Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – MOVIE – Episode 101
After completing book one of the greatest series of all time, the Buddies sat down to watch the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone movie. The Buddies discussed a number of things including: the pronunciation of “Quidditch”, saying ‘Happy’ vs. ‘Merry’ Christmas, the drunken tendencies of magical hats, Professor McGonagall’s potential gambling addiction, and whether Hagrid is a terrible guardian or just really bad at time management. So, grab your wand, don your invisibility cloak, and join us for this week’s magical episode. And remember, ‘never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain’ – unless it’s the Buddy Book Club podcast.
Intro (0:00-1:46)
Stock Up/Down (1:47-21:17)
Favorite Scene/Character (21:18-29:18)
Book to Movie Changes (29:19-36:24)
Sorting Hat/Lingering Questions (36:25-42:42)
Listener Email (42:43-45:56)
Conclusion (45:57-47:27)
NEXT BOOK: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂
Alright. Welcome to Book Club. I’m Dylan here with Trevor. Oh, wait. No.
It’s just Keith. What’s up, buddy? Kevin here, d man. How are you doing? Good.
How about you? You’re supposed to say never better. Never better. Here at the Buddy Book Club, we’re working on some box office bangers. And this week, we’ll be discussing 2,001’s much anticipated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, directed by Chris Columbus, not Christopher Columbus, the genocidal maniac.
If you like to recommend a book for us to or a movie for us to read or watch, you can, reach out to us at any past episodes. You can visit our website, buddy.com. Slide into our DMs on Twitter or Instagram, buddy bookhub podcast. You can listen to us on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast up, please download, give us a review, and, follow us on social channels, please and thanks. Keith, we continue our run into and through the wizarding world with the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone after we just finished the book, Harry Potter Mhmm.
And the Sorcerer’s Stone. I honestly don’t even know why they changed the name, Philosopher’s Stone, to Sorcerer’s Stone. I’ve read up on it, and it it still doesn’t make a lot of sense about, like, US children not really understanding philosopher or something. I don’t know. But what would be even more frustrating is when you make the movie, because it had a UK release, is you have to film the scenes where you say philosopher’s stone.
You have to film them twice. You gotta film it once where you’re saying philosopher’s stone and then and again, where you’re saying sorcerer’s stone. It just it just trickles down. Sorcerer’s stone sounds better. People be that upset if I wouldn’t care if they say philosophers.
Although, actually, no. Actually, I would. So never mind. I think that’s better. You would?
After July 4th, you’re, like, no. No way. Yeah. Absolutely not. Let’s start with some stock up, stock down key, stock up, what do you got?
Stock up realizing your quote, unquote smart uncle or friend’s dad is actually just a drunk racist stuck up. Okay. By uncle or friend’s dad, I mean the sorting hat. Got it. Got it.
In the book, correct me if I’m wrong, the Sorting Hat’s like this whimsical, magical, special hat. It’s like a fairy godmother. It’s like, we’re gonna put you in the right place where I’m gonna sing this song. Oh, this is such a cool hat. Yeah.
Okay. When we get to the movie, it’s slurring words. It’s drunk, I’m pretty sure. It’s like, alright. Who’s up next, you fuckers?
I’m like, wait. What? It’s closer to Billy Bob Thornton’s bad Santa than it is to the fairy godmother. Oh, he’s just yeah. Almost like, Randy Quaid in, like, National Lampoon’s Christmas or something like that.
Exactly. You think, oh, it’s just, like, so smart that it knows what to pick, but, really, it’s just kinda this razor’s hat. Like, Malfoy comes up. It it doesn’t even put the hat on the person. He’s, like, oh, I know this person.
I’m putting him in the group. I think he said, right away, he says his name. Yeah. Ron Weasley comes up and verbatim. I’m not even, like, making this up.
It says, another Weasley? I know just what to do with you. Call’s a Gryffindor. So he’s not even an individual now. He’s just a Weasley.
Yeah. I mean, the whole reason he has this inferiority complex is because he’s just, like, grouped in with everyone else. And this hat just does that perfectly. It’s just, like, I know what you you’re all the same, so I’m just putting you the same thing. I’m not gonna even think about any individualisticness about you.
You all you’re all you and your siblings are all exactly the same to me. You all get put in this one group. I get it. Hermione puts the hat on. He’s like, oh, mudblood.
What do we do with the mother of mudblood? What happened to the rules of this place? Why don’t we change things up here? I guess we’ll put her Gryffindor. That’s interesting.
That’s an interesting take. The hat itself, which I thought visually made a lot of sense. Liked it. Big fan. Not sure about the voice, though.
And maybe it’s just because, like you said, it sounded like a drunk uncle, but it was, a bit gruff for me. Yeah. Like I said, it was like slurring, I’m pretty sure. So it was like, yeah. Who’s up next?
Sounds like a drunk uncle. Whatever actor they hired to to play that part, he just came in drunk, and they’re like, well, he only has, like, 4 lines. So let’s just let’s just do this. We can’t change the whole schedule for this guy. Alright.
My first stock up is child exploitation. Stock up. Okay. Alright. I think or especially when this movie came out, we could’ve got ahead of the train there because nowadays with social media, I mean, people are exploring their children left and right.
It’s crazy. You know? These kids are making 1,000,000 of dollars and parents are taking all the money. But for this film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, at the time, I mean, we kind of forget because we’re just looking back on it. But 2,001, Sorcerer’s Stone was a, I don’t know, like a phenomenon.
You know what I mean? It was like no matter what happened with this movie, it was going to cash. So the concern for me as a parent of my child would be, let me make sure I get some of that money. But Right. Of course.
Daniel Daniel Radcliffe, he made a $1,000,000 for his role as Harry in this film, and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, Hermione and Ron, respectively. They made less than that, obviously. They’re not gonna make more than Harry. But the film made over a 1,000,000,000,000 with a b, dollars. Your main cast, your big three is making pennies.
It’d be like that Celtics run-in 2008 when you got KG and you got the truth, Paul Pierce, and then you got Ray Allen, and you’re just paying them absolutely nothing, and the team’s making everything on the back end. Well, I I think that’s just because they had all the leverage. It’s like, well, you can be in this franchise and become a multimillionaire, or we’ll just cast someone else because we know it’s gonna be success. It’s not gonna be based off of your talent. It’s gonna be based off of the franchise.
Right? Wow. You just had to really you just had to do that. You just had to knock me down. I’m sure once they got to movie 3 I mean, this is how TV series works too.
But once you got to movie 3 or 4, they’re, like, okay, now they have all the leverage because nobody wants to see it. Just our new guy. I mean, like, who the fuck’s this guy? Who’s who’s this Harry? Like, I don’t even know who this guy is.
So they they all of a sudden had the leverage all of a sudden. So I I think I’m sure they made more money in the the future ones. You know what really pisses me off? Not me. Not Hermione.
You. Yeah. Daniel Radcliffe made, like, 50,000,000 Deathly Hallows movies, and Grint and Emma Watson made, like, 30,000,000 each for those. It’s just crazy to me that you have to commit to these actors for 8 movies. I mean, I don’t know if at the time they knew they were gonna make an 8, but they definitely knew they were gonna make 7.
So you’re, like, going to commit to these actors for the future, and you find them when they’re this young. And Harry was the only one, I think, that had, like, a decent amount of acting experience. Oh, is that right? From what I understand, like, he was doing plays and, like like, big ones, and the rest of the people were were not so much, but whatever. The first time I heard Ed Sheeran, I saw that music video.
I go, Harris. That’s what it’s called. Anyways, the guy that plays Ron is in the music video, and I was like, oh, so this guy’s just a singer? I didn’t realize he’s a singer. I’m like, this sounds pretty good.
Alright. I’ll give him I’ll give him some credit. And then it turns out that’s he just looks like him. But forever, people are like Ed Sheeran. And I’m like, oh, you do know this is the dude that, that plays Ron and Harry Potter?
Everyone’s like, what? And that’s not right. I’m like, no. No. It is.
I I’ve seen the music video. They’re like You’ve seen the music I’m talking about. Right? No. I don’t think so.
When you say that to someone, they’re probably like, you know who’s an idiot? Not me. Not Hermione. You. What are you just saying?
Alright. I’ll let you. Yeah. I just it’s it’s just so great. I think that and when she just says, and, maybe give it here, Malfoy, or I’ll knock you off your broom.
It gotta be the top 3. This is the only, like, quotables in this thing. They just they hit so bad. What is your next stock up? Professor McGonagall’s gambling account stock up.
Let’s go, baby. You’re in. You’re in. In. This is a callback to last episode when you went on a 10 minute rant, about Pep perhaps McConnell’s betting habits.
And frankly, I was lost. I don’t think any of our listeners understood what’s going on. The only thing I know about gambling is how to put money on a team that’s gonna lose. That’s how I gamble. Yeah.
You know that, like, Family Guy clip where it’s like, you wanna bet on a team, and you’re just like, no, just take my money. That’s me. But the final scene, they show Professor McGonagall’s face as someone that is McGonagall. I know that face. And that face was, I’m about to lose so much fucking money right now because I bet the wrong team here.
And I don’t think you’re right about the hedge based off of her face there. She, that was like a face of, like, I’m in a lot of trouble. My legs get might get broken. That turned from that to like, that’s not like losing a house cup. That’s like my livelihood is at stake here.
Turn for that to, like, elation of, like, thank God. And then she probably let it ride, you know? You gotta let it ride once you get a big hot streak. So Yeah. I I’m gonna agree with you on your gambling take from last up, and, I apologize for not understanding it.
Now I get it. Yeah. I think they took her back before the scene, and they said, hold on. We’ve been holding this information from you because we want this to be natural. But now we have to disclose that professor McGonigal has this serious gambling issue, and she’s been gambling on the House Cup for years.
And this is her and, you know, they broke it all down for her. So Maggie Smith did a great job, you know, really bringing that to the screen. My next stock up is it’s just John Williams. It’s it’s gotta be because he turns out an epic score with an even more epic title theme every decade. He had star wars in the seventies, Indiana Jones in the eighties, Jurassic Park in the nineties.
Some would say Home Alone’s like a good score, but not necessarily, like, a title theme. And then he’s got Harry Potter in in 2000. And interestingly enough, there’s kind of a lot of back and forth or controversy or whatever the thing is, criticism around the score in this. I thought it was fantastic. I think we both agree that the title track Hedwig’s Theme is up there with, like, some of the best Yeah.
What’s the negative comments on it? Are there any other things? The negative comments were more about that it’s just all these, like, crescendo after crescendo after crescendo, which it is, but it still is whimsical and magical and fun. They’re like, it’s too good. Whatever you do, don’t make it as good as it is.
We don’t want it to be that that good. What? The other thing is that I think he only did the first three, and then some other people came on for for the other ones. We saw the fireworks, and you just did, the whole time was, like, a there’s a grand finale. We don’t want that.
We want it, like, to be shitty for 5 minutes and one grand I was out there basically saying? Yeah. Maybe. Maybe that’s what they’re saying. Yeah.
Too much grand finale, and we need some more subtlety. But the fireworks were flying, and I was enjoying them. Yeah. I like it. I get it.
We’ll probably talk about this in later books. If you notice the intro theme when they do it, well, you know, when the title comes up, it changes for every movie. And, like, as the movies progress, it slowly gets, like, darker and darker and darker, which is wonderful because the story advances in ages with its readers. And this first one is just so lighthearted and fun, even though it’s like, because we get that first intro scene. I just I just love the score.
And John William just, like, sent it out. They they were looking for who’s gonna be a composer, and he’s like, let me take 5 minutes and put this song together. And that’s what they sent him. And he was like, yeah. Chris Columbus was like, okay.
Yeah. He’s got the job. What about, stuck downs? Stuck down British traditions. I referenced it in the intro.
I’m glad our forefathers in Boston threw that tea into the harbor so we don’t have to deal with these British traditions, kid. Namely, namely, and really mostly just happy Christmas? Yeah. I was wondering if that was gonna be sprung up. Then they said it, like, 6 times.
There’s, like, no need for it to be drilled in like that. I mean, if you’re gonna change it to to Philosopher’s Stone, Jane, happy Christmas to America. Couldn’t agree with you more. It was in my notes. It’s like nails going on a chalkboard.
Oh, god. That was terrible. But I will say there were a few tidbits I did like. There’s, the snitch was wicked fast, which, I mean, you should have said it with a Boston accent. What fucking kid, that snitch was wicked fast kid.
But that’s okay. We’ll we’ll take it. I like we’ll take the lot. You know, I don’t think you mentioned that. Good for you.
Like when the when the candy come truck comes by or cart comes by, you just say, yeah, we’ll take the lot and, like, give it here. Yeah. Take everything. Yeah. And then, I also did, like, how’s it Harry?
Like, Hagrid’s big saying. Like, how’s it going? But it’s just how’s it. I like that a lot. It’s kinda like, in Australia, when they would just say, how how like, how are you doing?
No. What did they say? How you going all the time? That’s, like, what’s going on? And I just would never know how to respond to that.
Oh, you’re there’s only one response. You say, never better. I’d be like, I’m going I’m go well, damn it, Tully. I had no idea to respond or whatever. And this is another thing which I didn’t like either is that I was like, this is a country that made Mary Poppins.
How do they not know Merry Christmas? But turns out Mary Poppins is m a r y. It’s his name. I thought it was I thought it was Mary. So you thought it was Happy Poppins?
Yeah. I thought it was, like, a play on words, but it turns out her name’s actually Mary, and it does nothing to do with Mary being Mary. I thought Mary was a British term, honestly. I thought it would that’s where it came from. So Yeah.
Sock down British traditions either way. Yeah. I agree with you that I thought the term Mary sounds like something that would come from, across the pond, but I’m I’m not gonna let this one go. Did you never see Mary Poppins as a kid? I saw it.
They’re not, like, spelling her name on the sand. Usually, like, people’s names aren’t adjective and then name. Goodwill and ding? I beg you to differ. Yeah.
Get the fuck out of here. How about that? I have that one chambered ready to go. Call them Goodwill. Yeah.
But that’s the whole point. It’s a play on words. Yeah. I get it. I I understand.
You’re not gonna Yeah. I’ll take back on. Give me apology. Give me apology for that. I You know what?
Not you. You’re not bad. I mean, what’s that? Harry’s not bad. No.
Not me. Not me. Ron’s not bad. You’re bad. My first stock down is artistic expression.
Oh, okay. Yeah. So if you put this story in the hands of some directors, I feel like it could have gone totally awry. And it almost did, I feel like, based on who they had potentials with. Great.
Did they start off with Steven Spielberg? And, obviously, I’m sure Steven Spielberg would have made a wonderful movie. That guy, all he does is make great movies. I get it. But he wanted to do a, like, cartoon version of it, and he wanted Haley Joel Osman to play Harry, which is, like, just not gonna hit for me.
You’re, like, voice Harry. There was some like, he wanted to make it darker. He wanted to, like, start incorporating other pieces of future books in it. So the the movie’s already long itself. I don’t know how you could stay true to the source material while also including more stuff from future books.
That didn’t seem to to make a lot of sense. He eventually turned it down, and I guess he said basically, because it wasn’t a challenge to him. He was like, nah. I’m good. It’d be like if you asked Tom Brady to play in your San Diego flag football league for a game.
He’d be like, no. That’s just not worth it for me. He was like, she’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Yeah. Other fun fact, by the way, I’ll just throw in there is because you said Haley Jo Osman, m Night Shyamalan was also rumored, which would have been I think would have been very interesting as a director.
Yeah. He actually made from my understanding, he made the shortlist. Like, it was between him and a few others. It would have been the the turns would have been fucking awesome if he made it. He’d be like, wait.
Those ghosts this whole time have been dead? Yeah. He would have made, like, the turn. Just got that. Yeah.
6¢. I got it. Yeah. Really well done. He would’ve just I feel like he would’ve made the turns to be nonsensical or he would’ve, like, double turned like it actually was Snape.
JK would be like, that’s not exactly how it’s supposed to work out. But, yeah, I’m I’m not sure about M. Night Shyamalan considering he’s done, like, 1 or 2 good movies. Just doesn’t hit for me. But, also, Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame, he was in the final running.
And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of his movies, 12 Monkeys. Heard of it? Oh, yeah. That’s a that’s a weird one. I like it, though.
They’re they’re quite out there. No. He Yeah. He’s not bad by any means, but they’re just a little out there, like I said. He did direct, a movie for kids.
The movie is called Time Bandits. Time Bandits. I’m not sure if you’ve seen that, but it is super weird. Super weird movie. So, yeah, I’m just glad that it it fell into the hands of of Chris Columbus who we all know from, you know, Home Alone.
He, like, wrote a bunch of movies too. So I just think he just brought JK Rowling’s story to life, which is all you need to do when you have all these what like, the story is already phenomenal. You have these magical elements. Just just put them on screen. And I was a big fan of what he did with that.
That. What are your thoughts? I agree. I think this is needed to be a fast ball down the middle movie. You didn’t need to throw any curve balls or any junk on the corners.
You just put it right down the middle and say, hit it. You know? And I think I think it was pretty fast hold on the middle. I appreciated it. Yeah.
Exactly. Exactly. Don’t need to do too much. So artistic expression, take that out, throw it away. JK Rowling already brought the artistic expression.
Just bring that to life. Did you have any other stuff, Don? Yeah. My last one actually ties in pretty similar to yours, and this is more of my younger self saying this, but things, being as you imagined, stock down. So I did actually think on rewatch, it was pretty good movie.
I thought it was, like, oh, this is much better than I remember. So, again, I’ve I only watched the first one when I was younger. I didn’t like it. Didn’t watch any of the rest of them. Wait.
Hold on. We didn’t set this up correctly. Because as we’re doing this trip through the the wizarding world, Keith is a big fan of the Harry Potter books, which he’s read all of them presumably multiple times to different degrees. Mhmm. But the movies, he started this up by saying I have never seen the movies.
And then he came back saying that you’ve seen the first one. Correct? I I watched the first one, and then they said, I’m not watching any more of these. I I refuse. I have a principle.
So that’s why you haven’t seen the rest of them is because Yes. You didn’t like the first movie and you just said, I’m out. Yeah. It was mostly because I, like, went to it and they started to say these words I didn’t know that, like, like I said, I read it as I’m not joking. I read it as Quikditch the whole time, every single book until I heard the movie, they say Quidditch, and I said, pardon?
What what is that word? So I didn’t I didn’t know until the movie. So it was kinda more of an like, I felt insulted, but my intelligence felt it. I don’t care for that. That’s not it.
Yeah. So pissed me off. Yeah. I tried. I still think it should be named QuickDitch.
Anyhoo, that was the one reason. Obviously, like, her Hermione, Hermione. It didn’t those things didn’t matter, but I did like it. The one thing though that I wasn’t as I imagined I already mentioned the hat. The second thing, Ollivander, I thought he was kinda supposed to be that dude that’s, like, super into his craft.
Doesn’t even care about the money, honestly. It’s really about just, like, the wand itself and the story and the understanding of it. Mhmm. That’s what he lived on. And and this, I I almost thought he was a bad guy.
He goes to the store. I mean, it should be like a dude that’s like an artist. Right? Like, he’s like, what is it that you wanna do? Like, what were you trying what kind of medium are you looking for?
What kind of brushes? Like, what are Mhmm. What is it out there that you’re looking for? But you go to that scene and he’s has this, like, ominous presence about him the whole time. He’s, like, having a store explode for some reason.
I don’t understand what’s going on there. He’s just blowing up the store. But he finally picks a wand out, and he’s like, interesting. This is the sibling wand of Voldemort, and he did great things. Terrible.
Terrible. Yeah. Terrible, but great things. Imagine going to that art store, D. B.
A. And the guy’s like, oh, you’re picking out those watercolors, that’s the same as Hitler’s watercolors that he used when he painted. And he did great things. Terrible, but great things. It didn’t make any sense.
Yeah. It’s not a great look for all of it. No. I was like, what the hell? So he he might be a dark lord.
It is from the book, though. But I think he was, like, gassing him up. He was a great wizard before he became terrible, you know, like, that that type of thing. Yeah. And this, he was like, he was awesome.
Oh, yeah. By the way, footnote, you I guess he killed a bunch of people, but he was awesome. I think that was probably just, like, John Hurt going all in. Because he’s got one scene. He’s John Hurt.
I mean, he’s he’s been in some stuff. You know? He’s a he’s a great actor. Well, he’s, like, probably most famous for, like, the Elephant Man. He was an alien, v for vendetta.
He played, like, the the main bad guy or whatever. Yeah. So he just he just Hellboy. You didn’t know know he wasn’t the bad guy. Yeah.
Yeah. So he was like they didn’t tell him. They just you’re this guy that he only read he never read the books. He just read his part in this, and he was like, oh, so I work for Voldemort. Got it.
Yeah. That’s basically Yeah. You know they have the person on set who’s, like, the script manager, like, make sure that people are following the script or whatever the case is, he asked that person right beforehand. He’s like, wait. So I’m a bad guy, and I work for Voldemort.
Right? And before they could correct him, the director said action. And he was just went went for it. That that makes sense to me, honestly. Yeah.
That’s that’s deep down the Wikipedia page. But, yeah. It’s in there. Let’s go through a quick favorite scene here because, like we said, this is pretty true to to the source material. There was some things shaved off and whatnot, which we’ll get into later.
But just for what was your favorite scene maybe as it pertains to bringing the wizarding world to your eyes for the first time? Yeah. I think the first time at least, Hogwarts itself and, like, the stairs moving and different things and the actual overall size of Hogwarts. Like, that was hard to picture in my mind. And what’s interesting is that JK Rowling drew a map of Hogwarts for the production designer and they reference it for all the movies.
So, like, it was actually true to what she was imagining. She just gave them a copy of the Marauder’s map and said, here you go. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
So I thought that was really cool. I mean, just that the set pieces themselves, I thought were was great. And just to to understand that. Now I think you’re, like, automatically imagine that, but that’s that wasn’t a thing until the movies happened. Mhmm.
Like, at least for me. It’s one of those things where you never know whether you like it or not. I read the first book or maybe the first couple of books, like, before the movie came out. Mhmm. And then when the movie comes out, any future books, it’s hard to get the pictures that they put for the characters and whatnot, like, out of your head.
So I do think they made good decisions, so I’m not upset about it necessarily, but it’s just interesting how that skews your brain. Yeah. That’s true. For me, number 1 has to be the first Quidditch scene, like the the match against Slytherin. Because like I said on on the previous pod, in the book, it’s so short.
It’s like 2 or 3 pages. And maybe I hadn’t seen or hadn’t read the book in so long. I’ve seen the movie more that I was like, wait, this is like, there’s a lot going on here. Why isn’t this in the book? So I’m glad they stretched that out a little bit for the movie because it should be a super fun scene.
We’re talking about a wizarding sport. Harry’s really good at it. It’s super cool. The whole school goes, and it’s a great moment for for Harry as well as the plot line with him falling off his broom and flailing and whatnot. So I just loved the the quidditch in general.
I thought the CGI was actually pretty good. There’s maybe one part in that where one of the people on the broom, one of the teams, like, flies up, and you can tell her face is, like, really CGI’d. I thought the first scene with her release on the broom was not great, but the Quidditch was good. Yeah. I’m with you there.
So so yeah, I I just love the Quidditch scene. It made me love Quidditch or Quidditch, whichever one you prefer. And then right under there is Diagon Alley and Gringotts because, like I said before in the last pod, and it did do that thing, which I loved, because in the book, they explained, like, Harry looking around and seeing all the crazy stuff that’s going on in Diagon Alley, like, seeing the magical world for the first time. And they do that in in the movie, like, a quick cut of, you know, these animals, and then a quick cut of this apothecary, and a quick cut of, like, kids in the street playing with wizarding stuff. So as you’re watching it, you’re doing exactly what Harry would be doing, just trying to, like, soak everything in as quickly as possible.
And then you tie that into the whole Gringotts experience, which is, you know, all of these goblins, which are, like, super creepy, honestly. If you’re a kid, it’s like Yeah. The goblins might be the scariest ones, which our boy, Verne Troyer, by the way, plays grip hook in, when they go to the vault. He plays that that goblin, which is Griphook who comes in later. Oh, okay.
Yeah. I mean, he gets Verne Troyer. But yeah. So those those 2 really stuck out for me. But I will agree when they’re in the boats going up to Hogwarts.
I was like, that’s cool. And then obviously, all the stuff inside. Let’s do a quick pick your character. So this is gonna be focused on the movie itself as opposed to the book where we’re focusing on the actual character more. Like, this is more like pick your actor who plays that character.
Mhmm. Did you have anyone that stood out to you that just hit home for you as what you imagined that character being? Yeah. I think the best actor was was Snape AKA the Die Hard guy. Mhmm.
I I mean, I don’t think I’m on a ledge there saying that. I think probably most people would say that, but I think his character is really well portrayed because in the book, it does seem like he’s just super vendetta heavy that just like hates Harry. Or this, you’re just like, oh, he’s kinda just like a mean teacher that also doesn’t like Harry. Like, it’s like, but it’s not as it’s not just as obvious. It’s like, oh, this guy’s just a total dick.
You got it. Yeah. So it it seems a little bit more even keel. And you’re like, in the turn is gonna be way better knowing, like, just because he is that such a that kind of force in the in the movie. So, yeah, I liked him a lot.
Yeah. I think Alan Rickman does a really good job, which is interesting because there’s supposed to be Tim Roth for that role. Tim Roth’s in a lot of, Quentin Tarantino movies. He’s in, like, Pulp Fiction and whatnot, if you can’t remember. He’s a great actor, and I and I like him.
But, Alan Rickman just I think he he takes it away. And and I would almost, for my character, I would almost do, like, d, all of the above, because I really did think that it was cast super well in in general. I love Richard Harris. I’ve loved him since the gladiator, which I think came out the year before. I’m pretty sure 2,000, the gladiator came out.
So he was I loved him in that movie, and then he pretty much plays the same character, but as Dumbledore, which I was all for. So big fan of Richard Harris Dumbledore. He supposedly didn’t wanna do the film, but his granddaughter said she would never talk to him again if he didn’t play Dumbledore. So he said, deal, which I respect. I was just looking at him up, and he does a a movie called Camelot, and he looks exactly like Malfoy in it.
It’s kinda crazy. Look at that cover. I was like, is that Malfoy a older version of him? Oh, yeah. What?
It does it looks like an older version of Malfoy with, like, a little Van Dyke beard or something going on. Yeah. So big fan of Richard Harris, and then Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid and Maggie Smith as McGonagall. We’ve talked about that a little bit. I thought Hagrid was perfect.
I know that in the last run, you had said that Robin Williams wanted to be it, but he couldn’t because it was an all British cast. But I don’t Robin Williams would have done some, like, Robin Williams y things with it, which I love Robin Williams, but it just doesn’t fit here for Hagrid. It probably would have been more of a comic relief where I don’t think the Hagrid in this was necessarily like super funny. So yeah. I can see that.
Like, he has funny moments, but it’s not you know, he doesn’t need to be the star of the scene. You know, he’s accurate. That’s a good point. And I think Robbie Coltrane and Maggie Smith were the 2 that JK Rowling was, like, here are the people who I want for these roles. Other than that, she didn’t have, like, a big feeling.
Let’s get to some quick studio notes. So the film rights to the first four books were bought by Warner Brothers for a1000000 British pounds, which is, I think, are at the time was, like, 1,600,000 US dollars. Rowling, like we said, she insisted to cast the British and Irish. I think the only 2 Irish people though are Richard Harris and Petunia Dursley. They those are the only 2 Irish people.
It grossed $1,000,000,000 with a b. 2nd highest grossing film of all time, supposedly. This is according to Wikipedia, and, obviously, this was at the time of its release. Now it’s nowhere on the list because there’s been 10,000,000,000 Marvel movies that have surpassed it. But even then, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me because it’s like highest grossing fuel all the time, or, like, Gone with the Wind is number 1.
And this is after Titanic. So how could it be the 2nd highest if it’s behind those 2? So, yeah, take that with a grain of salt. Do you wanna do some book to movie changes? Yeah.
Harry has blue eyes in the movie, not green as they should be, but I guess they tried to give, Daniel Radcliffe some, like, green contact lenses, but they were making him blind. Not actually, but they were irritating him. He’s not method. You gotta go method for that. Come on, bud.
He’s definitely method. He drops his dong out on stage. Anyone that’s doing that is Pardon me? What? Yeah.
In a play in a play in Great Britain. He was doing that. Exposes his wand on stage? Yeah. Exactly.
In Gorgio. And his parents, like, didn’t even want him to be in the movies. They were, like, no. This is gonna have too much media attention. We don’t want that for our son.
And Chris Columbus basically said they’d take care of him. The the casting director quit because they had got, like, done too much auditions, these open audition calls. And he was like, no. Chris Cooley was like, not Harry. Not Harry.
Not Harry. Not Harry. He’s like, I just want this Daniel Ratcliffe kid. That’s all I want. She’s like, I Oh.
But, eventually, he was able to to convince them. So I think once he started putting contacts in their kids’ eyes and the kids coming home bloodshot, they were like, we’re good on that. Joe Rowley said, it’s okay if he has blue eyes in it. Do you have some book to movie change you want to call it? I like the scene where, Hackard knocks on the door and Dudley starts eating Harry’s cake.
I thought that was pretty funny. I don’t think that happened in the book. Right? Yeah. I chuckled at that.
It also made more sense why he gave him, like, a a pig pig’s tail rather than being, like, don’t say anything bad about Dumbledore. Like Talking about Hagrid, he wouldn’t have just left Harry at the train station. You know, he’s he’s at King’s Cross, and he looks at his watch and says, woah. I’m late to get this to Dumbledore. It’s like, you can apparate.
Right? He can still do wizarding stuff, so it’s gonna take you 2 seconds. It’s an 11 year old boy. He doesn’t know how to get on the train station. Like, you would take him to his destination.
In the book, it’s the Dursleys who were just like, go screw. So that makes a lot more sense because they would do that. So I just think it took a little bit away from Hagrid as Harry’s protector, not that it was a a big, oh my god. How how dare they change that kind of thing. He’s gotta figure it out.
He’s a wizard. Come on. Go out. Yeah. You gotta go out fast in Hogwarts.
Otherwise, you Seriously. You’ll die, as we discussed in the last one. No Sorting Hat song, that was a little bit bigger of an issue to me. The the song is quick. It’s 30 seconds.
Put the Sorting Hat in, and the the song is kinda key to me. So maybe the Hufflepuff and Slytherin PR folks finally got to to Warner Brothers and said, take that song out because it’s not very nice to us, and they decided not to do it. The Norbert story was cut way short and changed, so they they changed kind of that whole thing around. That seemed a little rushed, the ending there. It was like, now you get detention.
It’s like, what? Why? Yeah. And Malfoy saw the dragon egg, but it didn’t really matter, and then Dumbledore just took it away. So I I didn’t love it, but at the same time, for the interest of time, having to put in another 10 minutes or so of them going to give Ron’s brother this dragon.
It didn’t need to happen like that. So I I was okay with it. And, the really the only other one was the I mean, we’re gonna get to 1 in listener mail, so I’m gonna hold on to that. But, they got rid of the troll test and the logic test to get to the sorcerer’s stone. Totally fine.
The wizard chest was was all you needed after that. It makes a lot of sense. Hermione stays with Ronan, and Harry goes on. Because not me, not Hermione, you. Dumbledore’s picture on the chocolate frog when they’re on the train.
It’s the only thing that really bothers me about this movie, like, gets under my skin and makes me really fucking angry. Harry’s first time at seeing magical pictures, and it’s like, oh, the pictures move. And Harry gets the Dumbledore card, and it’s just like a hologram. It’s like one of those hologram cards you get at the bottom of a Fruit Loops box in the nineties. All the other pictures we see are actually moving wizards.
Why didn’t they do the same thing with Dumbledore? It seems so easy to do. And it’s Harry’s first look and our first look as an audience at the these moving pictures in the wizarding world, and it’s a legit, like, dumb, freaking hologram card that we muggles get. It was not magical whatsoever. It made zero sense.
And he’s like, oh, he’s gone. It’s like, yeah. Sometimes they leave the frame. It’s like, what leaves the frame? That stupid hologram picture leaves the frame?
It it didn’t make any sense. It it honestly it it irks me every time I see it. I agree with you, but also those cards and, like, the subsets in baseball cards, those are fucking awesome. So I don’t know what you’re talking about. But, I mean, I agree.
It wasn’t necessarily very magical. Yeah. You get those in baseball cards, and it seems cool for us muggle people. It wouldn’t be cool for a wizard. I will say the thing that angered me the most was that they do the whole merry Christmas and Christmas scene, but they don’t show Harry getting a sweater.
My girl, missus Weasley, that’s her biggest role. She’s, like, basically a mom to Harry, and they don’t even get that. So Yeah. That upset me. It’s like you have one here too.
It’s like, okay. Cool. But what’s this other gift? Because I wanna open that. Take 2 seconds.
Show him opening a a sweater and putting on, becoming a part of the family and his future mother-in-law. He’s not even wearing it later when he goes on his expedition, which is what he should he should just even if they just had him wearing that later Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’d be fine with it.
I also thought it was weird. When they first showed Dagon Alley, I was just like, why is everyone dressed up like the 1700? Yeah. I didn’t that didn’t make any sense. I I was picturing that it would be, like, JP from Grandma’s Boy, like, these like, futuristic trench coats and stuff like that.
Yeah. So I want what I wanted. I mean, why I I didn’t know it makes sense why they’re going back in time. Yeah. It was interesting that they, like, went hard in the paint with, like, Victorian England because even the hairstyles and whatnot, when they’re in the Diagon Alley, it’s like these guys have sideburns.
It’s like Ambrose Burnside who actually is the reason why that name came up. He’s a civil war general, but he’s got those those sideburns that, like, go halfway down your face and are, like, super bushy. Like, oh, that seems like a 1800, 1700, but I I understand that witches and wijers are, like, kind of in that time in our mind. So that’s where I guess the fashion sense is. But, My last one too is just the ending scene when he when he sees Quirrell.
He he has his wand out and then he just like puts it away. He’s like, alright. And he’s like, come over here. And he’s like, okay. Like, what?
There’s no, like, there’s no magic or anything forcing to do anything. He’s just it’s like, didn’t really make sense if you if you didn’t read the book, you’d be like, why is he doing these things? It doesn’t, you know, in the book, it’s like he’s forcing him to do this stuff. He’s like, has the wand out, but yeah. So I didn’t really get that.
When he’s, like, touching Quirrell and, like, he touches his hand, his hand, like, disintegrates. I was like, oh, is this The Mummy? Are we watching The Mummy with Brendan Fraser? Alright. Let’s get into some quick sorting.
I got some questions for you if you want me to to run you through them. Sorting questions? Yeah. And I’ll determine, what what house you go in. Oh, sure.
Yeah. That that sounds good to me. I don’t know if you made these up or not. So Well, a couple of them I added too, but other than that, I pulled them from the site. Okay.
1st question, you emotes hurt if a person called you weak, ignorant, unkind, not good at reading? I’d say ignorant. It’s your 5th year at Hogwarts and you’ve just received a howler from your parents. What for? Sneaking into the Forbidden Forest at night on a dare?
Getting caught cheating on your owls? Nothing? I never do anything to Warren a Howler? Or sneaking into the Slytherin’s girls section and receiving detention? That’s the Slytherin restricted section, and I would be slithering in.
Probably won the first one, the the going out in Forbidden Forest. Yeah. Oh, okay. Awesome. Alright.
Brave. Interesting. The first quick ditch match of the season is approaching. You can’t wait to get involved. What role are you playing?
Seeker, chaser, beater, or I’ll be in the crowd supporting the team. I’d like to be on the team. I don’t know if I would, but in my dream I’m gonna be on the team. And considering I am a light and quick man, I would I would go with with seeker. Although, I I don’t think that’s really fair.
Like, I don’t think I would be a seeker, but I’m definitely not a keeper. Best. Okay. That’s that’s not it. That’s not it.
That’s what I’m trying to say. Did you say keeper? Was that an option? They didn’t have an option, but I got that. Said that, but you didn’t make an option.
Keeper. Alright. Noted. That was option e. Which path do you intend to follow after leaving Hogwarts?
I joined the ministry. I wanna make a difference in the world. I travel for a while committing, to a before getting to a career. I’d settle down and start a family as soon as possible, and I’d start a book club podcast. D, I’d start a book club podcast.
Good answer. I had that one in there last second. Last one, and this is the most important one. Which of these most accurately describes your relationship with the buddy book club? A, I’m a diehard listener and supporter.
B, listening to the buddy book club is like watching 16 in Pregnant. I know I should feel bad for them, but I can’t look away. C, I’ll be giving the buddy book club a 5 star review because every time I listen, they give me a confidence boost about my intelligence. Or, d, what the hell is Buddy Book Club? I came here for the BBC.
Oh, I’m gonna go with c. I’m gonna go with c. Yeah. Alright. Based on those answers, it says Squibb here based on my calculations.
But but, that can’t that’s gotta be wrong. I will give you Ravenclaw. Oh, thanks. That’s what the the test on the Internet gave me as well as well too. But for sorting in general, in the early days of Hogwarts, the 4 founders used to handpick the students for their houses.
They wasn’t Yeah. But then the founders were worried about how the students would be selected after they died. So Godric Gryffindor took his hat off and said, alright. Each of you put some brains in it, and then someone must have poured a bottle of brandy in as well, and the sorting hat was created. I like how Gryffindor just comes up with everything that’s good.
Yeah. Like, oh, who did that? The Gryffindor, dude. Yeah. It’s it’s honestly pretty messed up.
Just the the whole canon of everything. It’s, like, oh, this sword. Oh, it’s Godric Gryffindor’s sword. It’s, like, oh. We’re also learning in this next book, not spoilers, but, like, what’s the redeeming quality of Slytherin?
I don’t understand. He’s just a shitty person. Yeah. I did have a lingering question that I did wanna talk about because you just said that. So this was kind of bothering me from the book.
But how did Slytherin win the House Cup for 6 years straight? It doesn’t make any sense to me because in the book, it’s like, oh, you know, they’re gonna win for the 7th year, then Gryffindor comes in at the end. Because Krennic is worth a 150 points, kid. That’s why. Okay.
So whatever. But you get negative points for rule breaking, and there wasn’t a wizard that didn’t go bad or whatever the case that wasn’t Slytherin, which even whenever Hagrid says that quote or whenever I read it, I still get confused. But, basically, all the bad wizards are in Slytherin. And so, presumably, they’re also breaking rules at school and doing terrible things. Look at book 2.
So how does Slytherin went for 6 straight years if they’re presumably getting the most negative points? Well, Snape never gives any negatives to his own class. We’ve seen whereas McGonagall has proven that she’ll give negative a 150 to be anyone that steps out of line, even if they’re in their own class. So definitely that that’s the reason right there. Yeah.
That’s it. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. He’s like, why do we keep losing?
Why do I keep betting all this money here? It’s like, well, because you keep giving negative points to everyone. So you’re a terrible gambler. Like, you have control of the outcome. And the only other kind of lingering question before I get into listener mail was and it wasn’t even a lingering question, more of a comment, but it’s kind of crazy to me that no teacher at the school gives Harry any background on his parents because, one, he’s famous, and 2, you knew you all knew his parents.
Like, during the war, you guys were all in the order together working to fight the dark lord. They were presumably your close friends. So this is their son. Wouldn’t you have him over in between classes, like, for tea and just be like, hey. Here’s some anecdotal stories of your parents so that you can kind of get to know them a little bit better or tell him about the the people that they were.
Something. He still doesn’t know who his parents were. He’s, like, staring at the mirror of Erised, and Dumbledore is, like, don’t come back here. When instead, he should be, like, hey. Instead, why don’t you come up to my office, and we’ll talk about your parents, and I’ll give you some information about them.
Maybe because their parents sucked. Maybe that’s what the answer is. I don’t know. Well, that’s what I’m saying. I don’t know.
At least Hagrid gives him that photo book at the end. Right. Yeah. Which which is, like, why aren’t more people doing that? Or maybe Hagrid went around and collected all the photos, and Hagrid’s actually a decent person except when he left them at platform 9 3 quarters.
Listener mail. You’ve got mail. Listener mail, you can email us. There’s a on our website, there’s a form you can sign out or all this stuff. Just hit us, like, as in the DMs or Twitter or Instagram, whatever the case is, but here we go.
Hey, buddies. Long time charmer, first time spellcaster. Fairly well done. Wanted to hear y’all’s thoughts on a question in 2 parts. What are y’all’s thoughts on Peeves not being included in the movies?
And 2, if you were a Hogwarts student, how would you prank Peeves? I’ll take my flu powder and listen. Magic. I’m not sure what the flu powder would do. Like, he’s gonna fly away after that?
Like, I’ll take my leave. Oh, interesting. I’ll take my leave kinda thing. I like I like it. I like it a lot.
Yeah. Well, thank you. Magic. Yeah. Thank you for that.
So like I said, there was one movie fact that we didn’t include book to movie difference, and it’s that Peeves isn’t in it, and he’s not in any of the movies. Very interesting idea. He was cast, and he does have scenes in the movies, although they’ve never been released because they eventually hit the dining room floor. But, yeah, it’s unfortunate because you do get a little nearly headless. They reference the bloody baron.
They’re like, oh, there’s the bloody baron, and you see the fat fryer. But I don’t think anyone else is, like, talked about. Peeves, I feel like is not integral, obviously, but, like, a fun side character. So I’m a little peeved. He wasn’t included, personally.
What do you think? Did does that matter for you? I think he’s kind of annoying in the book. So I didn’t really mind that he wasn’t in it. Also, they always describe him as Peeves the poltergeist, which Mhmm.
What is that, some sort of gymnast? I I don’t even know what that is. So that’s how I was always confused by that. To, prank him, I think the answer to that is just basically find out in the next book. So sorry, I’m reading ahead, but just be eating food in front of him.
He’s like he’s like trying to, like, make fun of you or prank you. I just like, these chicken wings, man. Let me tell you, they taste really, really good. A lot better than rotten fish you guys are eating downstairs. So, yeah.
So that’s our prank. I’m just getting his head a little bit. Yeah. That’s a that’s a good one because I honestly didn’t really have a a good prank for Peas, but knowing that they can’t enjoy food the way we do, that makes too much sense, honestly. I think the only other thing we knew really know about Pees is he’s, like, deathly afraid of the Bloody Baron.
So he could just do a bunch of Bloody Baron cutouts, put them around, or learn some magical ways to to magic some fake bloody barons around just so he’s always always on edge. But either way, I mean, worst case, you can bring in Tangina Barrons for a seance, who’s the, the spiritual medium from the movie Poltergeist. I think she would she would do she was very poltergeist? I think a poltergeist is just like a ghost, but it’s a ghost that messes with stuff, pushes stuff around or knocks stuff down, makes the list of ghosts. A little, like, redundant then?
Yeah. Because you feel like other ghosts do that too, but maybe other ghosts don’t, and poltergeists are more that type. Don’t fact check me on that. Yeah. They could be a gymnast.
On the whole, I was really pleased, especially we’ve done a few of these, and a lot of them don’t really stick to the source material. And I think they did a good job of trimming where it was able to be trimmed while also keeping everything. And it is a long running movie. It runs like 2 and a half hours, but it never felt the pace was off until, I agree with you, that at the end, things happen, like, super duper quick, which they do in the book too, and I I did mention that in the last one. But I was, like, watching it actually, I finished it this afternoon, and I was like, oh, where did they go from here?
Like, is they could go to the trap door from here, and it’s like, boom, boom, boom. Boovie’s over. So I go, okay. There we are. So I guess we’re doing the pod just like that too.
Alright, Keith. What do we got coming up next? We got book 2 coming up next, the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. So we we move right along to book 2. Join us on the marathon.
Let us know if you have any thoughts. Reach out. But, let’s keep the train going, the Harvard Express going. Absolutely. Everyone loves Harry Potter.
So if you, if you got something to say, we we we’d love to hear it, honestly. Well, Keith, I’ll catch you for next time. I am doing a little Jim Dale for this one, so I’m excited to talk about talk about that. I I started reading the hardcover, but I’m I’m on vacation this weekend, and it was tough to decide to sit down and read. So when I drive places, I just kinda get a little Jim Dale in my ear.
Oh, god. What? Alright. I’ll catch you next time for Chamber Secrets. Alright.
Bye now. Bye now.
