Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Hogwarts: A History (in Movie Posters)

Betsy Bird of Fuse #8 pointed me at this fascinating blog post from Empire Magazine's website: Harry Potter movie posters through the years. It's a neat little encapsulation of the changes from the first book/movie to the last, in character and tone.

I particularly like how Ron went from being the silly sidekick to (finally!) more dark and interesting in the posters for the last two movies. That's always annoyed me about the movies, that Ron, who is a goofball but brave and smart in his own unique way in the books, got relegated to comic relief while Harry and Hermione got to do all the good stuff. Naturally, the Ron bits were my favorite part of the most recent movie, because he got a lot of good stuff. Huzzah!

6 comments:

Melissa said...

We got the first three posters for A this Christmas, and the thing that floored us most was how YOUNG they were in the first movie. *sigh* Where does time go?

Bibliovore said...

They were, weren't they? I realize the time scale is slightly different, but it's like an education in the sudden growth spurts of adolescence, particularly between the 2nd and 3rd movies.

On the up side, both the boys are legal now. Just sayin'.

carrie said...

I agree about Ron - even in his hideous dress robes. I saw Betsy's post about the posters also and wondered how many other movies or movie series could boast such a history of poster art that evolved with the story? Any?

Bibliovore said...

I think HP is pretty unique for having a combination of characters who go through adolescence throughout the overall story and being a blockbuster franchise with enough money being made off the (frankly middling) earlier movies that the studio backed the whole story.

Both of those happen, it's just the combination is unique.

Sondy said...

Wow, those are fun to look at. Back when they started, I wondered why they picked kids the actual age of the characters - they'd age too fast. But 11 year olds are the most distinctive. They still play good teenagers, even though they're in their 20s. I think they were lucky all of them turned out so good-looking!

Kate Coombs said...

These are great! I feel like the Harry Potter books--and movies--are an odd, reflexive thread running through our culture this past decade...