Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
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| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
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 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Alfonso Cuarón |
| Produced by | Chris Columbus David Heyman Mark Radcliffe |
| Written by | J.K. Rowling (novel) Steven Kloves (screenplay) |
| Starring | Daniel Radcliffe Rupert Grint Emma Watson |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Michael Seresin |
| Editing by | Steven Weisberg |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 4, 2004 |
| Running time | 142 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $130 million |
| Preceded by | Chamber of Secrets |
| Followed by | Goblet of Fire |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, released on 4 June 2004 in Mexico, United States and Canada, is the third in the Harry Potter film series and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars the actors from the preceding films in the series, except for the role of Albus Dumbledore, which saw Michael Gambon taking over from the late Richard Harris. Much of the original crew also returned, including screenwriter Steve Kloves.
Taglines:
- Something Wicked This Way Comes.
- Have you seen this wizard? Approach with extreme caution! Do not attempt to use magic against this man!
- Everything will change.
- The time has come.
- Cast Your Spell In IMAX.
- Mysteries will unfold.
- Character will be tested.
- Darkness will descend.
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[edit] Synopsis
A mysterious convict, Sirius Black, escapes from Azkaban and sets his sights on Hogwarts, where dementors are stationed to protect Harry and his peers.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Soundtrack
The score was composed and conducted by John Williams and released on CD on May 25, 2004.
[edit] Locations
Some of the sets for the film were built in Glen Coe, Scotland, near to the Clachaig Inn. The indoor sets, including sets built for the previous two films, are mainly in Leavesden Film Studios. The Hogwarts lake was filmed from Loch Shiel in the Highlands of Scotland. Incidentally, the train bridge which was also featured in the Chamber of Secrets movie is opposite Loch Shiel and was used to film the sequences when the Dementor arrived on the train. A small section of the triple-decker bus scene, where it weaves in between many different cars, was filmed in Palmers Green in North London. Some parts were also filmed in and around Borough Market and Lambeth Bridge in London.
- The set of Honeydukes seen in this film is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the set of Ollivander's from the first film. This means the same set was used in all three films, but it was used as a different location in each.
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[edit] Reactions
The film received generally positive reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a Tomatometer ranking of 88%; on the Internet Movie Database, it currently has a 7.8, tied with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the highest IMDB rating. Some fans were angry that certain major plot points, such as the Marauders' backstory, the details of Peter's betrayal, and the origin of Harry's patronus, were all shortened, or simply removed completely.
The film broke several opening records around the world upon its release, including the top grossing film in UK film history, and made approximately £20m in its first 3 days, totalling £90.3m British pounds in ten days. As of September 28, 2005, the film had grossed $US 789m worldwide. It was the highest grossing film of 2004 at the non-American box office making $US 540 million, but was only the sixth highest grossing film in the USA making $US 249 million. Overall the film was the second highest grossing film of the year worldwide behind only Shrek 2.
[edit] Rating
The film was rated PG for frightening moments, creature violence, and mild language.
- In the Netherlands, the film was given a special rating of 9.
- The Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) initially rated the film M for "horror elements" (recommended for mature audiences), but the rating was lowered to PG on appeal to "some fantasy scenes may frighten young children".
[edit] Trivia
- Musician Ian Brown makes a cameo appearance as a wizard in The Leaky Cauldron reading A Brief History of Time.
- The costumes were changed slightly for this installment, specifically the house ties and scarves have a different pattern than in the first two films.
- David Thewlis, who plays Professor Lupin, originally tried out for the part of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
- J. K. Rowling said she "got goosebumps" from seeing this film because it contained things that inadvertently foreshadowed information to be revealed in coming books. This comment has created speculation among fans as to what these things might be.
- The dementors were inspired by nightmares J.K. Rowling had as a teenager.
- The Runic symbols on the sign that Sirius Black holds in the wanted posters spell "PR", so the whole thing says "PR390" or "Prisoner 390".
- Harry's jersey number during the Quiddith game, "7", is the same number as planned books in this series.
- Director Alfonso Cuaron originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry, and worked with master puppeteer Basil Twist, particularly on the depiction of the Dementors. Once it became apparent that puppetry would be too expensive and unable to portray the specific elements of the Dementors, Cuaron turned to CGI; however, he and his team did use footage of Dementor puppets underwater as a basis for the flowy movements of the computer-generated Dementors.
- During the Care for Magical Creatures Class,when Hagrid introduces Buckbeak to Harry, notice that Buckbeak defecates as Harry approaches him.
- At the beginning of the movie, Harry performs a lumos maxima spell in his bedroom at the Dursleys' home. However, according to the books, he is not allowed to perform any magic outside school, and that would, of course, include exercising spells from books. After all, he gets into trouble when, without intending to do so, he inflates Aunt Marge; this may indicate that, while magic is generally prohibited outside of school, the Ministry of Magic is only interested in prosecuting instances that involve or are witnessed by Muggles.
- The Knight Bus segment when Harry is being taken to The Leaky Cauldron uses the film technique known as bullet time, popularized in The Matrix series of films. This segment takes humorous advantage of the magic quality of the Harry Potter world by having the Muggle world go into bullet time while inside the Knight Bus, Harry, Stan Shunpike and Ernie Prang (and the talking shrunken head) keep moving in real time.
- When Harry asks Professor McGonagall to sign his permission slip to go to Hogsmeade, she refuses. In a split second, when Harry turns to face Ron and Hermione, you can see Harry's scar is on the left side of his forehead.
- Lenny Henry, the voice of the shrunken head, is married to Dawn French, The Fat Lady starting with this movie.
[edit] Alterations from the book
[edit] Comparison to preceding films in the Harry Potter series
The third film departed from several conventions set in the first two movies, and had several stylistic changes. This is mostly due to the introduction of a new director to the series, but may also be explained by the fact that the third book of the series was significantly longer than the previous two books, and the director was given more freedom to adapt the book in the interest of screening time. Overall, this film is about ten minutes shorter than the previous films.
[edit] Darker tone
The Prisoner of Azkaban introduces a tone that is darker than the previous Harry Potter films. This change is attributed to both Alfonso Cuarón and the source material. There is also a greater degree of physical darkness in the third film than in the first two.
All the Harry Potter books contain scenes relating to the mystery/adventure aspect of the stories along with emotional scenes designed to explore the characters. The first two films had a tendency to focus mainly on the mystery/adventure aspect, leaving out most of the emotional scenes, which inevitably bred criticisms of a lack of character development and related issues.
In the third film, the paradigm was reversed with more emphasis on Harry's angst than on the plot mechanics and literal faithfulness to the narrative. Some felt that this created a murky plotline, but most film critics and many fans were more than pleased with these changes, believing it made the film stronger and the characters more interesting and believable than the two previous.
[edit] Continued changes to Hogwarts Castle and surrounding landscape
Some fans felt upset with minor continuity issues between the two previous, including the landscaping and layout of Hogwarts. Despite the fact the Harry Potter films are not considered canon, some fans found the lack of continuity irksome. These contradictions include:
- Hogwarts Castle continues to change design and landscape. In this film, the "Dark Tower" and the "Clock Tower" were added to the castle.
- In the first two films, Hagrid's hut is a short distance from the castle across a meadow, but in the third film it is much farther away and surrounded by hills.
- In the first two films there are no mountains surrounding Hogwarts, but in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Hogwarts is featured in an enclosed mountainous valley, which is closer to the actual description in the books.
- In the first two films, the Fat Lady's portrait was at the end of a long hallway, but in the third film it's moved to the room with the moving stairs.
- Hagrid's hut is larger than in the first two films. However, this is consistent with the original description in the book.
- In the second film, the Whomping Willow is right next to the castle, whereas in the third film it is now farther away from the castle, and is on a hilltop.
- The hospital wing is moved to the top of a clock tower, with a view of the clock's face just beyond the doors. In the first two films, only a blank wall is visible beyond the doors.
- There is a large wooden bridge that didn't appear in any of the previous movies.
- The Trio's wands have changed from the previous first two movies and it seems as they are going to stay the same throughout the film franchise. Ron had to have a new wand which is 14 inches in length. Hermione's wand is now vinewood with vine carvings throughout the wand and is 15 inches in Length (J.K Rowling has confirmed that hermione's wand is Vinewood). Harry's now 14 inch wand is the most changed, the handle appears to be made from a tree branch with bark while the shaft appears to be either redwood or rosewood and is not polished but rather rough.
- The Fat Lady is a different actress (Dawn French) than in the previous movies and is given a touch of personality.
[edit] DVD Format Changes
The third film is packaged in a plastic case, unlike the first two films released in digipak (cardboard) cases.
[edit] DVD
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[edit] External links
- Official site
- UK official site
- Official trailer
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at the Internet Movie Database
| J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philosopher's Stone | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Chamber of Secrets | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Prisoner of Azkaban | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Goblet of Fire | book | film | game | soundtrack | |
| Order of the Phoenix | book | (film) | (game) | ||
| Half-Blood Prince | book | (film) | |||
| Book Seven | (book) | ||||
| Other books | Other games | ||||
| Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup | ||||
| Quidditch Through the Ages | |||||
|
Plot – Characters – Places – Spells – Translations – Fandom – Related articles - Quidditch |
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Categories: Articles with sections needing expansion | 2004 films | Adventure films | Family films | Fantasy films | British films | Films based on fantasy books | Films directed by Alfonso Cuarón | Harry Potter films | Sequel films | Time travel films | Warner Bros. films | Werewolves in film and television | Films shot in Super 35 | Hugo Award Nominee for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
