I reblogged a post earlier today talking about how some movies are actually much better than the books they are derived from, and it got me thinking about this infamous moment from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Now, I really love thinking about media, and one of my pet projects is the translation of stories from one medium to another.
One of my pet peeves is when people sink into that “the books are better” mentality, often condemning the movies simply because they changed things from the books
This line is a great example of this mentality in action. It’s one of those things that bothers people immensely about the Goblet of Fire movie. People don’t like this particular line for one simple reason. In the book, the scene goes like this:
“Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Harry?” Dumbledore asked calmly.” (pg 242, GoF)
While in the movie, Michael Gambon grabs Harry by the shoulder, asks him the question quite angrily – almost shouting – and shakes him as he does. Here’s the scene and its lead-up so you know I’m not trying to misrepresent it.
Fans like to hold this moment up as emblematic of how the Harry Potter movies don’t understand the characters – e.g., they think Dumbledore is angry and panicky while he’s much calmer in the books. I think this moment is emblematic of how people don’t understand how adaptations work.
Tags:
#Harry Potter #meta #I have no strong opinions regarding the actual argument here but #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #discourse cw?
Brinens and Things 