La Franchise - Harry Potter, Part I - Estrenos critics - Special 02

Hi, how are you doing? I'm FJ García, and I'm in front of this shelf, just like when I did the X-Men Retrospective to talk to you about a magic media franchise It features a troll, althoug only in the first movie, and it also features a boy called Harry Potter But today we are not talking about the Troll Trilogy, even though it features both things. Today we are talking about a way more successful franchise, with much higher production values and wich movies and books have marked a whole generation. Or even 2 or 3 generations, since the first book has been around for 14 years. "The Franchise" - A Harry Potter Retrospective, Part One We are going to split this retrospective in 2 parts because, although it is supposed to be a summary, this franchise is incredibly long. This July the 15th, after all the waiting, they have finnally released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II the last and final Harry Potter movie. After this one, they ain't doing no more. Some say that from now on, the name will give no more money. Don't cry, they'll find some way to make more money. If you are as fan as I am, you probably have already watch it before this video. *sight* I still remember my first contact with the Harry Potter saga. -Buf, the 007 Dam is really hard... -Oh, hi there, I'm FJ García, but only 10-year old. -You may remember me from this stupid Mort and Phil pastiche... -...Aunt Loreto! -Hi, Fernando Junior! I know you love reading... -How can you tell that? -...so I wanted to give you this book. It's part of a series that is growing very popular in the UK. -Oh! And how many are there? -No idea. I guess it's the first one, 'cause there are no numbers in the cover. -Curious... This wasn't the first, but the second Harry Potter novel, But it doesn't matter, because it features a kind of summary at the beggining, Although I admit there were some things that confused me. -I don't get who is Harry and who is Hagrid. Which one is the giant? After The Chamber of Secrets, I discovered the first book: The Philosopher's Stone, where all my doubts were cleared. And that same year they also published the 3rd book, The Prisioner of Azkaban. The author is J.K. Rowling, and she sais she was planning these books since the mid-80s. The story of this writer is very special, becuase at first she was poor and unhappy. She could only inject some happinnes to her life by the development of her literary works. She wrote at a cafeteria, and sent her manuscrips to an editorial... ...and another, and another, and another, but no one was interested. Curious, isn't it? All those editorials would soon be mad when they realised the great opportunity they just lost. Finally, there was someone interested in her books about the young wizard And they started publishing the books. And they made some much money so soon, that people started saying that J.K. Rowling was suddenly the wealthiest woman in the UK, only after the Queen. It was in 1997 that the first book in the series was published. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (I've got the original and the spanish version) And from them on, one book per year: In 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In 1999 the third of the books: Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkaban wich I have the american version, instead of the british one. And in 2000 the fourth book, this enormous brick called Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The first three books adquired their fame gradually, and there are people who doesn't appreciate the first two ones because, lets face it, they are a bit childish. although they are suitable for all audiences, including the adults. But everybody agreed on something: A lot of children who spent all day playing with the Game Boy... ...adquired reading habits. I learnt to enjoy reading thanks to Harry Potter and, before it, with R.L.Stine's Goosembumps, and, before them, I also enjoyed Elvira Lindo's Manolito Gafotas and, OK, I also read some of Enyd Blyton's Famous Five. Lets say we are in the year 2000, and the franchise has 4 books out of the 7 the author plans to do. And the first film adptation is about to happen. But, what is all this story of Harry Potter about? I proceed to tell you the plot of the first four novels. Mind you! Spoilers ahead! I'll just tackle the most important parts of the plot, because if I went into detail, this video would be longer that the combined lenght of all the movies in this saga wich I estimate is about 20 hours, beacuse they are 8 movies, 2-and-a-half hours each. But I will "slip of my tongue" some details that you may not want to know if you haven't read the first four novels or their four related movies. You have been warned. We find ourselves in a world were wizards exist. They live hidden from the non-magical people, wich they call "muggles" And they boast a very complex society, paralell to ours. The first chapter from the first book is set on the night of October the 31, 1981. Unbeknown to us, the wizards have been fighting the whole last decade against a Dark Lord called Voldemort. A fight that has come unexpectedly but happily to an end when, apparently, he has tried to *** a baby called Harry Potter and that has backfired somehow, and he has vanished from this world --for now. Why did the kid survived, only with an iconic scar on his head, and Voldemort almost dies? That's a mistery for the majority of the series, until it is revealed in the final act of the fourth book. The baby has lost his parents in the hands of the Dark Lord He in sent to live with his only family: Some muggles who hate magic and behave quite repulsively So he lives the first 11 years of his life, a bit abused by his uncles But, suddenly, he starts to receive a lot of letters --an ENORMOUS amount of letters addressing little Harry These letters are an invitation for him to assist to a School of Magic. A big deal of these books is Harry discovering what is this thing called magic and watching with awe all the marvels that surround him. Harry discovers the story behind the scar that he has in his head and the Dark Lord who caused it who everybody thinks is dead But soon our main character starts hearing rumors that states otherwise That He is alive, somehow. In the climax of this book, in fact, Harry is forced to confront what remains of Him, face to face. No, Voldemort is not that dude sporting a turban but the Evil face he has inserted in the back of his head. As I said, Voldemort is alive but in a very inconsistent way, so he has to turn to this kind of tricks in order to not fully vanishing. The kid wins this first assault against the weakened Dark Lord And so, at the final days of his first school year, the first novel ends. We go to the second book, The Camber of Secrets Lord Voldemort doesn't appear in this book per se, because he has hidden himself away but Harry finds a misterious diary in wich it so happens that the Dark Lord had hid a part of his soul when he was young. Therefore, in the climax, he confronts a young version of his biggest enemy wich was contained in the diary. And this confrontation takes place in the Chamber of Secrets in wich lies a monster called basilisc, who has been a big deal during the course, leaving some students paralized. But Harry wins again --Yay! The third book is called The Prisioner of Azkaban. Azkaban is a play of words with Alcatraz Because both are prisions of wich it was said that nobody coul ever escape. But someone has escaped, and now he is stalking our protagonist. His name is Sirious Black And he supposedly was one of Lord Voldemort's followers, and the person who treasoned Harry's parents. Everybody is afraid that this murderer might have entered Hoghwarts, but... SPOILERS! In the end, Sirious Black turns out to not be a murderer. He is Harry Potter's godfather, and a very close friend of his parents. But this slimy character called Pete Pettigrew had staged a trap for him a long time ago, and made everybody though that Sirious was an evil being. For a lot of people, this is the best novel in the saga Mainly because of the extended climax Wich includes treasons, fights, monsters,... ...turning points, tears, time-travelling... The fourth book broke sales records the first day it went out. This book changed a lot of things. The size, for instance. The books before it have an average size, so the kids stand them and manage to finish them, But the 4th one, suddenly, it's a brick. On the go! It marks the absolute middle of the series: There are 3 before it, and 3 after it. It is clear for me that the series is divided in 2 parts. Part 1 is the first 3 books; part 2 is the last 3 books; and book 4 is in the middle and marks a transition and is also a mixture of both styles The first 3 books are essentially self-contained stories In fact, there's a kind of summary at the beggining of each, so is not compulsory to read them chronologically. 3 years in Hoghwarts with his friends, having fun. There are some lethal menaces, but nothing that can't be solved through the power of friendship. The reason for the fourth to be so lenghty is that a lot more adventures take place, and there are a lot more details to be told. The adventures are more or less like the former books but in the finale, in the climax, Lord Voldemort returns for good!! And they are completely screwed. From then on, the stories are radically dark. The last 3 books are no longer fun for the characters, who have grown up and now they are fighting against murderers. Also, since they are now *** teenagers, they also have to fight against their hormones. That's the tedious part. Also, from now on the stories are no longer self-contained, but part of a bigger story wich is dragging everything towards a goal: The final showdown between Harry and Voldemort. Shall we start with the movies now? Initially, the author didn't want a cinematographic adaptation from her creature. You know: books are ussually considered better than their film counterparts. But Warner Bros NEEDED to adapt these novels, because they knew they were going to give an awful lot of money. So they made a quite rare move: The gave a lot of power to the author in the decision-making process. Therefore, J.K. Rowling had to give the Go to all the concepts in the movie series that was going to be made. She could even afford to be a little whimsical with some of the details. For instance, she insisted that all the actors had to be british: Every one of them had to come from the UK. Wouldn't it be cool, that Robin Williams played one of the teachers in Hoghwarts? That's exactly what HE said! Robin Williams WANTED to appear in some of these film adaptations! But the author made it very clear: Only british actors. Sorry, Williams, see you in the next successful franchise! And so, Warner Bros started their quest for a boy who could play Harry Potter. They searched the Earth and the Skies looking for the Perfect Boy And a lot, A LOT of children joined the casting line. They were looking for a boy that was born in 1989... *gasp* ...but he had to be british. And so, Warner Bros broke the dreams of a lot of european kids who wanted to play Harry Potter but were not british. But the UK had still a lot of population so they were still a lot of kids in the casting line. In the end, instead of one of the boys in the line, the producer chose the son of a friend... But it's allright, because this boy happened to have a lot of talent anyway. And to play Harry Potter's closest friends -Ron and Hermione- they also chose two first-time actors: Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. I don't know about Emma Watson in the first movie, but the fans have seen her grow along the years... and let's say we became bigger fans of her. The first movie also started a tradition of featuring every british actor who you had ever heard of, playing bigger or lesser parts. And so, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, these three child actors found themshelves working side by side with really high-profile actors, some of whom had even achieved an iconic status. Alan Rickman playing Professor Snape John Cleese playing Nearly Headless Nick Robbie Coltrane playing the half-giant Hagrid. John Hurt playing the Wand Seller. Richard Harris as Dumbledore And even the charismatic dwarf Warwick Davies. Among a lot of others. And, finally, the film was released. We could now go see in the greatest cinemas our beloved book of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. And the premiere was a real mass phenomenon. It became the second highest-grossing movie of all time, only after Titanic. Today, it's no longer the 2nd, but the 9nth highest-grossing movie of all time. The film adaptation was extremely faithful to the novel, and the fans loved that. That's why I was using images from the films while telling you the plot of the books: because they are almost identical. One of the negative aspects that the detractors find in this film series is that most of them are very episodic. Obviously! Because they are a faithful adaptation of the novels, and each of those represents a school year, not just one single important event. Well, having talked a bit about the first movie, I'm sorry we'll have to ask someone for his opinion. If we did it with the X-Men retrospective, we'll have to do it with this video as well. Well, I'm going to be really quick --I'll be right back! Here you are! I didn't remember how to get here! -Have you seen the first movie? -Yes! -Wich was the first movie? -The first one. -OK. Did you like Emma Watson when she was young? -No, because I'm not a ***. -And now that she's grown up? -What do you think of the Philosopher's Stone? -It's red and shiny. -Do you think this is a saga for kids, or adults? -Both. -Specially? -Teenagers. -Some conclusion regarding the first movie? -Well... -OK, I'll be right back. *ah* That was intense. The point is that, beacause of this success, the author and the producers fulfilled their dreams of adapting the remaining novels. And they decided to release one movie per year, wich they almost acomplished. So, the next year, 2002, they released the 2nd film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, wich--- Oh, ***, I have to go back to David's. OK, I've more or less dressed myself... Let's talk about the second movie, The Secret Chamber. I mean, The Chamber of Secrets. -Ahm, it matures a bit... -Do you think it contains more horror? -A bit more horror, yeah... -OK, do you have some conclusion regarding the 2nd movie? -Well, yeah, the characters start to grow up... -I see. And here we are again! By the way, this freak reminded me that this 2nd movie came with a different dubbing than the first in Spain. A dubbing that one of our web collaborators "loves". It is here that we are going to split the video in two parts. Check out the second one the next friday. Subtitles by fjgarcia3 ---If you want me to subtitle something for you, send me a message!