Has you image of the characters change?/PoA casting

[GulPlum <hp@plum.cream.org>]

Steve <bboy_mn> wrote:

<snip>

> So, is there even the remotes chance that the movie has corrupted or
> adjusted your vision of the characters and their world?

For many reasons (including my computer having literally blown up!), 
I've ben offline since before Christmas, and as this is a topic I was 
thinking about myself yesterday, I thought I'd make my re-appearance 
in this thread...

There's one common thread between the comments posted to date: all 
those who have posted knew the books inside out before seeing the 
PS/SS movie. I'd like to make a few observations as someone who 
didn't read any of the HP books until I'd seen the first movie twice.

Perhaps I'm strange, but When I read books I don't actually visualise 
characters very much, regardless of how well they are described or in 
how much detail. I do, however, *hear* them very clearly, and in that 
respect, I think the HP casting to date has been very well done, with 
just a few exceptions.

I first read PS/SS immediately after seeing the movie (I bought the 
book on my way home from the cinema, and the remaining three books 
the next day) and I didn't really feel too many (important) 
discrepancies between my imagination and what I'd seen on the screen. 

Having since read each of the books cover-to-cover twice each, and 
various bits and pieces several times more for the purposes of 
discussions, I've managed to build up my own picture of how Harry and 
and hs world "feel" rather than how they *look*, and I'm able to 
distance myself from the screen "feelings" with no trouble at all.

Probably my most significant problem with the casting is the Weasley 
kids. Frankly (and this isn't just about the book-to-screen 
translation of their apparance), Percy, the twins and Ron simply 
don't look like they could possibly be related to each other. 
Furthermore, their spoken English very clearly comes from different 
parts of the country (and different social classes). I'm also 
particularly peeved about Percy's not wearing glasses (although Chris 
Rankin does wear them!).

That aside, and this is a topic I've raised before, one thing which I 
find just a little disconcerting are the ages of some of the actors, 
which screws up my imagined inter-relationships.

For instance, in the books I always see Vernon and Petunia as rather 
young (in my imagination, Petunia is significantly younger than Lily, 
by 5 or more years). It came as something of a shock to me to 
discover that Richard Griffiths is a few months younger than Alan 
Rickman, although he appears considerably older (I don't just mean 
when made up as the HP characters). He appears to be in his early 
sixties (most of Griffiths' roles in the last few years have been 
retired gentlemen), whch I think is far too old.

Whilst I think Rickman is doing a terrific job, and despite looking 
about 7 or 8 years younger than his age (even without makeup), he 
looks at least 10 years older than I imagine Snape (I always imagined 
Snape to be in his late 30s, even before I discovered what JKR's 
views are), rather than his late 40s as portrayed by Rickman. (Part 
of the reason I imagined Snape that age is because I had a very Snape-
like teacher myself, and he was in his mid-30s at the time.)

Whilst I don't have a view about whether or not Rickman is "sexy", 
he's certainly more handsome than I imagine Snape to be.

I'd always imagined Lucius and Arthur to be rough contemporaries 
(which is pretty much the case with Isaacs and Williams); however, 
the pair of them should be *older* than MWPP/Snape/etc., rather than 
considerably younger (I won't bother with the canon rationale for 
that deduction), or indeed contemporaries - Oldman is of Williams' 
vintage, and Thewlis is of Isaacs'. 

As I've said many, many times before, Snape and Lupin/Black/Pettigrew 
need to be believable contemporaries. Regardless of Rickman's 
excellent condition, frankly I don't buy it with the announced or 
rumoured casting for PoA. 

Incidentally, Timothy Spall is absolutely NOT my imagined Pettigrew. 
I can certainly see him doing a great job in the role, but my main 
objection is that he's simply too big! Furthermore, for his brief 
appearance, he has to be somewhat ill and badly-fed. Spall could 
*never* look underfed (at least, not without losing half his 
bulk!). :-)

I also have a big problem with Dobby. Not having had the dubious 
benefit of the American editions of the books with their chapter 
illustrations, I didn't have quite as "concrete" an image of how 
Dobby should look as some folks, but apart from his eyes, his 
apparance isn't what I expected. Furthermore, I have always imagined 
him as quite a young House-Elf - his revolutionary ideas and 
willingness to help Harry don't fit with the more mature appearance 
the animators gave him. Of course, who's to say what a young House-
Elf looks like, and how can one make jugments about the character's 
age from his appearance, but even so, it doesn't seem quite right to 
me.