Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
| 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 dates | June 4, 2004 |
Running time | 142 minutes |
| Countries |  United Kingdom United States |
| 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
Harry, Ron and Hermione begin their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This year, the Dementors of Azkaban are guarding the school, Remus Lupin becomes the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Rubeus Hagrid begins teaching the Care of Magical Creatures courses and convicted murderer Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban.
Fred and George Weasley furnish Harry a magical map of Hogwarts, which shows the location of the inhabitants. Harry, Hermione and Ron solve the mystery of Sirius Black when they learn that he was wrongly convicted of murder, that he was not the person who betrayed Harry’s parents and that he is in fact, Harry’s godfather. Harry saves himself and Sirius from the Dementors by using the Patronus Charm, and Sirius, who is still unable to prove his innocence, escapes.
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 Shiel 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. This means the same set was used in all three films, but it was used as a different location in each.
![[icon]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. |
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. (June 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 instalment, 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 has created speculation among fans as to what these things might be.[citation needed]
- A portrait of Voldemort(as seen in GOF) is sighted to the bottom right of the Fat Lady portrait hole in one scene, waving a wand.This gives a possible sneak peek at our first live glimpse of Voldemort.
- 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.
- 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.
- During the Care for Magical Creatures class, when Hagrid introduces Buckbeak to Harry, Buckbeak defecates as Harry approaches him.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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 Minister of Magic.
- 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. When he does I'll be ready. When he does, I'll kill him."
- 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.
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.
Darker tone
The Prisoner of Azkaban introduces a tone that is darker than the previous Harry Potter films, although the amount of outright frightening moments is roughly the same as the first two. This change is attributed to both Alfonso Cuarón and the source material. There is also a greater degree of physical darkness in the third film than in the first two. The general feel of the film is cold and rainy, while at the same time being very picturesque. But this film manages to portray the wizarding world as more magical through subtlety (also contributing to the overall effect is the greenish-blue colour overtones and the camera angles themselves) when compared to the previous two movies, that had a much more direct, kiddish, Golds-and-reds fantasy tone to it.
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. Still the darker tone lead to criticisms from fans.
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".
- The Fat Lady's portrait 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 further from the school and is surrounded by hills.
- The hospital 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 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 rather rough.
- 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.
"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.[2] 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. Obviously, the worry is that viewers who had not read the book would be at a loss to understand what is going on.
DVD format changes
The DVD release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is packaged in a plastic Amaray keep case, unlike the first two films released in digipak (cardboard) cases. After the release of this film on DVD, all titles in the series were released in Amaray cases along with the first two films that were re-packaged.
References
- ^ RottenTomatoes.com: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- ^ 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
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at IMDb
Template:Box Office Leaders USA
