Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone Essay

Harry Potter

        The Harry Potter franchise is one of the biggest in the world. J. K. Roweling created another mythical world that everyone, young and old, has fallen in love with. Millions have followed her books and creations for the past two decades. Two of her creations have been made into movies, the Harry Potter series and Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them. The Harry Potter series is far more popular; however, many people have seen the films but not read the books. The films and books have much in common, which is one reason they are so enticing. Even though have many similarities, they have some differences. For example, in Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone similarities and differences include characters, their involvement, and events.

        Almost every character in the book has a part in the film with little to no alteration to their appearance. While most characters do stay the same, two who do not, are Petunia and Dudley Dursley. Both characters keep their ugly charm and attitudes to match. Dudley keeps his fat belly and chubby face, Petunia her thin physic (Rowling 1, 20). They do not keep their blond hair, instead their hair changes to a dark brown (Columbus). In addition to the changes to the Dursleys, two characters who are missing from the films are Peeves the Poltergeist and Professor Binns, both ghosts I might add. Peeves is known as meddlesome and mischievous. He continuously torments the students, teachers, and other residents of Hogwarts. Harry and his friends are almost always caught because Peeves loves to meddle with them and draw attention when they are in the process of doing something they should not. The only one who has any authority over him is the Bloody Barron, another ghost. Despite the fact Professor Binns does not have a very big role, he is important to the atmosphere. Professor Binns was a Hogwarts Teacher who fell asleep in the teachers’ lounge one day and woke up the next to teach a class, but left his body. He is also the only teacher who is a ghost (Rowling 132-133).

        As well as there being changes to the characters themselves, changes to the roles of characters can be seen. In the film, Hagrid brings Harry to Kings Cross and Ron receives detention along with Herminie, Malfoy, and Harry. Everyone assumes that Harry has been with Hagrid since his birthday. He arrives, on Harry’s birthday, on the little island the Dursleys hid at. From there, he took Harry to Diagon Alley to buy his school supplies. Then, he brought Harry to Kings Cross Station to ride the express to Hogwarts. Ron and the rest receive detention because they were out of bed. As punishment, they are all to go into the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid to seek the killer of a unicorn (Columbus). In the book, the Dursleys are the ones to take Harry to Kings Cross and Neville receives detention, not Ron. Hagrid does take Harry on his birthday and to Diagon Alley, however, he brought Harry back to the Dursleys. Also, instead of Ron, Neville is the one who is caught out of bed and goes into the forest. He is terrified the whole time (Rowling 61-86, 242-244, 247).

        Besides characters and their involvement being altered there is also a change in events. The few events that are different or missing are an incident in Diagon Alley, the Midnight Duel, and the tasks to retrieve the sorcerer’s stone. In the film, there is not a secret duel at night where they accidently meet Fluffy. Also, it is assumed Harry meets Draco Malfoy on the steps of Hogwarts and the potions task is missing from the events to reach the stone (Columbus). In the books, when Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley and after they retrieve his money he leaves him for a while. Harry goes to get fitted for his robes. While he is there, without know who he is, he runs into Draco. Draco spent the time make the worst impressions possible. As for the Midnight Duel, Harry and Draco set up the Duel to settle a score. The only thing is, when Harry and his friends arrive Draco and his posse are not there. It looked like they did not intend to show, because not long after they arrived, Filch and Mrs. Norris appeared. This made Harry and his friends run into the room with a three-headed dog. Finally, the tasks to reach the sorcerer’s stone. The tasks from the book and the film were very similar, except the film left out the potions task. The potions task was Professor Snape’s task to keep Voldemort and anyone else from getting the stone. It composed of a riddle with potions laid out with it. One would let you move ahead, one got you back, two were just wine, and three contained death (Rowling 77-79, 153-161, 284-287).