House combining in the films

[backstagemystic <idcre@imap2.asu.edu>]

I browse quite a few HP-related forums, and every now and then the 
topic of non-cannon House-combining crops up.

True, in the books, we would not see Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws in a 
Double Potions class which is supposed to be compsed of only 
Gryffindors and Slytherins. 

But it seems film-makers (wisely, in my opinion) combined the Houses 
not only for both time and logistics limitations...but to make sure 
many of the lesser, yet well-known, characters from the Hogwarts 
community were included...adding richness and a sense of the whole 
Hogwarts family.

It should be noted that the film-makers were careful to keep the same 
ages-groups together in their respective classes (e.g. first years 
with other first years), so despite it not quite being "cannon," it's 
rational and believable and is truly such a minor and trivial 
deviation from the books that it just boggles my mind when I read the 
occasional uproar from a small minority of fans spouting some of the 
most unbelievable and thoughtless insults in the direction of the 
film-makers...and never once considering WHY it was done that way.

Truth is, the film-makers simply would not have had the time or the 
budget to film extra scenes, or write more narration, with just that 
many more young extras.  

They have a hard enough time as it is trying to include truly KEY 
plot and character elements and keep the length of the film within 
bladder-stress limits.  The last thing these gifted professionals 
need is fans griping about House-combining when they have to make 
truly more drastic decisions - like cutting-out characters altogether 
or having to alter, edit-down or leave-out entire scenes.

Hence, If seeing these characters at all requires that they be 
combined with other Houses, I say combine them. 

BM