SS/PS MOVIE DISCUSSION

[Carol]

Montavilla47:
> IRRC, FOTR and PS/SS came out the same year.  I remember thinking it
funny that they both had scenes of people battling trolls.  <snip>

Carol responds:
Who borrowed from whom, then, or was it just coincidence that the film
versions of the scene were so similar (though the book versions are
very different)? BTW, isn't "that spear thrust would have skewered a
wild boar" a "goof" since the FOTR Troll doesn't use a spear?)

Montavilla47: 
> There probably are more CGI shots than non-CGI shots in PS/SS.  For
example, every time we see the Great Hall, there's stuff floating
around. When the owls fly in, there's CGIing going on.  
> 
> Pretty much any magical creature is either going to be CGI or some
kind of puppet, or both.

Carol responds:
I forgot about the banquets in the Great Hall. Hedwig is a real owl
(or owls), though.

Montavilla47: 
> Most of the CGI isn't that noticeable, which means it's really well-
integrated. :) For example, during the Quidditch game, we'd know that
the people on broomsticks are being added to the shot.  But we might
not realize that most of the students in the stands are also added
through computer wizardry.

Carol:
And yet you don't really think about the flying brooms and Bludgers
and so forth being CGI, which indicates how good it is. (How about
that one scene in GoF where the stand with Snape and other professors
in it is knocked over? Wonder how the did that?) Also the moving
staircases (which I don't recall seeing after PoA).

Montavilla47: 
> If I had to choose the most disappointing CGI element, it would be
Fluffy.  He wasn't very interesting and he certainly didn't look "real."

Carol:
Oh, I agree. He looked like a big stuffed dog with glycerin for
saliva. Maybe the filmmakers took the name Fluffy a bit too literally.
He should have looked like Cerberus. And, speaking of disappointing
lines, why in the world did they change "Greek chappie" to "Irish
chappie"? The wizard's being Greek makes the Cerberus connection
clear. If there's a three-headed dog in Irish legend or mythology, I'm
unaware of it.

Montavilla47: 
> But a lot of it was good.  The ghosts were suitably ghostly.  The
Great Hall was terrific.  And I thought the Quidditch game was fun and
very believable.

Carol:
Agreed on all counts. What does everyone think of the portraits,
specifically the Fat Lady and the changes to her appearance and
personality in PoA?

Carol, whose image of the Fat Lady doesn't match either Columbus's or
Cuaron's