Why Gambon is a Better Dumbledore Than Harris Was...(yes!)

[alshainofthenorth]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, ozorbust.2426283 at b... wrote:
> daughterofthedust" <daughterofthedust at y...> wrote:
> > 
> > Well, I guess
> I'll just have to be alone on this one. :-)
> 
> For what it's worth, I agree
> with you. I don't have the exact quote but one of the books 
described Dumbledore
> as very old but moving as if with great energy. Harris's Dumbledore 
looked
> like a gust of wind could blow him over. Gambon on the other hand 
is playful,
> yet serious and strong when need be. The time turner sequences in 
particular
> are perfectly played.
> 
> Manda

And another one in the pro-Gambon camp speaks out...
Some examples of the lines that formed my image of Dumbledore: 

"Nitwit! Oddment! Blubber! Tweak!"
Then Percy's comment that Dumbledore is a genius, but yes, a bit mad.
Then COS, and Dumbledore's line about our choices rather than our 
abilities showing who we truly are (and there's no doubt in my mind 
that Gambon would have done that as well as Harris did.)
In GOF, it's the (probably off-colour) joke about the troll, the hag 
and the leprechaun who walked into a bar, Harry's realisation (for 
the first time in four years) that Dumbledore is an old man, the 
flash of triumph and the show-off with Fudge.

Sure, Dumbledore is about wisdom, bravery and gentleness, but also 
and even more, playfulness, humour and subversion (though there's no 
proof, I'm convinced that he was the Headmaster to introduce Muggle 
Studies at Hogwarts), not to mention a huge amount of battiness. At a 
couple of occasions McGonagall is rather exasperated with him. What 
he uses to hide his power is eccentricity, not advanced age. In fact, 
he's always seemed to me as if he's very much in contact with his 
inner child, and, in opposite to Fudge, he's not the least concerned 
with his own importance. It's Dumbledore's playful, rebellious, 
twinkling, wacky spirit that I feel was missing from the first two 
films. Not through some lack in the acting abilities of Mr Harris, I 
hasten to add -- it's just that his vision of Dumbledore was 
different from mine.

When it comes to leaving out Harry's heart-to-heart with Dumbledore, 
it was not so much left out IMO as split up and moved to Sirius and 
Lupin. Leaving canon aside for a moment, I felt that was a neat way 
to point out (by showing, not by telling) that the greatest gift 
Harry received in POA was getting to know two former personal friends 
of his parents, grownups that he could trust and turn to for help and 
advice. The fastest broomstick in the world pales in comparison.

Alshain