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Harry Potter and the Four Things That Were Not in the Movies
The Harry Potter series first book was released in the late nineties by J.K. Rowling and the series took off by storm. By 2000, the series had six more books, an amusement park, and every child in the world knew Harry Potter's name. Throughout the 2000s, all the Harry Potter books had been turned into movies. But when the book´s fans watched the movies; they couldn't help but notice the things they left out of the movie. They noticed that the producers had left out Harry´s true appearance, Peeves, SPEW, and Alice and Frank Longbottom's true story.
In the books, Harry is often described to look like his father with hard-to-tame-hair and glasses, but he has his mother´s green eyes. ¨Yeh look a lot like your dad, but yeh´ve got yer mom´s eyes. ¨ (Rowling, 1997, p. 47, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) But in the movies, Harry does have glasses, but his hair just looks shaken from the bed and his eyes are blue. Fans quickly pointed this mistake out and the producers answered back by saying that Daniel Radcliffe, the actor that plays Harry, had a reaction to the contact lenses that made them green. J.K. Rowling was ok with the change because she just wanted Harry and his mother to have the same eye color; it didn’t have to be green.
Peeves is a trouble-making ghost that causes ruckus and uproar all along with Hogwarts castle. In the books, Peeves causes trouble for both the teachers and the students, along with the other ghosts. ¨Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindor's in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. ¨ (Rowling, 1997, p.132, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) He was described as a prankster and could only be controlled by the Slytherins house ghost, the Bloody Baron. Fans were upset when they didn’t get to see all the adventures Peeves showed throughout the books on to the silver screen. Peeves would have brought comedic relief to the action-packed films.
SPEW, also known as Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, was created in the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by Hermione Granger when she saw the unfair treatment of elves in the wizarding world. House-elves are elves that serve rich families as servants until they are given an article of clothing, so they can be set free. Hermione wanted to give elves rights and have them get a different standing in the wizarding law. She also wanted them to be paid and have holidays. Most elves didn’t want to leave, because they were raised to serve and didn’t know what else to do with themselves if they left. Fans were upset by the fact that they didn’t get to see Hermione grow into a person who fought for all to have equal rights. SPEW showed that even in a world filled with extraordinary magical creatures, there are people that would take advantage of them for their own personal gain.
Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange and put into St Mungo's hospital, leaving Neville Longbottom to be raised by his grandmother. In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to the wizard hospital to visit Arthur Weasley, Ron's father, who was attacked by Nagini, Voldemort's snake. While rooming the hospital, they run into Neville and his grandmother alongside a quiet couple. Neville´s grandmother explains their story, proud of her son and daughter-in-law, while Neville wanted to keep the story quiet. In the movies, however, Alice and Frank were mentioned in two small moments. Once, when Harry was looking at a picture of the Order of Phoenix members, and secondly when Mad-Eye Moody makes him watch a spider get attacked by the same curse as his parents when they were tortured, the Cruciatus curse. The involvement of this couple could have brought another side to the possibility of Neville being the boy who could have killed Voldemort.
The Harry Potter series, with or without these differences, were extremely successful. J.K. Rowling finished her goal of making every child in the world know Harry Potter's name. Even though the movies left out good parts of the books, they still carried the same plot. Producers can't put everything from books into movies because of time limits and not enough action for the screen, but they can put it into a TV show. Imagine a TV show with seasons based on each book that included Harry´s true appearance, Peeves, SPEW, and Alice and Frank Longbottom's story.
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1. Montine, Olivia. February 13, 2019. The Reason Harry Potter´s Eyes Changed from Green in the Books to Blue in the Movies