Recently, I saw a lot of news about Beijing Universal Film City, so I have to review the "Harry Potter" series of novels before the park opens. Originally, I just wanted to see the gap between the description of the novel and the picture created by the movie. Later, I found that due to the limitation of the length of the movie, even in the content of the big story, there are still many gaps between the novel and the movie. Therefore, I decided to first look at the difference between the two from the major content difference.
In order to simply evaluate the adaptation of the film, changes will be rated on a five-star rating system, with the following criteria:
★☆☆☆☆: It's very bad, it has a bad effect on the progress of the whole story, or conveys the meaning that goes against the original text of the novel.
★★☆☆☆: Not very good, it feels a bit redundant.
★★★☆☆: It's okay, but it's worth it.
★★★★☆: Not bad, for the space and budget, it's more appropriate.
★★★★★: Very good, fixed some bugs in the original book to make the progress of the story smoother.
Whether it's a novel or a movie, one of the features of the "Harry Potter" series is that each one is longer than one. As the first in a series of novels, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is relatively thin, with relatively little content. Therefore, the adaptation of the film is relatively less difficult, and the changes are relatively small, and the framework of the original novel is relatively well preserved. The following will mainly sort out the differences between movies and novels in chronological order of the novels.
★★★★☆: Removed Uncle Vernon discovering something strange about the Muggle world when Harry was sent to the Dursleys at the beginning of the story.
★★☆☆☆: Removed the reason why the Dursleys took Harry to the zoo, making Harry less pitiful and Uncle Vernon's warning abrupt. There is also no mention of the neighbor's wife and Dudley's friend.
★☆☆☆☆: Added the scene of throwing a letter into an egg. This addition is a bit redundant, and it really makes people in the wizarding world feel a little annoying.
★★☆☆☆: Removed the change of address of the letter received by Uncle Vernon after he asked Harry to move upstairs to Dudley's toy room. It seems that the Dursleys were a bit overreacted after running to the island to hide.
★★☆☆☆: Hagrid didn't flash back the relevant events when he reminded Harry of the unusual things that happened to him. This should be a bad review.
★★☆☆☆: Added Hagrid mistaking Dudley for Harry, which feels a bit redundant.
★★☆☆☆: Changed to the plot where Hagrid took Harry to Diagon Alley not long after he arrived at the island hut. Without Harry waking up and keeping his eyes open, everything at night would be a dream. It's a pity that this vivid psychological description is missing.
★★★☆☆: Changed to Hagrid accompany Harry to buy things and go directly to the train station to take the bus back to school, which caused an unavoidable time bug. The day of shopping was supposed to be Harry's birthday, July 31, and the start of school was supposed to be September 1. Of course, this also avoids a bug in the novel. In the novel, Harry has been reading magic books during August, so he should be able to see moving pictures. That way, Harry won't be surprised by moving pictures when he's on the train.
★★★☆☆: Deleted some details of Gringotts, such as the description of the train passing through the underpass of Gringotts. Making Gringotts less convincing as the best place to keep things in the world outside of Hogwarts, but it could really cut a lot of money!
★☆☆☆☆: Hagrid called out Voldemort's name twice while telling Harry about the past! And Harry knows that Voldemort's time and the time to buy the wand are interchanged (the novel is to know Voldemort before buying the wand), which makes the process of buying a wand less stressful. Also, it simplifies the process of finding the right wand and enhances the drama of getting the wrong wand, which doesn't feel particularly good.
★★★★☆: Deleted the meeting between Harry and Malfoy in Diagon Alley, and changed the conversation between Harry and Malfoy on the train into a queuing, so the queuing became their first meeting.
★★★★☆: Removed Fred and George meeting Harry on the train.
★★☆☆☆: Added the scene where Hermione uses magic to help Harry fix his glasses on the train, reduced the description of her chattering and super-fast, and made a slight change in Hermione's image.
★☆☆☆☆: The professors' seats are not floating in the air! Is it because of technical difficulties?
★☆☆☆☆: The Sorting Hat does not cover the eyes. This is actually not difficult, why not do it?
★★☆☆☆: Added Dumbledore's special performance to Harry during the Sorting Ceremony. Dumbledore just tapped the back of his hand when the others attended the sorting ceremony, and when it got to Harry, Dumbledore clapped visibly more excitedly.
★★☆☆☆: Removed Hannah's participation in the sorting ceremony. At this time, the screenwriter didn't know that Hannah would have such a heavy role in the back! ?
★★☆☆☆: Deleted Dumbledore's first weird opening remarks at the opening ceremony, and put the reminder of school precautions before the sorting ceremony. It's kind of weird, and it feels a bit baffling to this adaptation.
★☆☆☆☆: During the sorting ceremony, first-year students should line up to face other students and turn their backs to the teacher. Why change to face the teacher and turn away from the students? Was it so that Harry could meet Snape's eyes at this moment? But at the back there is also the scene of Harry at the dinner table, and it is completely possible to meet Snape at this moment. Also, arriving at the auditorium with a chaotic procession is not Professor McGonagall's style.
★☆☆☆☆: Added a scene where Malfoy was very happy when he saw the food, which doesn't match his image, it's a bit forcibly dudified.
★★★☆☆: Deleted some course descriptions that were not very relevant to this plot.
★☆☆☆☆: Added a scene where Harry and Ron were scolded by McGonagall for getting lost and being late. Emm, I don't know why this is added, is it to show that Hogwarts is like a maze?
★★★☆☆: Deleted the scene where Neville got into trouble in Potions class.
★☆☆☆☆: Harry and Hermione are sitting next to each other in Potions class, which is very unreasonable! Of course, this arrangement may be for the convenience of shooting.
★★☆☆☆: Why change Snape's deduction from one point to five in Potions?
★★☆☆☆: Merged the scene of Harry receiving the letter twice, cut out the scene of Harry and Ron going to Hagrid's house, and let Harry read the news of the theft of Gringotts from the newspaper ordered by Ron. In order to make up for the above time bug, it is emphasized here that the number 713 was stolen in the news, and in the novel, Harry believed that the stolen thing was something Hagrid took out based on his birthday on the day of the theft. It's a little unreasonable, Ron shouldn't have the money to subscribe to the newspaper. It may be reasonable to change the source of the newspaper.
★★★☆☆: Increases the drama of Neville falling off a broom during flight lessons.
★★☆☆☆: Deleted the plot of Malfoy and Harry arranging a fight, and changed it to Harry and the three who accidentally discovered the house where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden, without Neville's role. It was actually okay, but it was a little strange that Hermione and them walked together so naturally. In the first half of the novel, Harry, Ron and Hermione dislike each other. If they were so close by now, Hermione wouldn't have been crying in the bathroom for so long.
★★★★★: It makes more sense for Harry to find out that Snape was hurt while he was in the bathroom. In the novel, Harry found it a few days later when he went to Snape to get back the confiscated book. It felt weird to see them working on bloody wounds after all this time, and it was weird to think that they were hurt by stealing the Philosopher's Stone on Halloween.
★★☆☆☆: Added the fact that Snape came over to warn Harry that he couldn't win the Quidditch match while eating in the auditorium, and let Harry and the others see that his leg was hurt. This is a bit overkill.
★★★☆☆: Removed Harry and Ron accidentally locking Hermione in the bathroom
★★★☆☆: Removed the somewhat remote commentary in the Quidditch match, enhancing the tragic nature of the Quidditch match.
★★☆☆☆: In a Quidditch match, let Gryffindor lead first, then Slytherin cheats. In fact, there is no need for this, it seems that Slytherin is too weak. In the novel, it was Slytherin who had the lead at the beginning, only to cheat when they found out that Harry was going to catch the Snitch.
★☆☆☆☆: Dumbledore actually watched the first Quidditch match. It would be strange if he was there and didn't notice anything strange and asked Snape to save Harry. In the novel, Rocky finally says that in the second Quidditch match he didn't take action against Harry because Dumbledore was there.
★★★★☆: Changed to Snape's clothes that caught on fire and upset Rocky, it felt more reasonable than Hermione knocking Rocky down in the audience.
★★★☆☆: Changed to Hermione's suggestion to find Merlin in the forbidden area.
★★★★☆: Cut out Harry removing the presents from other people (Aunt Petunia, Hermione, Hagrid, and Mama Ron), leaving only the removal of Dumbledore's Invisibility Cloak.
★★★☆☆: There is no description of the psychological process of Harry deciding to go to the forbidden area by himself instead of calling Ron.
★★★★☆: Integrate the scene of Snape threatening Rocky (changed the three suspected threats into one), and changed the threat scene in the forbidden forest to the forbidden book area.
★★★☆☆: Changed the scene Harry saw in the Mirror of Erised from the whole family to just the parents.
★★☆☆☆: It turns out that Harry dragged Ron to watch the same day he discovered the magic mirror, weakening Harry's fascination with the magic mirror (parents).
★★☆☆☆: Not happy, Dumbledore didn't sit down and chat with Harry. Removed Harry's question of what Dumbledore saw in the Mirror.
★★★☆☆: Merged the two encounters with Hagrid, and merged the discovery of the dragon egg and the birth of the dragon. Then Harry and the others were caught for going to meet Hagrid. It doesn't make sense, they don't need to meet Hagrid at night. But fixed the bug that Malfoy didn't tell the secret after a long time in the novel. Naturally, it was the trio and Malfoy who were punished, and Neville's role was replaced by Ron.
★★★☆☆: Deleted Malfoy's mischief in the Forbidden Forest and the scenes of Harry and the others meeting with other centaurs.
★★★☆☆: The dragon was simply sent away by Dumbledore, and Hagrid was not punished for it. In the novel, the dragon is secretly delivered to Charlie's friend by Harry and Hermione. Because of this, the invisibility cloak was left out on the rooftop and was punished.
★★★☆☆: Removed the second Quidditch match.
★★☆☆☆: Deleted the scene where Harry and the others deducted 150 points from Gryffindor and were neglected by their companions, making Neville's resistance a little weaker.
★★☆☆☆: Removed the scene where Harry hears Rocky giving in, making it less necessary for them to rush to steal the Philosopher's Stone as soon as they discover Hagrid has leaked a secret.
★★★★★: Deleted the scene of Harry and the others playing the flute, and pushed open the basement door directly to enter. This also gives them a stronger reason to jump right in. In the novel, they jumped in one by one, and the person who entered first didn't find himself surrounded by plants, which seemed silly.
★★★☆☆: Turned the first level into Hermione's solo, without Harry's hint to Hermione.
★★★☆☆: The second level became Harry's solo, instead of three people working together to find the key, Harry was alone.
★★☆☆☆: In the movie, Harry and Hermione are both standing on the chessboard, only Ron is sitting on the horse, which is a bit awkward.
★★★★☆: Deleted the level set by Snape, it seems a bit strange, but the design of the three levels is indeed relatively compact.
★★★☆☆: Deleted the scene of Ron, Hermione and Hagrid visiting Harry in the hospital, and omitted the news that Gryffindor lost the Quidditch match.
To sum up, the basic adaptation of the movie is to cut supporting roles (such as the Dursleys, Hagrid, Neville, etc.) and combine similar scenes to speed up the progress of events (such as only one Quidditch match, Harry saw Hagrid's dragon, Harry's meeting with Malfoy, Snape's threat to Rocky, etc.).
In general, the adaptation is relatively successful, and several bugs in the novel were fixed during the adaptation process to make the plot more compact. The disadvantage is that it lacks a lot of psychological descriptions, so that people who have not read the novel will feel that the story is advancing too fast. In addition, there are two relatively large negative changes: one is the establishment of the friendship between Hermione, Harry and Ron. In the first half of the novel, Harry and Ron both dislike Hermione, and there is little friendship between them, and it is not until the Halloween incident in the bathroom that their friendship develops. If you watch the movie alone, there will be a feeling that they have always been together. The second is the shaping of Dumbledore's image. In the novel, Dumbledore is a slightly eccentric and lovely person, such as he was the first to speak at the opening ceremony, and for example, he would sit on the ground and speak to Harry, but the movie deleted these scenes, so that Dumbledore's image has become a bit serious and not cute enough.
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