I agree, for a movie plot. I think this movie was very dependent on the book and really didn't work as a stand alone piece, but I'm okay with that.
YokayMV
I've really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of town. It's the 'stay and gloat' that gets me every time.
Ethan Rayne ,'Potential'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Lee - Dec 11, 2005 12:03:30 pm PST #9620 of 10002
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.
Jessica - Dec 11, 2005 12:05:19 pm PST #9621 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
I think it may have had something to do with getting Harry alone so that Dumbledore wouldn't suspect he'd been Portkeyed off.
§ ita § - Dec 11, 2005 12:21:23 pm PST #9622 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I think the movies should absolutely be able to stand alone from the books as a cohesive onscreen unit. Even if it takes director's cuts to do it.
Dumbledore wouldn't suspect he'd been Portkeyed off.
Seeing as they never planned on returning him, it didn't seem a large concern.
sumi - Dec 12, 2005 4:52:27 am PST #9623 of 10002
Art Crawl!!!
Except that they had to ensure that there was enought TIME to do the spell AND kill Harry without anyone noticing him missing from class or whatever.
Emily - Dec 12, 2005 5:00:59 am PST #9624 of 10002
"In the equation E = mc⬧, c⬧ is a pretty big honking number." - Scola
I haven't gotten the sense from the books that there's any way to trace portkeys, so I'm not sure there's much in the way of time constraints. On the whole, though, I found it a ridiculously convoluted plot in the book, so I wasn't surprised to find it so in the movie.
DavidS - Dec 12, 2005 10:48:27 am PST #9625 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I think I've mentioned this before, but a recent NY Times article reminded me:
In the pre-Potter days, would an American publisher have brought out "The Water Mirror"? Hard to say, but Kai Meyer's very European fantasy, translated gracefully from German by Elizabeth D. Crawford, brings a refreshing, and occasionally jarring, perspective to New World readers.
No American children's book would take such a derogatory view of fat people, for example. In "The Water Mirror," fat characters are baddies and thinness is usually a sign of virtue.
This always throws me in the Harry Potter and Roald Dahl's books. Wish Fay would drop by to comment or get a little Brit-perspective on it.
flea - Dec 12, 2005 10:54:47 am PST #9626 of 10002
information libertarian
I recall being rather nonplussed by the book Fattypuffs and Thinifers [link] (which is not particularly flattering to either, really) when I read it as a kid. But I guess it was by a Frenchman, now that I look at it. Andre Maurois, who knew?
DavidS - Dec 12, 2005 10:55:23 am PST #9627 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Andre Maurois, who knew?
They're sneaky, those French.
flea - Dec 12, 2005 10:58:16 am PST #9628 of 10002
information libertarian
Who are fat villains in Dahl? I can think of Aunt Sponge; all the rest (brewer in Danny..., Veruca Salt's parents) seem to be overweight by virtue of epitomizing the wealthy and overfed upper-classes, in contrast to poverty-stricken heroes. But I'm not a Dahl completist.
Nutty - Dec 12, 2005 11:58:10 am PST #9629 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
Augustus Gloop, but then, the whole point of him was overindulgence. If AUgustus Gloop had been skinny, he would have been a very strange object lesson.
I remember Fattypuffs and Thinifers, or, just enough to remember that the skinny people ate their meals standing up, and I thought that was stupid.