The Knight Bus segment when Harry is being taken to The Leaky Cauldron uses the film technique known as bullet time, popularised in The Matrix series of films. This segment takes humorous advantage of the magic quality of the Harry Potter world by having the Muggle world go into bullet time while inside the Knight Bus, Harry, Stan Shunpike and Ernie Prang (and the talking shrunken head) keep moving in real time.
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Cast
Reaction
The film is generally regarded as the most stylised and lively entry in the series thus far, which has led to both positive and negative comments. Some angry fans called Cuaron's approach "style over substance" while others felt the stylistic approach created the adaptation that has best stood on its own as a film.
The film received generally positive reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a Tomatometer ranking of 89%.[1]
Most of the criticism from the fans was that plot points, such as the Marauder's backstory, the details of Peter Pettigrew's betrayal, and the origin of Harry's Patronus were shortened, or completely absent from the film.
The film broke several opening records around the world upon its release, including the top opening film in UK film history, and made approximately £20m in its first three days, totalling £90.3m in ten days. As of September 28, 2005, the film had grossed US $789 million worldwide. It was the highest grossing film of 2004 at the non-American box office making US $540 million, but was only the sixth-highest grossing film in the USA making $249 million. Overall, the film was the second highest grossing film of the year worldwide, behind only Shrek 2. The film is currently the lowest grossing Harry Potter film (all the other Harry Potter films have grossed more than US $870 million worldwide). In 2005, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards for its score and visual effects.
Awards
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated in the 77th Academy Awards held in 2005 for two Oscars.
- Academy Award for Original Music Score - John Williams. Lost to Finding Neverland by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek.
- Academy Award for Visual Effects - Lost to Spider-Man 2.
Rating
The film was rated PG for frightening moments, creature violence, and mild language.
- In the Netherlands, the film was given a special rating of 9.
- The Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) initially rated the film M for "horror elements" (recommended for mature audiences), but the rating was lowered to PG on appeal to "some fantasy scenes may frighten young children".
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (July 2007) |
- Musician Ian Brown makes a cameo appearance as a wizard in The Leaky Cauldron reading A Brief History of Time.
- The costumes were changed slightly for this installment, specifically the house ties and scarves have a different pattern than in the first two films.
- David Thewlis, who plays Professor Lupin, originally tried out for the part of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
- J. K. Rowling said she "got goosebumps" from seeing this film because it contained things that inadvertently foreshadowed information to be revealed in coming books. This comment had created speculation among fans as to what these things were, but the mystery was solved with the release of the 7th book.Template:DH
- A portrait of Voldemort (as seen in GOF) is sighted to the bottom right of the Fat Lady portrait hole in her first scene, waving a wand. This gives a possible sneak peek at the first live glimpse of Voldemort.
- In scenes at Hagrid's cottage relating to the execution of Buckbeak, the trees are in early Spring foliage evidenced by the bright green tips, yet all of the giant gourds are coloured like Autumn ripened varieties.
- At the beginning of the movie, Harry performs a lumos maxima spell in his bedroom at the Dursleys' home. However, he is not allowed to perform any magic outside school, and that would, of course, include exercising spells from books. After all, he gets into trouble when, without intending to do so, he inflates Aunt Marge; this may indicate that, while magic is generally prohibited outside of school, the Ministry of Magic is only interested in prosecuting instances that involve or are witnessed by Muggles or perhaps only instances using major or harmful magic. Plus, later on in the books Harry and his friends perform the Lumos spell outside of school, and they get in no trouble for it. However, in the sixth book it is stated that the Ministry of Magic can only detect where magic is being performed, not the actual person who performed it; this explains why Harry and his friends did not get into trouble for the Lumos spell as they performed it in the midst of the Quidditch World Cup, where hundreds of adult wizards and witches would be using magic.
- Lenny Henry, the voice of the shrunken head, is married to Dawn French, The Fat Lady starting with this movie.
- When Harry sees the Patronus conjured by himself, it has an easily recognisable shape of a stag. However, when Harry and Hermione go back in time, the Patronus momentarily takes the shape of a stag's head, but never the full stag as seen previously.
- This movie marks the second time that Timothy Spall has been a rat. The first time was in the stop-motion animated movie, Chicken Run.
- The lyrics of the song sung by the Hogwarts choir is taken directly from the Shakespearean play, Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 1), when the Weird Sisters make their witches' brew.
- When The Picture of Sirius Black is shown on the Daily Prophet the letters are in Anglo-Saxon
On TV
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film in the Harry Potter series, made its free-TV premiere on ABC before premiering on ABC Family on December 3, 2006 as part of their event, The 25 Days of Christmas. It has requested that ABC Family's sister station, Disney Channel, hasn't aired this movie yet, but will sometime later this year.
Differences from the book
- In the book, Harry receives presents for his birthday while still at the Dursleys. He receives The Monster Book of Monsters from Hagrid, a broom tuning kit from Hermione, and a sneak-o-scope from Ron. In the movie, there is no mention of his birthday and he receives all his school books while at the Leaky Cauldron.
- In the book, Harry stays for a week in Diagon Alley and purchases his school supplies. In the movie, he stays only for a day.
- In the book, when he blows up Aunt Marge she floats to the top of the ceiling and gets stuck. In the movie, Marge floats out the patio door and into the air.
- In the book, when the Knight Bus is about to hit something, the object moves out of the way, including trees, mailboxes, and telephone booths. In the movie, the bus must avoid hitting objects by swerving, stopping, magically narrowing, or slowing time down.
- In the book, Harry boards the Knight Bus and states that his name is Neville Longbottom. In the movie, he does not give his name.
- In the book, Hermione purchases Crookshanks from a magical petshop in Diagon Alley. In the movie, when Hermione is first seen she already has Crookshanks.
- In the book, during the quidditch match, Harry sees The Grim in the stands, but in the movie he sees a cloud shaped like The Grim.
- In the book, after Harry finds out Sirius Black "betrayed" his parents, Harry, Ron and Hermione are too stunned to move. In the movie, an irate Harry runs to the shrieking shack and shouts "I hope he finds me. Because when he does I'm gonna be ready. When he does, I'm gonna kill him."
- In the book, people get past the Whomping Willow by touching a knot that freezes it. In the film, Sirius (as a dog) drags Ron into the Whomping Willow, avoiding its branches, with Harry and Hermione following suit. Lupin meanwhile uses an Immobilizing Charm on it and Snape sneaks after him while it's still deactivated.
- In the film, Lupin reminisces about Lily Potter's good qualities to Harry, saying she was an 'uncommonly kind' woman and could see the beauty in someone even if the person could not see it themselves.
- In the book, Harry, Ron,and Hermione all disarm Snape. In the movie, only Harry performs the Disarming Charm.
- In the book, Harry receives the firebolt as an anonymous Christmas gift. Hermione thinks its from Black and is cursed, so she tells McGonagall who confiscates it for testing, and then both Harry and Ron get mad at Hermione. Harry gets it back in time for the Quidditch Cup. In the movie, Harry receives the firebolt at the end of the film and there is no mention of the Quidditch Cup.
In the movie, Lupin gives back the Marauder's map but does not explain that he, Sirius, Peter and James are the one's who created it and to whom it refers.
Comparison to preceding films in the Harry Potter series
 | This section possibly contains original research. (April 2007) |
The third film departed from several conventions set in the first two movies, and had several stylistic changes. This is mostly due to the introduction of a new director to the series, but may also be explained by the fact that the third book of the series was significantly longer than the previous two books, and the director was given more freedom to adapt the book in the interest of screening time. Overall, this film is more than ten minutes shorter than each of the other films in the series.
All the Harry Potter books contain scenes relating to the mystery/adventure aspect of the stories along with emotional scenes designed to explore the characters. The first two films had a tendency to focus mainly on the mystery/adventure aspect, leaving out most of the emotional scenes, which inevitably bred criticisms of a lack of character development and related issues.
In the third film, the paradigm was reversed with more emphasis on Harry's angst than on the plot mechanics and literal faithfulness to the narrative. Some felt that this created a murky plotline, but most film critics and many fans were more than pleased with these changes, believing it made the film stronger and the characters more interesting and believable than the two previous.
Continuity between films
The Harry Potter films are not considered canon, however the landscape and layout of Hogwarts has changed since prior films. The changes noticeable in this film include:
- The addition of the "Dark Tower" and the "Clock Tower" (A Tower can be spotted in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the spot the clock tower would be).
- The Hogwarts school appears to have acquired a choir, which sings a melodic version of the incantation declared by the witches in Macbeth
- The Fat Lady's portrait (in addition to being completely different than the one in the first two films) now resides in the room with moving staircases, while in the first two films, the Fat Lady's portrait was at the end of a long hallway.
- Hagrid's hut is now larger in size, much farther from the school and is surrounded by hills.
- The hospital wing is now located in the top of a clock tower with a view of the clock's face just beyond the doors. In the first two films, only a blank wall is visible beyond the doors.
- The presence of a mountainous valley surrounding Hogwarts, which is closer to the actual description in the books.
- The Whomping Willow is now located on a hilltop at some distance from Hogwarts.
- A large wooden bridge now exists, which was not mentioned in the books and did not appear in the previous films.
- Tom the bartender in the Leaky Cauldron is now a bald hunchback completely different to Tom in the first movie, and the Leaky Cauldron is a lot smaller.
- Professor Flitwick does not appear in the film, but a different character played by Warwick Davis does. This character, simply identified as 'Wizard', is the chorus director. Davis continues to appear as this character in the next two movies, and is there identified once again as Flitwick.
- Albus Dumbledore is not only portrayed by a new actor, but his costume has been radically redesigned, and his hair is shorter and greyish rather than white.
- The size of the Hogwarts lake has changed drastically. In the previous films it extended around to a good portion of the back of the castle, but in the thrid film it has receded back, reaching only a little past where the great hall building is. Also, in the final scene, the lake is shown more as a very wide river, extending into the horizon.
There are also differences (some subtle, some much more noticeable) in the attire of Hogwarts students in this film:
- When not attending classes, many students are seen wearing Muggle street clothes on Hogwarts grounds. This not only breaks with the previous films, but with the books as well. Harry and Hermione might feel at home in such clothing, since they live among Muggles when not at school, but Ron would not normally dress this way despite his father's fascination with all aspects of Muggle society, and Draco Malfoy would most likely not wear Muggle apparel. This change, due to director Cuarón's influence[2], has carried over to subsequent films.
- Student uniforms have been redesigned somewhat from their portrayal in the first two films, most noticeably in House neckties and scarves. While both previously featured House colors in equal-width stripes, neckties now feature one background color with an alternating pattern of two thick stripes and one thin stripe of a foreground color, and house scarves feature thinner foreground stripes in groups of two over the background. This redesign has been kept in all subsequent Harry Potter films to date.
- The trio's wands differ from those shown in the first two films. Ron replaced his broken wand with one which is 14 inches in length. Hermione's wand is now 15 inches in length, made of vinewood with vine carvings. Harry's now 14 inch wand is the most changed; the handle appears to be made from a tree branch with bark while the shaft appears to be either redwood or rosewood and is not polished but rough.
"Murky" plotting
Detractors say that, in contrast to the smooth and detailed rendition of the book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban features a hasty and fragmented succession of often unconnected events, creating a plotline Roger Ebert described as "a little murky" in his otherwise fully positive print review.[3] Entire patches of the original plot have been either left out or significantly altered. This is mainly due to the necessity of reducing a vast and ever-growing quantity of facts in a relatively short length of time. The worry is that viewers who had not read the book would be at a loss to understand what is going on.
References
- ^ RottenTomatoes.com: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- ^ "News: 'Azkaban' notes: Clothing still at issue?". The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator. 2003-09-15. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); External link in|work= - ^ Ebert, Roger (2004-06-03). "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".
External links
- Official Harry Potter films site
- Official UK Harry Potter films site
- Amazon.com Official Harry Potter Store
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at IMDb
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