Latest / Popcorn and Pals / Ep 13 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

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Ep 13 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) · Popcorn and Pals

• speaker-0: We're officially recording. It's happening. You're potting right now. speaker-1: have been waiting for this moment for a long time, at least for like a couple weeks. speaker-0: Alright, I'm going to start off with our introduction, then I'll introduce you. Okay. So. Don't get too crazy. All right. Okay. Welcome back to Popcorn and Pals. It's the podcast where we talk about all sorts of movies, good and bad, and give you our completely unqualified takes on them. I'm Zach, and today we're talking about a movie that had every millennial double checking their mail on their 11th birthday. It's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. But first, I'd like to introduce our guest. She's the mother of my children. the love of my life, and has an encyclopedia knowledge of Harry Potter. It's my wife Carly. speaker-1: Hello everyone. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. I've only been bugging you for weeks at this point to get on your podcast, so I'm excited to be here. speaker-0: Welcome to the pod. Absolutely. Yeah, I know we're excited to have you Justin, as you know, has a little sick girl at home, so he couldn't make it today and we had to pivot. So we were going to talk about Fargo and do, you know, more of an adult classic, but ⁓ pushed that movie to back a week. So Justin, I could talk about it. And then you and I, as we were brainstorming about movies that we all, that we know so well that we wouldn't even have to watch the movie, we came up with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. speaker-1: I mean, it's a classic and it's one that I think both of us have watched at least 50 times each, probably. Probably. Yes, I have. speaker-0: Um, all right. So let's like get a lay of the land of you. So would you describe yourself as a cinephile? Are you as big into movies as Justin and I? speaker-1: No, absolutely not. No, no. But I would say am I a, is it a Potter file? Harry Potter file? Yeah. Probably, yes, maybe. speaker-0: Hehehehehe Okay, here hold on one sec. Can you get Dum Dum and Idiot out there? Let's just put them out. speaker-1: Stop. speaker-0: What? speaker-1: Nope. Come on, go. Come on, Gilly. Gilly, go. All right, I'll take my mic back. Sir, am I doing OK so far? Yeah. My two, being too, speaker-0: This be natural. speaker-1: Am I not being natural enough? speaker-0: You're a little excited, but that's okay. It's gonna be exciting. put our outside. speaker-1: Bye! speaker-0: Why are they the worst? Let's just start over. not from the beginning. So would you describe yourself as a cinephile, someone who's really into movies? No. Which I know that about you. But you know, you were on my original journey to find and learn and watch a bunch of classic movies, right? Like we kind of started that process, what, five years ago? speaker-1: No. Yeah, we started our list, our running list, where we had a collection and we've watched probably, I don't know, 10 of those, maybe more. speaker-0: Yeah, so you've seen a lot of the movies that Justin and I have covered. you're, I would say like while you're maybe not as interested in who the actor is, who's the producer, what was the backstory behind it. ⁓ But you at the same time, you're like, yeah, I can sit down and have, know, broaden my horizons, right? Yeah. So, but you would say you're a pretty big Harry Potter fan. speaker-1: Yeah. Yes, that's one element that I think that I can bring to the table tonight, since we're missing Justin, but I feel like I can bring my Harry Potter knowledge to the table. speaker-0: So what was your, what's your Harry Potter journey? speaker-1: ⁓ Since the first book, I read the first book when I was seven. mean, was like right when it came out. I was waiting in line every year when she was releasing new books. And then eventually whenever it came out on film, I ready to go. So I've been a super fan since day one, I guess you could say. speaker-0: So your relationship came through the books first and foremost. speaker-1: Yeah, the books were number one for me. So I was reading them and then like my mom and I were reading the book at the same time We had two separate bookmarks. We would be like reading the book and like fighting over who got the book and all that I don't know why we should buy two books, but we didn't think about that. So Yeah, that's true. It's like one book per family speaker-0: So, ⁓ you're reading the books, you're seven, my first experience probably really came through the movies. I think when I was in second grade, so probably around seven, our teacher read us the first book in class. And then I coincidentally moved schools. after they just finished the first book and the school that I moved to was on the second book. So when I got there the first day, we started reading the second book. So it was just like amazing that two schools I had. So I was exposed to the books, but not a big reader myself. And I would say like really my first true experience jumping in was at 11, same age as the students, same age. I 11 years old. speaker-1: Perfect age. speaker-0: 2001 Harry Potter and we'll talk about this in a little bit, but we're going to go with the American title, the Sorcerer's Stone, because we are American. speaker-1: Thank you very much. This is a debate we've had before. speaker-0: Yes, so I lived in Europe when these movies came out. I spent my like middle part of my childhood in Europe. So for me it was the Philosopher's Stone. ⁓ speaker-1: And that's the first time I ever heard of that was when you brought that up when we were talking about this at some point we were dating and college or whatever and you see the philosopher's stone I was talking about but Apparently that that was a thing. was the first time I ever heard that speaker-0: It makes a lot more sense as a book about wizardry to be called a philosopher's stone. It's a sorcerer's stone. They just thought malecans, I guess, were too dumb to figure it out. the director of this movie is Christopher Columbus. Not that Christopher Columbus. Not that one. But he's directed some of ⁓ are you familiar with him at all? speaker-1: I disagree, but okay. floor. No, this is the only movie I think I know of him doing so. speaker-0: Okay, so have you heard of a little movie called Home Alone? speaker-1: ⁓ yes. Okay. speaker-0: So he's ⁓ directed probably a lot more of your favorite movies than you realize. He's kind of one of those directors I feel like he doesn't really have his own sense of style. Like Home Alone gets sold as like a John Hughes movie. he, Christopher Columbus is the director. Like Harry Potter really gets, you know, it's J.K. Rowling's movie or whatever, right? Like he's kind of this like competent director who comes in and makes solid projects. I think he does a really good job in this movie. Think of like the heavy lift that he has in this movie because he's having to... work with the costume design, work with casting. yeah, work with 11 year olds. like he has to build this initial world. Every other movie after this, every other director who takes it on, eventually David Yates just kind of takes over the whole thing. But every other director like doesn't have to have as much work as what he had to do to establish, which I think is pretty crazy when you think about this movie. Yeah. But he's directed things like Mrs. Dalfire. speaker-1: 11 year olds. speaker-0: There was a movie called Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. Do you remember that movie? Yeah. From the 90s? was like the end of 90s. He's a robot who wants to become a human. speaker-1: It honestly makes so much sense to have Home Alone and now that I'm thinking of like the warmth of Home Alone and the warmth of the first movie of Harry Potter, like it really does have this like kind of nostalgic and maybe it's because we're, you know, it was the 90s and we were kids then and all that jazz, but like they definitely have a similar vibe. Even in Home Alone there's a little creepy factor just like in Harry Potter. speaker-0: And then like... Yeah, and then exactly right. think there's like there's like a twinkle he has a little magic Yeah, that he has which works really well in this movie and I think it works really well in Home Alone and it works really well and like Kind of the kookiness of mrs. Doubtfire. He also did adventures in babysitting Yeah, an 80s movie. So he's done a lot of interesting things kind of after this movie He really doesn't do much from a directing standpoint. Definitely nothing like that like stands out His most recent movie was actually last year's that Thursday murder club. think it's a Netflix movie. So a bunch of like Like ⁓ Helen Mirren and stuff. ⁓ yes, I think uh-huh But he really transitions I think after this movie into more of like a producer so starts producing things like he produces like Night at the Museum, The Help, Percy Jackson, like he switches much more to an overseer of things in a producer kind of role. So anyways, I thought I'd just mention him up top. I don't think I have too much to say on him after this point. I think the direction of this movie is really good. think I want to make sure that he gets his credit due for the lift that he has to put into this movie. ⁓ You know, Justin's not here and he usually keeps me on task. speaker-1: And I'm just going to let you just run away with our podcast. speaker-0: Yeah, I'm already getting deep into the movie. And I didn't even cover my panted synopsis. speaker-1: ⁓ my gosh, we have to do this. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, so we got all sucked into already into Harry Potter and how about Christopher Columbus everything but let's take a pause We'll step back and we'll do my synopsis real quick. Let me know what you think about it. I kept this one a little more high-level for a better word. All right a group of young students attend an exclusive boarding school Despite multiple deaths and harrowing tragedies their families inexplicably send them back every year speaker-1: Yeah. That's definitely a nitpick. Why do they keep going back? speaker-0: I like to. In this movie, like students are getting petrified, no, petrified is in the next movie. Petrified, I mean last movie literally. speaker-1: The forest you're not even supposed to go into because you could die. And then they're like, don't go to the third floor or whatever because you're also going to die. speaker-0: There's trolls potentially killing Sansa's parents? speaker-1: I don't feel like I'd be comfortable with Would you don't think we're not sending our kids there. That's all I have say. I don't care how cool it is. mean, yeah, I'm just saying. I'm not comfortable here. speaker-0: Are they gonna go to the French school or what? You Yeah, so I don't know, I didn't even talk about the movie because like I think everyone knows this movie, especially if you're of a certain age and you're 30 and you're 40s. You grew up with these movies. like that was just to me. It's like I've always what's always stuck out to me is just like, yeah, this school is a nightmare. I'm definitely not hanging out with Harry Potter because I'm like, dude, you are getting into too much shit. speaker-1: It's pretty dangerous. He's in the thick of it. And we haven't even gotten to like the Whomping Willow or any of that jazz. We're not even there yet. So, it's not good. speaker-0: I have a tree on campus that can kill you. They're turning kids into cats, turning each other into cats. speaker-1: Professors can do it, just like if they're mad at you. speaker-0: Yeah, it turns them into whatever ferrets and stuff. So from a real plot synopsis, you know, we're going to focus on the first movie with this, but I think like, like spoiler alert, spoiler warnings, like we're going to talk about all the movies at a certain point, especially when it comes to like characters and opinions on things. But from just this movie's perspective, which a lot kind of happens in this movie, it takes place over like the full school year, but. It sets up with Harry being introduced, living with, and you're going to have to help me with like pronunciation of names and everything like that. The Dursleys. Okay. Let make sure I said it The Dursleys, which are his aunt and uncle and his cousin. His parents died when he was a baby. Their death was caused by a car crash or he who shall not be named, ⁓ giving him the scar on his head. He doesn't know he's a wizard yet. speaker-1: ⁓ I'm ready. Yeah. crash. speaker-0: at the beginning of the movie, all of sudden he starts getting letters in the mail from Hogwarts, the wizarding school, ⁓ inviting him to start class at age 11, which is why everyone who was 11 years old, including me and you both, checked our mail. We're like, we're going to get into wizard school. ⁓ And then after that, ⁓ he gets rescued from his evil aunt and uncle basically by Hagrid, the lovable groundskeeper. ⁓ They start exposing him to the wizarding world, goes to Diagon Alley, gets all of his supplies, including his wand, including his owl. And then in order to get to Hogwarts, he has to take a train on platform nine and three quarters, the Hogwarts Express. Fun fact, when we got married, we had table numbers and our ninth table number was nine and three quarters. That's It's all true. ⁓ And then on that train, he meets his best friends, Ron and Hermione. They go to school, starts learning wizardry. He becomes a quitted kid. He becomes, you know. Yeah, he's, yeah, he's He's driving it hot. Yeah, way, way better than an aunt and uncle. speaker-1: He's thriving. For a dude that did not know he was a wizard until five minutes ago, he does great at Hogwarts. He's like, ⁓ are you kidding me? I'm on the Quidditch team immediately? It's great. speaker-0: You He discovers a... There's a bunch of he discovers. We can get into some of it, right? There's a mirror that helps him see his greatest desires. There's an invisibility cloak. He meets the headmaster Dumbledore, who takes kind of an interest in him. All in all, he has a professor Quill, who's like his dark arts teacher, which is funny that they're teaching dark arts to 11 year olds. still 11 year old. speaker-1: The Fancy Dog. speaker-0: Yeah, I'll get into that class. speaker-1: Dare? Do you think it's like dare? Remember dare? The class like defense against drugs or something like that. What was it? It's like drug resistance education. that the? speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, I know you're talking about, yeah, DARE. The drug... alcohol and something. Yeah, maybe. Do you think that's like the... I feel like it would be more like... like, I don't know, like... You're like martial arts for home intruder. Yeah, I know. speaker-1: That was like our equivalent. Yeah, there's more physical aspect there. So the closest we got was there. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, I guess like stay away from drugs, but you know, they gotta just stay away from evil wizards. Um, I don't know. Anyways, the movie kind of ends with them, uh, figuring out that a particular professor or Lord Voldemort, the ultimate villain is after the philosopher stone or the sorcerer stone. Excuse me. Can I try to keep it American over here? After the sorcerer stone. speaker-1: it's in your blood. speaker-0: They go through trials, they find the stone, ⁓ and it turns out that Professor Quill, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, which will become the running theme in these movies, is the one who's after it. And Harry defeats him through the power of being touched. And... ⁓ And then Gryffindor, the house that Harry and Ron and all the main cast are in, win the house cup. I don't know. It's kind of a silly movie, but it's a great setup for the world. It establishes our main characters and it kind of hit the ground running with a kind of understanding from the most family-friendly version that this movie gets, that these movie series gets. Kind of hits the ground running and establishes, yeah, like what Hogwarts and... the wizarding world is all about. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: So again, we'll step now we can step back into it. So we've talked about Christopher Columbus. We talked about ⁓ your kind of upbringing with the movie, right? We talked about my experience ⁓ living overseas, having the correct name of this movie. speaker-1: It's according to you, but okay. speaker-0: So then now let's talk a little bit about kind of. speaker-1: I don't know, hold on. No, you're good. speaker-0: Okay, so let's pivot a little bit. So there's a game that Jess and I like to play. Okay. And it's would this movie be a good theme for a bar? speaker-1: ⁓ absolutely. Yes, I've been to bars that are... speaker-0: I'm like this one's an easy one right? There's a theme park. Yeah, that's already a themed it. There's trivia. Yeah, right. It's like kind of build itself speaker-1: Yeah. Right. I've been in Nashville. They've got a... Can we say where we live? Yeah, yeah, that's fine. They had like a pop-up bar that was just like a Harry Potter pop-up bar at Union Station. Yeah. Super fun. speaker-0: It's great. No, I love like I think this would make it great I think I think you could make a bar not only out of like the theme of Harry Potter I think you could make it out of specific themes things in Harry Potter. Yeah, you do just a platform nine and three quarters bar I think you could do just a Hogwarts bar or just What's their little town? speaker-1: the leaky cauldron is where they had their, were all hanging out. speaker-0: Like you can do, you know, I think you could do like an Azkaban bar, no I'm just kidding. But you can do a Diagon Alley bar. Like I feel like you could have so many, even within this universe, it's so expansive, you could have some great bars. So let's step back into the movies. So we're talking about the first movie, but I think like let's have a broader discussion real quick about all the movies. So for you, which one is your favorite? speaker-1: Ooh, that's hard. Oh. Because I feel like I appreciate the different movies for different reasons. Like the first movie, it is, it's definitely the warmest of all the movies. It's like got the most nostalgia. It's more feel good, even though there is like a dark element at the end and he's fighting crime, fighting Voldemort, but it's sort of like a mini version of that where you get into like the later versions where he is, it's like, it gets dark, but I really like them. Like I liked the Deathly Hallows a lot. Even Order of the Phoenix. And I think that people sleep on the Half-Blood Prince, but that one's pretty good. The one that I think that I'm the least whatever is, ⁓ gosh, I don't know. I don't know I say that. Like the Prisoner of Raz command, but speaker-0: It's the most different. think that movie... So for me, okay, number one, Goblet of Fire. It's a good time. It changes at the end of the movie, right? It changes the whole direction. The next three movies, right? You were talking about Prince or next four because they it darker. Yeah, like pivots darker. Like it becomes like this much more adult YA series. So it's like kind of the last fun one, but man, it's a good time. So it's like my number one. And then like my numbers, I guess eight, like my last one is Chamber of Secrets. think it kind of comes off of this movie because what this movie does so well to your point is like family friendly establishes the kids, it establishes the universe, it's just fun. The end of it right, you know, even like the darkness of having Baltimore there and everything, it's not even that dark because all Baltimore does is like Quill touches him and he melts into you know ash. Right. And the rest of the time he's like doing the trials to get there. We'll talk about our scenes and everything in a little bit. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: but it's just kind of. It just moves, right? And so they kind of just take that same formula and apply it to the second movie. And I like ⁓ the director of that movie. think… Hold on, who is it? I think it's Ken Abrauner but I could be wrong on that. He's definitely Lockhart. He plays the character in it. speaker-1: He's the director. speaker-0: I so. Nope, it's Christopher Klumskin. two. So Christopher Columbus, well I'm going to edit around that. ⁓ So yeah, Christopher Columbus directs the second one as well but it just kind of carries the same. So I think it makes sense that they pivot in the third one to a new director, a new direction. I think a lot of the more darker aesthetic come from that third movie but I agree with you. It's kind of like, it's like this Tim Bernthal do it I think. A little creepier and it's kind of like out of place compared to the first two. speaker-1: It's fine. he the only did he only direct that one? speaker-0: Yeah, Alfonso Corazon, think, is the director of that one. speaker-1: But I will say, I did appreciate with the Prisoner of Azkaban that Harry got like a family. Like he got a real family from that. speaker-0: Yeah, no, think serious black is a great character. speaker-1: That part of it I really enjoyed. I love Buckbeak, obviously, and the time turner element is really cool. speaker-0: time-turning element just complete trash. It's trash. It solves all problems. It's stupidest like conceit. speaker-1: all the problems. Yes, I know. It's a time travel element, I'm like, you could have fixed like everything with this. Do you guys realize like, you could have fixed it all. speaker-0: Not a well thought out. Yeah, and then really like, to your point, like the last like four movies, that's when David Gates takes over and it's just like... speaker-1: It gets more adult. speaker-0: Yeah, but it's also they kind of run all together. Like I don't feel like they're much more they're less like episodic or I don't know what's the right word. They're less serialized, right? Like each is a standalone movie and then when you kind of get to five, six, seven and eight, especially seven and eight, then they're just like one long movie, but like they get less standalone, right? They're so much more dependent on the other prior ones. Anyway, so. speaker-1: Definitely less. speaker-0: Alright, number four for you, number four for me, what's your final verdict on the best movie of the series? speaker-1: Gosh. I feel like I could watch the first one anytime or I could watch the last one anytime. I'm like sandwiched. Like I'm like those are my two that I could watch at any point. speaker-0: Like the very last one? Happy and Dark, all right. No, I mean, I can watch any of them any day. But number four is my number one, no doubt. All right, let's get into our categories. Let's just get like into this movie. Start time out. we have our categories are best scene, best character, worst character, age the best, age the worst. What are they talking about? Which wizardry language does not count. And then we'll finish up with our nitpicks. speaker-1: I could speaker-0: and then you and I will rate whether we think Harry Potter is a classic or we'll talk about it. Whether we want to rate this movie or just the series in general. We'll talk about it. So let's start off with our best scene. So I'm just going to go through some scenes, just kind of put some candidates out there and we'll talk about each one of them and then we'll kind of like, you know, we'll get through like four or five or six of them and then we'll make a verdict. I feel like with this movie in particular, it's like hard for me to pick a best scene. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: I've seen it so many times I'm just like alright so opening scene when you know Dumbledore and McGonagall and Hagrid are there dropping off Harry and then I'm like alright the next scene with the Dursleys and the scene after that Hagrid arrives I'm like okay we can't have the first three scenes be all great scenes so let's just I'm gonna start with my first candidate being the opening scene we see You'll probably know all the names of the magical items, but he's taking the lights out of the streets, right? Taking the street lights out with his little magic sucky-uppy thingy. you know, they kind of establishes a little bit of wonder in the world. speaker-1: It's like right at the bat you're like, okay, this is about to be real good. Like I'm excited now he's taken, I do forget what that thing is called, but it's, they use it throughout the whole, all the movies that comes into play. speaker-0: I'm Alright, I think that scene is okay. I think it does a good job of opening with some wonder, right? And it establishes kind of like, not our main characters obviously, because Harry's a baby, but it establishes the authority figures in his life. speaker-1: You've got a wizard there, you've got a cat turning into a professor, you've got a dude coming in on a flying motorcycle, like what more do you want? speaker-0: Yeah. All right. So I skipped most of the Dursley stuff. I think it's good. Definitely establishes their family and like the dynamics and like how terrible Harry's life is. But I skipped all the way to when Hagrid arrives to get, know, on the little island. I don't know. Talk about Nipix. Where did how do they find this island? But whatever. Are they renting it? Is this an Airbnb? Do they own it? Why do they own that? speaker-1: Like Shaq. Yeah, like. And he's like, just sleep on this couch and we're going to go upstairs and it's dust everywhere. speaker-0: was dusty, it's leaking, it's so odd. don't know how like Dudley, the kid, right, his cousin, isn't like complaining there's just like no DD. ⁓ But anyways, Hagrid shows up and... speaker-1: So I... speaker-0: Chaos ensues a little bit. Dudley gets a tail. We learn, or not we learn, but Harry learns the truth about his family and the wizarding world. So what are your thoughts on that scene? speaker-1: car crash? A car crash killed Lily and James? No, it's so good. It's like, and you know, you can just see Harry's like, he's lonely, his life like kind of sucks. His family, his quote unquote family is terrible. But then he just basically gets rescued. And it's this, this big old guy's been like, guess what, you're a wizard. And I think that speaks to like, kids in the way that you're like, ⁓ my gosh, what if I'm a magic, you know, witch or wizard. I'm the chosen one. That would be so cool. speaker-0: I'm the one the man. Yeah, plus I think it's such a great introduction of Hagrid because he is like this opposing figure and he is immediately like, I don't know. He's so kind to Harry. Yeah. You just kind of like, we'll get into Hagrid later, some other things. But you you do kind of like this kind of gruff, burly giant, but he's so warm and inviting. Yeah. The next scene, again, I'm just like rattling down the movie, right? Because there's so many good scenes. But the shopping at Diagon Alley, it's your first exposure to full ass Wizarding World. speaker-1: There's so many good things. And you don't even go through like, because he goes to Green Goods Bank too. The bank with the goblins is like a whole scene and like he's like, ⁓ wait a minute, I'm like super loaded. That's awesome. Thanks, mom and dad. Like, because I've been living in Dudley's hand-me-downs for my whole life. Yeah. And now I have a ton of money. speaker-0: How do you think that bank works? are they just holding that like, cause they have like physical coins in the vault. Clearly like there's no interest earning system. No one's investing anything. What are you investing in? Are there venture capitals to start, you know, like wizarding businesses and like, like how did the Weasley brother, the Weasley twins get their money to start their, you know, candy shop in the fifth movie or whatever, right? Like. speaker-1: Yeah, dragon protection, because there are. speaker-0: Just sitting in the bank. don't even... Yeah, I'm just saying. Maybe it's the... the... what's it, in the seventh movie when they touch something and it duplicates? That's their interest system. Cursing it. It's a curse. It's an interest curse. speaker-1: Sitting in green guts promise kind of magical interest probably that we don't have access to Yeah, maybe that's it. Yeah. Yeah, could be that. would be supportive of that if we could have that in real life. speaker-0: I also think like in that series of scenes you see Ollivanders and like the wand picking scene. Yep. And it's just like iconic like the blowing the hair back and the holding it and all that like it's like used in marketing for Warner Brothers for the last like 20 years. speaker-1: I think that actor, whoever plays Ollivander, I don't even know who does that, but what an incredible job. Because he really does capture, this is like, it's whimsy, it's a little mysterious. He's in the shadows. The way they shot that was so good. You can totally put yourself in that scene. speaker-0: I I want to go down to Universal still to this day and be like They're gonna pick a kid and they're gonna go up then the kids gonna get a wand and I'd be like I want to be that I want to be that kid I'm like I'm I'm a 36 year old and I still need to go up there and you need to give me my one place Yes, all right All right ⁓ next scene platform nine and three quarters Harry the Weasley's speaker-1: I need to... The wand chooses the wizard. This is where Haggard falls off for me. He's like, good luck. speaker-0: I hope you out. He's gotta go do other things for us. speaker-1: I gotta go, but I mean, this is part of super magic and I hope you figure it out. Like, surely he'll understand platform nine and three quarters. He's a complete, like, human. He has no clue what he's doing. Bye! speaker-0: I don't know, the Weasleys are there, you know? Complete novice. Hager dropped the ball. He didn't walk him like couldn't wait like 10 more minutes like this is such an speaker-1: He's like, I got you to the train station, I will not get you to the platform. speaker-0: Goodbye. speaker-1: I just don't see why. I don't get it. yeah, no. Thank goodness for the Weasleys. speaker-0: Yes, yeah, for sure. That's the train ride too, right? Where he meets Hermione, he meets Ron, we establish all of our core group of characters kind of in that scene. ⁓ It does, I I don't know, it's just, we'll talk about A's the best, but just the world that they're building, I wanna be on that train. I'm just like, man, I wanna go to school on train. speaker-1: I I want to make my best friends on a train to go to my wizard school. speaker-0: Yeah, I don't know, just does such a good job of like... speaker-1: It's like, they get into the car, they have their bonding scene. Harry's like, we'll take the lot. He buys like all of the candy, he and Ron. Ron's explaining wizard candy to him. He just pulls out a bunch of gold out of his pocket that he's casually carrying in his pocket. speaker-0: It sells the magic. I don't know how the money works, right? So mean like he bought like he bought a lot of candy and I'm not saying that that's not like That you know, but like all the goalie pulls out his pocket There are other things you have to buy that are going to be more expensive than that card of candy. So what does people do? And like, how are they transporting all the gold that they have, all this currency that they have? Do they have wizarding credit? Do they have to, does everyone have the little bag that Hermione has at the, in the seventh movie where she can shove all kinds of stuff? speaker-1: again. I have again, have to kind of blame Hagrid for this one. I like he dropped the ball and be like, Harry, this is how we handle our money. Because Harry is just like, hair is in my pocket. This is how we carry it. speaker-0: just like, just don't see anyone else carrying a ton of money, but I know they have to buy bigger things than a cart full of candy. So like, you what if you're buying a couch? What if you're buying, I don't know. speaker-1: And if you're traveling like all the way to school, are you just putting all that gold in your suitcase? Because I'm just saying suitcase like theft would be an issue. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of issues with it. speaker-0: Exactly. mean that's just the money system, you know. Anyways. Alright, so now we're at Hogwarts. We've met all our main characters. We're in the big hall which is another just great set piece that carries through all eight movies. ⁓ And it's used, it's like this like multi-purpose room, right? It's like, you know, they're a great hall. It's like used for everything. ⁓ Sorting hat scene. speaker-1: I stressed. was stressed. I was stressed. In the book I was stressed. In the video I was stressed because I was like not Slytherin, not Slytherin. I was like right there with him. I was nervous until the bitter end on that one. But maybe that's just me. speaker-0: So like okay the Slytherin come part of this I'm not gonna get the Netflix and not gonna get into it with nitpicks because I do feel like this has been talked about But like why do they have a house of like evil people? speaker-1: Yeah, know, they're like, Slytherin is smart and cunning, but like, they're the worst, you know? And I'm like, well. Yeah, no, nobody, I don't think there's a single like, I mean. speaker-0: None of them are good. It just should be like the, it's like, it should be like pre-crime. Like you put the hat on, you get sorted into Slytherin and you put, you just put them into a jail, you know, like, ah, well this one's not good, you know? speaker-1: He's like, please don't put me in jail. Hagrid, not a witch or wizard, went bad that wasn't his Slytherin. Then why do y'all have that house? Why are y'all still doing that? speaker-0: I know right. Like what we have evil house. Okay, we got evil house with evil people in it And then we have Gryffindor which is like the hero house like you whatever JK Rowling has written down on the website I don't give a shit right like here's what they actually are. Yeah, you have two other houses that no one gives a kid. No one cares about speaker-1: Ravenclaw, you're super smart. Hufflepuff, y'all are really nice. Don't care. Gryffindor, you're obviously the best. Yeah. And you guys suck. Like, you guys are evil. speaker-0: No one cares. So you have the hero house, you have the villain house, and they have like two houses just to fill out the world. speaker-1: Did you ever do the quiz on like Pottermore or whatever, which house you were going to get sorted into? What house did you get sorted into? speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, of course. I don't remember. I do. I know of course you do. speaker-1: Because I took this stuff very seriously. You were sorted into Ravenclaw. Which I thought made sense. They like their books, they like their studies. I was sorted into Gryffindor. Not to Tupac and Horne or anything, but to Tudor. speaker-0: What did you get? So you remember what I was too. The best house, the house that wins everything, we're the best ones. The super house. like, just like... If I got into... Honestly, I don't want to be in either one of those houses. speaker-1: The quiz doesn't lie. That's all I'm saying. I didn't try. It just is what it was. speaker-0: I would personally, I think you want to be Hufflepuff. speaker-1: I will say Hufflepuff feel like they're like I feel like they're always chilled they're like we're not trying to fight with anybody or hanging out I speaker-0: Hippie ones, right? Expectations on those guys. Exactly you're not you're not you're battling three-headed dogs, you know, yeah All right. So we established that you're a Gryffindor and I am a Ravenclaw which is really important, you know Slytherin there's no doubt speaker-1: need to figure out what Justin is as well. ⁓ speaker-0: Alright, so next thing I had was the broom riding scene where you know, they are learning how to ride the broom, teacher leaves the bandit's a class. speaker-1: Neville falls Neville his like he's got his little remember all or whatever he drops it he falls he sprains his wrist Malfoy picks it up. He's been a dick. Yeah, and then Harry's like I'll get you I'm gonna get that thing back for Neville and then lo and behold He's awesome at riding brooms speaker-0: Yeah, you explain the scene well. It was like it's a a it's a good scene and establishes. You know, like and then it leaves right into the Quidditch scene too, right? So like. Kind of establishes this fun game element of this world, right? So I think it's it's a good scene. speaker-1: This is my first podcast. They have real Quidditch games. People play. speaker-0: don't have people walking around on brims people running around between their legs it's it's there you go I mean look I'm not shaming anyone for you know having fun I'm just saying it's not like it's it's not like it's cool okay let's be real ⁓ troll in the dungeon scene or troll speaker-1: All right, well, I signed us up, man. Quirrell. Yep. Again. Like you don't hear from this dude and then just like drama busts in that hole, the whole cafeteria. He did it all. This man is a juxtaposition. Always. He's timid. He's loud. He's going to the dark side. Like what is happening with Quirrell? And so he's just busting in, lead a troll straight up into Hogwarts. Not to spoil it. He did do it. speaker-0: Yeah. What I think is great about this scene is it like it's what establishes the friendship with Hermione, right? So speaking of Hermione, how… when you were ⁓ first reading this book I feel like the most contentious thing for Americans was like how to pronounce her name. speaker-1: Yes, I would agree with you. speaker-0: Because my teacher called her hormone. speaker-1: So that's how my mom pronounced it as well. At first she was like her... I think that that's also a common way that you could go with that name. speaker-0: I there's any common way that I don't know where JK Rowling came up with his name. speaker-1: Yeah, I know, right? I don't know. when you have an O and an I, it's like, what am I supposed to do with this? speaker-0: I don't think I learned how to say the name properly. Like I said, had two different teachers read me the book. One of them was British too. When I moved, I told you the first book I read, ⁓ second grade I think, moved to Europe. In Europe, my teacher was British. Still mispronounced it. So like I don't think it was that common over there on how to pronounce the name. And this is back in the day before a lot of audio books and stuff like that. So I don't think I even knew how to pronounce the name really until I saw the movies. I think I remember watching this first movie for the first time and I was like, man, how can I get past like the pronunciation of her name weird? speaker-1: I think my mom said like hermione or like her hermione or but if you read it that is how it looks like it's like I oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so thing so but I did I don't know why but I Think I said it right. I don't know but now it's just so ingrained in my brain who knows who knows how I originally thought her what what it was speaker-0: Peace. speaker-1: You could edit some of that because, I don't know. speaker-0: You're doing fine. You're doing good. You're being more comfortable, can tell. All right, next scene. So not a big one, but I think you kind of recommended this one. And I completely agree. Like Hogwarts at Christmas. speaker-1: Good, good, Ugh, the best. speaker-0: Like it makes it a Christmas movie. It translates this movie from like just a wizarding movie to be like one I'm like, it's Christmas time. We should put on the first Harry Potter. speaker-1: Harry Potter is perfect because you can set it as a Halloween movie because they have the whole Halloween scene and the troll in the dungeon and all that stuff. And then you can turn it on at Christmas and go, guess what? We're going to watch it again because it's Christmas time. They've got all the things. I mean, it's perfect for that. It's very festive. speaker-0: No, I think there is nothing like more magical than snow Hogwarts Christmas time. The scene where Harry is with Hedwig out in the snow in the courtyard, just awesome. ⁓ Yeah, great. Great. I don't know. Great set piece. speaker-1: And he gets his... He gets his Weasley sweater. So good. He's like, ⁓ my god, I got a present. And I'm like, again, the Dursleys. Hate them. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yep. It's like his first... We'll get the worst characters. ⁓ And then the last scene that I really had on our list was kind of the trials scene where they're going to find the philosopher, sorcerer, stone, whatever you want to call it. And ⁓ when they're going to find it and. ⁓ they're doing all the trials. right, the trials we got, you can probably name them. speaker-1: So they started off with obviously getting past fluffy, which I will say, I mean, and again, Hagrid got fluffy, but he's like, it's easy. Just play music. And I'm like, you're supposed to be the first line of defense Hagrid. like that, but anyway, get nitpicks like we can get into that. But so they get past fluffy fairly easily. They fall into the devil snare. Hermione saves all our asses because they just are, Ron is panicking. So they all fall through there. They go to the, I think that's when they land into the keys. They have to find the key. And it's all like flying. So Harry has to fly and catch the right key. And am I like talking through this too quick? Or do you need, is this good? speaker-0: Stop panicking. You're doing fine. speaker-1: And then after that they go into the wizard's chest and they covered wizard chests in the Christmas like time frame where she was like that's barbaric ⁓ my gosh this is like they're like taking their swords out and stabbing these pieces so then they realize they have to like get on the pieces and be part of it. So... It kind of like takes all three of them to get through that. And at the very end, they kind of are getting like eliminated and they're like, Harry, you got to go makes the next thing. We're out. You go. So that's when he gets the mirror of Arised. What? And then he like turns around and who's there? Professor Quirrell. What the heck? speaker-0: He is nerd. Alright, continue. Now, who's on the back of Coral's head? speaker-1: That would be Lord. speaker-0: I'm I'm very CGI Lord Voldemort. speaker-1: A very snake-nosed looking, we don't know what the heck Lord Voldemort. speaker-0: Yeah, I don't know that trial room like the scenes are fun. I think the chess scene is great. The key scene is fun like when they get to the room with the mirror and there's like Quirrell's, you know, stopping his stutter and he's like, you know doing all the villain stuff and there's flames around the room. It's a pretty cheesy set design, but but it establishes Voldemort ish, you know a version of him. speaker-1: Well, if we want to talk about the mirror of Erised real quick, just to like establish what that is, you know, basically earlier in the movie, Harry had wandered in using his dad's old invisibility cloak that he also got at Christmas, the Christmas scene, because Albus had given it to him. He was like, hey, guess what? This was your parents. Here you go. So he goes wandering around. He finds this mirror. The mirror shows you like what you want, basically like what you want most. in the world. And so he sees like his mom and his dad, like he wants his family and all of that. So Voldemort and Albus is like, look, you're going to drive yourself nuts if you look in this mirror too much because you're just not going to get what you want. So that's why that's kind of at the end there. And Voldemort is like, I want to get this resurrection stone, the Sorcerer's Stone. so anyway, that's that's the the backstory. speaker-0: You looked in the mirror. What do you think you would see? speaker-1: I think that I would see just my reflection because I have everything I could ever want. That's true. Actually, that's a good point. I would have one extra bedroom in my reflection and maybe a larger bonus room in a three car garage. Yeah. But besides that, I would be good to go. speaker-0: Yeah, see mine would be a much bigger house. Yeah, you know, maybe, you know, our kids would stop getting in so much trouble at daycare. But other than that, you know, it's like. speaker-1: All green days at daycare, not red and yellow. speaker-0: Yeah, all right, so those are all the scenes we went through a bunch of them I feel like this movie we could have picked out like six more but had to narrow it down so for you What is your favorite scene in the movie? speaker-1: Oof, that's really hard. I... ⁓ gosh. I always do this and I pick a scene and then I go back and I'm like, no, I should have picked this scene. I should have picked that scene. I... Dang it. But a scene that I do, I do love like the great hall scenes. Whether it's like when they first go in there, whether it's the Halloween or Christmas, but just like the... Like... the scale of the world they're in and I feel or the sorting cat scene like it just really shows like this big universe and I love it. I love like any scene where they're in the castle and I don't know. just I really like their world. speaker-0: Yeah, so I think Alevander wine selection is my favorite. speaker-1: We've joked about this before, what kind of wands you would get. And you're like, my luck, would get some like... speaker-0: Mine's going to have like, it's going to be like a toy wand. It's going to have like a pink star in end of it. Yeah, it's going be ridiculous. speaker-1: But it is a fantastic scene. It captures the whimsy of all of that. speaker-0: Alright, so we got yours cop out every scene in the grid hole speaker-1: You know me, cannot, I can never just pick a scene. speaker-0: I'm going to go with Alvin. Alright, so let's talk characters now. We'll start with best characters. I'm just going to run through them real quick. We got Harry. Yep. We got Ron. We got Hermione. We got Dumbledore. We got McGonagall. We got Hagrid. And we got Snape. Start out with. Okay. Any of those stand out as your favorite character? speaker-1: I I mean, and maybe, I know, I just, I love Hermione. I love Dumbledore. I feel like they're like the smartest ones. McGonagall is pretty smart, but I think I like Hermione because she's just like so sassy. speaker-0: Yep. Yeah. what's your feeling? this is their first movie as the kid crew. Yeah. And I think they were a little rough, the kids. Yeah. Kids. They're not terrible. There's been some major terrible kid movies. Most. Yeah, right. I don't think it distracts from the movie, right? But there's times when Harry's glaring and it's kind of cheesy and corny, right? speaker-1: Frankly, they're better than... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. speaker-0: It's Leviosa, not Leviosa, whatever, know, right? Like it's very... speaker-1: It was like, ⁓ that's an 11-year-old. speaker-0: Yeah, right. So I think the kids, while I like them all, they're much better in later movies. speaker-1: Yeah, I would agree with you. And I also, this is something interesting with Albus because we only get him. I would say the new Dumbledore. I mean, I did like the original Dumbledore, but I think that the the Dumbledore that lasted the longest is kind of like, that's my Dumbledore, you know? He's got a little bit more oomph to him, but I liked the first one. speaker-0: That was a Dumbledore, new or old Dumbledore. Yeah. speaker-1: For sure. McGonagall, can't beat Maggie. What's her name? She's great. speaker-0: ⁓ Yeah, I think like I know we'll talk it we'll get more into Hagrid when we get to like some nitpicks and stuff But I think he is so he's definitely has like some of the biggest role in this movie of the adults I think he's so great in this one and speaker-1: Should we let Gillian? How's it going? speaker-0: You're doing good. Am I doing good? Yeah, don't worry about it. It's fun. Yeah. Yeah, think, So we were talking about... Yeah, new or old Dumbledore. Which one's your favorite? New Dumbledore? Yeah. I agree. Just, we spend more time with him, you know? speaker-1: it's in new. He's a little bit more lively. I mean, you you love the old one, but I think the new one... speaker-0: It would have been interesting to see him do some of the more... The new, I forget the actor's name. It's like Richard something. speaker-1: ⁓ huh. speaker-0: Penny, go away. speaker-1: PNC stop. speaker-0: Go on. speaker-1: Wait, go on. She can just hang on just sit just let her like go speaker-0: he's not going to work that sitting down Come on, let's go. Get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get, speaker-1: Go check, don't know. Turbone. We should order more bones. speaker-0: you Come on, Here they come. 30. speaker-1: Go. Go! Go tree? Go! Go go go go go go! speaker-0: 3 Eddie, come here. ⁓ thanks for having me do this episode. speaker-1: Well, I just ordered more rawhide, so... I'm not a professional. speaker-0: start over. It's a new or old Dumbledore. speaker-1: I would say no. I would say no. speaker-0: I agree. think like we spend, I forget the actor's name, but we spend more time with like the replacement Dumbledore. Right. And I speaker-1: He's got more energy, like he's a little stronger. Like I can't picture the Old Dora like defeating Voldemort. speaker-0: I kind of did that battle scene that we have and everything. I agree with you. Nope, I'm with you. So I think, yeah. I like him in this movie. I think he does a good job, but I do... speaker-1: Yeah, you're right, he's the one that we're more attached to because he was in more of the movies and all that. speaker-0: So who's your number one character for the first movie? speaker-1: Gosh, that's hard. Who's your number one character? speaker-0: I like Hagrid a lot in the movie. And I like the main cast but I think they're better in later movies. I think Harry does a good job. They have a lot on their back as little kids. speaker-1: Yeah, I would agree. think Hagrid's great. I think McGonagall is another really good one. speaker-0: I feel like that's another one who shines in later movies. She's not as much in this movie. speaker-1: think it's like super tough in the last movies and she's yeah, very admirable but I don't know. still think McGonagall, Dumbledore. I love Dumbledore. speaker-0: Bye. Alright, let's go with McGonagall. I know that she's got not as much in this movie, but like I'm with you. I think she's great. So we're going to consolidate our or have it come to consensus on McGonagall. Alright, so we usually do worst character and there's a couple ways we look at it. Like, like Justin likes to look at like who's the villain of the movie. I usually look at it like who's like the worst actor in the movie. speaker-1: movie speaker-0: Which I don't think this movie really has a ton of worse actors. think the kids are probably the weakest. But you can't hold that against an 11 year old. You have to be egregious for an 11 year old. speaker-1: You can't hold. And why don't we even talk about Snape at all? that's Alan Rickman. speaker-0: So I was going to propose like, for this worst character, like who's the best villain in the movie? So we had Snape as a potential villain. He's definitely like an adversary. Coral, who I think is probably the weakest character in the movie. And Petunia and Uncle Vernon. You got Draco? Draco and Dudley. speaker-1: break. speaker-0: or my contenders for best villain of the movie or worst character. speaker-1: I think like if you're going to say like best actor who you think is a villain, I would obviously say Snape because he does his like, will be no wand waving or foolish. That's Alan Rickman. He's great. speaker-0: Yeah. Rickman you know it's like he's Hans Gruber he's like the villain of villains right yeah speaker-1: Yeah, like he's so good, but at the same time, like, yeah, no, he's just great. I he's like the best acting villain. speaker-0: I agree, but you do want to Dudley speaker-1: straight up at the face. Straight up at the face. I'm like, and like even more than Malfoy, I want to punch Dudley. Yeah, yeah. Because Dudley, I'm like, you're such a lube. speaker-0: Malfoy becomes an even bigger prick. He's probably of the kid actors, no offense. He's probably like the one who's hamming it up the most. speaker-1: Yeah, but he's actually, I feel like he's like a good actor though. Like he, I don't know, feel like he could be, but then again, he's just like, he's like Potter. Like, I don't know. But Dudley though, yeah, you want to slap Dudley. So maybe that means he's a good actor. Maybe that means he like does his role correctly. speaker-0: I don't know, so my vote is on Dudley, but yeah, he's the worst villain. He's the biggest villain. But Snape is great. I mean, honestly, it's Snape. Snape's the best adversary in the movie. speaker-1: Dudley's getting it. He is. is. And then you look at like Vernon Dursley, like he plays it so well. He does. Like he's so good. He's just, again, a really good actor on making you hate him and making you be like, God, you're the worst uncle that you could ever possibly be. speaker-0: iconic. Agreed. Alright, so final verdict, we're gonna go with Snape as best villain of the movie. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think he's great. I mean, iconic character. speaker-1: I like that we didn't even mention Voldemort. speaker-0: He's a CGI goober thing. That's the most over-the-top acting. You know, whatever is... Yeah, it's not. Or he's like the scene where he's drinking the blood of the unicorn. He like floats up. speaker-1: The actual problem. Yeah, I would agree. He's in like two seconds of the movie. And the wires pull him up. speaker-0: It's not good. Alright, so normally this is where Justin and I would go over like potential sequel ideas, but obviously this movie has, is a franchise. Not only does have sequels within the Harry Potter movies, but there's spinoffs and everything. So what I thought would be more fun is like, is the sequel you want at this point? speaker-1: That's a good one. I want where... speaker-0: An HBO series reboot. speaker-1: Yes. And I want where Hermione divorces Ron. speaker-0: ⁓ so you want to go to an eight like see that's my things like I wrote down like just I want them as adults. Yeah, just bring them all back. Be adults like that's what I want to see. speaker-1: Yeah. Hermione to divorce Ron and then get with either Draco or Harry. Probably Draco because I think Harry's like happy with Ginny or whatever. speaker-0: Yeah, so like what's the divorce Jenny and then Ron and Jenny get together? speaker-1: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm just like, they pair her up with Ron. It's such a disservice to her character. I have no offense to Ron, but just like, no. Are you kidding me? So that's my sequel. My sequel is like a spinoff of them as adults. speaker-0: Yeah, I think an adult spinoff where Harry is... What's his job? speaker-1: He's like, he's an aurora or something. basically is a wizard cop. speaker-0: Like wizard cop, right? Yeah, but I think like that's the movie we all want, right? These sequels from the 30s and 40s about World War II, you know, Wizard Hitler. Yeah. And like, um, this is like what HBO is doing now where they're just remaking the series. Yeah. Like I don't want any of all that stuff. Like we want to go see our friends. You know, we want to. speaker-1: And I'm cool to see their kids too. Like I want to see like what they're what is your dynamic now like speaker-0: Do you, would you want, what's the play? Do you want to see that in a movie form? Okay. speaker-1: ⁓ Cursed child I don't because I've read it and I didn't think it was interesting at all So no, I don't care he basically it's like here one of Harry's kids is a Gryffindor and one of Harry's kids is a Slytherin and it's his struggle with being a Slytherin and But there's not much that happens to my speaker-0: It's like kid focused for the most part, speaker-1: It's still their perspective as an 11 year old. speaker-0: I don't even want go back. We've already been back to Hogwarts so many times. speaker-1: I I don't care about your kid. speaker-0: I will say, in the spinoff movies, the Fantastic Beasts movies, Jude Law Young Dumbledore, that's like... That might be the... Excuse me. I don't like that at all. I don't like this anymore. This isn't more fun for me. speaker-1: Yeah, he should get it. just kidding. not. speaker-0: But young Dumbledore, think that's like that's honestly like probably he's it's they're not great movies but man favorite character like in all of Harry Potter in some ways. speaker-1: funny because like I had no problem with the Jude Law casting for Dumbledore but then Johnny Depp getting cast as Grimdowald I was like I don't I disagree I was like yeah they don't don't put him in there but Jude Law is arguably like just as popular of an actor but I was fine with I was like why are you putting Johnny Depp in there like give me someone that's a little less Johnny Debbie mm-hmm I don't know what that is but speaker-0: I would argue much more well-liked actor. Alright so we're in agreement. sequel, adults, that's the one we need now. Get adult Harry, adult Ron, adult Hermione. I think so. You can have your divorce subplot of depression. I think, you know, the bed is already... speaker-1: too many like Romanticie books. There's too many like Draco things going on. speaker-0: Yeah, brooding Draco. Alright, so let's talk about age the best and age the worst. So here's my list of age the best. Workplace diversity when you go into that place they hired a special needs teacher who has a stutter just you know Honestly, bravo to them for their workplace diversity at Hogwarts No, that's my stupid one No to me the casting is what has aged the best of this movie speaker-1: Well, you're going into the center, like they literally hired someone who wasn't magic to clean the whole freaking castle. speaker-0: No, yeah, they're an open hiring system. speaker-1: You should hire someone who does have magic so you can clean it easier. You're hiring someone who doesn't even have speaker-0: You think about yeah all the like the the non-magic employees the groundskeeper and the janitor. They're the hardest The pity hires. speaker-1: They're hiring us, like that's the hardest job to clean if you don't have anything. speaker-0: So maybe the aid's the worst. They don't have progressive hiring. speaker-1: Yeah, maybe they suck. all right, continue. speaker-0: No, Age of the Best. I think the casting. This movie is incredibly cast. It's incredible that none of the kids grew up to become like drug addicts and you know, like a big mess. Like it's just incredible that how they all like turned out okay and are well functioning and successful careers and you know, I think, I just think the movie's impeccably cast, especially that 80 % of it had to be 11 year olds, which is crazy. speaker-1: That's true. I agree. speaker-0: ⁓ And then the other thing I had was like the costume and set design like it established that we talked about earlier, but it establishes this world and It all had to be made up for this for this first movie speaker-1: It's amazing. The set is incredible. Like the moving staircases, the pictures that talk and move, just all of it. And even the CGI and all of that, feel like, except for Voldemort, was... speaker-0: Yeah, the CGI in the first couple movies are a little rough. but... the... the... the... Minotaurs are a little ropey. speaker-1: Yeah, friends, whenever he's walking up, you're like, eh, I don't know. And you know that they're using like... speaker-0: That's a nerd. Like anyone knew the name of the myth. Probably people. speaker-1: And like, you know, whenever he's drinking the unicorn blood, they do like the wires. Like you're like, ⁓ that's a wire. He's pulling him up by his wire. But anyway, go ahead. speaker-0: Anything that has that you can think of that you think is like age kind of the best speaker-1: I think the entire movie, I think that it's like, I think the entire plot of this movie, I don't know that there has been another thing created like this for kids that's mature enough to be interesting to them. That's not like, I don't know. don't know that we've had another Harry Potter-esque movie since then. speaker-0: Yeah, like a series. even like other YA series are all dystopian and kind of I mean, this one's kind of but this one, like the world is so big and expansive. speaker-1: Yeah, haven't really had... I just don't think, I think that we lucked out. speaker-0: ⁓ Alright, age the worst. Alright, we tried to get political on this podcast. Go ahead. But, JK Rowling has not aged super well. speaker-1: Bless her. No, she hasn't. I shouldn't say bless her, actually. speaker-0: Well, I mean it depends on how you feel about certain topics, but I'm just saying like you know the controversy around her has not aged too super well and kind of does tarnish It's probably the reason we haven't gotten the adult kids sequel. Yeah, right like sequel series, right because They're not that interested in coming back which in their defense, you know Daniel Radcliffe and speaker-1: Yeah, I mean they're also late 30s at this point. she ⁓ had a little fall from grace with that one. speaker-0: Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. So yeah, that's my first age, the worst. The other thing we talked about, and I think this series is hard for us, because it's so nostalgic and pivotal for our childhood. But to me, franchise fatigue. Everything has to be IP, and they're just milking every IP for all it's worth. Harry Potter has been stretched so thin with the Fantastic Beasts movies, with the new HBO series where they're just repeating this movie, right? Like I feel like to me, maybe this part of the reason I started or why Justin and I started this podcast was because we were like, we're kind of getting just, we're so tired of like, all right, here's the 37th Marvel movie that does the same thing here. speaker-1: That's what I think of. speaker-0: Here's the Fantastic Beasts movie that I'm not that interested in anymore. Here's the Star Wars movie that, okay, like it was great for the first six, but we're on movie 12 now and it's The Mandalorian versus Grogu and I gotta go watch three series of television to understand it plus three episodes of Bobo the Book of Bobo Fett and like... Franchise Fatigue. speaker-1: I think if they did it right, I think if they did it right with the Harry Potter reboot, then it would be interesting. That we would be locked into that. ⁓ no, I'm... But they have to do it right. Because they did, you're right, they did too many Fantastic Beasts. Like they could have done just one. speaker-0: I'm... Yeah, I think the first one's good. Yeah. speaker-1: Like they did not need to do, what is it, three? speaker-0: Yeah, but then they got the magical. Yeah, the magical bird that picks your president out. It's just like I can't. speaker-1: It got out of control and it was beyond what she had written also. So it just was, I don't know. That was when I... speaker-0: I think she's the lead writer on those movies though. So she's in there doing it, you know. speaker-1: It wasn't good, but But no, I think that if we could get like if we could get back to the original cast it would be more interesting speaker-0: Yeah, I, I, that's what we want to see, right? But you know. Can you capture that magic again? I don't know. But to me, like, yeah, I think one of the things that ages worse, there's just like, not only in this series, but just so many franchises. have just, have fatigue, there's just, I feel the fatigue happening more and more and more in them. They're getting more more tired. They're getting more and more milked for every ounce they have. Disney keeps purchasing them. And, and then, you know. speaker-1: That's what we care about. speaker-0: Dragon them out as much as possible. So that is age the worst. Any other age the worst for you? I feel like this is age the best for you. speaker-1: Yeah, no, I can't think of anything off the of my head. speaker-0: So we've touched on it a lot, but my next category is WTF are they talking about, what are they talking about, what the hell are they talking about? I only have one thing written down. I don't know what the hell a Sorcerer's Stone is. speaker-1: It's literally a sorcerer is a wizard. Okay, it's his stone. A philosopher is someone who's just talking about like poetry. He's like, oh, philosophizing this thing. Like, it's not that's there's nothing magical about that. I don't even get it. speaker-0: I'm sure it was the flop. Nah, they had to dumb it for you Americans. I'm an American. speaker-1: No, it's the opposite. They're like the British, I've never heard of a wizard. Like what? speaker-0: Honestly, I didn't have any WTF's to talk about. There's so much. This movie is only from 2001. There's a lot of wizardry crap in it, but they explained it all, right? speaker-1: My only WTF is when Hagrid's like, good luck at the train station. That's my only WTF. speaker-0: We're getting the nitpicks here. All right, so let's do get into the nitpicks because I do have a solid list here. All right, first one. Quidditch. It's nitpicks and hot takes. Most of mine are hot takes. I'm not really picking at nits because it's a magical world. Quidditch is a really dumb game. The rules are so dumb. speaker-1: It's basically soccer in the air. speaker-0: not because there's one dude who can go catch the snitch it ends the game and it wins the game I mean sure it's a hundred points I guess you could throw a thousand burgle blombers or whatever you call the things through who watchers through a hoop or whatever and you can do whatever right but it's a dumb game just go half the two seekers out there and run around a little bit till they catch the snitch speaker-1: Well, I don't know. Okay, what's your next one? Because I don't know if I agree. speaker-0: Okay, Quidditch is dumb. That's my first one. All right, I did have would you send your kids to this school? Absolutely not. ⁓ speaker-1: All right, next. don't know, maybe not in Harry's timeline, but like if we're in today's age, if I got my kid, I'm like, sounds awesome, let's go. But if Harry's there and like Voldemort's there, I'm like, probably not. speaker-0: This school's got a record. I mean, after the first year, and then you got like... speaker-1: Yeah, if it's like death left and right, we gotta reevaluate. speaker-0: Alright. This one is more broad. Is the magical world really better than our world? speaker-1: I will say, if I have to send an owl to tell you something... speaker-0: Like email is superior to outs, right? speaker-1: Yeah, and this is supposed to be what set in the 80s or 90s? We could have emailed, but I'm just saying. speaker-0: I think. Yeah, in the 90s. Email is superior to else. speaker-1: If I can afford it now, if I own a rat, then my God, when are you getting my message? Like it's going to be weeks. speaker-0: Right? the remember all ball thing. Useless, utter useless trash. That's just a trinket of trash. Right? Like if I'm going to remember something, I have an alarm on my phone. You know, I have an app on my phone. Right? Like the, the, the, they shoot spells at each other and stuff, I don't know. We have weapons. Like you're going to to use words and stuff to shoot something. speaker-1: Say it. speaker-0: I can like, I've, there's been no attack that is as effective as like a gatling gun. speaker-1: will say for the defense, they've got that whole dome that goes over the top of the... So like that's pretty legit. speaker-0: I'm not saying they don't have some useless things. We have airplanes, have cars, we have like other modes of transportation that they're not using. They're using like... Ghost Horse and like, true. You know, I'm just saying, like, is it really that much better World than ours? I think arguably, probably not. All right, next one. This is just more of a question. I'm like. speaker-1: True, true. speaker-0: question I have. Why is Snape a teacher? He clearly hates kids. speaker-1: That's true. speaker-0: Like, why is he a teacher? He doesn't have to do that job! speaker-1: He doesn't even like his own house. Like I swear when Malfoy said, oh what Malfoy? Like he doesn't even like him. speaker-0: Can't he just be? Why does he even have to, why does he have to have this job? He can't do something else? You're right. speaker-1: That's true. Yeah. But yet at the same time he's like, ⁓ I always looked out for Harry. I'm like, ⁓ of. Like, you're kind of a jerk the whole time. speaker-0: All right. That's why I was just like, why are you teacher, dude? All right, next, let's get into Hagrid. So I wrote down you brought this up, but I wrote down is Hagrid stealing from Harry? speaker-1: The answer is yes. speaker-0: So you have a laundry list of like issues with Hagrid. speaker-1: No, I didn't feel bad. I feel like I'm being like disrespectful to Hagrid or something or like not loyal to him. But like when they show up and he's buying things for him and Harry's like, OMG, I've got it. Like golden, golden, gold. This is great. I'm at Ollivander's. Hagrid just shows up and like, I got you an owl. With your money? It can't be with his like groundskeeper money. Owls are expensive. Just a thought. speaker-0: Yeah. I mean, guess Harry could have been like, you hold my money, I don't know what I'm doing. speaker-1: hold my money and go spend it? I don't know. What are you doing? speaker-0: Divide and conquer. But I mean he is hanging out with 11 year olds. His best friends are 11 year olds. speaker-1: Yeah, the whole time. I don't know if a single other friend Hagrid has except for the three of those 11 year olds. speaker-0: I guess Dumbledore's his friend. I don't really see them having dinner. speaker-1: It's just something that I didn't think about at the time that I've thought about more and more and I'm like, that's strange. Maybe where's an adult? Do you have an adult friend? speaker-0: Yeah, he abandons him at the train station. Yep. Like literally within a hundred feet of where he needs to go. speaker-1: ⁓ Good luck getting on...you know how to do it. He's like, what? No, I don't. He's like, here's your owl I bought you with your money. Good luck. find it. speaker-0: So you're saying like Hagrin's a little incompetent? little. speaker-1: Maybe as an adult I'm starting to realize Hagrid was a bumbling fool. speaker-0: Alright, you kind of touched on it in the sequel, but Ron versus Harry for Hermione. speaker-1: Shh! Hermione would never get with Ron in real life. Never in a million years. I'm sorry. That's just like, no. No. I don't know if she would get with Harry at the end of the day, but surely goodness, the girl is like the smartest one in their class. Ron is like, I... Yellow rabbit, turn this fat rat yellow or whatever. That's his like, spell. She's not getting with him. speaker-0: ⁓ I'm not sure she really needs to be with either one of them. speaker-1: She needs to be with Draco probably. speaker-0: Honestly, like that's not a bad that's a little curveball II right, but it's not bad You know plus his houses his house has got the money right the mouth boys There's some high-class wizard wizard, you people plus, know his dad's going to wizard prison probably speaker-1: No, I think that I'm correct. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. He's good and Draco is not bad. In his heart he's not a bad guy. I think he's just like has a you know he's too close to the Voldemort situation but he's more I think he's got it going on more than Ron. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah, 100%. Alright, my last nitpick. The house cup at the end of movie. It is utter bullshit. If I was... I'd furious. Furious. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you had like nothing to do with anything. You're just like a random first year in Slytherin. You're like, we're doing so great. And then he's like, oh, Neville, you stood up to your friends. I just put you over the edge. speaker-0: Yeah, moral fortitude or whatever he says. Bullshit. That's horseshit. Yeah. I would be like, ⁓ some last minute. speaker-1: I showed it to my friends one time. They were like, we should go out. I'm like, no, let's go to library. speaker-0: Dumbledore literally walked in there and was like, I want Gryffindor to win this. What can I give them? Yeah. speaker-1: I'm an ex-Griffin door, but this is not balanced or weighted at all. speaker-0: Yeah, you get moral fortitude. Alright, good enough. Now the Gryffindor wins. Yay for everybody. speaker-1: We're all cheering, we all agree with this. This is all fine. speaker-0: utter bullshit. It's completely rigged system. It should be thrown out. speaker-1: mean, I was excited. I was super pumped when I read it, but looking back, I'm like, I don't agree. I don't agree. No, no. Standing up to your friends. Are you kidding me? You mean like a basic like, yeah, like what anyone does to like whenever they're 11, talking to their friends? speaker-0: An arc? Yeah, utter, utter, utter trash. I'd be so fierce. I'd be assuming the school. Yeah, I don't know what the consequences are of it, but... speaker-1: Good for Gryffindor, I guess. I'm resuing the school. speaker-0: I'll like, we won that fair and square. speaker-1: like the parent, right? You're sitting in Howler to double the results. speaker-0: Here's what it is. You get plus 10 for moral fortitude, Neville, then Hermione, get minus 25 for petrifying him. Okay? Like... This is assault. You get minus 25 for assault. Back to Slytherin. Like ridiculous. This is a ridiculous system. Completely rigged. Favoritism out the yin-yang. It was terrible. So that's my last... speaker-1: Yeah, that's assault. Yeah, that's fair. I like it. speaker-0: Alright, so that brings us to the end of our pod. It's time for us to rate whether or not we think Harry Potter should be a classic. Now, we could do this in two ways. Because as an individual movie, I think it's okay. It's a good movie, and there's like lot of nostalgia in it. But like... speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: The acting is okay by the kids. You think like other kids movies that would be in the classic category, like Home Alone, speaking of Christopher Columbus, like I think there's like. There's other movies, I think, that I would put ahead of this one, even in the kid movie category. I don't think this movie as its own is that innovative. speaker-1: It's a hot take. I think this movie is an absolute classic. I fully disagree with you, but continue. speaker-0: I think it's okay. It's an okay movie with a wonderful world and a wonderful setup. But it's so, to me, dependent on everything else that comes after it. To me, it's classic series. speaker-1: think you can look. Yep, yep, yep. All right. It's a classic movie, but go ahead. Is this where Justin lets you continue your thought? Because I'm just like, no. You're wrong. This is a classic. speaker-0: Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, I'm just putting out the argument, okay? That like, if this movie was not stood on its own, did not have the rest of it, it just, the series ended after this movie. Is this like so transformative or is it transformative because of the ambition of the whole project? speaker-1: No, I think it's a classic. No, I really do. I really do, though. I think the world is a classic. think the plot is a classic. There's so many things that are so interesting about this movie. And there's the ride that the main character goes on. I still find it to be a classic, and especially when you consider what other people would call a quote unquote classic, I think this movie hits it out of the park. speaker-0: Alright. Fair enough. No, I do. think, I this is one of the better movies of the series. Like, I don't even, it's not even the top, maybe top four for me out of an eight series movie. Cause like I would put number four ahead of it. I would put number eight ahead of it. speaker-1: We know you love number four. speaker-0: I would put number... ⁓ which one is the the Is it the Half-Blood Prince? Is that sex? speaker-1: Six. don't know what's five. Five and six, I get mixed up because I know seven and eight were both like deathly Hallows, right? Like it was a two parter. And then I know it's so those Sorcerer's Stone Chamber of Secrets. Prisoner of Ice, a man, Goblet of Fire. And then five is order the phoenix. speaker-0: prisoner. speaker-1: And then is it half-blood prints after that? think it's half-blood prints after that. speaker-0: But I would put Order of the Phoenix ahead of this movie as well. It might be, but I would put four, five, eight, and then one. speaker-1: like the darker you you're leaning more towards the darker stuff speaker-0: Yeah, it's more adult. And the acting is better. Gary Oldman is in them. You know, like the CGI is better. The fights are better. speaker-1: And maybe it's just like, it's kind of one of those things like, you had to be there, but the time and the place and the, it's got that home alone vibe of like, it's the nostalgia, it's the classic movie. You remember being there as a little kid in the theater, like watching it kind of thing. And I'm like, no, this movie is perfect. Like you could never, I would never critique it, but. speaker-0: Yeah, that is the hard part. Dave, Justin and I watched Dave as our first movie. And God, I love that movie so much. I have like no, I mean, there's critiques about the plot, but yeah, it was a perfect movie. love the movie. Yeah. And so like, I get where you're coming from this. So I think for me, I'm going to, I I'm going to give it, it's a classic too. Like it establishes so much and the series is clearly a classic, right? Like it's going to last. a long, long, long time. People are going to be milking this franchise. I want them to slow down on it. Don't ruin it. I feel like in a lot of ways they've ruined a lot of Star Wars, which is too bad. speaker-1: I agree, agree. You gotta respect where this is coming from and give it time. It's already, they're already recreating it, which is kind of wild to me. speaker-0: Give it time. Let it just live, man. Well, you know, the funny thing is, you and I were talking about this because we were like, I just, they're recreating it because they need to do something with the franchise. Because they want to make money. But they can't. But I'm pretty, and the Fantastic Be series, you know, fizzled out with just a, you know, abysmal kind of. speaker-1: What the? I don't know. Yeah, nobody cared. speaker-0: Yeah, exactly. And then so they're like, well, we should do older kids, the older kids, right? Harry older, Ron older, whatever. But the actors are not interested in coming back. They can't do that. So there's like, well, I guess we'll just reboot it and do an HBO series. with the reboot, this thing that's so tough about the reboot is like, why are you like they're doing it because they got to do something. And but they can't change the aesthetic. because they have the theme parks, they have the merchandise, right? Like, yeah, and so they can't change it because like, if they change it, you know, it's like, so I'm what are we doing this for? ⁓ Just to keep it alive. And so hopefully, hopefully it's good. wish, I hope I'm wrong. I hope it's great. speaker-1: It's the world. The world is already built. hope it is too. I hope that it is going to reignite a new generation of, you know, Potter lovers. speaker-0: I would bet that HBO is betting on the same thing too. But anyway, so yeah, so like let's go. I'll go with it. Yeah, I'm with you like the series to me is disputably a classic I think we can give this movie. It's a classic speaker-1: Yeah, I would agree. It's a classic. speaker-0: All right, well, that brings us to the end of our pod. ⁓ Carly, thank you for stepping in for Justin. Hey, ⁓ speaker-1: Sorry, Justin, you had to be out for your poor little sick kiddo. speaker-0: Yeah, but um, but I appreciate you appreciate you doing it. I appreciate you pivoting us to this movie this movie This episode was a little more haphazard because we didn't even watch this movie. We're just like let's just go for it speaker-1: This is all memory, baby. ⁓ speaker-0: ⁓ But anyways, ⁓ if you guys liked us, want to check us out, we do have an email. You can tell us your movie recommendations. You can say how wrong we are or how much you hate how much I say the word like. ⁓ If you guys, our email is popcornandpals at gmail.com, all lowercase, all spelled out. And then we have a YouTube channel where we got some shorts and we do post the podcast on there too. And that is Popcorn and Pals Pod. ⁓ So anyways, in the meantime, everyone, thank you for listening and keep popping that popcorn. speaker-1: Bye!