What the actors knew or what we thought they knew

[Carol]

Carol earlier:
>  
> > If the filmmakers took those descriptions literally, they must have missed the unreliable narrator (Harry's misinterpretations presented as fact) altogether!
> 
zanooda responded:
> 
> But the very first description of Hagrid that I cited is not from Harry's POV, it's from the first chapter, where Harry is just a baby. 
>
Carol again:

I didn't mean that the descriptions of Hagrid were (necessarily) from Harry's point of view (though some of them are). I just meant that if they took the exaggerated descriptions literally, not recognizing the hyperbole, they certainly wouldn't catch the more subtle unreliability of the narrator when he or she presents Harry's interpretation of events as what's rally happening. In other words, since they missed the obvious distortions, they almost certainly overlooked the more subtle ones as well. (Like a six-year-old, they apparently believe anything they read! Yes, they know it's fiction, but they accept anything in the book as "true" within that fictional world. Apparently.)

zanooda:

> OTOH, logically, if Hagrid was really twice as tall as other people, he couldn't have ridden a Muggle motocycle or a train :-). 

Carol responds:
Exactly. Not only are JKR's descriptions of Hagrid inconsistent with each other, they're inconsistent with the way he interacts with the characters. (Try reaching the elbow of a twelve-foot-tall man.) True, he's described as a giant in SS/PS, both before and after just-turned-eleven-year-old Harry meets him, but that's partly because he would seem like a giant to Muggle readers (or the Dursleys, if they met him) and partly because there's no other word for a really big man who has not yet been revealed as a half-Giant. (Maybe one is capitalized and the other isn't?)

zanooda:
I suppose both directors just liked the idea of giant-sized Hagrid because they thought he would look awesome on the screen :-). 

Carol:
I suppose. I think they just took the descriptions literally. Certainly, they had no idea when the first films were made that a real Giant (or more than one) would be appearing later in the series. But you can't have Hagrid twelve feet tall or even ten feet tall and have him interact as he does with the kids. Eight feet tall is tall enough.

zanooda:
But when it came to the real Giant in the movie (Grawp), I didn't like how he looked, didn't like it at all ;-(.

Carol:

It sounds like Gollum, it does, Preciousss! I didn't like the way Grawp looked, either, but, then, JKR describes him as looking more or less like a boulder or set of boulders with huge dirty feet (and hands). Movie!Grawp is at least cute in an ugly sort of way, if you know what I mean. (I didn't like the way Movie!Hermione scolded him, sounding not at all terrified. Bokk!Hermione's reaction is more realistic.)

Carol, who thinks we've strayed a bit from the subject line but doesn't want to change it in case we want to stray back