Book vs. Movie: Harry Potter

Owyn here again! Nice seeing y'all. Along with my other blogs, every Friday I am going to post a blog stating my opinions about books and their movies, like which was my favorite, most noticeable differences and what I generally thought about them both. Today I figured that if you're going to write a blogpost about well-known book-to-movie adaptations, you might as well start with Harry Potter.

*SPOILERS, PEOPLE, ALERT ALERT* 

Let me begin with saying that I did not have a conventional upbringing with the Harry Potter books and movies. Growing up, I saw the first four movies, without reading the books because there was either an extenuating circumstance or I just plain haggled with my parents to do it for next book (which I ended up not doing). By the time the fifth book was being adapted, my parents put their foot down and made me read Order of the Phoenix and threatened my right to watch the movie.

Too in love with the movie franchise to protest vehemently, I followed along and read the book.

And Fell. In. Love.

I thought that JK Rowling was AMAZING. She wrote in such a fantastic way that I was physically envious that she had such a talent. Before my parents could congratulate me for following through, I got my hands on the sixth book and eventually the seventh after prying it from my parents' claws. Deciding to no longer miss out on the experience, I proceeded to read books 1-4 as well, along with watching the rest of the movie franchise. 

Main Differences that I noticed:

• That weird female elf Winky wasn't in the fourth movie.
• In the first movie, they left out two of the five "protections" for the Philosopher's stone in the book. (Those vines and the chessboard were of the three that they saved, and they cut out Snape's potions, for example)


• The characters look different than what was described. For example Hermione's teeth in the book were big and they were near perfect in the movie. 

(I know there are more but these are the few that stand out to me. Feel free to leave any comments about some of the differences you noticed)

My Eccentricities About the Book(s) and Movie(s):

• My favorite movie was my least favorite book. (Goblet of Fire)
• My most favorite book was my least favorite movie. (Order of the Phoenix)
• I suppose these are because the movies skewed my view of the books. I loved the fourth movie, but I had a tough time with the fourth book and I loved the fifth book and hated the fifth movie. 

Do I prefer the books or the movies?:

Ultimately, I have to say the movies, for two reasons. First, when you watch the movies before you read the books you already now how to visualize things and what's going to happen. It takes away a lot of the magic that you get from reading the books without that influence. Second, and even though I think the books are fantastic, the descriptions were a bit too long for me. But that's personal; I prefer dialogue (which the books and movies did a great job capturing).

I know that people have a lot of different opinions about this- let me know what you think in the comments! See you next time!