MuggleCast 168 Transcript
Show Intro
[Intro music begins]
Mason: Listen up, MuggleCast listeners! 2009 is finally here, and now GoDaddy hosting plans are more powerful than ever! Best of all, plans start at just $3.95 a month, and no matter what plan you choose, your site receives 24/7 maintenance and protection in the GoDaddy.com world class data center. Plus, as a listener of MuggleCast, enter code Ron – that’s R-O-N – when you check out, and get your dot com domain name for just $6.95 a year. Some restrictions always apply, but check that site out for the details. Get your piece of the Internet at GoDaddy.com.
Andrew: Today’s podcast is also brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet’s leading provider of spoken word entertainment. What are you listening to after today’s episode? How about a free audiobook download of your choice when you sign up. Log on to www.AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast today for details.
[“Innuendo” by Queen begins playing]
Andrew: Because we’re here to usher in the new year, this is MuggleCast Episode 168 for January 15th, 2009!
[Show music begins playing]
Andrew: And look at this.
Matt: What?
Andrew: Look at this. 686 people in the Ustream feed right now, and there’s not even big news. This is like – this may be one of the biggest shows we’ve done live on Ustream, and there’s not even news. There is news. There’s a lot of news, and I’m excited…
Micah: There’s news.
Andrew: …to introduce – thank you, Micah – I’m excited to introduce the panel today. First, joining me in studios, Matt Britton.
Matt: Hi.
Andrew: Well said. Also, via Skype today is Micah Tannenbaum.
Micah: Hey.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Man of many words, as always. Who else have we got here? We also have Laura Thompson. Hello, Laura.
Laura: Hey, how are you?
Andrew: You are looking dashing today.
Laura: Oh I know, thank you. I dressed up just for…
Andrew: Anyway, also, Eric is here. Hey, Eric. Just kidding.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: Hey guys.
Andrew: Eric, there’s a lot to talk to you about since you’ve seen this movie, and now we have a PG rating. Very confusing.
Eric: Actually, I’m not so sure, Andrew. I’m not so sure I’ve seen this movie. I think…
Andrew: You think they changed it? [laughs] I see. And lastly, also joining us today, Nick Myers, a – he was petitioned on MuggleSpace to come on the show, so we have him here on MuggleCast. Hey, Nick.
Nick: Hey everyone, how are you doing?
Andrew: There’s Nick, isn’t that refreshing? An English voice. Haven’t heard one of those in a while. [clears throat] No, I’m just kidding. Jamie’s a great – Nick, how about you start the show off, tell us – tell everyone a little bit about yourself. We need to know who you are.
Nick: Well, I’ve actually worked on MuggleNet for two years on the movie section, the picture page, the gallery, just doing general maintenance around the site. I live in sunny England, I’m nineteen years old. What else do you want to know?
Andrew: That’s about it. You sound like Jamie, so I think everyone will be happy with you.
[Nick laughs]
Andrew: No, but you’ll come into your own on the show, I’m sure. [laughs]
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News: Half-Blood Prince Gets a PG Rating
Andrew: Anyway, welcome, everyone, to MuggleCast Live. Like I said, it’s a wonderful Thursday evening. I didn’t say that part. I did say there were six – over six – over 700 people listening now, so this is great. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. Quick reminder before we start, there’s obviously – with a lot of people listening, there’s a lot of people in the chat room. If you want to listen to this without the chat, just go to MuggleNet and you’ll see at the top post there is a reminder about the show. Click the “Read More” link and then you’ll see a window that’s just streaming this and it won’t be with the chat. So that’ll help calm that down if you don’t like the chat. Anyway, Micah, what’s in the news this week?
Micah: You mentioned it before, Andrew. Half-Blood Prince was given a PG rating. This story was back on January 7th, not too long ago. But what kind of makes me wonder is that it says PG is for “scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.”
Andrew: Yes. Okay, now this – this is surprising. I mean, because everyone was expecting – let me put it this way: Goblet of Fire – before Goblet of Fire came out – of course that was the first movie with the PG-13 rating – everyone was like, “Well, is this going to be PG?” because we’ve seen before that there’s been a – you know – the books are obviously getting darker. So why did it go back to PG? That’s the question I guess we should try to figure out, and a lot of people are also disappointed. Nick, you had an interesting take on this. To get the discussion started, you e-mailed me about it the other day. Can you tell us about that? It’s really interesting.
Nick: Yeah, of course. After the announcement of the PG rating in America, the first thing I did was I went on the BBFC website and looked at the U.K. classification. I found something quite interesting. Basically, the trailers for the latest Half-Blood Prince movie in the U.K. have been rated 12A, which usually means that the film will also follow suit and also be a 12. The past two films have also been 12s and they had trailers with 12A ratings.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: So I guess what I’m saying is it’s going to be rated 12 over here by the looks of things…
Andrew: Yeah.
Nick: …which is kind of a PG-13 equivalent.
Andrew: Yeah, so isn’t that interesting? So that would be actually – that would be a first time one of the Potter films has a different rating here, isn’t that right? I mean, there’s never been a time when it’s rated 12A over there and PG here, or vice versa.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: PG’s silly, but, Eric, let’s go to you now. You’ve seen the film, and you said it was the darkest yet when we discussed this on the phone the other day.
Eric: Yeah, it wasn’t just the darkest yet; it was painfully PG-13 in my opinion, and I actually didn’t want to say anything then when I had first begun. First of all, Andrew, I just logged into the Ustream and it says “Off Air.” Are we actually on air?
Andrew: No, we’re on air. Yeah.
Eric: Okay, because I can’t pull up the chat, so I’m just making sure. But anyway, when I first got done seeing the movie I didn’t want to mention exactly how dark the movie was, specifically because I think one of these news articles now, one of the stars, is saying that they feel they’ve achieved this perfect balance between humor and darkness. I actually felt that the scale was tipped a little bit more in the darkness, to be honest, and I spoke with David Heyman and David Yates afterwards and said, “Dude. Okay, first of all, the entire movie – the entire movie that we saw was in sepia.” I mean, it just felt like the whole thing was color-washed and really dark, and dark literally. We’re talking literally dark. They assured me that they were still working on the color, et cetera, et cetera. But whatever happy scenes there are, and there were some genuinely funny scenes in this movie, I just felt that the darkness was really intense when there was. And I just don’t see any way that this movie could be PG from the film – from the preview that we saw. The movie we saw had, you know, not a completed score, so maybe it’s a really happy score. Maybe they just set all the depressing, horrible scenes to happy music. I don’t know.
Andrew: Is there a chance that the Motion Picture Association of America, they just decided – maybe they were feeling lenient that day or something? That’s what one blog suggested, which I thought was kind of funny.
Eric: I think it’s possible, but what I wanted to bring to the show as far as discussion-wise is, the more I thought about it, the sixth Harry Potter book to me is actually a lot lighter, I think, than Book 5. I mean at least Harry’s not as angsty, so…
Andrew: Right.
Eric: I mean, and it’s not until Book 7 that everyone starts dying. So Book 6 being a lot about Voldemort is very interesting, but if you’re even going to take most of that away, then you’ve kind of got the makings of a PG movie, I guess, right? I mean…
Andrew: Right.
Eric: …it will get dark, but it might not be. The book seemed…
Matt: Eric, do you – now when you say that there are scenes that are – like this film was a lot more darker than the previous films, do you mean it was darker in the action, like physically darker, or verbally, like in the script and stuff? Do you know what I mean? Like, if someone – like it had deeper tones.
Eric: Language hasn’t changed too much, so language as far as in the wording and stuff is much darker. No. I think it’s more in the events, the thematic – maybe then they were really trying to play up the Voldemort aspect of it, but it just felt – I mean, a lot is going on, and one of the things I liked about this film was how slow it was. I’m going to use the term slow because I felt that they spread all the events that happened in Book 6 out to actually make them feel like they were taking place over the course of a longer period of time, unlike when they rushed things.
Andrew: Let’s get everyone else’s thoughts. Laura, Micah, and Penny’s joining us now. I’ll be completely honest, Penny, I completely forgot to call you… [laughs] …when I was getting this.
Penny: Yeah, I’m forgettable like that, aren’t I? [laughs]
Andrew: Yes, you are, and by forgettable I mean amazing. Anyway…
Penny: We’ll remember that in the future.
Andrew: Yeah. Awkward. Laura, Penny, Micah? What do you guys think about this? I mean, is it a disappointment?
Laura: I’m kind of scared. I’m not going to lie. I mean, considering that the previous – the couple movies past have been PG-13, and I really consider the content of Book 6 to be just as, if not more, frightening than the content of Books 4 and 5.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: So, I’m really kind of confused.
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: I’m not going to lie.
Andrew: Yeah. Micah?
Micah: Yeah, I agree with Laura. I think that it’s kind of disheartening to see that it’s rated PG, and – just because you do have a death in this book, probably the biggest in the series for most people, and you have a rogue necklace running around the grounds of Hogwarts, and I’m sure that’s a pretty creepy scene. And a couple of other things. I mean, like Laura did say, you’re dealing with a lot of dark material here. It’s really where you get your first glimpse into Horcruxes. I’m assuming that they kept that in the film. And I just think that for PG rating, it’s kind of questionable with the past two films being PG-13.
Andrew: And Penny? How about you?
Penny: Yeah, I just worry that they’re not going to be able to do justice to everything. That’s my biggest problem with it. I don’t know if you guys said that before, but there is so much in this that is darker, and there are so many more mature themes, that if they can’t do justice to it with that rating, it’s going to be a real disappointment.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: What kind of things, though, would make it PG-13? Let’s just name off some stuff.
Andrew: Well, I mean – the book itself?
Micah: The sex, drugs, rock n’ roll of Harry Potter.
Laura: Well, there was the whole scene where…
Andrew: Yeah, where’s the sex? Where’s the drugs?
[Penny laughs]
Andrew: I want the Harry smoking some hash.
Matt: Hash?
Andrew: He needs to relax!
[Penny laughs]
Matt: Cocaine?
Eric: Yeah, just take a kitten and – just cut some kittens in half. That would make something – actually, probably more than PG-13.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, about that.
Andrew: Yeah, because I just started reading Half-Blood Prince the other day actually, again, to figure out what could – what’s – what – because obviously because we’re talking about it more. But can anyone think of any scenes that may be a problem?
Laura: The Inferi? Dead people…
Eric: That’s where, like…
Laura: …coming out of the water?
Matt: Yeah. Oh, and the whole Sectumsempra thing with Draco…
Laura: Yeah.
Matt: …with his insides coming out, but they cut that.
Eric: Okay, well, let me interject then. The movie that I saw did do the book justice. In fact, it did the book so much justice that it was my favorite film that I had seen, and I hadn’t seen the whole thing that was finished and edited. So we know that they haven’t cut nearly anything. They – David Heyman said they were just – they added one scene and that was it; they just tinkered it a little bit. Okay, the movie I saw did great justice to the book. And so maybe we’re overreacting, because to be perfectly honest, I was very satisfied. And you guys know, listening to me on MuggleCast for however long it’s been, three years, that I’m not easily pleased.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Oh.
Andrew: Yeah, you’re just a big complainer.
[Nick says something unintelligible]
Andrew: What’s that, Nick?
Eric: So I think they have to…
Nick: Could this just be a marketing ploy to get more people to – more people to go visit – or watch it. I mean, this will have made press all over the world, the rating thing. It’s great advertisement for the WB. It just seems very sort of – almost like it is a PG-13, they’ve just mis-rated it.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: I’m just scared it was probably originally PG-13 until they just added more stuff and then kept editing it until it was a PG film.
Andrew: I don’t think they would do that.
Matt: You don’t think they would?
Eric: Do you think the were aiming for a PG rating?
Matt: I don’t know. A broader audience? I mean, PG-13 is not that bad. I mean…
Eric: No.
Matt: What – I just want to know, what was it that made it a PG and not PG-13?
Andrew: Eric, do you think it’s darker than Order of the Phoenix and Goblet of Fire? Like, you know – I don’t even know how to explain that.
Eric: It’s rough. I mean, it’s a different movie altogether. I mean, that’s the problem. Movie 4 I thought was really dark and stuff, and obviously there’s the creepy Voldemortness of it all. It’s a different film, but I did feel it was dark. The first thing I said to – when I had the pleasure of meeting those guys, I said, “This is not, nor can it be marketed as, a kid’s movie.” Because actually, I felt that the young kids who would see this, if it were, say, PG – you know, the five or six year olds – I made the contrast of Chamber of Secrets, which was rated PG for some scary scenes, and they had to, in the trailer, mention that it was rated for these scenes of scary spiders and the Basilisk was supposed to be scary. Okay, if you’re comparing rating here, the stuff they have in Movie 6 is a lot scarier. Like you guys said. Dead bodies coming out of the water. Souls being split in pieces. A lot scarier than giant spiders.
Matt: Well, that’s the same exact thing that happened in Chamber of Secrets. Voldemort’s soul was split in half, and there were giant spiders. But the spiders didn’t come out and kill anybody, they were just there. They were just there. [whispers] They were just there!
Andrew: So, I mean, is there anything else to talk about this? I mean, it is somewhat disheartening, I guess, in a way, but I’m just holding out hope that the people who decided to rate it at the MPAA were just like, “Eh…” I don’t know. I mean, did Order of the Phoenix – did Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix even deserve the PG rating? PG-13 rating?
Eric: That’s a good question. Maybe they’re trying to reform a little bit. I don’t know. I mean, it’s not really a shame to be – I mean, if you guys look at older movies, like Planet of the Apes for instance, that’s rated PG by the Motion Picture – we’re talking about the one in the ’60s – is rated PG, and there is all sorts of swear words in that movie.
Matt: Well, yeah, there wasn’t any headway – there wasn’t no middle ground between PG and R rating at that time.
Eric: Right, right. Then. So they – nowadays that movie might get a PG-13 rating. But I’m just saying, certain time changes sort of what ratings mean…
Matt: Well, maybe the times are changing, Eric. I mean, do they have a refresh every year saying, “Well, should we up the PG rating?” or what? We’ve got to get somebody on the…
Penny: Yeah, but they’re not letting the public – the problem is that they’re not letting the public know that, though, so let’s say the MPAA or Warner Brothers says, “Okay, now we’re making this PG,” you still have kids out there who maybe shouldn’t be seeing this movie because it is pretty dark, that are going to go and see it because it’s a PG movie. So if you think about what the ratings are for, that might be problematic. Whether we’re disappointed or not is one thing, but when I think about parents taking their kids, that bothers me too.
Matt: Uh-huh.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Well, we don’t really know…
Micah: I like what Nick said earlier, though, when he was talking about – does Warner Brothers have something to gain by making it PG?
Eric: Just…
Micah: A wider audience would be one.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Just the ability to corrupt the minds of the innocent. Virgin eyes.
[Matt and Micah laugh]
Eric: I hate thinking – I mean, we just got over thinking that WB were the villains, and now I just feel that I was tragically misunderstood by the makers of the film and that they agreed with me then, and said, “Hey, it’s not for kids,” but then went and advertised it to four year-olds in fricking day care!
Matt: [laughs] Maybe Warner Brothers was just too busy with the whole Watchmen thing that they just thought, “You know what? Just give Harry Potter a PG rating, we’re too busy with this.”
Micah: [laughs] But how do you go from Half-Blood Prince being PG to Deathly Hallows potentially being rated R?
Andrew: No, it can’t be.
Matt: No, it’s never going to be rated R.
Laura: It can’t be rated R.
Andrew: Unless you see death or something.
Matt: Unless there’s an intimate scene with somebody.
Andrew: Well…
Eric: Unless they actually do the Hedwig scene.
[Matt laughs]
Laura: They wouldn’t rate it R for that.
Eric: Hedwig’s…
Matt: I mean, they would have to graphic up that death.
Andrew: Yeah, that death is not very…
Eric: Do you have any idea what special effects can do, Laura? We can see…
Laura: Sure.
Eric: …the little Hedwig body parts, little organs and…
Laura: Mmm, I’m pretty sure they’re not going to do that, but maybe you should pitch that to David Heyman and see what he thinks.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I don’t know. David and I aren’t getting along.
Andrew: It would be kind of funny if… [laughs] …they did decide to rate it R. I mean, you can’t – no Harry Potter book is rated R. Even if the book, exactly is for what it is, became a movie. Am I right?
Eric: No, it’s only the fanfic that’s R.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Even that just gets…
Laura: That’s so true.
Andrew: Just a word to those listening in the chat, we had to disable the video because we’re having some Upstream problems with the thing.
Eric: Andrew, we had video?
Andrew: Yes. There’s video of me and Matt. We’re naked. It’s fun.
Matt: Ew.
Andrew: [laughs] But anyway, we did have to do this. So anyway – just so everyone knows. And it keeps disconnecting, so I don’t know why. But hopefully it’ll get fixed. We should just switch to Stickam or something. That’d be funny.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Anyway. What was I going to say?
Matt: [whispers] I don’t know.
Andrew: Well, let’s move on. What else is in the news, Micah?
News: Toby Jones Returns as Dobby’s Voice
Micah: A couple more stories. Back on January 9th, the Telegraph reported that Toby Jones will be back to voice Dobby in Deathly Hallows. And we haven’t seen Dobby since Chamber of Secrets, so that was good news. And which begs the question, when do you think we’re going to hear some more casting news? They’re starting filming in a month from today, actually, so any idea as to when we’re going to hear some more information?
Matt: Jeez. How long has this movie been in production? Has it been over a year?
Andrew: Yes, it is. It is.
Matt: Oh my gosh.
Andrew: So. Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of cool to hear that he’s coming back. That was actually – people were pleasantly surprised to hear that, weren’t they?
Matt: Yeah. I was so excited.
Andrew: Really?
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Why?
Matt: Well, because, hello, he’s been out of the movies for, what, three movies now? Where he’s actually been in the movies – or the books?
Eric: It means that there’s got to be some kind of planning to have his character back in the movie adaptation, which they didn’t have to do.
Matt: Well, we get to see him die, pretty much. Oh, sorry, spoiler.
Eric: They bring him back to kill him off.
Matt: I know. Gosh. Warner Brothers is so nice. I don’t want to talk about his death.
Andrew: I guess there’s not much to discuss with there. What else is going on, Micah?
News: Harry Potter Theme Park
Micah: Well, I’m going to go over to Laura for this, because I heard she was sneaking around Universal Studios.
Laura: Oh. [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: What were you up to, Laura?
Laura: I was just at Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, in Orlando, Florida, which is pretty exciting for Potter fans, because we all know they’re building the theme park. And, first of all, funny story – I was walking through the section where they’re sort of doing a lot the construction, and it’s like the Jurassic Park area, and the Lost Continent, for anybody who’s ever been there. And they have all these big tall wooden gates that look very Hogwartsy-ish that are – it’s really exciting, but they’re hiding all the construction. And I saw one of them was cracked open, and so I went to just sort of stick my camera lens through and take a picture, but then I realized the gate was totally unlocked! And so I kind of opened it a little bit…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: …and as I was doing that, a Universal employee comes up to me and was like, “Uh, no.”
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: So I was like, “Okay, okay, I’m leaving!” But I just thought it was funny, because there wasn’t actually anything back there. I looked and there was nothing behind this particular gate. But they didn’t want me back there.
Eric: Muggles can’t see it, Laura.
Laura: [unintelligible] so far. Oh, that’s true.
Andrew: Is there anything interesting going on? Because we get people commenting, you know, or sending in picture reports every once and a while, but all they are – it’s the same thing! Now, granted, the park’s not opening up for one – maybe two – years. So, I mean, was there anything?
Laura: Umm…
Matt: Did you see any dirt?
Laura: A lot of it…
[Micah laughs]
Laura: What? I’m sorry, the feed’s freaking out.
Matt: Oh.
Laura: Essentially, I think it would take somebody who had been to the park a few times to notice the changes, because it’s become very apparent that they;re using a lot of pre-existing structure from those parts of the theme park so they’re not going to be rebuilding new things. Like there was at one time in the Lost Continent area a huge restaurant, and now, if you stand on a bridge, you can see where they’ve completely taken the roof off of that and they’ve gone down to sort of – the more foundation part of it where there’s still some castle-looking area that’s on the water.
Andrew: Aha.
Laura: So it looks like they’re building it up from there.
Andrew: That’s cool!
Laura: I…
Andrew: So it’ll be on the water?
Laura: … [unintelligible] being constructed. It’s sort of on the water. The way they had it was the restaurant was inside, and you went out on to a back patio area, and it was on the water.
Andrew: I see.
Matt: Oh.
Laura: I’m thinking maybe that’ll be the Three Broomsticks. I don’t know.
Matt: Hmm. Interesting, interesting, interesting.
Andrew: That’s very exciting.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: I mean, that would be really cool if it was on the water. What was I going to say? Pie, that’s what. Not to change the subject so quickly, but Eric just sent a link in the chat that – yeah, I’ve seen this, Eric, it’s actually pretty interesting. It’s an article asking, could the Harry – and my immediate answer is no – could the Harry Potter series end early? What are they saying in this article, Eric?
News: Could Deathly Hallows Be Pulled?
Eric: They’re saying that movie studios are pulling movies and is it that far-fetched to suspect that they just wouldn’t go on making a seventh Harry Potter film due to the massive budget that it would require, and do they really need to? As Warner Brothers, couldn’t they just squash – couldn’t they just not make a seventh Harry Potter film and sit on the rights so that no one else could make it? Really, a bit of a paranoid sort of idea-maker there.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: If they thought they had a problem pushing back Half-Blood Prince, they would have a huge problem…
Matt: Right! [laughs]
Micah: …doing something like that.
Andrew: Listen. I mean, the Harry Potter franchise is now the biggest franchise of all time. Why would you even think they would not do a final film? WB can certainly afford it!
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s…
Matt: Don’t you think they’ve been saving up for this movie, though, too?
Andrew: I think the idea – no! What, they’re like throwing some money in their…
Matt: Yeah, they’ve got a savings account.
Andrew: …Deathly Hallows piggy-bank?
Matt: Yeah. I’d like to deposit this in the DH account, please.
Andrew: Yeah. No.
Eric: Whatever it costs, they’ll make it back plus some.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: You know what I’m saying?
Andrew: Plus double, triple! I mean… [laughs]
Eric: They really have nothing to…
Matt: It’s in two parts. I mean, shoot.
Andrew: Oh, yeah! Hell, yeah! I mean, it’s insane, when you think about it, how much money the final film alone will generate.
Matt: A lot.
Andrew: A lot of money.
Matt: Yes.
Andrew: So that’s – I think this article, more than anything, is sort of just an attention grabber. Like, “Ooh, will it really end?” And the sad thing is, it made so many stupid headlines in the different movie blog sites and all that.
Matt: Well, what kind of movies were pulled? I know that the Chronicles of Narnia film was pulled by Disney, but that’s all I know.
Eric: [unintelligible] Narnia
Andrew: Yeah, well, that was pretty sad. What did you guys think of the Narnia films being cancelled? Well, the third one. I was looking forward to the third one.
Eric: Well…
Matt: Yeah, I was too, because everyone who read the books said it was so good.
Eric: The book is great. Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a great book, but it became apparent when I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End that if they were to do a – they’re very similar, let’s just put it that way. The scenes and – C.S. Lewis wrote it way before Pirates came out but they’re very similar. Why film the same movie? Et cetera, et cetera. I just think Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a massive underwater tank, undertaking, and it’s a bit disappointing that they won’t do it, but some things are better left to books, I guess.
Matt: I guess so.
Andrew: Yeah. What else is going on, Micah? In the news?
News: Jim Dale is not doing Beedle the Bard
Micah: One final piece of news. A lot of people actually asked about this, so we have kind of exclusive information here that Andrew was able to go and get.
Andrew: Ooh, everyone, listen up.
Matt: Oh, shh.
Andrew: Where’s my exclusive sound effect?
Matt: [whispering] Okay, okay.
Andrew: Oh, I don’t have one.
Micah: Have you got one? Oh, you don’t have one. Oh, okay.
[Andrew makes sound effect]
Micah: Anyway – nice. Thatís good. Jim Dale has not been approached to do a Beedle the Bard audiobook as of right now.
[Andrew repeats sound effect]
Andrew: That’s kind of sad. I’m going to be honest. We posed this question to his agent, because a lot of people are wondering, is Mr. Dale going to do it? Because he’s been involved in so many so many Potter books and…you know?
Matt: Now that we’ve seen the book, we know how small it is.
Andrew: Yeah, so he’d be able to knock it out.
Matt: He’d be able to knock it out, but it would be on like half of a CD, or – what? – an hour on an MP3 player?
[Laura sneezes]
Andrew: Bless you.
Matt: Oh, bless you.
Laura: Excuse me.
Andrew: It’d take him like three Apples. He’ll knock it right out.
[Micah laughs]
Matt: Would it even be worth it, though? I mean – what?
Andrew: Three Apples.
Micah: It’s for charity.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Jimmy-boy can read it. Maybe we can read it. Maybe we can petition.
Matt: Ooh, let’s do an audiobook. Yeah.
Laura: Heck yeah, sure.
MuggleNet Fan Fiction: Audiofictions
Andrew: Hey, speaking of that, real quick plug for MuggleNet Fan Fiction. They started this thing called Audiofictions, and basically they are audiobook versions of Harry Potter fan fictions. And they just released the first one a couple of weeks ago; we plugged it on MuggleNet, and they’re really cool. I want to get in on it. [laughs] I asked them if I could read one for them one time. That’d be fun. I’m an inspiring Jim Dale user…
Matt: No, you’re not.
Andrew: …person.
Micah: We should get Mason to do it.
Matt: [laughs] You’re so not. Yeah, let’s get Mason on it.
Andrew: So, if you want to check this out: FanFiction.MuggleNet.com. They’re very innovative, I must say. Is that it, Micah? Is there anything else to talk about?
Micah: That is it. We’re done.
Andrew: Oh, that’s it? Oh.
NPR feels threatened by MuggleCast!?
Andrew: Okay, well, also going on this week, a couple announcements. First of all, this isn’t an announcement, but we want to talk about it. The 2008 Web Blog Awards. We came in second place.
Matt: Aww.
Andrew: Which, not a big deal, it’s fine. But what happened was NPR was also in the running for this, and they were trying to compete with us. Now, for some reason, it was called The Harry Podcast MuggleCast on the voting thing…
Matt: Ugh.
Andrew: …which is weird in and of itself.
Matt: It’s so awkward to read it too.
Andrew: Yeah, and kind of embarrassing, because who would name a podcast Harry Podcast MuggleCast? But anyway, we need to call out NPR, a little wag of the finger, in the words of Colbert. Because what they did was kind of weird. Let me play this. This is their little plea to beat us.
Matt: Play the clip, Andrew.
Andrew: Okay. Here’s the clip.
NPR Host 1: …this morning about the 2008 Web Blog Awards. These are where people get to vote for the best podcast of the year.
NPR Host 2: And we don’t really care about awards. Our mothers do, but we don’t particularly…
Andrew: Oh, right, sure.
NPR Host 2: But there was something about this e-mail from Adam that really made us all snap to attention.
NPR Host 1: Which is that we are losing to the Harry Podcast MuggleCast.
[NPR hosts laugh]
[Andrew laughs mockingly]
NPR Host 2: And I’m sure that the Harry Podcast MuggleCast is an excellent podcast, and we wish them well, but we want them to come in second place.
NPR Host 1: So, if you don’t mind, please go and vote. You don’t have to register or anything. Just go click. And actually, I’m going to do it on this computer because I think you can do it once per computer per 24 hour period.
Andrew: So that’s NPR trying to encourage their visitors to beat out a amateur Harry Potter podcast. [laughs] Which I thought was really funny and kind of ironic because they said they wanted…
Micah: They got it right.
Matt: Well, yeah. We did get second place.
Andrew: They said they didn’t want us to get second place…
Matt: No, they did.
Eric: They got what they wanted.
Matt: “We want them to get second place.” Well, we did get second place.
Andrew: And they got third. Apparently Econ Talk didn’t matter. But then at the end of the show, once isn’t enough, they have to do it again. Sorry, turned my audio down. They had to do it again. Listen to this.
NPR Host 1: Well, right now I’m making a living working on this podcast.
NPR Host 2: I think we just finished another one. Do not, Planet Money listeners, forget to vote for us in the 2008 Web Blog Awards. Don’t let the Harry Podcast MuggleCast make Adam cry.
NPR Host 1: Don’t let them win.
NPR Host 2: No! The link’s on our blog: NPR.org/Money. I’m Laura Connoway and I’m going to win this thing.
NPR Host 1: And I’m David…
Andrew: Like – what? Do you really need to – I mean…
[Matt laughs]
Laura: Seriously?
Andrew: [laughs] What!?
Matt: Andrew…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Wow, NPR is threatened by MuggleCast.
Andrew: [laughs] I know. I find it very flattering. NPR is a fantastic group of radio programs.
Matt: They have a whole bunch of them. I was on iTunes. They have what, thirteen?
Andrew: Probably more. Close to thirty, I think. They’re…
Matt: Oh my God.
Andrew: So we did get second place, just like they wanted, so – but they ended up getting third, and they posted a picture on their blog. It was like Jim cried – or whoever that guy was – he cried because we lost – he lost.
Matt: Well, everything works out in the end.
Andrew: Yeah. So listen, NPR…
Laura: Plug on NPR.
Andrew: …we beat you. We’re better than you.
Matt: No, don’t say that.
Andrew: All right. Yeah, that’s cocky.
Andrew: Laura…
Laura: We’re a lot better than you.
Andrew: …do you have a cold? Laura, do you have a cold, Laura?
Laura: Yeah, I do.
Andrew: Oh.
Laura: I was hoping no one would notice.
Andrew: You know what? I didn’t notice, but someone in the chat did. So I had to ask.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Laura: Thanks for noticing, person in the chat. Feeling bad for my sickness.
Andrew: That’s funny.
Eric: You got to get down with the sickness, Laura.
Matt: You got to get down with the sickness [unintelligible]
Announcements: Podcast Alley and Midnight Leaky Mug
Andrew: Anyway, in other announcement news, don’t forget to vote for us on Podcast Alley. Currently, we’re in number three, so thanks for that. And don’t forget – and this was just announced today (another announcement about Azkatraz) – Azkatraz 2009 in July. It’s going to be a fantastic event. Of course, it’s going to be right after the movie release, and we just announced today that the podcast we are going to do after the midnight release of Half-Blood Prince is actually going be… [gasps] …a Leaky Mug.
Matt: [gasps] OMG.
Andrew: So we announced that on that on MuggleCast today.
Micah: So excited.
Andrew: MuggleNet today. You can get more details on MuggleNet.com. Okay, how you doing, Nick? Nick?
Nick: Okay, sorry, I lost you on your audio for a second there.
Andrew: That’s okay. Just wanted to check in on you to make sure you’re still okay. You’re a first-timer; we have to take extra good care of you. [laughs]
Nick: You’re doing a wonderful job. Thanks.
Andrew: [laughs] Can you say “brilliant,” please, instead of “wonderful”? The fan girls like that.
Matt: Stop making him Jamie!
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Let him be himself.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: I’m just kidding. Usually Brits say “brilliant.” Anyway – whatever.
Matt: God.
Muggle Mail: Effect of Beedle the Bard on Fandom
Andrew: Okay, Muggle Mail this week. We have a few e-mails to get through, then we’re going to talk about 2009: what to expect this year. Another wonderful year in Harry Potter. So who wants to take the first Muggle Mail? Matt, how about you do it?
Matt: Okay. Okay. So, our first e-mail comes from Thalia Culvin. She’s thirteen from Mason, Ohio. That’s what the OH means, right?
Andrew: Mhm.
Matt: Okay. And she writes:
“Hi guys, love your show. I just had a couple comments regarding your discussion of the Top 7 News Events of the year. You talked about which ones have had the most impact on the fandom. Although I agree that a new book by J.K.R definitely deserves a high place on the list, ‘Beedle the Bard’ didn’t really do that much to introduce new people to the fandom. Although it’s sort of – it’s the sort of the thing that keeps the fandom going, I found that only people who were already mega-fans of the books have even heard of it. My friend who is a big fan of ‘Harry Potter’ and movies came to me and all excited about a week ago and informed me that there was a new book by J.K.R coming out. She was very surprised to hear that I had known for many months. On the other hand, I know lots of people who became fans of the books through the movies. So the ‘Half-Blood Prince’ delay really could be at the top of the list, I think. Anyway, just thought I’d throw that – my two cents in. Lots of love, Thalia.”
Andrew: Yeah, so that was interesting, I thought.
Matt: Yeah, I thought it was interesting, too.
Andrew: Sorry, I have to re-read it, but I know I put it in for a reason.
Eric: She says that only people who were big fans of the books knew about Beedle the Bard. But actually, I found the opposite…
Andrew: Really?
Matt: Really?
Eric: …to be true. Yeah, people – just knowing Kristen at work, people come up to her and say, “Hey, is this new Beedle the Bard thing – is that any good and what’s that all about?” So they’ve heard of it and they are just regular random co-worker normal people, not inside fandom at all.
Matt: Well, I mean, they probably heard it in the news, but it doesn’t have Harry Potter and the Beedle the Bard. It’s just Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling. So they probably thought – they probably just wanted to know if it was connected to Harry Potter or anything. I mean, it’s basically the first book that doesn’t have Harry Potter and the blah, blah, blah written by J.K. Rowling.
Eric: But what this girl is saying is that Beedle the Bard did nothing for new people who don’t already belong to the fandom and, therefore, is a less significant event of the year. And I mean when we did that show, we were arguing about which is more important, and we had a nice little discussion there so that’s all fine.
Matt: Right. But I do kind of agree with Thalia on her opinion on Beedle the Bard though. I do think that Beedle the Bard is only a novelty of the Harry Potter series. I don’t think it has any real influence on a general audience to actually read the rest of the Harry Potter books because there’s no real connection, except for the brothers story.
Muggle Mail: DH Foreshadowing in Movie 4
Andrew: Mhm. Next e-mail. Nick, you want to read that one from Tawney?
Nick: Yeah, of course. This is from Tawney. She writes:
Hey MuggleCasters, I really love the show and I love you all as individuals. I was watching the ‘Goblet of Fire’ movie with subtitles, not because I can’t hear but because I like to know every word said. And in the scene where Fred and George try to put their names into the Goblet of Fire, they start to fight and one of them yells, ‘I’ll rip off your ears!’ When I saw this line, I couldn’t help but laugh, as we very well know that George does lose his ear in the final book. I was just wondering what you thought about this line as the movie did come out before ‘Deathly Hallows.’ Thanks and Happy New Year.”
Andrew: Isn’t that kind of interesting? It’s a nice little parallel.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: A little foreshadowing.
Eric: Irony. Ha.
Matt: It would be funny if he said, “I’ll rip your ears off!” And then the other twin goes, “Yeah, but you’re going to die!”
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: Oh my God.
Matt: Too soon?
Andrew: No, it’s not. That was perfect timing.
Eric: Too soon, too soon?
Andrew: Next e-mail. Laura, go.
Muggle Mail: Dumbledore’s Comments in Beedle the Bard
Laura: Okay. Jordan, seventeen, of Australia writes:
“Hey. Did you guys think Dumbledore’s comments were too lengthy? I thought they were only going to be footnotes but they were pages long. This seems to be a major complaint among ‘Beedle’ haters so I thought it was worth addressing. That’s it, really. Thanks for reading.”
Andrew: [laughs] This is weird. This is one of the very few e-mails who complained about this.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Does anyone think his comments were too lengthy? Now, I do have to say, actually – this just reminded me of something – Matt – not Matt – Ryan, my brother, Ryan, he read Beedle the Bard while I was back home in New Jersey and he didn’t want to read Dumbledore’s commentary either. He thought it was too boring. Then again, he’s twelve. Although, I take that back; twelve year-olds obviously like Harry Potter. But I don’t know. Jordan isn’t the only one.
Eric: Do you guys think it sounded like Dumbledore?
Andrew: Yes, definitely!
Micah: Yeah.
Matt: Yes.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Like it wasn’t…
Eric Hasn’t Read Beedle the Bard
Andrew: Have you read it yet, Eric, by the way? [laughs]
Eric: I haven’t…
Andrew: You still haven’t read it?
Eric: …but I’ve heard a few comments…
Andrew: Eric!
Eric: No, I have not.
Andrew: Eric, it takes an hour to read. Surely you’ve had an hour. [laughs]
Eric: I just started college, Andrew.
Andrew: I know, but…
Eric: I’m reading about the French Revolution.
Andrew: Oh, sorry.
Laura: I was in college when it came out.
Micah: Come on!
Laura: Finals week.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: New Year’s resolution.
Eric: Seriously, I – seriously, the comments I’ve heard say…
Micah: By the next show, you have to…
Eric: …that it doesn’t sound like Dumbledore.
Matt: Eric, that’s sad.
Eric: Oh, don’t give me an ultimatum, Micah!
Matt: It’s so depressing.
Eric: Mr. Goblet of Fire movie.
Andrew: Order of the Phoenix!
Micah: It was Order of the Phoenix!
Andrew: You screwed it up again! [laughs] I don’t know, I…
Micah: What is interesting, though, Andrew.
Andrew: What?
MuggleCast 168 Transcript (continued)
Back to Dumbledore’s Commentary
Micah: You know that link you just sent me of J.K. Rowling doing the interview…
Andrew: Yes.
Micah: …in Edinburgh for Beedle the Bard? She said that that was actually her favorite part of it all, was writing Dumbledore’s commentary, because she hadn’t had the opportunity to write him for so long, as a character.
Andrew: Hm, interesting. I mean, yeah, and why not? Dumbledore must be one of the funnest people to write about, or to write as! He’s so witty. In Beedle the Bard he’s extremely witty. The Lucius Malfoy stuff I loved. When Dumbledore was talking about how Lucius Malfoy originally got – they originally got into a fight or started hating each other.
Matt: Yeah, it was the start of a life-long feud, or something like that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: That was pretty chill.
Muggle Mail: Bloopers
Andrew: And final e-mail for today. Eric, do you want to read it?
[Long pause]
Eric: Yes!
[Matt laughs]
Eric: This one is from Jose, seventeen, from Tulare, California. Tulare? [pronounces Too-lar-ay] Tulare? Any of you Californians help me out?
Andrew: [pronounces Too-lair] Tulare, I guess?
Eric: Tulare, California. Jose says:
“I can’t help but notice that at the end of Episode 167, you said that you’d been recording for one hour fifty minutes. It beggs the question…” – with two g’s there – “…what kind of hilarious bloopers are the fans missing out on? My suggestion is that you maybe should make a small show composed of the out-takes that take place behind the scenes. Love the show and I hope there is much more to come. Pickles!”
Andrew: Yeah, we may – that’s – what happens is we’ll record, but some things we say are really dirty. Like Laura has the worst potty mouth I’ve ever heard in my life.
Laura: I really do.
Andrew: She has to restrain herself on live shows. Don’t you – aren’t you sitting there with like duct tape that you wrap around your head whenever…
Laura: Mhm.
Andrew: …you’re resisting?
Matt: No, no. [laughs]
Laura: I mean, I literally – I mute my mic anytime I don’t have anything to say just so nothing slips out.
Matt: Oh, I thought you had like a pillow or something on your lap the entire time, and when you have something to say you just put it over your mouth. [makes noise like talking through pillow] Or not?
[Andrew pretends to laugh]
Matt: I thought it was funny, okay?
Main Discussion: 2009
Andrew: Let’s see. Okay. So that’s Muggle Mail this week. Let’s move on now to the main discussion. We’re talking about 2009, and that’s why we’re doing the live show. We’re ushering in the new year. It’s a new year! New Harry Potter! Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! New movie, new exhibition, and other stuff. So we know there’s a movie, we know there’s an exhibition, but what else can we look forward to? Micah, you want to go through some of the things we can hopefully look forward to? We can discuss them if they’re actually going to happen and whatnot.
Deathly Hallows Casting
Micah: Sure. One thing is Deathly Hallows casting. I know we had talked about this before when we were speaking about Dobby. But what else do you think we’re going to hear within maybe even the next couple of weeks with filming starting?
Matt: A poster for the movie.
Andrew: I cannot believe…
Micah: Which movie?
Andrew: …filming starts in a month. That’s insane!
Matt: Oh! Are we talking about Deathly Hallows?
Eric: [unintelligible] Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: Oh, sorry, I thought you were talking about – never mind. [laughs]
Matt: Sorry.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean…
Micah: I was talking about Deathly Hallows.
Andrew: Oh, you were? Oh, okay.
Matt: Yeah, I was talking about Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: Well, WB tends to be hush-hush in the way of casting news. Usually it has to be pried out of them in the way of a leak. Like, someone will say in an interview, [in British accent] “Oh yeah, I’ve been casted for this role in Harry Potter, by the way.” You know?
Matt: Maybe …
Andrew: Isn’t – that’s how we heard from James Brock – what’s that?
Eric: You’re doing your Nick impression?
Andrew: Nick? Yes. [laughs] That’s how we heard about Jim Broadbent. He did an interview with Dark Horizons, and Dark Horizons said, “Anything else coming up?” And he said, [in British accent] “Yeah, I’m doing – playing Professor Slughorn.”
Matt: I think one of the big casting news we’ll get is Xenophilius Lovegood.
Andrew: Yeah, that should be interesting.
Matt: Because, I mean, it definitely has to be like a very well-known British actor.
Eric: Bob Hoskins.
Matt: Well, that’s what they’ve been saying for a longest time. They’ve been saying some other guy too. I forget his name. I guess it wasn’t that important.
Eric: Bob Hoskins.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Matt: Smooth.
Andrew: What other…
Micah: What other big characters, though?
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Well, they still don’t have Scrimgeour.
Andrew: Yeah. You need a lion-like guy. You know who’d be great? Who’s that guy playing in X-Men Origins? Who’s that? Made that surprise appearance at Comic-Con.
Matt: Hugh Jackman?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. He’d be awesome!
Matt: You want Wolverine?
Andrew: Yes, I want Wolverine.
Eric: He’s Wolverine.
Andrew: He’d be fantastic. Well, no, because I’m thinking the lion-like description. They’re going to need somebody who looks like a lion, and he kind of looks like a lion.
Matt: He has to have orange hair, doesn’t he? That doesn’t matter.
Eric: You should get Robert Downey.
Matt: Robert Downey Jr. is American.
Andrew: He can pull an English accent.
Laura: It doesn’t matter! He’s hot.
Andrew: Who, Laura?
Laura: Robert Downey Jr.
Andrew: We’re not talking about who’s hot. We’re talking about who looks like a lion.
[Matt sighs]
Eric: Yeah, do you really want to have dreams about Scrimgeour?
Matt: Oh, I know who it is. It’s Robert Pattinson.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: They should bring him back for a role. A different role.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: A different role. Like Harry’s mentor.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: Harry’s new mentor. And just have them opposite each other.
Matt: [laughs] Harry goes in Deathly Hallows, “Didn’t you die in the fourth movie?”
[Eric and Matt laugh]
Eric: God, that’s great.
Matt: “We killed you off already.”
Eric: Guys, what about Clemence Poesy? Did you guys hear anything about…
Andrew: She should be coming back. She’s got nothing better to do, right?
Eric: Well, she just did In Bruges with Colin Farrell, which won the – well, he won the Golden Globe.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: And how about Professor Trelawney, now that they don’t have what’s-her-face.
Eric: Well, she never has that big a role.
Matt: They’ll probably cut her role.
Andrew: I hope not. She has awesome scenes in the battle.
Matt: She has…
[Nick says something unintelligible]
Andrew: What? Sorry, what’s that, Nick?
Nick: Is she not going to be in both of them? Or is she just missing the first one?
Andrew: No, she – I think she’s – yeah, she’s skipping out on both.
Matt: Wait, don’t we just see Trelawney in that one scene?
Nick: The second.
Matt: Yeah, at the end of the book.
Andrew: Right, the battle.
Matt: That one scene where she’s on the balcony with the globes.
Andrew: The battle, yeah, that’s what I’m saying.
Matt: Yeah, that…
Laura: They could probably live without her.
Matt: It’ll be like ten seconds in the movie.
Andrew: But it would still be cool. Don’t you guys see what I’m saying here?
Matt: [imitating Andrew] No, no, we do see what you’re saying! But it’s…
[Laura laughs]
Matt: It’s a small – no matter how you put it, it’s still a very quick, small scene.
Andrew: Yes.
Matt: Literally, she’ll be walking in. It will take two hours.
Andrew: I know.
Micah: So why can’t she do it?
Andrew: Yeah, exactly, why can’t she do it? And the other thing is…
Matt: She probably doesn’t think it’s worth it.
Andrew: Okay.
Matt: Okay, here we go, let’s go with the hate.
Andrew: Hold on.
Matt: But I’m just telling you what she would probably think.
Andrew: Emma Thompson aside, you can still have someone else do the role real quick. That’s what I’m saying.
Matt: But…
Eric: Why…
Matt: The audience is going to be like, “Who’s that? Is that…?”
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: “Is that – is that Trelawney?”
Andrew: Honestly, you can’t even tell it’s Emma Thompson, because of that wig and those glasses. They could easily find a look-a-like.
Eric: Warwick Davis could play Emma – the new Trelawney.
Andrew: Oh yeah. [laughs] That’d be pretty funny.
Micah: Wow.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: Because he’s already got one makeover. They already made him into the choir director.
Andrew: Right. But he was still – he wasn’t playing – he was still what’s-his-face.
Matt: You can’t replace Emma Thompson though.
Micah: Flitwick?
Andrew: Flitwick, yeah, thank you.
Micah: What about Yaxley? He has a big role.
Andrew: Oh yeah.
Matt: Yeah, he does.
Eric: Wait, what about Yaxley?
Andrew: That’d be a good one for Hugh.
Penny: You know who else I’d love to see? What about like, Ricky Gervais? For like a comedic…
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Matt: Oh yeah.
Andrew: That’d be awesome.
Penny: One of the stupid Death Eaters, if there is one.
Eric: [laughs] They would make one.
Matt: He can play Xenophilius, couldn’t he? Doesn’t he kind of have…
Penny: He could.
Matt: He kind of fits that role. But I don’t know. I mean he did do Extras with Daniel Radcliffe. They do kind of have that history. And Warwick Davis, who plays seventeen roles in Harry Potter.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Penny: Warwick Davis or Verne Troyer? Oh no, it was…
Andrew: See – yeah, so many people get confused over that. There was a big discrepancy over that. IMDB had it all wrong.
Matt: Very hush-hush.
Andrew: No, wasn’t saying that. Any other roles?
Micah: Weasleys.
Andrew: The Weasleys?
Micah: The older brothers.
Matt: Oh yeah. We still haven’t seen them.
Andrew: It’ll be really cool to see the whole family.
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: They’ll probably cut them.
Matt: Yeah. But then, who do you think they would put in their place for “The Seven Potters”? Unless they just skip that whole scene and just go straight to the wedding.
Andrew: Oh, I hope they don’t skip “The Seven Potters.” I’ve said it on the show before, that’s my favorite scene.
Matt: It’s mine too.
Laura: Unless they make it like “The Five Potters.”
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Matt: “The Two Potters.” [laughs]
Andrew: But…
Matt: “One and a Half Potter.”
Andrew: Number seven’s too significant. What if they just – what if there were just five and they never – obviously, they’re not going to say, “Next scene: ‘The Seven Potters.'” So what if they just made five and see if anyone noticed?
Micah: We’d notice.
Laura: Yeah, I mean, I can honestly see them doing that. I mean…
Matt: Yeah, they could probably just do a cloning charm or something. I mean, they’ll just make something up. [in British accent] “Bombarda!”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: I just – I really can’t wait to see that scene, though, how they do that. I mean, that’s got to be – that’s got to be some new technology they use to put seven Harry – seven Dan Radcliffes in the scene at the same time, interacting with all the different – other people in the room. That’s going to be intense! I can’t wait.
Nick: Awesome.
Matt: Awesome.
The Encyclopedia
Andrew: Okay. What else is there to talk about? Okay so DH casting, movie info, hopefully we’re going to see – I mean, what other big movie news could there be this year for Deathly Hallows? Not – it’s going to be very confusing, isn’t it? Like, you’re going to have all this filming news and then also the release of Half-Blood Prince at the same time.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Well, do you guys expect that encyclopedia to come out any time soon?
Andrew: Yeah, I guess we should talk about that too.
Matt: I hope so. God, that’d be so amazing. It’d be so much easier for us too. We just have it with us when we record.
Andrew: When would that be announced? I mean, they got to give, what, probably like six, seven months of leeway, right?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Well, I don’t think she’s writing it yet.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: I mean…
Matt: She’s practically – isn’t it like already done?
Andrew: No, it’s…
Matt: Doesn’t she just have to fine-tweak it?
Andrew: No. Well, her editors, Scholastic and Bloomsbury, both have their own encyclopedias. They’re just like informational things. I don’t think…
Micah: Like the Lexicon, almost.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Actually, I didn’t know that, Andrew. That’s really interesting.
Andrew: Yeah, that came out in court. In the court trials, Jo said that – I don’t know, it was part of their defense.
Matt: It’s going to be a huge book though. It’s got to be massive.
Andrew: Yeah. That would be cool if it was one giant book. Like a full on encyclopedia that you see in your library. You know it could happen if Jo spent like twenty years on it.
Matt: Or if it’s actually so massive she has to do it alphabetically in books, like volumes.
Micah: [laughs] So “A” comes out next year and then “B.” That’d be cool.
Eric: For the next twenty-six years.
Matt: Okay, maybe “A-L” or something like that.
Micah: [laughs] That’s a little excessive. But, you know, if she ever updated her site and told us what was going on aside from these birthdays…
Eric: Micah, that sounds like that’s bugging you.
Micah: No. It’s a new year. I’ve got to let go of the anger.
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Eric: So, what’s pleasantly surprising you or happens dancingly coming to your attention, Micah?
Matt: What are you on, Micah, right now?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: We’re live so we can’t say anything.
Andrew: Nobody’s listening. Go ahead, Micah. Open up to us. Tell us what’s wrong. What’s bothering you?
Micah: With Jo?
Matt: You’re in a safe zone. You are in an inner peace.
Andrew: This is your intervention. Open up.
Micah: [laughs] Jo, she just needs to communicate with us, let us know what’s going on in her life. She needs to open up too.
Andrew: Yeah, I miss when her site was getting a lot of updates.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Those were the good old days.
Matt: Let’s just reminisce.
Micah: All right.
Matt: Okay.
Tenth Anniversary Editions
Andrew: Another thing Micah has here – and I think this is a definite, although it hasn’t been announced – the tenth anniversary of Chamber of Secrets. Now, at their tenth anniversary event for Sorcerer’s Stone, they did that thing where everyone read a paragraph and it was a really good idea. It was fun to watch. And at the very end they said, “Okay, see you next year!” or it may not have been next year, it was next time. But it heavily implied that they’re planning on doing it again for Chamber of Secrets. So when would that come out? Do you think the same month?
Micah: I’m looking it up right now to see. What month was it released?
Andrew: I don’t know. Check out the MuggleNet Decade in Review.
Micah: It’s actually – it says it was released in 1998.
Andrew: In the U.S.?
Matt: No.
Micah: Maybe not in the U.S.
Andrew: Let me look at the MuggleNet Decade in Review.
Matt: I’m pretty sure it was 1999. That was ten years ago! Oh my God.
Andrew: I don’t really like the whole idea of every book being turned into a tenth anniversary edition.
Eric: Really, Andrew? I do think it was in ’08 – or ’98 – and Azkaban was ’99.
Andrew: June…
Matt: That’s right, that’s right.
Andrew: Actually, June of ’99 Chamber of Secrets came out in the U.S., July of the same year, Prisoner of Azkaban came out in the U.K. September, Prisoner of Azkaban came out in the U.S. So there was a – so they would have to do both books this year. [laughs] I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all.
Eric: So you don’t like this whole…
Matt: We’re so old…
Eric: …tenth anniversary. [unintelligible] …the new book art? Because I thought that was cool, the new cover.
Andrew: Yeah, I liked it too. It was really good. But don’t you think it’s a little commercial-ish?
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s a new word.
Eric: What isn’t? There’s action figures.
Micah: We all know this is a business, so – look at Warner Brothers moving the movie. So it’s just Scholastic trying to make more money.
Laura: These anniversary editions are so expensive too. It’s ridiculous. It’s like $30 for a book that you originally paid like, what, less than 20 for?
Andrew: Right.
Micah: I think they should hook it into to a charity though too, like they did with Beedle the Bard. That would make more sense.
Laura: That would make me happy. I would buy it if it was going to charity.
Andrew: But, honestly, I don’t think the publishers like that, because Scholastic and Bloomsbury, they’re not doing well except for these Harry Potter books, so I’m sure they’re looking for a way to make a buck off of it and that’s a perfect way. I’m sure they were happy to do the Beedle the Bard thing for charity, but it’s not even like most of that went to the charity. Someone read the back of the U.K. Beedle the Bard. It says how much. Excuse me. Oh no, wait. Matt, I can’t get to the door.
Matt: What? Oh.
Andrew: Sorry about that. £1.61 from the U.K. version went to the charity from each book. So £1.61, this thing sells for £7, so that’s like £5.50 that I guess you’ve got to pay for, you know…
Micah: Production.
Andrew: …production, yeah. All that, sorry. Blanked out.
Micah: So what’s that about, three U.S. dollars?
Andrew: No. Yes, yes. But I don’t know if – it may have been different for the U.S. because they probably cost different amounts to get published and printed and all that.
Micah: That’s true.
Andrew: How much was the U.S. version?
Micah: I don’t even remember. It’s – I think it was around the same. Seven U.S. dollars – between 7 and 10.
Andrew: Oh, okay. Interesting, interesting. Well, I guess that’s good news. I mean, it’s not the most interesting thing to discuss. Does anyone else have anything to say about that? Is it…
Micah: No.
Andrew: I don’t know, something about it, I just – collectors tend – or seven new collector’s edition books. Does anyone here have the first one?
Laura: Nope.
Andrew: Yeah, see?
Micah: The Sorcerer’s Stone?
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah, I have it.
Andrew: Oh, Micah, you loser.
Matt: [laughs] He has all the books.
Andrew: I have every book. Every U.K. version, every Brazilian version, every Japanese version, every Spanish version.
Eric: You can never have them all.
Laura: I think that it would be cool if they released an anniversary set, like book set of all seven books, instead of systematically releasing each book separately.
Matt: Uh-huh.
Eric: I disagree, because the books didn’t all come out at the same time, so they can’t have this twenty-fifth anniversary because every year it’s another book.
Laura: Sure they can. They can do it for like Book 7 or something. That would be a really cool way to do it…
Eric: Maybe.
Laura: …instead of releasing all at the same time – or differently.
Eric: Well, like the whole thing is, though, like I don’t own that tenth anniversary thing yet, but I don’t own paperback versions of the first four books either, so when it comes time – my paperback is about falling apart, I don’t know about your guys’ paperbacks, but – so if I read that book one or two more times, I’m going to need a new Sorcerer’s Stone. And when I go to the store – well, am I going to choose the old version or the new version? Well, I’ll probably choose the new version.
Matt: It’s the same story.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: It looks the same when you open it.
Laura: And also, I don’t know that I would want to pay $30 for a book and then kind of put it through the same wear and tear that I put my other books through.
Matt: You are so cheap, Laura.
Andrew: Yeah, what the – what’s wrong with you?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Don’t you want to support Scholastic?
Laura: If I’m going…
Micah: Put it on the side, Laura.
Laura: …to destroy a book I’ll buy the cheaper one.
Matt: “I don’t want to pay money for this book!”
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: That’s why it’s called a collector’s edition; you’re not supposed to really read it. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, you’re supposed to collect it.
Laura: But why would you go out and get a new one to replace your one that you’ve been reading, is what I’m saying.
Andrew: That’s not even the original – if I’m looking for a replacement I’m not going to get the anniversary edition.
Matt: He’s going to get the original.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, who wants the anniversary? You want the one you first read. At least the same cover.
Matt: Well, technically, the first one you read is demolished.
Andrew: No, I still have it on my bookshelf at home, I’m very happy to say.
Matt: Oh, well, that’s good. You don’t have to buy a new one then.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Matt: Case closed. Let’s go on to the next topic.
Andrew: But, in summary, Scholastic and Bloomsbury are not going to release these for charity. I mean, they’re looking for money.
Micah: No, you’re right.
Andrew: They’re desperate. I mean, let’s face it. Every time there’s an article about the quarter results, they’re always like, “Oh, Harry Potter put us over the edge.” Go ahead, Micah.
Micah: Yeah. No, I was going to say the sad thing about what you just said is I just purchased the series in Spanish.
Andrew: Really?
Micah: You know how you just jokingly said, “Oh, you have the Brazilian, Japanese…”
Andrew: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You bought the whole thing?
Micah: Yeah.
Matt: I didn’t know you speak Spanish, Micah.
Andrew: Yeah, can you please give us a couple lessons?
[Micah laughs]
Micah: I don’t speak Spanish, actually.
Andrew: Laura could give us a few lessons.
Matt: Then why’d you…?
Micah: Laura could, yeah.
Laura: Si se puede.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: She just called me a tool in Spanish. That wasn’t nice. Micah, I’m curious. Why did you buy the Spanish edition?
Micah: Just to collect it.
Andrew: Pffft. No, I’m kidding. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah, I have a couple Spanish editions.
Matt: Oh, whatever, Andrew. Shut up.
Andrew: I’m kidding, I’m kidding.
Laura: It’s really cool.
Andrew: Well, cool. That’s very cool.
Penny: My cousin sent me the Hebrew Beedle the Bard.
Eric: Was it – really?
Andrew: Can you read it?
Penny: If I take long enough I can, maybe.
Andrew: Nick, were you happy with Beedle the Bard?
Nick: Yeah, definitely.
Andrew: Was it everything you hoped for and more?
Nick: It was, it was.
Andrew: Me too. [laughs] The camera’s not on. [laughs]
[Eric says something unintelligible]
Andrew: What?
Eric: Half-Blood Prince with Dumbledore getting blasted off the tower on the front cover.
Andrew: Oh, that would be awesome.
Eric: Bulgaria. I actually do want that one.
Andrew: I would buy that. Yeah. All the new covers…
Micah: Yeah. There’s a good reason to buy them. They all have different covers.
Andrew: Yeah. I guess that’s cool.
Eric: Or you could just go to MuggleNet’s book covers thing and create a rolling screen saver of them all.
Andrew: Okay, listen. People in the chat, I am going to turn on the camera, but if this starts having connection problems – I think we’re back to – we’re okay now. If it does, I don’t know. So there, camera’s on now. Yay. What else is going on this year? Can we expect an encyclopedia from Jo? No, right? We would have known by now. Anyone?
Matt: No.
Laura: If you were a betting man, Andrew…
Andrew: See, I only say that when I’m sure of something. And I can bet on it illegally.
Laura: And you have someone give you inside information.
Andrew: Right. [laughs] I think – don’t you think that Jo will update her site and be like, “Hey, guess what? I am writing it again. LOL. BBS.”
Laura: And she’ll write it just like that too.
Andrew: Yeah. She should appeal to the current generation. She should start writing like Twilight writing and what’s that other book?
Laura: Oh, please no.
Andrew: The John Green? What’s it called, Matt?
Matt: Oh, Paper Moon?
Penny: Paper Towns.
Matt: Whatever!
Andrew: Paper Moon.
Matt: Paper Towns.
Andrew: That’d be funny. Or maybe not funny.
Matt: Sorry. I am not saying whatever. Oh, I am going to get so many bad e-mails about that.
Andrew: Okay. No Harry Potter encyclopedia this year. Is there anything else to talk about in the way of news before we talk about what’s for MuggleCast this year?
Micah: How do you know there is no encyclopedia? Are you just guessing?
Andrew: Well, yeah. I mean, I feel like she would tell us when she’s working on it again, wouldn’t she?
Micah: Yeah, but twelve months is a long period of time.
Andrew: Yeah, if she releases in December.
Micah: I don’t know. I’m just trying to play devil’s advocate.
Andrew: Do you guys think there would be more release parties as opposed to how few there were for Beedle the Bard?
Micah: For an encyclopedia?
Penny: I think so.
Andrew: Yeah.
Penny: It is going to give us new information, the encyclopedia, so I think that people are going to be more excited about it than they were for Beedle.
Andrew: Right, yeah, I really hope that she’ll do something. That would be really exciting.
Nick: Definitely.
MuggleCast in 2009
Andrew: For the world. So what’s coming for MuggleCast in 2009? And we are going to begin taking your calls in a minute. We’re going to have a special call coming in from someone first, don’t want to say who. But we’ll do that first and then we’ll move on to everyone else. So what’s coming for MuggleCast? We are doing the Azkatraz thing and then maybe, maybe, maybe some sort of tour. If – it all depends on the premiere and stuff. I don’t even want to talk about it much, because what if it doesn’t happen?
Matt: Okay, well then, thanks for mentioning it.
Andrew: [laughs] Micah added it. Didn’t you, Micah?
Micah: What?
Andrew: Never mind.
Micah: Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention
The Special Guest
Andrew: No, okay. It’s all right. Can we move on now to take some live calls? Are you guys okay with that?
Laura: Absolutely not.
Eric: Ooooh.
Micah: Now that just angered everyone in the chat.
Matt: Okay, so apparently…
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Matt: …John Noe is asking people to spam our show. I will be right back. I’m going to go kick him.
Andrew: That’s real cool. Real professional. See what those other podcasts do? Professional…
Eric: He came to my popcorn reading of Prisoner of Azkaban and handed out Leaky stickers and left. He didn’t even stay for the whole thing. Way to be a supportive friend, John Noe.
Andrew: A real professional person. All right, so we are going to take calls. Can someone read the guidelines to everyone while I – never mind, I’ll do it.
Micah: I’ll do it.
Andrew: Okay, go ahead.
Micah: It sounds more threatening coming from me. Here are the calling rules: if you are in the U.S., you can dial 1-218-20-MAGIC, if you are in the U.K. you can dial…
[Phone starts ringing]
Micah: …02081440677. Please think of the question you want to ask before you call in. Don’t call in and then think about…
Ben: Hello?
Andrew: Sorry, Micah.
Micah: Who is this?
Andrew: Ben Schoen is joining us now. Hey, Ben!
Matt: Oh my God, it’s Ben Schoen!
Andrew: Ben, what’s up?
Ben: I got a haircut.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Oh.
Matt: So isn’t it lowered?
Ben: It’s short. My hair is shorter now. I ditched the hippie stuff.
Andrew: [laughs] The hippie stuff. So you’re a changed man now?
Ben: Yeah, I’m a new man.
Andrew: Ben, quick question: what do you think about this PG rating?
Ben: You know, quite honestly, I’m kind of disappointed in WB.
Andrew: Really?
Ben: You know, because Prisoner of Azkaban, what was it rated? PG, right? Or was it PG-13?
Andrew: PG.
Matt: It was R.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] It was R.
Ben: It was R. Okay, and then Goblet of Fire was PG-13, right?
Andrew: Right.
Ben: And the last one was PG-13 as well, right?
Andrew: Right.
Ben: So, I mean, what are they doing? They can’t go backwards, you know? So they’re stepping the wrong way. You either got to keep it PG-13 or you got to go over to R.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Do you remember the old days when Emerson convinced us Goblet of Fire was going to be PG? He was like “Dude, I’ve spoken with people. They want to keep it PG. Trust me.”
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Do you remember that? [laughs] He was like…
Ben: When it came out it that it wasn’t it was quite funny.
Andrew: Yeah, it was quite funny. One of those I told you so moments.
Ben: But really though, really though, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s really going to affect it that much. I mean, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I mean, I think it’s – sure, it might be toned down a little bit, but definitely better for the parents in the audience, you know?
Andrew: Yeah, I guess so. It’s somewhat disappointing, though, considering, like you said, it is a step backwards.
Ben: So, what do you think? What do you think it’s going to do to the film?
Andrew: Well, you’ll have to listen to MuggleCast 168. It’ll be out later tonight.
Ben: Oh, really?
Andrew: [laughs] It’s this show. Well, yeah.
Ben: Hey, actually, I was listening to the live show.
Andrew: Oh, good. Yeah, that’s what we’re doing.
Ben: Oh, is this the live show?
Andrew: Yeah! You’re kidding.
Ben: Oh, I’m on the air right now, dude?
Andrew: Yeah. You knew that. Shut up. [laughs]
Ben: Oh.
[Andrew, Ben, and Micah laugh]
Ben: Andrew, when’s the next episode of MuggleCast?
Andrew: I don’t know. You’ll get an e-mail about it.
Ben: All right.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: Well, thanks for coming on. Your thoughts were very insightful.
Ben: Thanks for having me, Andrew! I miss you!
Andrew: You’re welcome. I love you, Ben!
Matt: Awww.
Ben: I love you too. I love you all. Especially Micah.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Hey, Ben.
Ben: Hey, who’s all in here? Who’s all on the show right now?
Eric: Hi, Ben.
Andrew: Laura, Penny, Eric, Nick, Micah. It’s a big party.
Matt: I’m here too, jerk!
Andrew: Oh, and Matt.
Ben: Oh, he doesn’t count, does he?
Andrew: No, he doesn’t.
Matt: God!
[Micah laughs]
Micah: How’s Hagrid?
Ben: Huh? Who?
Andrew: How’s Hagrid?
Micah: How’s Hagrid?
Ben: [as Hagrid] Rubeus Hagrid!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: What’s Hagrid think…
Ben: Is it ever going to get old?
Andrew: No, it’s not.
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: What’s Hagrid think of the PG rating?
Ben: I don’t know.
Andrew: It’s nonsense. Just do that.
Ben: [as Hagrid] Nonsense!
Andrew: Rubbish! [laughs]
Ben: I can’t do it anymore; I’ve lost it! I haven’t done a MuggleCast in so long.
Andrew: Well…
Ben: I’ve lost my ability to do Hagrid. This is a sad day.
Andrew: Practice. And maybe we’ll do another interview with Hagrid about the PG rating. [laughs]
Ben: 2009, You know what, guys? I just want to say something because it’s 2009. Is this the first MuggleCast of 2009?
Andrew: Yes it is.
Ben: Well, you see, 2009, I just have a good feeling about it, because I just think it’s going to be the year, you know?
Andrew: Year of what?
Matt: Of 2009.
Ben: The year. It’s 2009. It’s going to be the year. The year when we all step it up and we all be great and…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Dude, that was two years ago.
Matt: That was so 2007.
Andrew: Ben, you say that every year.
Ben: I know, but…
Andrew: It’s like a New Year’s resolution. You plan it and then nothing happens.
Ben: Whatever, man. 2007 was pretty fun.
Andrew: [laughs] Yes, it was. Well, all right, Ben, well, listen, we got to take some other calls.
Ben: You can’t kick me off! You can’t kick me off! I started this show.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: I don’t know who you think you are! I am the co-founder.
Andrew: I’m sorry, Ben.
Ben: Back off!
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: I am welcome on this show anytime I please!
Andrew: All right, Ben, well, I’m sorry we’re out of time. We got to wrap up the show.
Ben: Are you getting hate mail about me already?
Andrew: No.
Ben: Are people trying to get me off?
Andrew: We got to go! We got to go! We got to leave!
Ben: All right.
Andrew: Sorry.
Ben: Stay classy!
Andrew: All right, bye.
Matt: Bye, babe.
Ben: Bye.
Andrew: Oh God, has he lost it.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Just kidding. All right, a reminder about the calls real quick: remember, think of a question before you call in, keep your questions relevant to the discussion at hand, and have your stream muted when you call, or mute it as soon as we pick up, if we pick up, and also, lastly, for the love of God, no shout outs please. It’s a little overdone.
Matt: Have something to say too, when we answer.
MuggleCast 168 Transcript (continued)
Call: MuggleCast Meet-up at Azkatraz
Andrew: Julie, hi! You’re on MuggleCast Live.
Caller: Oh, hi!
Andrew: Hey!
Matt: Hi!
Caller: I was just wondering, it’s kind of early, but are you guys planning a meeting for Az – a meet-up for Azkatraz? Sorry.
Andrew: A MuggleCast meet-up?
Matt: Ooh. I would say so.
Caller: Yeah.
Andrew: Yes, definitely.
Caller: Yeah, that was…
Matt: Yeah, it was fun at Portus.
Andrew: Mhm. I ordered pizza and…
Caller: Yeah, that was…
Andrew: …I ate it all to myself.
Matt: We should do it outside. We should do like an outing instead of just – let’s just – walking around and stuff.
Andrew: A field trip?
Matt: Yeah! We should walk down or something. Yeah, that’d be cool.
Andrew: Okay.
Matt: Just sit down on a grassy knoll and just sing songs or something.
Eric: We should have our…
Micah: We’ve done that in Dallas, gone to the grassy knoll.
Eric: …MuggleCast meet-up be on one of those moving trolleys in San Francisco so that everyone has to make an effort to meet us up. Just have one of those moving trolleys as it goes through the streets of San Francisco and take over a whole trolley.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Like a scavenger hunt? They have to find us?
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: No.
Andrew: [laughs] Scavenger hunt.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: That’s a little too hard. All right, well, Julie, we’ll see you at Azkatraz, I assume?
Caller: Most likely.
Andrew: Awesome!
Matt: Yeah!
Andrew: Well, we look forward to seeing you there. MuggleCast…
Caller: Okay, bye.
Andrew: Bye!
Matt: Aw, bye.
Call: Dead Caller
Andrew: Yeah, Muggle – [laughs] – she wanted to leave. Yeah, MuggleCast meet-up, that was a lot of fun at Portus and it’ll probably be a lot of fun next year. Alexandra, hi, you’re on MuggleCast Live. [pause] Alexandra, hello?
Matt: Alex?
Andrew: Andra.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: And that’s what we call a dead caller. Not literally!
Andrew: Scott, hello. You’re on MuggleCast Live.
Call: Caller Hangs Up
Andrew: [laughs] And he hung up. Okay so, remember the rules.
[Laura laughs]
Call: Book Connections
Andrew: Let’s try again. Rose, hi, you’re on MuggleCast Live.
Caller: Oh, hi!
Andrew: Hi!
Matt: Hi!
Caller: All right, so, sorry this is a little bit off topic, but I just wanted to kind of share one of those – oh, did I mute my thing? Okay.
Andrew: Yup. You’re good.
Caller: I wanted to share one of those cool, kind of like book connections which I worked out the other day.
Andrew: Yeah?
Caller: Hopefully not everyone has already made this connection, because then I’m going to seem very slow.
[Andrew laughs]
Caller: But in the Emerson and Melissa J.K.R interview Jo said, and I quote, “The one scene that I wondered whether I was going to be able to get past the edges was the physical condition of Voldemort before he entered the cauldron, do you remember? He was kind of fetal. I felt an almost visceral distaste for what I had conjured up, but there was a reason it was in there and you will see that.” And I’m sure that what – oh, end quote. I’m sure what that relates to is the baby, which is described in the “King’s Cross” chapter in Deathly Hallows.
Andrew: Yes.
Caller: So does anyone else think that’s kind of cool or…
Andrew: Definitely. Now, what was she talking about in context to that? What was the question?
Caller: The question – it was something about scenes and she was saying kind of scenes which she thought was pretty sort of horrific but she said that she could justify every morbid scene she had in the book except that that one was the one she was a bit kind of…
Andrew: Oh.
Caller: …freaking out about a bit. Yeah, she [unintelligible].
Matt: That’s…
Caller: But yeah, I just thought that was kind of cool.
Matt: That is pretty cool! I didn’t think about that. Although I’m not very smart.
Eric: You’re just not an Australian, that’s all.
Matt: I guess not.
[Caller laughs]
Andrew: Hey, what time is it there in Australia?
Caller: It’s 1:16 on Friday.
Andrew: 1:16 on Friday.
Matt: In the morning or afternoon?
Andrew: Afternoon.
Caller: Afternoon.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, okay.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Yeah – yeah, I don’t know.
Andrew: Matt doesn’t know how time works.
Caller: I’m not that dedicated to get up at one.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Oh I see.
Andrew: Oh, well then, bye!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Okay.
Eric: At least you know it.
Andrew: Yeah. All right, well, thank you for calling, Rose.
Caller: Wait, one more thing.
Andrew: Oh.
Caller: One more thing.
Matt: Yeah?
Caller: Speaking of Australia, what’s happening with the Australian number?
Andrew: [laughs] I was actually going to re-add that number before the live show but I didn’t. But yeah, we’ll put it back on. Sure.
Caller: Okay, because it’s still up on the website.
Andrew: Right.
Caller: But then I realized you just didn’t mention it.
Andrew: Yeah, I was just kind of on the fence about it.
Matt: He was lazy.
Eric Flags His Praising E-mails
Andrew: No. But yeah, obviously we have a couple – were you at – were you at Eric’s MuggleCast meet-up in Australia a couple…
Caller: I was.
Andrew: Oh!
Caller: In Sydney. It was very good.
Andrew: Look at that, Eric! You met this girl.
Caller: Eric, I sent you an e-mail about it, do you remember? Afterwards, gushing praise? You replied back, so…
Eric: Yes, yes, I flagged it, actually. I flag all my praising e-mails.
Andrew: [laughs] You are so…
Matt: So full of yourself, Eric.
Andrew: Yeah, really.
Matt: [imitating Eric] “Oh! Look at all these e-mails about me.” Oh, people LOVE Eric.
Andrew: He prints them out and hangs them up on his wall.
Eric: Online. It is online. Sydney is online.
Caller: Yeah, I watched it again as well. I really liked how you had the Paul Kelly song as the music “From Little Things Big Things Grow.” I love that song.
Eric: Actually, I have to thank another Australian who gave me that. It was a CD with it on. So, it wasn’t my idea. Wasn’t all my plans.
Andrew: All right, well, thank you, Rose, for calling in. And we’ll…
Caller: Thanks.
Andrew: …get that Australian number back.
Caller: Sweet, awesome.
Andrew: Okay, bye bye!
Caller: Bye.
Andrew: Damn, I forgot to say, “Say hello to the Kangaroos.”
Matt: [laughs] You’re so – that’s so lame.
Call: MPAA’s PG Rating of Half-Blood Prince
Andrew: Hello Jim, Kathy, and Sarah! I’m sure it’s just one of you in the Nick family. Welcome to MuggleCast Live!
Caller: Yeah. Well, I’m using my family account, so…
Andrew: Oh cool.
Caller: Yeah. So my name’s Sarah, but…
Matt: Hi, Sarah!
Caller: Yeah, I just wanted to say that you guys are amazing and I’m a huge fan.
Andrew: Oh well thank you.
Matt: Oh thanks.
Caller: I love you guys.
Andrew: Oh well thank you. That’s very nice of you.
Caller: I just wanted to say that I really hate the fact that they made it PG.
Andrew: Why do you hate that fact?
Matt: Yeah, tell us.
Caller: Because it’s just – it’s supposed to be getting darker. I mean, isn’t it supposed to be getting darker?
Matt: No.
Micah: That’s what they say every film. I mean – right? It’s getting darker. Darker, darker, darker.
Caller: But it’s supposed to be getting darker!
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Well, no one’s to say that it doesn’t get darker. I’m just saying that…
Andrew: Do you think it’s darker – the darkest, Eric?
Eric: I do, but…
Caller: Well, why don’t they put it PG-13 or R?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I’m not sure. I’m really – I’m really confused. But I mean, if you think about it, I was trying to say this before, Book 6 was at times quite jovial, and the hormones and everything were – Book 6 is not as intense as Book 5 as far as angst, unless you’re going to – unless you think of the Voldemort stuff, which is very minimalized in the movie. So it might not be out of the question for Movie 6 to be PG. I mean…
Caller: Okay.
Eric: …really.
Caller: Well, it’s – I don’t know. I am a huge fan of the books and a huge fan of the movies and I just want them to do it justice.
Andrew: Yeah, I hear you.
Eric: I think that you – I think that you will like this movie.
[Andrew laughs]
Caller: Okay, good.
Andrew: You sound like the cast.
Caller: It’s just going to be disappointing if they don’t do it justice.
Matt: I know. Eric, you’re going to get a heavy weight on your shoulder because…
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: …once the movie gets released, I mean, you’re going to be responsible for every reader who didn’t like the movie. I’m putting all that weight on your shoulders.
Caller: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, thank you for calling in, Sarah.
Caller: Okay, I love you guys!
Eric: Thank you, Sarah.
Andrew: All right, bye!
Caller: Bye.
Matt: Bye, Sarah.
Andrew: That was a nice caller.
Matt: That was sweet.
Call: More on MPAA’s PG Rating
Andrew: Let’s take another call. Hi, Heidi, you’re on Mugglecast Live. Good evening.
Caller: Hi.
Andrew: Hi, how are you?
[Audio feedback]
Andrew: Mute your stream.
Caller: Oh sorry. Let me mute my stream.
Andrew and Matt: Oh there you go.
Andrew: What’s going on? Hi.
Caller: Nothing. I was wondering if you think that it being PG is going to impair the fandom at all. Because of all the things they’ve done, like delay it and…
Andrew: Sorry, going to what the fandom?
Caller: Like not giving us a trailer for six months and then delay it for nine months.
Andrew: Wait, what do you think it’ll do to the fandom?
Caller: Do you think it’ll hurt it, like lesser it?
Andrew: Penny, do you think it’ll hurt the fandom?
Penny: I don’t think itís going to hurt the fandom anymore than anything else the Half-Blood Prince has done. As far as the delay really was painful, but we all got over it, and I think that it’ll be fine. If it’s a good movie it will be a good movie no matter what.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Penny: Do you agree?
Caller: Yeah, I’m just afraid of…
Matt: I mean…
Caller: …all these things they’re doing to us. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, it is – it is – I don’t know. I mean it certainly – it hurt. It hurt my heart.
Caller: Mine too.
[Andrew and Caller laugh]
Matt: I mean, what – I mean, honestly, what – anything that’s going to happen there’s going to get both a positive and negative reaction to it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: So it doesn’t really matter.
Caller: Yeah.
Andrew: I mean, these things happen, but people are sort of over the delay now, right?
Caller: Yeah, I guess.
Andrew: Yeah.
Caller: There are all the Facebook groups.
Andrew: Oh yeah, I know. You sound really sad, Heidi. Do you need to talk with us? Is there anything we can help you with?
Caller: [laughs] No, I’m nervous.
Andrew and Matt: Awwww.
Andrew: My mom’s name is Heidi.
Matt: That’s not true.
Caller: Really?
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: What do you mean it’s not true? Yeah, it’s true. I’m just trying to help you cope.
[Heidi laughs]
Eric: Actually, guys, I wanted to mention…
Andrew: What?
Eric: …I just got a message from a guy named Jeremy on Skype, and I haven’t checked on this, but he says that HarryPotter.com says that this film is not yet rated. It still says that.
Andrew: No, but it doesn’t matter. They just haven’t updated it.
Matt: HarryPotter.com never gets updated on time.
Andrew: Yeah, Warner Brothers actually…
Micah: Well, Warner Brothers confirmed it was PG.
Andrew: Yeah, Warner Brothers confirmed it the other day. We just didn’t post because it was obviously confirmed, because it was on the MPAA’s website. I wish so, Eric. It’s nice to dream. Well, thank you, Heidi, for calling.
Caller: Wait. I have one more thing.
Andrew: Oh. What’s up?
Caller: I think you guys should come to Boston.
Andrew: [laughs] Hey, we may. We may. You never know.
Eric: She thinks we should what?
Andrew: Come to Boston. Here’s the deal. Whoever…
Matt: Why? What’s in Boston?
Andrew: …gives us $5,000, we’ll go anywhere. But we need $5,000.
Matt: That’s all?
Andrew: Paid upfront in cash. I’ll give you an address to mail it to. Or if you live near one of us we can trade with suitcases.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: $5,000. All right. Well, yeah, Heidi, we may. You never know.
Caller: Okay.
Andrew: Thanks, though. Thanks for calling.
Caller: Okay. Thank you. Bye.
Andrew: You’re welcome. Bye. Oh, that was nice. How many more calls should we take? One or two? Let’s go with one. We’re at an hour and a half here.
Matt: Oh my goodness gracious.
Break: Andrew’s Music
Andrew: We didn’t even take a break. I prepared break music.
Matt: Do we have to take a break?
Andrew: No. I love taking breaks because I go like this. This is what I do to get – oh, do I have to put…
Matt: It’s going to be a good song.
Andrew: It is going to be a good song. What? Oh, there we go. Okay, I like – I like taking breaks. I like going like this.
[“Roxanne” by The Police starts playing]
Andrew: [imitating a radio host] All right. We’re going to take a break right now. It’s 6:25 on your Thursday evening, 527 people listening. Ho! This is MuggleCast Live. We’ll be back in just a few minutes. This is “Roxanne” by The Police.
Matt: Oh. I thought it was going to be a good song.
Andrew: “Roxanne” by The Police.
Laura: You’re playing “Roxanne”?
Matt: Yeah.
[“Roxanne” stops playing]
Matt: You’ve got the weirdest taste in music.
Andrew: That’s what I was going to do, but…
Eric: Bad taste.
Laura: No, it’s a great song.
Andrew: It’s a good song.
Matt: It’s so random, though.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: You play all – you never play any music that’s in this decade.
Andrew: Whatever. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
Matt: I do.
Call: Beedle the Bard
Andrew: Logan, hi, you’re on MuggleCast Live! What’s up? Logan!
Caller: Hello?
Andrew: Hey! You’re on MuggleCast Live.
Caller: Hi.
Andrew: What’s going on?
Caller: Well, I was thinking another reason why maybe the Beedle the Bard or whatever should be the – was the best thing of 2008 was because even people who haven’t read Harry Potter can still read that book and pretty much understand most of it.
Andrew: Yeah. So, it’s like a new – it’s a new thing for people even if they’re not into Harry Potter?
Call: Justice to the Half-Blood Prince Plotline
Andrew: Hey, Natasha, you’re on MuggleCast Live.
Caller: Hey.
Andrew: Hey, Natasha from New Zealand. What’s up?
Caller: I’m pretty good, thanks. Yeah.
Andrew: What’s on your mind?
Caller: I just had a question about Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: Oh. What’s that?
Caller: I was wondering whether they would give justice to the plotline of The Half-Blood Prince because we haven’t really seen it in the trailers yet.
Andrew: Oh yes.
Eric: I liked it in the movie. What they do – I mean, they show the “Spinner’s End” chapter. They show that in a scene. I mean, it’s a scene in the beginning of the movie or towards the beginning of the movie, and it kind of gets a fair amount of play as far as Harry having the Potion book, and at the end, but I’m not going to say it wasn’t as rushed as it was in the book.
Andrew: Hmm.
Eric: I don’t think it’s necessarily more rushed, though.
Caller: Hello?
Eric: Which is probably a good thing.
Andrew: Mhm.
Matt: Oh, okay.
Andrew: Interesting. Well, I hope it’s – it’s – it’s somewhat good, because…
Eric: I enjoyed it.
Andrew: …the movie is called Half-Blood Prince, after all.
Matt: Yes.
Eric: Yeah, and people should be able to understand why.
Matt: Didn’t she say something about the trailer, though? Or was I just…
Laura: They hadn’t really shown it in the trailers, yeah.
Matt: No, they haven’t shown – but they never really show anything about, really, the plot in the trailers, because, well, basically, the plot is so deep and connected you can’t really get a good general plot through.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Except in The Chamber of Secrets when there was – obviously the climax was in the Chamber of Secrets.
Call: Attitude Toward Movie 6 and MuggleSpace
Andrew: Hello, Ellen. You’re on MuggleCast Live. Hello. What’s going on?
Caller: Hey, how’re you doing?
Andrew: Good. How about you?
Caller: Good, good. Actually, I should be studying, but that’s okay.
Andrew: Nah.
Caller: Anyway, so a couple of things. First of all, with the Half-Blood Prince delay…
Andrew: Yeah.
Caller: …I think that even though I was upset too, I really think that we’ve all been expecting like a lot from WB, and I think that part of the way to, I don’t know, ease the pain, is to think about how much we’ve been expecting and how much we’ve been getting and think how much we’re going to love it when we get it.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, personally…
Eric: It’s a good attitude to take.
Andrew: Yeah, me too. I agree. I mean, look, every movie I get really excited and then sometimes my hopes just get down. And by sometimes, I mean most of the time.
Matt: Yeah, sometimes I mean all the time.
Caller: Okay, well, I just had another comment. I think that MuggleSpace is a great way to keep everyone united, and it’s actually starting a lot of new things, so thanks.
Andrew: Is it? Like what? Oh, well, we’re glad to hear that.
Caller: Some of us are going to try to start a podcast, and…
Andrew: Oh, cool!
Caller: …I’m talking to a lot of people, and it’s really great. I’m like – really, things slowed down, but that just picked it right back up, I think.
Andrew: Well, that’s very good to hear. I mean, that’s – that’s the purpose of it, to connect Harry Potter fans with other Harry Potter fans. So, we’re glad to hear that, thanks.
Matt: Keep the fandom alive.
Caller: Yeah, that’s a good thing for it to get some [unintelligible].
Andrew: Definitely.
Caller: Exactly.
Andrew: Well, thank you, Ellen, for calling.
Eric: One thing Ellen did say about – yeah, one of the things Ellen was saying about the other series. There are other series out there that don’t get – that their books – like they may have a favorite book, and their favorite book ever has not gotten the movie treatment and may not even have hope of getting the movie treatment. And yet we’ve had movies consistently every other year to look forward to in addition to our books. I think Ellen was awesome to point that out…
Andrew: Yeah, definitely.
Eric: …that we’re pretty lucky.
Matt: Yes.
Remembering MuggleCast Listener, Darren
Andrew: Definitely. Okay, well, that does it for the live calls for now, and we’re going to wrap up the show in just a minute, but unfortunately, we do have some sad news to report that we just found out last night. Isn’t that right, Laura?
Laura: Yeah. Like Andrew said, unfortunately we received news late last night that MuggleCast listener, Darren Shoon, fifteen, of Australia, drowned at a beach off the coast of Melbourne. I’ll first go ahead and read the e-mail Darren’s friend, Chris, sent us. He said:
“My friend died yesterday, Darren. He was a hero. Funniest guy I knew. He could cheer people up when nobody else could, and he was an avid listener of MuggleCast. I was just hoping that you could give a shout out to him, his friends and family, and his memory. He drowned at a beach yesterday, and we all miss him very much. Thank you. Chris.”
Andrew: Yeah, so really – very sad news.
Matt: That’s so sad.
Laura: Yeah, this is – this is really a huge loss. I mean, all across the board. We just want Chris, you, and Darren’s family to know that we’re thinking of you and we have you in our thoughts and prayers.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Absolutely.
Laura: And yeah. We’re going to hold a moment of silence to remember Darren now. So we ask that everyone listening tonight will also keep Darren and his friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
[Moment of silence]
Show Close
Andrew: All right, so there we go. And like Laura said, our thoughts and prayers are with Darren and his family. And his friend, Darren’s friend actually sent us what apparently – what is Darren’s favorite song. It’s actually “One Chance” by Take a Chance – I’m sorry, it’s “Take a Chance” by One Chance. I got those backwards. And so we’re going to play that to wrap up the show. It’s actually a nice song. Darren had a good taste for music. So I guess we’ll wrap everything up for today. Thanks, everyone, for listening. If you’ve been listening on the live stream, we’re sorry for the technical difficulties but they eventually were ironed out at the end. So thank you, everyone, for listening. Once again, Penny, Laura, Nick, Micah, Eric, and also Ben, who came on earlier, thanks for joining us. And we’re going to wrap things up today, like I said, with the song “Take a Chance” by One Chance. So, again, thanks everyone for listening and good night.
[“Take a Chance” plays]