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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (also known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States) was a highly successful film released in 2001, based on the fantasy novel of the same name by best-selling author J.K. Rowling.
An agent of Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to the film at a relatively low price soon before the book's incredible success. The movie was made at Leavesden Film Studios and released in 2001. The second, third and fourth books have also been made into films. The rest of the series will follow. The film made in excess of $968 million USD at the worldwide box office (third all-time behind Titanic and The Return of the King (film)) and received three Oscar nominations.
J. K. Rowling insisted that the entire cast be British, in keeping with the cultural integrity of the book and the movie. Exceptions are Harry's aunt Petunia Dursley, played by Fiona Shaw who is Irish; Irish character Seamus Finnigan (Devon Murray), Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris is also Irish), Susan Bones (American Eleanor Columbus, director Chris Columbus's daughter who won the cameo role), Griphook the Goblin (American Verne Troyer), The Bloody Baron (Terence Bayler of New Zealand) and Madam Hooch (American-born Zoe Wanamaker). Rowling also approved the screenplay, written by Steve Kloves.
Plot
Harry Potter, a seemingly ordinary eleven-year-old boy, is actually a wizard and survivor of an attempted murder by the evil Lord Voldemort when he was a boy of one. Surprisingly, Voldemort was successful in killing Harry's parents but not the toddler. Harry lives his life in an ordinary household with his aunt, uncle and cousin, under the impression that his parents died in a car accident and that he is just any other boy. On his eleventh birthday he finds out that he is actually famous in the wizarding world for surviving the attack, and is requested to attend a wizarding school named Hogwarts.
Harry goes to the school, learns magic across the year, and makes friends and enemies. But a plot is brewing to grant immortality to Voldemort, since thrown into a near-death state by his surprising inability to kill Harry. Harry and his two friends end up in a forbidden corridor, and find a three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor. They must pass this trapdoor, and a number of other tests, to stop Voldemort.
Cast
Production
Alterations from the book
Deleted scenes controversy
The release of the film was accompanied by advertisements that made prominent mention of deleted scenes. While the VHS and VCD version contained the scenes after the film, the DVDs included the scenes as an Easter egg; many fans, not knowing this, felt that they were cheated upon buying the discs, and HarryPotter.com ran an article on finding the scenes. As if in apology, the Chamber of Secrets DVD made its deleted scenes immediately available. It does seem rather strange that, to access the scenes on the Philosopher's Stone DVD, not only did the viewer have to answer a number of questions based on the film, but that a number of questions had answers that were only available in the deleted scenes themselves.On U.S. television, ABC, along with its sister cable network ABC Family, played a version with all the deleted scenes included on the DVD, interspersed into the movie. ABC played the version for the network television premiere in 2004, whereas ABC Family aired the version more recently.
Reaction
The film made in excess of $968 million USD at the worldwide box office (third all-time behind Titanic and The Return of the King (film)) and received three Oscar nominations.
Critical reaction
Critic Roger Ebert gave Philosopher's Stone four stars. Overall, the movie recieved mixed reviews although most of them were good.Legacy
While this was Harry Potter's first canon appearance in the media, his first appearance on-screen (not counting trailers or ads) might have been in The Simpsons episode, Treehouse of Horror XII, in the segment 'Wiz Kids'.External links
- Warner Brother's Harry Potter site
- Movie Tour Guide.com - Maps and directions to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Filming Locations
2001 films | Adventure films | Family films | Fantasy films | Films based on fantasy books | Films shot in Super 35 | Harry Potter films Warner Bros. films
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"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)"