Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
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 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Alfonso Cuarón |
| Produced by | Chris Columbus David Heyman Mark Radcliffe |
| Written by | J.K. Rowling (novel) Steven Kloves (screenplay) |
| Starring | Daniel Radcliffe Rupert Grint Emma Watson |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Michael Seresin |
| Editing by | Steven Weisberg |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 4, 2004 |
| Running time | 142 minutes |
| Country |  United Kingdom(US-backed) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $130 million |
| Gross revenue | Domestic: $249,541,069 Worldwide: $789,804,554 |
| Preceded by | Chamber of Secrets |
| Followed by | Goblet of Fire |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, released on 4 June 2004 in Mexico, United States and Canada, is the third in the Harry Potter film series and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars the actors from the preceding films in the series, except for the role of Albus Dumbledore, which saw Michael Gambon taking over from the late Richard Harris. Much of the original crew also returned, including screenwriter Steve Kloves.
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[edit] Synopsis
Sirius Black, a convicted murderer and Voldemort supporter, escapes from Azkaban and sets his sights on Hogwarts, where ruthless Dementors are stationed to protect Harry Potter and his peers. Haunted by the Dementors and ominous visions of a dog, Harry meets an old friend of his parents, Remus Lupin, who helps him learn more about the past.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Soundtrack
The score was composed and conducted by John Williams and released on CD on May 25, 2004.
[edit] Locations
Some of the sets for the film were built in Glen Coe, Scotland, near to the Clachaig Inn. The indoor sets, including sets built for the previous two films, are mainly in Leavesden Film Studios. The Hogwarts lake was filmed from Loch Shiel in the Highlands of Scotland. Incidentally, the train bridge which was also featured in the Chamber of Secrets movie is opposite Loch Shiel and was used to film the sequences when the Dementor arrived on the train. A small section of the triple-decker bus scene, where it weaves in between many different cars, was filmed in Palmers Green in North London. Some parts were also filmed in and around Borough Market and Lambeth Bridge in London.
- The set of Honeydukes seen in this film is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the set of Ollivander's from the first film. This means the same set was used in all three films, but it was used as a different location in each.
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[edit] Reactions
The film received generally positive reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a Tomatometer ranking of 88%[1]; on the Internet Movie Database, it currently has a 7.7[2], slightly behind Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (7.8)[3] for the highest IMDb rating of films in the series. Some fans[weasel words] were angry that certain major plot points, such as the Marauders' backstory, the details of Peter Pettigrew's betrayal, and the origin of Harry's Patronus all were shortened, or simply removed completely.
The film broke several opening records around the world upon its release, including the top opening film in UK film history, and made approximately £20m in its first three days, totalling £90.3m in ten days. As of September 28, 2005, the film had grossed US $789 million worldwide. It was the highest grossing film of 2004 at the non-American box office making US $540 million, but was only the sixth-highest grossing film in the USA making US $249 million. Overall, the film was the second highest grossing film of the year worldwide behind only Shrek 2. The film is currently the lowest grossing Harry Potter film (all the other Harry Potter films have grossed more than US $870 million worldwide). In 2005, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards for its score and visual effects.
[edit] Rating
The film was rated PG for frightening moments, creature violence, and mild language.
- In the Netherlands, the film was given a special rating of 9.
- The Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) initially rated the film M for "horror elements" (recommended for mature audiences), but the rating was lowered to PG on appeal to "some fantasy scenes may frighten young children".
[edit] Trivia
- Musician Ian Brown makes a cameo appearance as a wizard in The Leaky Cauldron reading A Brief History of Time.
- The costumes were changed slightly for this installment, specifically the house ties and scarves have a different pattern than in the first two films.
- David Thewlis, who plays Professor Lupin, originally tried out for the part of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
- J. K. Rowling said she "got goosebumps" from seeing this film because it contained things that inadvertently foreshadowed information to be revealed in coming books. This comment has created speculation among fans as to what these things might be.
- Director Alfonso Cuarón originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry, and worked with master puppeteer Basil Twist, particularly on the depiction of the Dementors. Once it became apparent that puppetry would be too expensive and unable to portray the specific elements of the Dementors, Cuarón turned to CGI; however, he and his team did use footage of Dementor puppets underwater as a basis for the flowing movements of the computer-generated Dementors.
- During the Care for Magical Creatures class, when Hagrid introduces Buckbeak to Harry, notice that Buckbeak defecates as Harry approaches him.
- At the beginning of the movie, Harry performs a lumos maxima spell in his bedroom at the Dursleys' home. However, he is not allowed to perform any magic outside school, and that would, of course, include exercising spells from books. After all, he gets into trouble when, without intending to do so, he inflates Aunt Marge; this may indicate that, while magic is generally prohibited outside of school, the Ministry of Magic is only interested in prosecuting instances that involve or are witnessed by Muggles or perhaps only instances using major or harmful magic. Plus, later on in the books Harry and his friends perform the Lumos spell outside of school, and they get in no trouble for it. However, in the sixth book it is stated that the Ministry of Magic can only detect where magic is being performed, not the actual person who performed it; this explains why Harry and his friends did not get into trouble for the Lumos spell as they performed it in the midst of the Quidditch World Cup, where hundreds of adult wizards and witches would be using magic. It still, however, leaves the spell used by Harry at the beginning of the film unexplained.
- The Knight Bus segment when Harry is being taken to The Leaky Cauldron uses the film technique known as bullet time, popularized in The Matrix series of films. This segment takes humorous advantage of the magic quality of the Harry Potter world by having the Muggle world go into bullet time while inside the Knight Bus, Harry, Stan Shunpike and Ernie Prang (and the talking shrunken head) keep moving in real time.
- Lenny Henry, the voice of the shrunken head, is married to Dawn French, The Fat Lady starting with this movie.
- When Harry sees the Patronus conjured by himself, it has an easily recognisable shape of a stag. However, when Harry and Hermione go back in time, the Patronus momentarily takes the shape of a stag's head, but never the full stag as seen previously.
- This movie marks the second time that Timothy Spall has been a rat. The first time was in the stop-motion animated movie, Chicken Run.
- The lyrics of the song sung by the Hogwarts choir is taken directly from the Shakespearean play, Macbeth, when the Weird Sisters make their witches' brew.
- During the Knight Bus scene, the part where the Knight Bus almost hits an old woman crossing the road and when the shrunken head says "little old lady at 12 o'clock" is a nod to one of Warner Brothers' other films, Batman Returns.
[edit] Comparison to preceding films in the Harry Potter series
The third film departed from several conventions set in the first two movies, and had several stylistic changes. This is mostly due to the introduction of a new director to the series, but may also be explained by the fact that the third book of the series was significantly longer than the previous two books, and the director was given more freedom to adapt the book in the interest of screening time. Overall, this film is more than ten minutes shorter than each of the other films in the series.
[edit] Darker tone
The Prisoner of Azkaban introduces a tone that is darker than the previous Harry Potter films. This change is attributed to both Alfonso Cuarón and the source material. There is also a greater degree of physical darkness in the third film than in the first two. The general feel of the film is cold and rainy, while at the same time being very picturesque. But this film manages to potray the wizarding world as more magical through subtlety (also contibuting to the overall effect is the greenish-blue colour overtones and the camera angles themselves) when compared to the previous two movies, that had a much more direct, kiddish, Golds-and-reds fantasy tone to it.
All the Harry Potter books contain scenes relating to the mystery/adventure aspect of the stories along with emotional scenes designed to explore the characters. The first two films had a tendency to focus mainly on the mystery/adventure aspect, leaving out most of the emotional scenes, which inevitably bred criticisms of a lack of character development and related issues.
In the third film, the paradigm was reversed with more emphasis on Harry's angst than on the plot mechanics and literal faithfulness to the narrative. Some felt that this created a murky plotline, but most film critics and many fans were more than pleased with these changes, believing it made the film stronger and the characters more interesting and believable than the two previous.
[edit] Continued changes to Hogwarts Castle and surrounding landscape
Some fans[weasel words] felt upset with minor continuity issues between the two previous, including the landscaping and layout of Hogwarts. Despite the fact the Harry Potter films are not considered canon, some fans found the lack of continuity irksome. These contradictions include:
- Hogwarts Castle continues to change design and landscape. In this film, the "Dark Tower" and the "Clock Tower" were added to the castle.
- In the first two films, Hagrid's hut is a short distance from the castle across a meadow, but in the third film it is much farther away and surrounded by hills.
- In the first two films there are no mountains surrounding Hogwarts, but in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Hogwarts is featured in an enclosed mountainous valley, which is closer to the actual description in the books.
- In the first two films, the Fat Lady's portrait was at the end of a long hallway, but in the third film it is moved to the room with the moving stairs.
- Hagrid's hut is larger than in the first two films. However, this is consistent with the original description in the book.
- In the second film, the Whomping Willow is right next to the castle, whereas in the third film it is now farther away from the castle, and is on a hilltop.
- The hospital wing is moved to the top of a clock tower, with a view of the clock's face just beyond the doors. In the first two films, only a blank wall is visible beyond the doors.
- There is a large wooden bridge that didn't appear in any of the previous movies nor was mentioned in the books.
- The trio's wands have changed from the previous first two movies and it seems as they are going to stay the same throughout the film franchise. Ron had to have a new wand which is 14 inches in length. Hermione's wand is now vinewood with vine carvings throughout the wand and is 15 inches in length (JK Rowling has confirmed that Hermione's wand is vinewood). Harry's now 14 inch wand is the most changed; the handle appears to be made from a tree branch with bark while the shaft appears to be either redwood or rosewood and is not polished but rather rough.
- The Fat Lady is a different actress (Dawn French) than in the previous movies and is given a touch of personality.
- In the Great Hall, the Gryffindor table is next to the Slytherin table in the third film, but in the first two films, the Slytherin table is next to the wall, and not near the middle.
[edit] "Murky" plotting
Detractors say that, in contrast to the smooth and detailed rendition of the book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban features a hasty and fragmented succession of often unconnected events, creating a plotline Roger Ebert described as "a little murky" in his otherwise fully positive print review.[4] Entire patches of the original plot have been either left out or significantly altered. This is mainly due to the necessity of reducing a vast and ever-growing quantity of facts in a relatively short length of time. Obviously, the worry is that viewers who had not read the book would be at a loss to understand what is going on.
[edit] DVD format changes
The DVD release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is packaged in a plastic Ameray case, unlike the first two films released in digipak (cardboard) cases. After the release of this film on DVD, all subsequent titles in the series were released in Ameray cases along with the first two films which were re-packaged.
[edit] DVD
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[edit] References
- ^ RottenTomatoes.com: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- ^ IMDb: Prisoner of Azkaban ratings
- ^ IMDb: Goblet of Fire ratings
- ^ Ebert, Roger (2004-06-03). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
[edit] External links
- Official Harry Potter films site
- Official UK Harry Potter films site
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at the Internet Movie Database
| J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philosopher's Stone | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Chamber of Secrets | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Prisoner of Azkaban | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Goblet of Fire | book | film | game | soundtrack |
| Order of the Phoenix | book | film | game | |
| Half-Blood Prince | book | film | ||
| Deathly Hallows | book | |||
| Other books | Other games | |||
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup | |||
| Quidditch Through the Ages | ||||
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