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Having gone chapter-by-chapter with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, I’m looking forward to the adaptation of the books into a television series more than ever. I hope that they won’t skip these seven moments so we can get a more complete picture of the book as it was written.
1. “The dull, gray Tuesday our story starts.”
The movie did a wonderful job of showing us the magical in the mundane Muggle world, but it didn’t set up this being a place where magic doesn’t happen. The suburbs aren’t exactly teeming with the unusual, but we don’t get a sense of that.
If we could see Mr. Dursley and his boring tie, Mrs. Dursley with the next-door neighbor, and Dudley being a brat, we would see an ordinary family. Evene better would be Mr. Dursley facing away from his window as owls swooped back and forth behind him. Most of all, I’d like to see him accosted by happy wizards who hug him and call him a Muggle.
2. The escalating letters
This is another example of where the movie did a fine job, but could have really excelled if it stayed true to the book. Most of the chapter leading up to Harry’s 11th birthday is filled with more and more absurd ways that letters are delivered to him and it’s not just post shooting out of the fireplace.
Apart from things like letters being found inside eggs and at the hotel the Dursleys stay at in Cokeworth, we have Uncle Vernon’s ridiculous ways to avoid detection. Show us the car stopping in a field and halfway across a bridge as well as Vernon’s random decisions to change directions while his pampered and normal family cower in fear of how crazy Daddy’s gone.
3. Malfoy in Madam Malkins
Draco first meets Harry not at Hogwarts, but while they’re just two students getting kitted out for their first year at school. Without any knowledge of Harry’s name or heritage, Draco is much more conversational about his views on the wizarding world.
I think it’s important to highlight Malfoy before he has an agenda. He’s rude and assumes Hagrid’s a servant who has a drinking problem. He especially sneers at people who didn’t know they were witches or wizards until they got their letters.
4. The Weasleys revealed
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Mr. Weasley says it’s a good thign that Ron decided to befirend Harry for all the good Harry’s done for their family. That’s very sweet, but it ignores the fact that this wasn’t the first act of friendship between Weasleys and Potter.
Harry is shown a preview of life at Hogwarts. Percy the prefect isn’t allowed to take himself too seriously. Mrs. Weasley doesn’t treat Ron as capable of much independence. But most importantly, Fred and George take it upon themselves to befriend that lonely kid with glasses before realizing who he is. This is the start of how Harry finds an informal family and it’s wonderful.
5. Peeves!
According to Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom, they cast and filmed Peeves scenes with legendary comic actor Rik Mayall. The star of Drop Dead Fred was even someone Lewis looked up to. But we never saw these scenes in the final movie.
We don’t have to see all of Peeves’ pranks, but it would be valuable to see how he keeps Filch from finding students out of bed. And Harry tricking him into thinking that three students under an invisibility cloak are actually the Bloody Baron is a highlight of the book.
We’ll have plenty more opinions on the next book in the series, but will go back to reading the books and enjoying the movie we have for now.
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