my responses on all points of controversy

[nlpnt at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" 
<catlady at w...> wrote:
> I loved the movie, at least I got incredibly high on seeing it. 
> It's visually beautiful and I want to go one frame at a time 
looking 
> at all the people and costumes and what is happening in the 
> background. 

Yup (looks at next week's work schedule and tries to figure out 
when's a good time for a repeat viewing)...

> 
> I don't understand why some people dislike some of the acting. I 
> loved all the kids and had no problem with Dumbledore despite all 
> those interviews that roused fear of bad acting. The 'Harry, you're 
a 
> great wizard' speech was straight from the book: it was 
embarrassing 
> there, too.

 ALL the kids nailed their parts, IMHO. Even Dan, who had the biggest 
challenge of all- because he had so much publicity, it was hard not 
to think, "This is Dan Radcliffe, who gets taken to the theatre by 
his parents as a family treat and who, at age 12, makes Katie Couric 
seem hopelessly immature by comparison". By his fourth second of 
screen time, I was thinking "That's Harry Potter".
 
>Umm, Mrs. Weasley didn't quite look and sound right (she 
> looked like her hair was badly dyed) but I got over that.

Her voice grated on me, too. I didn't stay for the credits- PLEASE 
tell me that wasn't Rosie O'Donnell!
> 
> Other people who looked wrong: McGonagall was a beautiful silver 
> tabby (a blotch tabby, which is more common in UK than here) but 
I'm 
> sure the book said she was an orange cat. 
   I always pictured her as younger in human form, too- in her 40s, 
maybe- Anne Robinson, perhaps?

<<snip about pacing- Luke answered this so well, I can only 
add, "What he said">>

> I was really bothered by the destruction caused by 
> the wrong wands in Ollivander's shop (which incidentally was not 
> dusty enough) but that is probably my personal issue. 
>
I really liked ths part. Maybe the shop was TOO dusty, though- if 
this happens every time, wouldn't they be constantly replacing stuff?
 
> Speaking of blank looks from Harry, I desperately loved his 
> expression of wicked glee when bad things happened to Dudley and 
> Vernon. It showed that he hasn't had the spirit knocked out of him, 
> which took pages and pages and pages in the book.
  
   See above for my opinion on his acting.

> 
> I don't understand why some people Like the music. I Hated the 
music 
> at the end, which continued under the end credits -- it made me not 
> only wince but grind my teeth. Oh, the pomposity, oh the 
grandiosity, 
> oh the loudness. 

  Would a "no soundtrack" option on the DVD be too much to ask? 
Please? I love the movie, but it took me all day Saturday to get "da-
da-de-da-da-de-DAY-da-da, da-da-de-da-da-day-dum" out of my head (and 
now it's back...)

<<Snip of Snape, whose parts I usually skip over when I reread the 
books, and who does NOT come banging into the room like Old Wilkie 
from the "Jennings" books- in my imagination, he doesn't move 
perceptibly at all, he's just in one place...and then he's in another 
(usually right over Harry's shoulder)>>


> Which brings me back to Petunia's outburst about her "perfect" 
sister 
> and how proud the parents were to have a witch in the family. It 
did 
> make me feel that the Evans parents had some contact with the 
> wizarding world....<snip>

Things that make you go hmmm.....

-Noel