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

[celestina707]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "alshainofthenorth" 
<alshainofthenorth at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, ozorbust.2426283 at b... wrote:
> > daughterofthedust" <daughterofthedust at y...> wrote:
> > > 
> . 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.


Celestina:

Gee, I never got that impression. Harris was wearing beautiful robes 
that if anything made him look dignified and you felt you were in the 
presence of someone extraordinary.


> > 
> > 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.


Celestina:

I disagree. The playfull, rebellious, twinkling spirit was in his 
eyes and his speach, which came across beautifully in both SS and CoS.
> 


> 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

Celestina:  

I do agree with you here.  This is the reason PoA was my favorite of 
all the series so far.  However, the original point I was trying to 
make is that, aside from seeing Gambon show the quirky eccentric side 
of Dumbledore, we didn't get to see him interact with Harry in the 
way that satisfied those of us who loved Harris's  grandfatherly 
interaction he had with Harry. If a scene like that HAD been done, 
then many of us who didn't exactly take to Gambon may have had a 
change of heart. But on another point, after watching PoA over 10 
times, I still cannot see Gambon's Dumbledore as the "only one he 
ever feared".  Not even close. JMO.

Celestina