Movies as canon? (was CoS Puppet Theater)

[serenadust <jmmears@comcast.net>]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "heiditandy" <heidit at n...> wrote:


> P'shaw, Jo! :) This is the movie list! We just had new canon 6 
weeks ago
> - and we'll have more when the first stills from PoA start showing 
up
> online in a few months. 

Has it *only* been six weeks? Time sure flies when you're having 
fun! (I sure hope you're right about PoA stills; already I can't 
wait.)

Heidi again:
> Actually, to be honest, in a clinical way, we the fans of the 
books did
> have new canon less than two years ago, in the form of the two
> schoolbooks, which newcomers to the Harry Potter books often don't 
even
> know about until they delve into discussion lists like HpfGU or the
> practise of writing fanfic, which (if you want to make it as
> canon-accurate as possible) requires close knowledge of things like
> Quidditch fouls or the precise traits of certain animals. 
> 
> Since this is the movie list, though, let me make this post fully 
on
> topic by asking a question - those of you who came to the HP 
series and
> the fandom through the books - do you consider the films to be
> canonical, and if so, why?



That's an interesting question. My first thought was that there are 
two separate canons: movie and book, but that's probably not really 
accurate either.  While there is, of course, a great deal of overlap 
between the books and movies, there are instances where (As Ali 
pointed out in her post which makes most of the points I wanted to 
make <G>) there are direct contradictions between the two.  In the 
part where we see the plaque with James listed as Seeker, the first 
film even contradicts a statement JKR herself made.

Personally, I consider statements made directly by JKR to be 
*almost* as canonical as the books, although there is certainly a 
range of differing opinions on that point.  However, I don't really 
think she was as closely involved in the first movie as we were led 
to believe, and was even less involved in the CoS movie.  There are 
just too many different layers of interpretation between the books 
and the movies for me to consider them as canon.  In addition, since 
there will be different directors, actors, and possibly (I hope) 
screenwriters as the entire series of films are made, I don't even 
think we can expect the movies to be consistent with one another.  
This will make it very difficult for there to really be such a thing 
as "movie canon" as a separate entity apart from "book canon".

All that aside, I still enjoy the movies for the most part and can 
set aside the discrepancies, but I still try hard to remember the 
differences, if for no other reason to avoid making embarrassing 
movie/book mistakes on the main list <VBG>.

I wonder if this makes as much difference to people who came to know 
Harry Potter through the movies first, before reading any of the 
books?

Jo Serenadust, in a relative posting frenzy