The only problem I have with the movies is that they were "Hollywoodsized" into neat chunks of fan service.

That's not a criticism of the movies themselves, they have a lot of other things to be criticised for, because I understand that movies have different visuals and pacing than the books. Still, I did not enjoy the movies (apart from the third one for some reason) and I find the actor selection to be atrocious. Not one actor was the right age and the right physis.

Don't get me wrong, selecting Rickman for Snape was a PR rep's wet dream, but he was way to old to play Snape. And don't even get me going on the Potters in the mirror in the first film.

Overall, I think the fandom would be way weaker than it is. About 2/3 less participants, since a lot of people only got hooked because of the films. Even though I don't like some of the effects in the films (Dementor's freeze aura for example) they were still cool and influenced my imagination. The films provided us with images we may not be comfortable with (yay me) and which may contradict our head ones but they were at least pretty and decently executed.

To sum it all up. If the films were not there, they should be made right this minute. They kept the fandom vibrant and easier to access.

 

I'm quite sure that James was described as a tall man in the first book in the Mirror scene.

 

The first Dumbledore was perfect I think. Hagrid too.

 

I actually liked the second Dumbledore a lot more - he matched my mental image of Dumbledore from the books perfectly.

 

The first Dumbledore was good - the first two movies were actually pretty good though. They stayed close to the book omitting parts that weren't necessary to the plot. I think the problem was is that they were making the movies while the books were being written. I big no for me there.

At the topic at hand, I think the community would be smaller. We wouldn't have so many Snape and Draco being these (this might be the right word) vulnerable characters. No Weasley bashing either.

 

He really was, Richard Harris was a great actor. And to think, he actually didn't even want the role in the first place, but only took it because his, at the time, 11 year old granddaughter threatened to never speak with him again if he refused it.

Gambon was just too... un-Dumbledore. Pushing aside the fairly known "HARRY, DID YAH PUT YER NAME IN THE GOBLAT OF FIYAH, YEH CUNT?!" scene, he just didn't look right. It didn't help he dressed in all those subdued colors, when previously Dumbledore looked more alive, if a bit subdued, with Harris as the character. Which is really the point, Dumbledore always had this subdued, yet strong presence, calmness even in the eye of the storm. Whereas Gambon seemed to delight in raising his voice at times and being a tad abrasive ("Don't you all have studying to do?").

Anyway, onto the topic at hand, I'd be willing to sacrifice watching the magnificence of Harris as Dumbledore to not have so many Ron-bashing, Snape redeeming, Draco absolving, absolute gobshite of fics polluting the fanfics fandom.

 

I think both actors had a part of Dumbledore, but neither had the totality. Harris managed to convey book-Dumbledore's grace and gravitas. It was easy to see his character as a man with wisdom exceeding almost any other man.

Unfortunately, Harris was frail. Dumbledore the book character was very old, but only in rare moments of weakness did he appear frail. Gambon was more physically robust, and did a better job portraying Dumbledore's still strong vitality. But he lacked the grace and gravitas.

Neither had the voice I imagined, precisely. Harris's voice was again a bit frail, though in other respects his manner of speaking was almost perfect. Gambon was a bit too nasal for my tastes.

As for the look of Hermione, the version that Marta drew is closer than Emma Watson for me. The hair needs to stay wild, IMO. example

Ditto for her Ginny.

 

Personally, I still hold that Ian McKellen should have been Dumbledore. He already knows how to pull off being the wise old wizard who guides the hero on a brave quest.

5 points for the person who figures out the reference (besides the obvious one, of course).

 

Stephen Fry as Albus Dumbledore- tall, broken nose, great voice, calm but commanding presence with hints of both whimsey and tragedy

Rose Leslie as Ginny Weasley - sure, we'd lose her from Game of Thrones but what was gained would be worth it

Anna Poppelwell as Hermione Granger - before she was Susan Pevensee, she was a perfectly bristle-haired, round-faced girl with hints at future hotness

But recasting isn't really the issue- the Potter phenomenon rode through a perfect storm of popularity at the time when the web was exploding with interest, the novels were coming regularly but not without some frustration-inducing delays, and at a point where sci-fi in television and movies was becoming oversaturated as the go-to geek escape.

The movies were perfectly poised to make money into mega-money. Something would have been made of them, so I think we're safe to praise what we got instead of what might have been done to them by Spielberg or by a hardline book-canon fanatic.

 

Whoa there, Ginny's supposed to be hot.

 

What are you implying? I for one would love to do that thing, with my mouth, on her.

 

That she's not hot.

 

People would go crazy trying to figure out the logistics of space and boundaries in the Hogwarts/Hogsmeade area. Unless I'm mistaken, until the later books/videogames came out, there was quite a bit of debate about where everything around the castle exactly was.

I think that would have added to the mystery of Hogwarts. I think outright showing the castle, and so poorly at that, ruined a lot of why Harry loves it so much. There are doors that go different places on different days, singing suits of armour, secret passages - the movies only really showed some portraits. I had a grand time imagining little adventures of my own with all the craziness within Hogwarts. A part of me was scared, too, after reading Chamber of Secrets. At night, after all, Hogwarts can be a scary place.

THERE WOULD BE MORE MOTHERFUCKING PEEVES IN FANFICTION! :fire

There would be more Quidditch. People would plan stories more. Come up with better, newer spells. There would be ugly people in stories. If you really look at it, the real stalwarts - the absolute defining fanfiction, came when the movies hadn't shed their full influence on the fans. As great as the stuff on DLP is, and I'm probably killing my already miniscule rep here, if people asked me to name the story of HP fanfiction, I'd still say After the End. Or the Psychic Serpent trilogy. All of the best work came during the early to mid 2000's, the one which could really pass for an amateur novels. I really can't explain it, but those stories had something the newer generation of authors just can't capture. Maybe I feel this way because those fics were already half a decade or so old when I first read them.

But most importantly, fans would pay attention to the little details. They'd make big things out of the little details, and bring in their own magical items and twists and plots. They'd actually think of ways to defeat Voldemort, instead of BIGGER WANDZ. There would be more 'crouching grandpa, hidden dragon' Dumbledore fanfiction.

There would be some really good fanfiction on the Deathly Hallows. There are a few, but the movies downplayed them so much that most fans don't really go beyond the Elder Wand.

Phew. I didn't realize I had so much to say. Cookies, anybody?

EDIT: Can't believe I didn't add this. There would be a perceptible emotion to the writing. Those of us who read the books and grew up with Harry Potter...there's something about it that no other series will ever match up to, however brilliant it is or however giant the franchise. And you better believe that people who read about the books and wondered if there was more to it and searched and discovered more like-minded people who loved the series as much as they did, would write some kickass stories. This is, in a way, the extension of the little details thing. I probably won't like a story where Harry ingests dragon blood and becomes some strange, sexy creature.

But imagine a scene where the trio is caught in a Devil's Snare-esque situation and Hermione starts reciting the uses of Dragon's Blood because that's just how she's memorized it. Ron blows his top because he doesn't exactly care about cleaning his oven right then. I'd love that fic immediately.

EDIT2: Just for a bit of perspective to demonstrate. Off Barb's PS, 26th chapter. I was aware of the fact that this was being written weeks and months after 9/11.

 

You're saying it like it would be a good thing. Quidditch and songs lyrics (including Sorting Hat's) are only good for practising pressing Ctrl+W or PgDn.

 

In the epilogue Harry is described as being a "tall thin man". Its certainly a bit of fanon that comes from a combination of Ron being briefly taller than Harry in the books, and Radcliff being quite a small man.

To be honest I dont see too much major changed. The films came out years after the books did, so while that have had an influence most of the later books content had firmly filtered into fanfic by the time they were released.

 

There would (hopefully) be less awkward hugging scenes.

I never watched the last 4 films because the acting/directing (of the first 4) just seemed so embarrassingly staged.

Enter new, unfamiliar setting. Group hug for comfort! Dialogue to reveal some new part of the plot. Group hug for comfort! Something, something, scary music, something something. Cheesy emotional line followed by group hug for comfort!

I've always thought the movies were amongst the worst book-to-film adaptations I'd ever seen. (Only slightly beaten by that piece of trash they used to ruin Douglas Adams' masterpiece.)

 

I think Martin Freeman is an awesome person and was awesome in the movie kinda. But as always the best was Slartibartfast.He won an award for the fjords in Norway.

 

I agree that Martin Freeman was a fantastic choice for Arthur. I might even go as far as to say that a black Ford Prefect was quite brilliant, albeit extremely unexpected.

Every other character was almost unrecognizable (not in a good way.) And the ending twist of Trillian and Arthur getting together was... I don't have the words...

 

They do get together..kinda. They even have a daughter kinda.

 

That's kinda my point. You'd need to read the books to understand. (Trillian and Arthur don't get together in the books)

This is getting a tad off topic though, suffice is to say that both series were so completely off the mark in their film adaptations (and so much worse as a result of this) that I wish I'd never seen them.