Movie Contamination

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 74121

I was involved a little in a thread that speculated whether Susan
Bones has greater significance than we imagined due to her frequent
appearance in the movies.  Turns out the girl who "plays" Susan is
Chris Columbus's daughter, which leads to a discussion of "movie
contamination."

A lot of events in the movies are different than in canon. Which is
'official?' Can we deduce the number of students by counting the seats
in the Great Hall in the movie? Is the layout of Hogwarts the same as
the scenery? You could drive yourself nuts this way.

Usually, movies are movies and the books they're made from are only
sorta related.  This has been complicated, though, because JKR has
apparently shared some of her private mind with Steven Kloves, the
scriptwriter. I would guess that, if this knowledge appears anywhere
in Kloves's work, it's in the broad drift of events, dialogue, and
relationships, not in  clues.

I wish we'd never heard that, because tiny details in the movies will
be picked open over and over to predict what happens in canon.  It'll
lead us astray.  I hope that this list sticks to canon and movie
discussion continues on the Movie list.

I believe the way to understand canon and what's going to happen is to
look inside the characters and the themes JKR is giving us, not by
picking at tiny details, but that's another post entirely. :-)

Jim Ferer, who likes history of the Muggle world too.