Right Wing Reviews; DVD & Book 5 Release Date

[jonathandupont at hotmail.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Barb" <blpurdom at y...> wrote:
> We're all familiar with right-wing reactionaries decrying Harry 
> Potter for "seducing" young people to explore the occult.  (I think 
> mostly it "seduces" young people to cheat on their homework--think 
> Divination.<g>)
> 
> If any of us thought the film would change the (already closed) 
> minds of folks who object to Potter, these reviews should establish 
> that they are still firmly opposed.  Of course, I don't think the 
> film is a very thorough portrayal of the Potter universe, but even 
a 
> thorough portrayal probably wouldn't have swayed these folks.
> 
> This is Robert Knight's review (he of the Culture and Family 
> Institute):
> 
> http://www.cultureandfamily.org/report/2001-11-21/o_knight.shtml
> 
> This is the review from Focus on the Family:
> 
> http://www.family.org/pplace/pi/films/A0018592.html
> 
> Prepare to be appalled...
> 
> --Barb

I actually find those sort of reviews rather amusing (especially when 
they're reviewing, say, South Park). I was very tempted to start 
putting a signature at the bottom of my emails so I could include 
some quotes from the CAP review:-

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. An amazing excursion through 
dazzling computer animation and computer-aided graphics. A colorful 
display of goth art. A bunch of delightful and bright kids displaying 
great talent and skills. Ingenious planning and outstanding attention 
to detail rivaling commercial nuclear power production (and I spent 
14 years as a nuke). Several points of wisdom, integrity and honor 
skillfully placed. And all to present evil as good"

"I have not read any of the "Harry Potter" books. Thus I am not 
influenced or biased by them... And what better time to embrace evil 
in entertainment" 

(I'm sure there's a better example of the contradiction, but you get 
the point).

"By the way, Harry converses with a snake in this movie. Not a cow, 
not a dog [wait until Book 3], not a cat [McGonagall count?], but a 
snake. And one of the characters is 665.5 years old."

(How did they work that out, btw?)

One thing I found confusing was that "willingness to commit suicide 
to enable victory of friends" was down as a bad thing. But the worst, 
most messed up thing they wrote:-

"Harry also befriends and is befriended by two special schoolmates: 
Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson), a delightful young lady with the gift 
of intellect and study; Ron Wesley (Rupert Grint), not talented in 
much of anything."

Will the Ron bashing EVER end? (joking)

http://www.capalert.com/capreports/harrypottersorc.htm for the full 
thing, if you're interested.

Oh, and BBC Teletext was reporting yesterday that the DVD would come 
out next summer at around the same time as Book 5 - which they seemed 
to reckon was May 2002.

Jon