MuggleCast 124 Transcript
Show Intro
[Music begins]
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[Intro music begins]
Micah: Because apparently the co-workers are listening, this is MuggleCast Episode 124 for December 18th, 2007.
[Intro music continues to play]
Andrew: This is going to be one of our biggest shows in awhile, I think, because we have a lot to discuss. There are problems with the DVD that leave me infuriated, and Eric’s back.
Eric: Hello, people.
Andrew: Eric’s leaving for America tomorrow.
Eric: That’s right.
Andrew: You excited?
Eric: Yeah, U.S. of A. Can’t wait to be home. Drive my car on the left side of the – no the right side of the road. God, which side of the road is it?
Andrew: Uh oh.
Eric: Left side of the car, right side of the road. Yes, indeed.
Andy: Right, right.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: I have my car waiting for me, prepped in the garage.
Micah: How do you know?
Eric: How do I know?
Micah: You’re sure it’s still there?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Why Micah?
Micah: What if your mom decided to sell it?
Eric: You…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Plus, you haven’t been there for a year, so…
Eric: Yeah, I know. I’m worried that it won’t start up, but…
Andrew: Wow, Eric. Before you get to America, we have a big show.
Eric: Wooo!
Andrew: To – Owww! My god, that blew my ears out.
Eric: Almost popped there. Thank God because…
Andrew: That you did…
Eric: Anti popping procedures, yes.
Andrew: You didn’t pop, you just exploded. That sounds dirty. I’m Andrew Sims.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Matt: I’m Matt Britton.
Andy: And I’m Andy McCray.
[Intro music continues to play]
News Discussion: Beedle The Bard
Andrew: You know it’s been relatively less than exciting – well actually, I take that back. It’s been an exciting news week. There’s only been a few stories, but they’ve been pretty big. A lot of them have focused around Beedle the Bard. Beedle the Bard was put on auction Thursday, December 13th. And the winning bid was placed by none other than Amazon.com for a staggering 3.98 million U.S. which equaled £1,950,000 in England. So it was an unbelievable bid. This far surpassed the bids that were predicted. They were – Sotheby’s was predicting somewhere around £50,000 to £100,000, and then this bid by Amazon was just unbelievable. We didn’t immediately know that Amazon was the winning bidder. However, they did release a press release later on. And they have plans for this book. What they’re going to do is they’re going to – they want to take it on tour to let kids read it and check it out. Isn’t that a great idea?
Eric: I think it’s cool.
Matt: It’s awesome.
Andy: I think that’s probably the best buyer we could have hoped for.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, definitely. But, I wonder, what is Amazon’s business model behind this?
Eric: Good question, Andrew. Because – well, then again, how much money do you think they’ve made from selling Harry Potter? [laughs]
Andrew: Oh, more than $4 million.
Eric: [laughs] So, it’s…
Micah: Well, I wonder are they going to charge? They’re taking this thing on tour.
Andrew: No.
Micah: But are they going to charge people to…
Eric: Well…
Micah: Go and see it?
Matt: Well, it may be on display in a museum and you have to pay to get in there.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: Possibly, yeah.
Andrew: But I mean, if Amazon’s going to charge people to see this, I think the money’s going to go to charity. There’s no way they’re going to profit off of people reading this. That just wouldn’t be right.
Micah: Yeah. That’s they other thing. I think for Amazon.com it’s a huge PR push for them.
Andy: Exactly.
Micah: They just donated $4 million to the Children’s Voice. Which, around the holiday season, you know, looks really good for them.
Andy: I’m sure it’s even a dent in their profit anyway.
Andrew: Oh yeah.
Eric: It’s still a nice gesture.
Andrew: Jeff [mispronounces]Bezos? Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO is quoted as saying:
“Even before establishing her charity, J.K. Rowling had done the world a rare and immeasurably valuable service – enlarging forever our concept of the way books can touch people, and in particular children, in modern times. When we deliver ‘Harry Potter’, kids are camped out at the post box, and the drivers get hugs.”
When I read I sort of interpreted that as this is the way they’re thanking J.K. Rowling for the business… [laughs]
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …that she’s brought Amazon. But it’s very nice, it came out of nowhere. Nobody really would have predicted that Amazon would have done this. Would have come from some anonymous buyer that would have kept it for themselves. Here’s the Amazon spin on things. They’re going to be reviewing each of the five tales in the book, which is a fantastic idea. Very Amazon-like, because they post reviews for all the books that they sell on their website. The bad news for some people is that there – well, people were asking on Amazon’s message boards, “Duh, are they going to, uh, reprint this? Because, uh, I want to buy it.” No, they don’t have the rights to the book and they made that clear. Yeah, we’re not going to be seeing this, we’re just going to be getting teased by Amazon.
Eric: [laughs] Repeatedly.
Andrew: Yes. And more pictures will be coming from Amazon. So, look forward to reading that – or reading more of the reports.
Announcements: Portus 2008
Andrew: Let’s move onto some announcements and then we’ll jump right into some DVD discussion, because The Order of the Phoenix DVD came out here in the U.S. We’re going to be at Portus 2008, hp2008.org. We don’t have any new updates yet, but we’ll update you as soon as we can. We’re going to be at the Potter
Podcast Palooza. And there it will be a night of Potter podcast things, hosted by several Harry Potter podcasts, and then one podcast at the end where all the hosts will be gathered and host one panel about Harry Potter podcasting. So we look forward to going to that. Hp2008.org, go there and register for Potter Palooza and also Portus so you can be there and check us out live.
Eric: It’s in Texas, right Andrew?
Andrew: It’s in Texas, it’s in Dallas, TX. Eric, are you going to come?
Eric: Yep, absolutely.
Andrew: Micah, you’re going to come?
Micah: Yep, if I can, you know…
Andrew: Get off work?
Micah: Make it, yeah. [laughs] They actually are much more persistent now in finding out more about this podcast. Apparently this news broke in my office and now more people know that I do this show…
[Matt laughs]
Micah: …than originally.
Eric: And you’re getting business cards, and people come up to you, and they say “Can you sign this, Micah?”
Micah: No, they literally walk down the hall, and they’re like, “Ha, ha, what’s buggin’ Micah?”
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Wow
Matt: That’s awesome.
Andrew: That is awesome.
Micah: Which is a segment that hasn’t been used in I don’t even know how many episodes.
Andrew: So what’s buggin’ you? Maybe as a prank I could like bring a copy of it and we could play it through the office and everyone could listen to you complain.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: You would be so embarrassed.
Micah: Could also be played at the holiday party.
Andrew: Yeah, there you go. Or Micah’s retirement going away party.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Ah.
Andrew: Ah. Funny.
Eric: Geez.
Announcements: Holiday Show
Andrew: Anyway, moving on to more announcements. We’re gearing up for our holiday show, which is going to be next week, and then the week following that will be our New Year’s show. They’re going to be two really fun episodes, so for the holiday show next week we want everyone to mail in some holiday greetings, maybe some poems and messages related to MuggleCast/Harry Potter. If you’ve listened to our holiday episodes in the past, you’ll know that they’re lighthearted and kind of corny, but at the same time just very holiday-ish and full of holiday cheer and mistletoe and stuff. So send in your holiday greetings, poems, any messages you want to relate to fans and listeners to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com this week. You could also send in songs, if you want to make a song, known in the fandom as filks.
Micah: We’re not promising to sing, though.
Andrew: Oh, no, no, no. I wasn’t talking about singing, I was talking about we’ll play someone’s song.
Micah: Okay.
Andrew: I’ll sing something.
[Matt laughs]
Micah: Yeah. Go for it.
Andrew: Send a – create a filk for me to sing. Give me like a karaoke track, and I’ll sing it. Or if you want someone else to sing it, you know?
Eric: Do you guys remember the “Night Before MuggleCast,” or something, where we all did that?
Andrew: Right, yeah, that was nice.
Eric: Yeah, that was absolutely brilliant. I forget who wrote it, but it was really brilliant, and we all did that.
Announcements: iTunes Names MuggleCast ‘Best of 2007’
Andrew: Micah, we were honored by iTunes this week, right?
Micah: Yeah, it’s kind of cool. They put together a collection of podcasts that are “the Best of 2007,” and according to your post here, Andrew, they put us on the list of classic podcasts that are still going strong.
Andrew: We’re a classic. We’re a podcasting classic. [laughs] I love it.
Micah: You know, it’s interesting, because I was thinking about this the other day. We started in the summer of 2005, so going into next year we’ll have spanned four years. I know we haven’t been around for four years.
Andrew: Wait, you mean three?
Eric: Three, Micah. Eight minus five. Three.
Micah: Well, 2005, ’06, ’07, 08.
Eric: Oh, yeah. I see what you’re saying.
Micah: So, I was just wondering what everyone’s thoughts were on that. I think it’s a pretty cool honor.
Andrew: It’s something to be proud of, yeah. I mean, especially, they put us on the front page. I think, what, it looks like maybe twenty podcasts, fifteen to twenty podcasts, in each category are posted on the front page of this list, and then there are like 30 or 40 others that are on a secondary page. When I saw this on iTunes, I clicked the button and I started scrolling down. I was like, “Come on, come on, come on.” I was on the phone with Matt, actually, while I was looking at this. I was like, “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,” and then I saw it, and then Matt, what did I say?
Matt: Yeah, you pretty much blew the speaker out on my phone, too.
Andrew: I was yelling, “F yeah, f yeah!” I was just really excited.
Matt: Yeah, he said some other things too, but that’s not really appropriate for the show, is it?
Andrew: It was just exciting. I had an off-air excited moment. Because, you know, it’s cool, being called the “Best of 2007” by iTunes. That’s a big honor.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
Andrew: So we thank iTunes for that.
MuggleCast to Change Formats in April 2008
Micah: So Andrew, with being the ‘Best of 2007…’
Andrew: Funny we should be honored by iTunes in this way, as even iTunes saying that we’re still going strong, which is true. I do completely agree that we’re still going strong and will till our very end [coughs] a few months.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: We have decided after some discussion and long, long emails back and forth to one another and several months of consideration that we are going to come up with a final plan for this show, where we’re going to take this show in the next few months. And we have decided that April 6th, tentatively, Episode 140, will be our final regular weekly episode of MuggleCast. Now I know what I’m hearing from listeners. “No!” [cries] We have decided that Episode 140 will be our final episode of MuggleCast. This isn’t a joke. We’re dead serious about this. We decided that it was time to come up with a plan for the show, where we’re going to take it. Because right now, you know, we’re doing Chapter-by-Chapter and still going strong, we still have tons of listeners, everyone is still enjoying the show, but we can’t just continue to run around in the dark with our hands tied behind our backs. We need a plan. We need to know what we’re doing, how long we’re going to last.
Eric: Right. It’s – yeah.
Andrew: So, Eric do you want to comment on this?
Eric: Yeah. I mean, it’s really important to us that you guys know that we know where we’re going, and it is important to set a finite date to the show because that way we get to plan around the content and sort of organize everything, and make the last, what do we got, 16 episodes? The last 16 episodes count. So it’s counting down.
Andrew: That’s scary.
Eric: Yeah, it means only sixteen episodes left.
Andrew: Sixteen feels like nothing at all! [laughs]
Eric: It does feel like nothing Andrew, it does.
Andrew: But this won’t be the end of us doing podcasting and hosting podcasts.
Eric: Not at all.
Andrew: We want to do other shows, we’re all for that.
Eric: And we will.
Andrew: And we will, yeah. Absolutely. Probably as soon as MuggleCast is over. We want to take you guys, the listeners, over to whatever we do in the future.
Matt: We’re taking you to the next level.
Andrew: Exactly.
Eric: And, we will still do MuggleCast, just not weekly.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Things like events, the movie premieres, things like that, if we can still get in, if they still recognize us.
Andrew: Oh absolutely. I mean, listen, MuggleNet is not going anywhere, that’s for sure. That’s a powerhouse and always will be. MuggleCast is a podcasting powerhouse too. We won’t be disappearing, you know, the MuggleCast site will still be online, all the episodes will be available, the feed will still be available. You know, we’ll still blog from time to time, and we will do the podcast like Eric was saying, and of course we’re still going to be at Portus, doing a fantastic live show there.
Eric: Whoo!
Andrew: We just plan on ending our regular weekly live shows come the first week of April. That should be, if all goes according to schedule, Episode 140. So you’re wondering, there’s 36 chapters and we’ve only done 4, the plan after this week’s episode, is to do two chapters a week. Then we’ll finish with Episode 139, and then Episode 140 will be a goodbye show.
Eric: And that’s give or take a few weeks. I mean it’s not, you know, finite. But…
Andrew: Yeah it could change, but that’s what we’re aiming for right now.
Eric: Yeah, yes.
Micah: And I think… Well no I just want people to realize what you were saying before, that this is not necessarily and easy decision, but it was a decision that all of us sort of weighed in on like you were talking about before, via e-mail and instant message. And we just decided that we needed to do this because, you know, we don’t want to drag it out and make it into something that it hasn’t been. You know, it’s been tremendously successful…
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Right.
Micah: People have enjoyed it, and they’ve stuck with us, and we want to make sure that we’re giving you guys something that you continue to enjoy. We don’t want to just drag it out for as long as possible.
Eric: It has got to be quality. Setting this date allows us to prevent ramble casts…
Andrew: Exactly.
Eric: …and things that other podcasts are doing just to stay in there. You know, with this date, we have a finite set of, you know, what we can expect. And, also Andrew, you had said in your e-mail, the quite lovely thing you said in your e-mail was that that way we know that we’ve given Book 7 enough time if we complete Chapter-by-Chapter with it, we’ve given Book 7 enough as opposed to ending the show right when it came out, which as you know and as we know, MuggleCast spiked. There were all these new listeners with Book 7, so we want to give those listeners enough discussion about Book 7, because most of our podcast was all, you know, post-Book 6, and leading up to it. So, we wanted to make sure we cover the book and covered pretty much everything like, in the future, on a weekly basis, until the end.
Andrew: Right. And one other thing I want to add to this is that I used to say a long time ago, I’m not sure if I said this publically, I probably did, that we’ll keep doing shows until, you know, we have one listener left. But, in hindsight, the truth of the matter is we want to end it, like Micah and Eric were both saying, on a high note. We want to end it when we’re up high, when we have tons of listeners, when people still enjoy us. We don’t want to end the show because we have nobody listening left, and we’re completely out of content. We want to end on a good note so we can look back in 10 years and say, “Oh my god, we did 140 episodes of that show, that’s fantastic, we were so successful, I love myself.” Not to sound arrogant.
Eric: I think Andrew, though; I think just 150 episodes sounds better personally.
Andrew: We’ll get to 150 eventually.
Eric: Because it’s an episode for every one of the original Pokémon, you know?
Andrew: Oh that’s true, that’s a very crucial part of this show.
Eric: Yeah, you know? So…
Andrew: We’ll get to do 150 episodes, just not on a weekly basis.
Eric: Yeah, which is fine, which is totally fine.
Andrew: So, that’s our plan. Now you guys know what we’re doing and where we are going with the show so we will not be wasting your time with each new episode that comes out between now and April because we have a plan. We have a good plan and we are going to stick with it.
Eric: With that said, with that said, let’s get some freaking MuggleCasting going on, eh?
Andrew: Yeah, well we are still going to still bring the funny every week, you can guarantee that.
[Eric and Andrew make funny sounds]
Andrew: Funny! Okay, maybe we should end this sooner.
[Matt and Andrew laugh]
Order of the Phoenix DVD Discussion
Eric: DVD discussion. [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Yes, let’s move on to some DVD discussion.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Order of the Phoenix DVD came out this week in the United States. It’s been out in England and Australia for a month now…
Eric: And New Zealand.
Andrew: And New Zealand. Pretty much everywhere else. The U.S. had to wait for once, and it’s here, we have it now. And I want to star off by making one complaint and I saw people complaining about this so far. It is a great DVD. It really is, it is my favorite movie watching it again. But, the first 15 minutes of it, and the last half hour of it are pixilated on mine. It is rough, grainy quality. There must have been a compression issue.
Eric: What?
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: What? What?
Andrew: I can not believe it. It is very annoying, it fixes itself about 15 minutes in but about a half-hour before it ends, it starts up again so it must have been a compression problem. I bought this at Wal-Mart and if anyone else has a problem let me know. Email in to andrew at staff dot mugglenet dot com, let me know where you bought it from, that is important too because my theory is that a batch of them went out to say, Wal-Mart and got screwed up so let me know we can go to Warner Brothers and who know, maybe we can be able to get refund copies. We’ll see.
Eric: Okay. The U.S. waited how much longer than Australia, New Zealand and the UK to get this DVD.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: And then it has a grainy picture quality?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Now, on my PAL DVD, I mean the first 15 minutes are rather dark.
Andrew: Really?
Eric: So, things like caption pictures I have been using and stuff, haven’t been that clear. You know, that sort of thing because it’s so dark, but there has been nothing grainy or pixilated or anything lower quality necessarily. But I am under the impression that NTSC quality is better than PAL anyway from the screen caps that I have done so you guys shouldn’t be having any problems.
Andrew: Yeah. Well frame rate-wise it is better, I don’t know if the picture quality is actually, literally looks better it is just the frame rate – I don’t know. I’m not too sure.
Matt: I don’t think it is a large amount of people who have it because if it was, the DVD has been out for about three days now and if there was a large scale of DVDs that were tampered with they would have something on the news or something about it.
Issues For Macs
Andrew: Probably, but I mean I have seen a couple comments on MuggleNet, so I know I am not the only one. So, we’ll see what happened with that. Moving along, and a few of us that have a problem with this DVD being that we’re on Macs is that a lot of the features you are not able to use. For example, the Half-Blood Prince sneak peek, the Timeline, and the downloadable copy, all of that is only available on Windows, you have to use the Interactual Player, which is crap in and of itself.
Eric: Yeah, I never liked that crap.
Matt: Yeah. Its crap.
Eric: It is crap.
Half-Blood Prince Sneak Peek
Andrew: But, while we are on the topic, did you guys see this new Half-Blood Prince sneak peek? It did go on YouTube and surprisingly WB has not taken it down yet.
Matt: I think it is cool. Yeah.
Andy: I think it is really good because it is a lot more revealing than the last one we saw.
Matt: Yeah, it didn’t show more than half of the production in the first ten months…
Eric: Nice. So it shows what they have been doing.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, to be fair the one that came out a month ago, they probably didn’t have that much to film, I mean they have had a lot more to film and just like the UK and Australia copies, this preview you also had to be online. It wasn’t on the actual DVD and that is so they have more time to put it together.
Micah: I was just going to say, I know we had talked about on an earlier show, why the DVD waited so long to come out here and I still don’t see Half-Blood scenes being a possible reason. I know they are different for the U.S. and I am still not sure why they waited this long for the DVD to come out here.
Eric: Begs the question.
Andrew: Yeah, I know but I mean really it is in the past we don’t really have to worry about it now that it is out.
Micah: But we don’t want to rehash the old wounds.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Micah: Is that what you are saying?
Andrew: So this new sneak peak has a bunch of interviews with Matthew Lewis, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Dan Radcliffe, David Yates…
Eric: Ralph Fiennes.
Andrew: Ralph Fiennes is in here?
Eric: He was in The Secrets of Harry Potter thing.
Andy: I don’t think so.
Andrew: Oh, I wasn’t I was talking about…
Micah: He was talking about the…
Eric: Oh do you mean Half-Blood Prince? I’m sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah. Sorry.
Andrew: So far it is a good preview. Oh and then David Yates is in this, as well. Or, sorry, yeah, David Yates.
Eric: Sweet.
DVD Deleted Scenes
Andrew: Moving along, deleted scenes…
Eric: Hmmm. Or additional scenes.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: As they are called.
Andrew: Extended.
Micah: Horrible.
Andrew: Horrible, Micah?
Eric: What?
Micah: Horrible.
Andrew: Why?
Eric: What?
Micah: Other than Trelawney eating, okay?
Eric: Oh, come on. Trelawney eating was dumb.
[Matt laughs]
Matt: I kind of agree there.
Andrew: Trelawney eating…
Micah: Okay.
Andrew: But…
Eric: It was funny, but how would they have spliced that into the film?
Andy: Yeah.
Eric: It was worth seeing.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: As a scene, it was worth seeing, but they…
Micah: But what else was there? Other than that, there was nothing of any value that was in the deleted scenes.
Matt: Oh, come on!
Micah: Nothing.
Matt: What about when Harry went into Dumbledore’s office? That was frigging awesome!
Eric: Exactly, I agree with Matt.
Matt: That was like the epitome of all the flashbacks in the movie.
Eric: Yeah, totally.
Andrew: Yeah, um…
Eric: And all the whirring, whizzing things that they spent so much time building just for that scene.
Andrew: Yeah, now Matt.
Eric: And when it got taken out, and Dumbledore’s like, “Harry come in.”
Micah: But it was cut short though, too. That’s what I thought with a lot of these. There wasn’t a little bit more too them where there probably could have been. Like that scene that you are talking about in particular. They didn’t have any discussion whatsoever after that point.
Matt: No, I’m not saying the scene was good. No, I thought it was horrible, but I thought the beginning part of it was really nice, just the music and just the tone of everything. You got to see the sword of Gryffindor. You got to see the sorting hat, and then you got to see Dumbledore with – I think Fawkes in the background – but I just, I like it.
Eric: Yeah, I’m pretty sure.
Matt: For some reason, I liked the way Michael Gambon was in that scene. The way he just called to Harry was very sincere and a little bit like Dumbledore, which we don’t see much of his character.
Eric: But most of the scenes, some of them were just additional few seconds.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Inter-spliced in between the other ones, such as – yeah, those were interesting.
Andrew: Those weren’t as exciting.
Matt: How many were there? There weren’t even that many this time.
Eric: I – four or five small ones.
Andrew: You know?
Eric: There was one right after where Ron asks everyone, “Has anyone else got a problem with Harry?” And then he goes up, and it was right after the fight with Seamus and the camera pans over to Neville, and Neville says, “My Gran says it’s the ‘Prophet’ that’s rubbish. We cancelled our subscription.”
Matt: Why did…
Eric: Why did they cut that?
Matt: I know. The shortest movie, they could have kept twenty seconds in.
Micah: Yeah. I thought that was kind of interesting…
Eric: It wasn’t even 20.
Micah: …that they didn’t keep that part in.
Eric: It’s just like, hmm, but it was interesting. I am glad they included that for us.
Andy: Also in that scene you see Neville’s plant.
[Matt laughs]
Andy: In the other behind the scenes thing they show them making that and it looks like it would have taken so long to make it.
[Matt laughs]
Andy: And then it is just sort of cut.
Andrew: Right.
Andy: You never see it.
Andrew: Yeah. It had it’s own remote control. That must have taken a while to build. That poor guy ho built that, when he heard that it must have got cut, he must have been so mad.
Eric: Are you kidding? If he built it, he got to take it home with him and he plays with it.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Well, that’s true.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: He could build another one and just…
Micah: I was kind of happy too that they left out the scene with Crabbe and Goyle beating up…
Eric: The kid!
Micah: …one of the kids, because that…
Eric: Because Filch had, yeah.
Micah: had no place. She never really did that in the book.
Matt: It didn’t make sense!
Eric: Right.
Micah: She would have to be that mean of a person to kind of let that stuff go on.
Eric: It does. Oh, that reminded me. What about the scene where Umbridge comes out of the Great Hall smoking?
Micah: That was funny.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: And her hair is smoking, and Filch leans in everso slightly and blows the smoke. [laughs]. It was all right. I wonder what David Bradley does on the set though, because obviously he’s got – I mean we have seen Natalie Tena’s makeup process and stuff, and they still dress up David Bradley. He has done this five times. He has these wonderful quirky scenes where he is dancing with his cat and stuff, and you know he must have a ball on the set.
Andrew: But at the same time I think he is one of the characters that gets cut the most.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: He does funny stuff in the movies, but it just ends up getting cut, because his character does nothing in the movies to advance the plot except for in Chamber of Secrets.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: So why not cut his stuff. I don’t know if David Bradley cares. I know he was quoted in the interview saying that his grand kids or his kids wanted him to do the role.
Eric: Are just happy to see him.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Well, his character in the book, doesn’t do much for the plot anyway either.
Andrew: Well that is what I am saying.
Eric: That’s true. What does Filch do in Book 7? I mean, we don’t know.
Andrew: Yeah. Nothing.
Eric: Do we see him in Book 7?
Andrew: I think we do. You have got to imagine Jo…
Eric: We’ll find out.
Andrew: We’ll find out when we read it, yeah.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: For the first time!
Trailing Tonks
Andrew: Yeah. Another big feature on the bonus disc was trailing Tonks. Now I have to say that this was funny. This was original. Natalia Tena was perfect for this idea.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: I agree.
Andrew: And her singing voice! Oh my god!
Eric: Isn’t it lovely?
Andrew: I get chills every time I hear it. It’s fantastic. Oh my god!
Eric: I know, right?
Andrew: [sighs] So good! So good!
Eric: She needs to do rock. She needs to do Wizard Rock. Absolutely. I’m not…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Well, she’s in a band.
Eric: Oh, she is?
Andrew: She’s in a band and she’s a singer and she also plays – in the band she plays the accordion.
Eric: Oooh.
Andrew: As well as sing.
Andy: Interesting.
Matt: The accordion? Who plays the accordion?
Eric: Weird Al Yanchovic plays the accordion.
Matt: Yeah, and that guy’s weird.
Andrew: Dan Federichi of Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band plays the accordion, thank you very much.
Eric: That’s incredible.
Matt: That was weird that you knew that right off the bat.
Andrew: She’s in the band…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, because, I mean, anyway, she’s in the band Nat Jenkin. I think it’s just a little, you know, garage band, perhaps, because they don’t have a Wikipedia entry so they can’t be big.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: We have a Wikipedia entry, so…
Eric: Yeah, but it’s a bio of living persons, so it gets maintained very, very, very closely.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: True.
Eric: No jokes. So, yeah, Trailing Tonks was really neat in a way. It didn’t – yeah. It was neat.
Matt: Well, it was made by her and her brother, that was it.
Eric: I know. And I think they helped – Warner Brothers had to help with the Marauder’s Map thing.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Like putting the Marauder’s Map in once it was done. But yeah, basically when the credits roll, you see “Nat, Tina, Nat, Tina, Nat, Tina, Nat’s brother, Nat, Tina, Nat, Tina…”
Andrew: Yeah, I thought that was a joke at first, but then I realized, “Oh…”
Eric: But then I’m thinking – did Warner Brothers rip off Nat and Tina because they didn’t have enough content for their DVDs? So, they have Nat fooling around on set and they’re like, “Oh!” But yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was interesting.
Matt: I really liked the concept of that.
Andrew: Me too.
Matt: It was really fun.
Andrew: And I wonder if she came to Warner Brothers or Warner Brothers went to her or maybe her brother…
Eric: Well, that was where they film it. Oh, do you mean about acquiring the…
Matt: I think it was her…
Andrew: I’m saying just doing that idea in the first place.
Matt: She just seems like the kind of person who would want to just do that on her down time, because she seems really energetic.
Andrew: Yeah, I agree.
Matt: And it just seems like she’d be like, you know, [impersonating Natalia Tena] “I just want to do something…I’m going to get my brother and ask Warner Brothers if I could go behind the scenes and sing for it and plug myself and so I could…”
Eric: And feed food to people.
Matt: That was funny.
Andy: The was funny.
Andrew: That was so funny. That was good.
Eric: The was funny. He was, “More beans. No, no, more than just a few.”
Andrew: And that one guy who didn’t want it.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah, he was like, “I don’t want to get the can out.” But what always impresses me about the props departments and things like that, is when they do have props from the previous films that, like, for instance, the Gringott’s Vault door, like, they still had that.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Oh, they keep everything.
Eric: Did you see that?
Andrew: They keep everything. They keep everything.
Eric: I know they do. Well, what doesn’t get striked and taken down gets pretty much saved, but they still had that and I thought, well, that would be wonderful for in the seventh…
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: You know, in the seventh movie, you know? Just again. But they have all of that. They have Dobby. Did you see the mark up of Dobby? I thought that was awkward, I didn’t think they ever planned on having him in any of the future movies so why would they even…
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Did anybody see the Wizard cereal on the board, where all the…
Andrew: In the… Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah! The graphic design – they have everything! There were candy bar wrappers and everything.
Andrew: That must be a fun job.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: That’s got to be fun.
Matt: That’s awesome.
Andy: What about when she tries to bounce the prophecy?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: They were just like, “No.” That guy was straight up annoyed. He did not want her there.
Matt: She obviously overstayed her welcome in that room.
Eric: Yeah, totally. The sound guys – she was just quiet around. We didn’t really learn about sound editing. But then we have the other features.
Andrew: Well, the thing about that is she didn’t actually go into a sound room. She was on the set. That was right…
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: Those little sound cart, those little sound – mobile sound – you know, whatever you want to call them, that’s right off stage.
Eric: So wait.
Andrew: So, they’re filming, they have to be quiet.
Eric: Andrew, you told me – did you – when you went on the set visit, did you see that set? Did you see…
Andrew: Yeah, you know, I think…
Eric: Were you with the bicycles?
Andrew: Yeah, well, it’s funny. The bicycles are right in the front – well, first of all, that Marauder’s Map that they have, that is not how the studio’s laid out at all.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Like, that’s completely, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t know why they set it up that way. But the bikes are right at the entrance of Leavesden, and you know, I didn’t even see people riding around on the bikes. I saw golf carts. There’s a lot of golf carts going around.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Which I guess might be easier because you don’t have to actually physically do something. But yeah, that was there, what was the original question? Yeah, that set was the Veil, I think. I think they were right behind the veil.
Eric: Oooh!
Andrew: Because I sort of recognized that area. She didn’t cover as much as she probably could’ve. The Great Hall is awesome.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Going to the prop… Maybe there’s got reasons why they didn’t go to some areas. The prop area, like we were saying before – you were saying how they keep everything. They keep everything. There’s this huge gated area that just has all the props and you feel like you’re in a Harry Potter time machine. They have all the…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: The two Ford Anglias, they got the signs from Diagon Alley, they just have everything, it’s unbelievable.
Andy: Cool.
Eric: Cool.
Matt: Oh!
Eric: What about thos – oh, what?
Matt: And we found out what Fang’s real name is.
Eric: Yes.
Matt: It’s Monkey.
Eric: Monkey.
Micah: Monkey.
Andrew: [laughs] Monkey.
Eric: Well, actually, just Fang from movies three, four, and five.
Matt: I think it was just four and five…
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Wasn’t it?
Eric: Well, yeah, she said the past two, so I don’t know if she’s including five in that.
Andrew: Oh.
Matt: She says she has one more movie and then he’ll be retired.
Eric: He’ll retire, so if Fang is in movie seven then…
Matt: It’s kind of weird, I’ve never really thought about changing Fangs. I didn’t think there were that many dogs that look like that.
Eric: Well, it’s just like in Free Willy. Free Willy was a whale that unfortunately passed away, and I think…
Andrew: Oh don’t remind me…
Eric: And in Air Bud, Air Bud as well.
Matt: Air Bud.
Eric: They’ve used so many – well, because they make so many damn sequels.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: You know, the dog would get tired of it. If I were the dog I would refuse.
[Matt laughs]
Matt: Mhm. Juststay in my trailer and never leave.
Eric: I’ve got 33 of these things, I’m not doing a 34th.
Micah: I was just going to say I don’t – in particularl those dogs I don’t think have very long life spans, mastiffs. Which I think is the type of dog I think Fang is.
Matt: Yeah. Just the way the eyes droop.
Eric: Well, look at how wrinkled they are. That thing’s ready for death.
Micah: No, just because of how large they generally grow…
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: …they tend to have a lot of…
Matt: Complications.
Micah: Diseases and problems. Yeah.
Eric: It’s sad.
Andrew: One other thing from Trailing Tonks that I thought was good was Matt Lewis and Alfred Enoch.
Matt: Alfie.
Eric: Enoch.
Andrew: What?
Matt: I think it’s Alfie.
Eric: Alfie Enoch?
Andrew: Oh, I don’t know, that’s why we have it on the MuggleNet cast page. They were out behind the…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: The studios.
Andrew: Yeah, but they were right by the Privet Drive.
Matt: Oh really?
Andrew: Did you see the background were the…
Eric: Oh yeah.
Andrew: Were the backs of Privet Drive? They were just sitting there playing cricket, or whatever that crazy U.K. sport is. That was pretty funny. Seeing how they just shoot the breeze and relax.
Eric: And they should be doing homework.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Because all of them – they all get schooled pretty much on set, or they used to. Yeah, because of all the…
Andrew: I think they just have so much time on their hands it just…
Eric: Certainly. But then I realized that when they were going through this too, and about how many films they made, and this is actually the fifth movie set they’ve been on, but for periods of three and four months at a time, you know? Like, that’s got to be pretty intense, like, doing this, and they’ve still got two full movies to go.
MuggleCast 124 Transcript (continued)
The Secrets of Harry Potter
Eric: So, what about The Secrets of Harry Potter when they went through all the movies, what did you guys think of that?
Andrew: Bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad.
Eric: Bad?
Matt: Bad?
Eric: Wait a minute, wait a minute, bad?
Andrew: I’ll tell you why I didn’t like this and then you guys can say why you did, because I’m interested to hear this.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: This “Secrets of Harry Potter” thing – it was 45 minutes long – 40-45 minutes long…
Eric: I thought it was longer.
Andrew: And it’s nothing but – longer? Even worse. It’s nothing but review and analysis of what has happened already.
Eric: Bull!
Andrew: And this is before – and this was all shot before the seventh book came out. And it’s all pointless stuff! Who wants to hear about this?! It’s, it’s – it’s terrible content! I’ll tell you what’s good content: interviews with the cast. There’s none of this on this DVD, which is absolutely mind-boggling.
Eric: What the hell? They interview everyone!
Matt: No. No.
Eric: They interview Jason Isaacs himself while he’s narrating the freaking…
Andrew: Ohhh…
Eric: …featurette.
Andrew: Okay, That’s true.
Eric: They interview Ralph Fiennes. They interview everybody. And it’s simply…
Andrew: Okay. All right, you’re right, but not about the film.
Eric: Okay. No, you’re right. Some of it is, is, is dumb because what they do in the first 15 minutes of this behind-the-scenes, you know, The Secrets of Harry Potter thing – what they do in the first 15-20 minutes is they talk about things in Book 7, like “Oh there was a – was there someone else at the Potter’s house the night of the thing? We’re going to find out!” And Steve Vander Ark’s there and he’s like “We don’t know! What you think isn’t what happens and we don’t know.”
[Micah and Andrew laugh]
Micah: I wonder how that was for WB…
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I know! I know! They put this movie out with this guy – geez.
Micah: …when the DVD was coming out, that Steve Vander Ark was going to be in it.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: You know – anyway, they talk about all this stuff that we still don’t know post-Book 7, so it’s funny that they still bring up these questions that just simply aren’t answered in Book 7. Or satisfactorily, in my opinion. But that’s just my opinion. Anyway, I thought most of the featurette was based on things that we – cohesion between the films.
Matt: Right.
Eric: Which is what I’m always saying there should be. I thought they brought out some of the important things.
Micah: Exactly.
Eric: And they showed exactly how you can follow it.
Micah: You brought up my point, Eric. The cohesion and how you follow them – the problem with that was – is that you were following it through the narration by the actors, not the actual scenes that were in there.
Eric: Right.
Micah: And that just goes to show you how much has been left out throughout the course of the series that they have to spend 40-45 minutes…
[Eric laughs]
Micah: …on the fifth movie’s DVD explaining to everybody what has taken place. That’s exactly what I thought about when I saw this.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: And the other reason why they did this and this was in an article – I forget who did it. It was either MTV or somebody else like that. And the reason behind this whole thing was they wanted to show that Dan, Emma, and Rupert, particularly, knew what was going on. They knew more than just what they were acting – that they had an understanding of their characters and what was going on in the series as a whole. And they made a point of stressing this and I think all of us are in agreement that those three, at least, have read the books, they know what’s going on, but I think that was, on the large part, why they did this for this DVD.
Eric: I was impressed with Gary Oldman, how into it Gary Oldman seemed like he was in this – in this interview. Did you guys get that?
Micah: Well, they – there were so many people in this.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: They really left nobody out. Everybody was interviewed throughout the course of this thing…
Eric: Except Alan Rickman!
Micah: And that goes back to…
Eric: Except Alan Rickman.
Micah: Yeah. [laughs] You and your theories that he never does any interviews, I guess, holds true.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: You know, Alan Rickman, he doesn’t come to the premieres either anymore. I’m really confused. Is he like…
Eric: Does he hate Harry Potter?
Andrew: Well, does he hate the fandom?
Eric: No, no, no, no. I’m sure he’s just a private person and – and he’s one of those people where you – he can command respect and he’ll get it because he’s a good actor. But I think come Movie 6 – and I don’t know if it was in the Half-Blood Prince preview, but did you guys see any of Tom Felton or Alan Rickman in Book 6 – or Movie 6, in the preview?
Andrew: Yes!
Matt: Yes.
Andy: On the train…
Eric: Tom Felton?
Andrew: Yes! Yes! Eric, if you go to MuggleNet, I took a thumbnail…
Eric: Sweet. Okay.
Andrew: Of the scene that he’s in.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: All right, I’m going to MuggleNet. They show the train thing? Is that in the movie?
Andrew: Yes!
Matt: Yes.
Eric: Oh my god! That’s amazing!
Andrew: That’s the exact scene that they show on the – on the clip!
Eric: Oh my god I am so using my DVD that I’ve had for a month-and-a-half and going online and finding this Half Blood Prince…
Andy: It won’t be on your one, but, I don’t think.
Andrew: No, no, it will, I think, because it’s online.
Andy Will it?
Eric: Well, if it’s on You Tube, I’ll just go on You Tube. Where’s your link?
Andrew: I’m pretty sure it’s to the same site.
Eric: Oh my god, that’s on the train. That’s so amazing. They’re using Tom Felton and everything – because Tom Felton wasn’t interviewed on this DVD and I was upset.
Andrew: Well, while Eric continues to be uninformed about everything that’s going on…
Eric: Oh my god!
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: What is there else to discuss here?
Eric: The editing thing – edit your own thing.
Andrew: Well, let me just say one more thing about The Magic of Harry Potter. To be fair, I have not watched this whole thing. I just started watching it and I was like “Okay, I don’t want a review of everything.” You know, we get this so many times.
Eric: It’s bad the first time.
Andrew: We get it in the movie now. We get all these flashbacks in the movie now. It’s disappointing.
Eric: It’s true. It’s true. They do show a lot of…
Micah: No, I agree.
Eric: The first and second movie though and even…
Matt: Well, it was released on the History Channel, too, so a lot of people have already even seen it.
Eric: Oh was it?
Matt: Yeah. It was released when the movie was released.
Eric: Oh, that sucks! Really?
Andrew: Really?
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Really?
Matt: I was kind of upset because it showed a lot of clips from the movie and I’m thinking, “I don’t want to see this right now! I want to see the movie first.”
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: Right.
Eric: That’s really interesting.
Micah: So, what was with them putting Steve Vander Ark in there – with them putting in the other two authors that were there…
Eric: Well, I thought that John Granger did a good job.
Micah: I got an e-mail from somebody who just said, “Well, if I wanted to do that I’d just listened to MuggleCast.”
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Or, you know, if I wanted to know about the whole story and have people comment on it, I mean, was it really necessary for them to take those – what was it? Four people? Or three people that are the supposed experts – and I’m not saying that they aren’t experts, but why do you want to sit there if you’re a fan and listen to these guys talk about the story? Wouldn’t you rather that they incorporate maybe more actors, even? I mean…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: My question to you guys, do you think – now, we’re getting a lot of this stuff. It’s – all of this stuff is basically repackaged is what we’re coming to the conclusion. Because Andy says what they were putting on the History Channel or was that Matt? Was this on the History Channel?
Matt: Yeah…
Eric: This Secrets of the…
Micah: Well, dude, I don’t know one has an accent and one doesn’t. If you can’t tell the difference you might have problems
Andrew: [laughs] Oooh, Micah.
Matt: Ohhhh. Pullin’ out the sarcasm.
Eric: Anyway, geez…
Andy: What’s buggin’ Micah?
Eric: Yeah. What’s…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. What is buggin’ Micah?
Eric: What is buggin’ Micah? You know, Micah, they just want to see, because you’ve got…
Micah: I’m just kidding.
Eric: You’ve enhanced your mystique, now that they all know about you, Micah, because you go from the cubicle to the dungeon, and they want to know what happens, you know, every step of the way!
DVD Not Up To Par
Eric: But, okay guys – do you think that they’re ripping us off? Because Harry Potter is a huge franchise and all we get is, what, two, three, seven teeny little clips of deleted scenes? There are more to DVDs than deleted scenes. There’re commentaries, there’re – I’m pretty sure there is a commentary on this DVD, isn’t there?
Andrew: No! There….
Eric: There’s not?
Andrew: There is! There is on the HD DVD version.
Eric: Oh. Wow.
Andrew: My understanding is if you want a lot of features, you need to go to the HD DVD version.
Matt: They did that with the fourth movie too.
Andrew: Yes. Yes, you are correct.
Eric: But this is Harry Potter! They have so many things to show us and they aren’t showing us anything and it’s the biggest movie thing in the – and they show us nothing!
Andrew: Yeah. When I popped in this special features disc and I saw the four options plus the languages button, I was like, “This is it?”
[Eric laughs]
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Where’s the next button? Where’s the next button? Where’s the next page of special content? This is Harry Potter! You know, and the previous DVDs have had a lot of bonus content. I was just looking at the backs of them before we started. Three and four both had interviews with J.K. Rowling and, understandably, maybe she couldn’t do it for Order of the Phoenix because she was finishing up the book. However, I’m not impressed with Order of the Phoenix special features–wise.
Matt: Well, the other DVDs also had those stupid games that no one ever played.
Andrew: That’s true. Unless they cut the crap.
Eric: Yeah, like the Womping Willow of the interactive – but there was an advertisement on mine for the DVD game. Did you guys see that?
Andrew: Yeah. You know, I meant to buy it but I forgot. Maybe that’s why they’re cutting down. They’re just re-selling games they could put in the – I’m sure it’s junk. No DVD game is good.
Eric: Except for…
Andrew: Whether it’s Harry Potter, Hairspray, any other thing you or I like in this world. DVD games are just bad because you can’t control a game with a menu. It’s not good. The loading times are too slow. The graphics are never that good. It’s just not a real game. It’s bad. Let’s move on now, though. We’ve voiced our concerns with this DVD. Obviously, there are many.
Bonus Disc at Target
There is one good thing. If you go to other retails, other than Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target are offering their own special deals. Matt went to Target and got his disc, and you got a bonus disc!
Matt: I did! And it’s…
Andrew: And you love it!
Matt: I do. I love it better than the second DVD: Special Edition.
Andrew: What’s on it for those of us who couldn’t get to our local Target?
Matt: Ah, well – Target – not only do they give you an extra disc, but you failed to tell them that you get a little 3D movie thingy on the front cover!
Andrew: Which is so cool! Tell them what it does.
Matt: It has two of – in my opinion – the best posters that Warner Brothers has released for this movie. It has the one side – one picture has the Dumbledore’s Army all like in a ready position with like a red and orange sky and mist on their feet so it’s almost like they’re on a cloud, like all facing left. And then on the other side is the Death Eaters all facing Voldemort. Jason Isaacs has the globe in his hand and Bellatrix is in the back just looking creepy as she can.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: As she does.
Andrew: It’s what’s on the back of the two-disc Special Edition, and, I assume, the single-disc.
Eric: Oh yeah! Yeah, would you look at that.
Andrew: It’s got that full panoramic – see, that’s the great thing about…
Eric: So, you’ve got this nice little holographic thingy…
Andy: Mine is that way as well.
Matt: Yeah, it’s a holo – that’s the word – holographic.
Andrew: Now wait a second. I’m confused about one thing. Is it when you turn it you see a different picture? Or you have to look on the opposite side?
Matt: No, if you just tilt it to the right or to the left.
Andrew: Oh tilt it, that’s what I meant. Cool, that’s very cool.
Matt: It’s very nice. Oh, sorry the DVD. The DVD is labeled Building the Magic: The Sets of Harry Potter and it goes into detail of all the sets and productions, mainly narrated by Stuart Craig, who does the set design.
Eric: Oh my gosh!
Andy: That’s awesome.
Matt: And it’s really cool, they go into deep detail about Grimmauld Place which had a lot of cool little tidbits. They have all these little meanings for every single thing that’s in each set, and it’s so cool. You get to see a deeper explanation on the Black Family Tree and it gives a little detail on Umbridge’s office, the Room of Requirement and the Ministry of Magic. So, it has a lot of cool stuff.
Eric: Now, some of this was in some of the features of the DVD, I remember…
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: I recall seeing some of it, but certainly not to this extent. This seems like a really cool thing.
Matt: Yeah. Let me see, what was some of the stuff they talked about? Oh, Grimmauld Place was definitely my favourite because they went a little deeper into it. For instance, in the kitchen, the kitchen table is measured 20 feet long and it’s supposed to signify – especially the scene during Christmas with the Weasley family – that the Weasleys were on one side, light and cheery, and on the other side is Harry and Sirius on completely the opposite side of the table. Even though they are in the same room, at the same table, they’re still kind of segregated.
Eric: Both families – yeah.
Andrew: I just love that whole concept and while I was watching the movie, I was thinking, “What were they doing with the placement of the characters here; they seem kind of far apart? Harry seems far apart from the Weasleys,” and I didn’t realize they did that on purpose to make it look like that there was some separation there. That was great.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: This stuff is just – they’ve spent so much time building these sets, and somebody remarks, “Sets are meant to be destroyed” on the DVD, but they’ve spent so much time on this and they think it out. They say, “Grimmauld Place is built on all these weird angles because it’s wedged in between these two buildings.” That sort of thing – they put so much thought into it that they could really make these good featurettes that just aren’t showing up on these DVDs.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Was there anything else?
Eric: It’s not going to bore us, because I think they’re cool.
Andrew: Was there anything else on there Matt?
Matt: A couple of things. On the Room of Requirement, they were talking about how neutral they wanted the room to be, because it’s pretty much neutral until you decide on what you want the room to be.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: And there was this issue with their shoes and the floor, they had to wear these socks.
Eric: Isaw those.
Andrew:
Eric: Yeah what was that about? I saw those in the…
Matt: Apparently the floor – your shoes leave marks when you step on the floor, and since they’re moving around all the time, I guess it’s the tar on their shoes or something because you see the floor – it’s kind of like a grill.
Andrew: Right.
Andy: Yeah.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: There are a bunch of holes and stuff. They didn’t go into too much detail. I was just wondering – why are they all wearing blue socks?
Andrew: Yeah, you see that on the regular DVD and you’re left to wonder, “What?” I know beneath those grill-looking things on the floor, those are lights coming up, but I don’t see how…
Eric: Oh, Andrew’s been to that set.
Andrew: Unless the lights would burn your shoes or something?
Eric: I suppose that’s just for the scenes shot from the feet up, because otherwise they’d have to digitally enter everybody’s shoes, which they may have done.
Andrew: Yeah, that would have sucked.
Matt: Oh, okay. Also on the Room of Requirement, they were talking about the mirrors and why the room was mirrored. It was meant to reflect you, yourself, and what your needs were.
Andrew: See, I always get excited when there are mirrors because you always hope maybe, “Oooh, maybe I’ll be able to see a camera.
Matt: They spend so much money trying to cover up cameras and equipment with CGI, maybe if they just used regular walls they probably would have enough money to put in Dobby or something.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Andrew: I have to say I think the biggest blooper in a Harry Potter film is in Chamber of Secrets during the duel between Harry and Draco. I think during the Dueling Club?
Eric: What happens?
Andrew: You know, it’s like, “Wands at the ready!” and… [hums] I think that’s the music they used. Anyway…
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, that was it.
Eric: Yeah, “Gilderoy Lockhart.”
Andrew: Yeah, that was a great song. I love that one.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: I like it too. It’s probably my favorite one, actually.
Andrew: The camera cuts to Harry and he’s walking down the dueling platform and right there next to the dueling platform is a crewmember, straight up in jeans. Just sitting there, looking up. You can see him clear as day.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: He’s a big part of this, but you don’t notice it because he’s not the focus of the scene. He’s in focus though, he’s very clear! And when I saw this – I guess I read it on MuggleNet or IMDB or whatever, and I was just like, “Wow, they really screwed up.”
Eric: Is that in the movie?
Andrew: It’s straight up in the movie because I went back and looked at it. It was there. And I’m going to go watch it tonight to have another laugh.
Eric: Oh my gosh.
Andy: Me too.
Eric: Yeah, me too.
Matt: Most people won’t see it though, because apparently it’s most people’s least favorite movie of the series.
Andrew: Oh wow, that’s a debate for another show.
Eric: Oh no, that should totally not be there.
Matt: Oh, sorry.
Eric: No Andrew, speaking of dueling, in “Trailing Tonks,” when she goes in and has lessons from the instructor on how to fight, how to duel, the five positions on wand wizardry.
Andrew: Yeah, that was very cool.
Eric: That was really cool and just shows how into it they really get with fighting styles. And they want to make it – I mean, The Matrix is obviously something where they over – they did every sort of fighting style and they taught it to all the actors. But the actors have to learn them and learn how to use their wand.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: How to use their props in a way that would seem in a way that would be very well done.
Andrew: Yeah. One thing, I’ve got to jump back to this Target promotion real quick. Maybe the reason why the special features are lacking on the regular disc is because they wanted to save them for Wal-Mart – sorry, Best Buy and Target.
Eric: Because they favor Target over – yeah. What’s up with Best Buy? Because you said Target and Best Buy?
Andrew: Oh. Well, Best Buy is giving away some collectibles. I’m not sure if it comes with bonus material. But – maybe they did cut back on the Special Edition DVD so they could save stuff for Target. But I’m wondering, Matt how much did that cost at Target?
Matt: A lot.
Eric: Check your receipt.
Andrew: $25?
Matt: I never keep my receipts. I’m a guy!
Eric: Dude, why don’t you keep your receipts? I keep all my – no I’m joking.
Andrew: $25? $30?
Eric: I keep my receipts.
Matt: It was about $30.
Andrew: $30. Okay, at Wal-Mart it was about $25. I guess that would make sense then.
Matt: Well its $25, plus California tax.
Andrew: Plus it was a roll back, because at Wal-Mart you always roll back?
HD DVD and Blu-Ray
Eric: Oh, geez, which is like… [laughs] Anyway, guys, what about High Definition? Because you said there are more special features on the High Definition DVD? Do you think Warner Brothers is trying to get people to up-convert?
Andrew: Yeah. They might just be trying to get everyone to buy the more expensive product.
Eric: A crap gimmick.
Matt: This was the first time I saw all the movies on High Definition, too. Were they waiting for the DVD to be released or have I just…
Andrew: They’re all available in HD?
Matt: Yeah, I saw them all on Blu-Ray and HD DVD.
Andrew: Blu-Ray and HD?
Eric: Oh, geez.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: I really want a player. I’m going…
Andrew: Every movie?
Matt: Every movie. [mimics Andrew]
Andrew: Don’t mock me, I’m just surprised!
Eric: How much are Blu-Ray DVD players? Do you guys know?
Matt: Oh.
Andrew: I didn’t know WB was producing for HD and Blu-Ray DVD. I thought movie companies go to one or the other. Are you sure about that, Matt?
Eric: Yeah, they hate each other for it.
Matt: Yeah, I saw them with my own eyes.
Andrew: All right, well, I believe you. Allegedly.
Matt: Yeah, sure you do. [laughs]
Eric: So wait. How much are the players?
Andrew: Uh…
Matt: They’re at least $500, I think.
Andrew: Yeah, they’re a lot.
Eric: Oh, that’s as bad as Playstation 3.
Andrew: Well yeah, if you buy a 360, then you have an HD0DVD player built in.
Matt: Well Playstation 3 is in HD – yeah. You get the better deal with the PS3. So, go out and buy it!
Andrew: Yeah. Today! I’m waiting for laptops. Why aren’t laptops HD DVD yet? I mean, they’ve got the displays. They’ve got the graphics card. It’s just a shame WB started – you know what it is? The Special Edition is turning into VHS! Because now – I’m dead serious too.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. It’s true.
Andrew: Blu-Ray and HD DVD.
Eric: Yep.
Andrew: They’re going to start cutting back. Before you know it, they’re not even going to have menus. We’re going to have to fast forward through the DVD, just as we had to do with VHS – like we were talking about last week.
[Andy laughs]
Andrew: This is a joke!
Matt: It’s not even – I don’t think there are even going to be HD DVDs, I think it will all be Blue-Ray. Because Blu-Ray has higher resolution.
Andy: Someone has got to win.
Andrew: Someone’s going to win! But it’s not going in Sony’s favor because they have not won with past attempts. They started the beta tapes. They tried to make their own mp3 player for a while.
Eric: Yeah, well beta did a better quality than VHS.
Andrew: Well, so is Blu-Ray. We’ll see who wins.
Eric: That’s true! That’s very true.
Andrew: Okay, I think that’s it for our DVD discussion. I’m sure we’ll take some emails next week about it. That was long though. We’ll keep chugging on here.
Muggle Mail: Switchblade Kittens
Andrew: It’s time for Muggle Mail, now!
Andy: All right, the first Muggle Mail comes from Kirstie, 21, of [in American accent] Melbourne, Australia.
“Hey guys. Just wanted to clear up something about the MTV list that Andrew mentioned in the last episode. You were saying how Switchblade Kittens weren’t a real wizard rock band, as they started out as a punk band and then brought out a second today which is wizard rock. They reason they actually got the top spot is because the Switchblade Kittens actually started wizard rock with their song, “Ode to Harry,” which was released in 2000 and was the first ever wizard rock song. Most people don’t know this. They think Harry and the Potters were the first, but no… Switchblade Kittens were the first. They should be giving credit for being the first, however I do agree that they shouldn’t have gotten the top place or got higher than Draco and the Malfoys.”
Eric: I’m finding this coasty person kind of agreeable. Don’t you think?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: She’s like, “Just to let you guys know, the Switchblade Kittens were the first. I don’t think they should get top place, but they were the first.” I didn’t know that. I find that quite interesting.
Micah: Well, I’m glad we cleared that up. I don’t listen to wizard rock. So, thanks for the e-mail.
Matt: You liar! I saw your iPod.
Eric: Oh geez, Micah. I’m getting you a whole set of wizard rock.
Micah: No, I swear. I do not. I’m going to get e-mail for this. I don’t. I don’t listen to it.
Muggle Mail: Petunia
Andrew: The next email comes from Sarah J., 22, of St. Paul, Minnesota. She writes:
“Hi everyone. I have a thought to add to your discussion on why Petunia wasn’t sad when she, Dudley, and Vernon left Harry knowing they would probably never see him again. Although one would hope that Petunia does feel some concern for Harry as a close family member, I think here you can parallel her feelings toward Harry with Snape’s. Harry is a constant reminder to Petunia of the world she could never enter. To Snape, Harry is a constant reminder of the love he never had. Petunia might have felt relieved to say goodbye, because she could finally cut magic out of her life for good and wouldn’t be reminded constantly of the shame and inadequacy she felt as a child. On another level, she might secretly like that Harry goes to Hogwarts and makes magic, something she so painfully yearned to experience with Lily. A miniscule yet significant part of her mundane life on Privet Drive. Love to know what you guys think.”
Eric: Ohhh.
Matt: Oh, mundane life, huh?
Eric: Mundane life.
Andrew: Yeah, she’s using some big words there.
Eric: I think Petunia would hold her life in high regard. But I think this is an excellent character analysis from Sarah of Petunia.
Matt: I agree.
Eric: It’s really cool. And she makes the – oh, what’s it called? What’s it called? Comparison? What’s it called? What’s it called? What’s it called?
Matt: Comparison?
Eric: No, it starts with an “A.”
Matt: Analysis?
Eric: No, no.
Matt: Analogy?
Eric: Analogy!
Matt: Yes!
Eric: Thank you. She makes the analogy! You rock. You rock with a “W” in front of it!
Matt: Kudos!
Eric: Absolutely. So, it’s Harry and Snape because – yeah. Yeah, what’d she say? Constant reminder to Petunia of the world she could never enter. So, that’s why it’s easy to be mean to Harry. That’s good, Sarah.
Muggle Mail: Dudley
Andrew: All right. Next email comes from Bill Stafford, 41 of Chicago, Illinois. He writes:
“I am perhaps your oldest listener.”
Yes, Bill. You’re up there, but we have some listeners as old as 50’s and 60’s. It’s great.
Eric: Yeah, we have a 64-year-old librarian from somewhere in the Mid-West. But yes, you’re up there, sir.
Andrew: “I got interested in Harry Potter while reading the books to my daughter, now 15-years-old. I’ve always been quite proud to proclaim that I read first five books out loud.”
That is a pretty good accomplishment! Only you and Steven Fry…
Eric: Wow! Your neighbors must’ve been pissed! [laughs]
Andrew: “I found out about MuggleCast this summer when my daughter started downloading the podcasts. It is interesting to me, as an adult, to listen to you, enjoying your perspectives as well as those of your fans. In MuggleCast 123 you hit upon an interesting question, ‘What are Dudley’s feelings towards Harry?’ I consider Harry’s treatment by his aunt and uncle to be abusive. Having grown up in an abusive environment, I feel that I can offer an interesting perspective on Dudley. As a small child, one believes their parents to be all knowing and infallible. So at young age, Dudley would’ve seen his parents’ treatment of Harry as normal and/or correct. As we grow, we begin to see things from our own perspectives and split off from parents. That is especially difficult in a situation such as this, when a child has participated in ridiculing and mistreating another child. I think that Dudley had seen through some of his parents’ prejudices and is starting to make amends. Harry’s help in saving him from the dementors seems to have had an effect on him and he had started to see Harry as more of a human person. What exactly is a wizard? So the interesting discussion points are, I think, what must’ve it been like for Dudley to have seen Harry treated poorly, then be saved by Harry, and then start to reconcile his new feelings/inner beliefs with his past treatment? What is it like for a child to grow up being shown preferential treatment over another child? I think that Dudley is maturing and will grow beyond that prejudice, or I’m just an old idiot that should stop listening to the podcasts for kids.”
We are not for kids!
Eric: That’s not true, Bill! We’re for 41-year-old men from Chicago, Illinois named Bill Stafford. Bill, this podcast is for you. Mr. PC Handyman, we podcast so that everybody gets good stuff out of these books because these books are for everyone just like our podcast.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: So, thank you, Bill, but we ain’t for kids and we aim to please.
Andrew: Wow.
Matt: That was beautiful!
Eric: That was really good, guys! What do you think? What must’ve it been like for Dudley to sit outside Harry’s room with a cup of tea and be so moved that he doesn’t clean it up and Harry trips over it in the first pages of the second chapter of the book?
Andrew: Well, we were saying last week that we learned through last week’s chapter that it was there to be nice to Harry, it wasn’t to be mean. And even if he did stumble over it a bit, it wasn’t meant to be stumbled on.
Matt: Or maybe Dudley was just sitting there with his legs crossed, looking at the door, hoping to get a glimpse of Harry.
Andrew: Maybe…
Eric: Ummm, that’s incest.
Andrew: Yes, that’s true. [laughs]
Eric: So, Chapter-by-Chapter…
Andrew: Wait, wait, wait! We didn’t answer this guy’s e-mail.
Matt: Well, the way that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia always showed is that Dudley was always this great kid and Harry wasn’t. And apparently – this is what I believe. I believe that after the dementor attack, Dudley realized what kind of person he was and what kind of a person Harry was. Because, I think he believes – well, I think we all know – Dudley wouldn’t do what Harry did if the situation was reversed.
Andrew: No.
Eric: Well, Dudley’s friends didn’t do what Harry did. Dudley’s friends were all scattered.
Matt: Well, Dudley’s friends were away. Yeah, and then Harry saved his life. If Dudley…
Eric: And carried him back to his parents.
Micah: And this is the kind of stuff, I think, when Dumbledore shows up in Half-Blood Prince, he makes some off-the-cuff remark to Vernon and Petunia about how they raised Dudley.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: Do you remember that? And I think…
Matt: Yeah, he said something about, like, whatever they’ve done to Harry they’ve done much worse to Dudley or something like that.
Eric: Damage to Dudley, yeah, exactly. That was a great quote. And did JKR ever say what Dudley saw when he looked at the dementor?
Andy: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah, we talked about it last week. I think that was just basically what Matt was talking about before
Matt: Yeah, that Dudley was seeing himself for the first time for who he was or something like that?
Micah: Right?
Matt: Cool.
Micah: And J. K. Rowling actually last week updated her site.
Eric: Did she?
Micah: Where she talked about Dudley and Harry and their future hope. She basically said they’d be on Christmas Card terms for the rest of their lives.
Matt: Christmas card terms.
Micah: And that Harry would’ve taken his family to visit Dudley’s when they were in the neighborhood, which were occasions that would be dreaded by Harry.
Matt: Uh, Dudley has kids?
MuggleCast 124 Transcript (continued)
Chapter-by-Chapter: The Seven Potters
Eric: Oh geez, that’s a scary thought. All right, Chapter Four, “The Seven Potters.” Summary. It is a fast pace chapter where the Order attempts to transfer Harry from Privet Drive to the Burrow via…
Andrew: Can I say that before I even read this chapter… Just reading the name of the chapter got me so excited for it. Because I was like, “‘The Seven Potters,’ what has Jo come up with now?” It was just so exciting.
Matt: Seven Potters, seven books. Number Seven.
Andrew: Yeah.
Initial Thoughts on Chapter Title
Eric: I believe that we – and this is echoed in the listener e-mail that we’ll get to later, but it’s from Amanda, from Australia, and she says, just as a quick side note, “When I first saw the chapter title, I got excited thinking Harry would find more of his family,” and I felt that way too. “The Seven Potters.” Did you guys think that they were talking about…
Micah: Well…
Andy: That’s exactly what I was going to say.
Eric: …ancestors or relatives?
Micah: No.
Andy: Because in the U.K. edition we don’t get any chapter pictures, so I thought it was going to be some crazy family tree.
Eric: Right. Same.
Andy: Like, I pictured that Simpsons episode…
Micah: Right.
Andy: …where there are all the Simpson relatives on the lawn, like a whole bunch of people that look like Harry, like grandpas, and I don’t know, [laughs] just a weird thing like that. But…
Eric: [laughs] I pictured James’s family, just like the Mirror of Erised is what I thought – like James’s family, how he saw the whole line of ancestors and relatives – like “The Seven Potters,” but what does it actually mean? Guys, what does it actually mean?
Micah: My story’s a little bit different. These chapter titles were leaked prior to the release, obviously, of Deathly Hallows.
Eric: The chapters’ pictures weren’t all. [laughs]
Micah: No, no, no, not the pictures, not the pictures.
Eric: Oh yeah.
Micah: The titles of the chapters were leaked.
Eric: The titles weren’t all that were leaked.
Micah: And I had looked through the list, just kind of going – and there wasn’t really anything that really was revealing about those titles, and I looked and I was like, “The Seven Potters?” I mean, what a load of you-know-what. These titles are completely…
Eric: False.
Micah: …wrong.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah, I didn’t believe – and that, that Chapter 4, “The Seven Potters,” was what made me think that the list was absolutely incorrect, and it ended up being the actual…
Eric: Yeah well, “The Dursleys Departing,” like what the heck kind of, you know? What’s going on with that?
Andrew: Yeah. So the fist point we want to discuss today, Micah?
Motorbike Comes Full-Circle
Micah: Them all getting prepared. They all changed into Harry, and they’ve gotten their assignments, who they’re going with, and they go out to the backyard, and they all get on their thestrals, brooms, and Harry specifically ends up going with Hagrid, and this is a tie-in back to Book 1, coming full circle all the way to Book 7, and he is riding in Sirius’s motorbike with Hagrid, when the book opens, or when the series opens, at least in the first few chapters, and now again in the first few chapters of Deathly Hallows, he’s back on this motorbike.
Eric: And Hagrid even makes the comment, “Last time you was on here, you fit in the palm of my hand.”
Andrew: I just love that, because throughout – like I’ve said on previous chapter-by-chapters – with this book, there are all these little references in here to past books. It’s just great.
Eric: And – yeah.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: Totally. Just past books, past feelings, past thoughts…
Matt: Well, they did that in the beginning of the chapter too, when Harry was taking Hedwig on a little tour around his room.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: And everything.
Eric: Yeah, it said “it felt like a little brother he had lost,” or something, right?
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Remember that quote?
Taking Flight
Matt: Yeah. So, okay. So, they’re all together, and they’re all getting ready fly to all the designated places, which are – it’s not the same place. There’s – each group has their own designated portkey to go to, I think. Isn’t that right?
Eric: Yeah, including Moody’s house and Kingsley’s house. I thought that was cool. Because they just mentioned there are seven locations, and each of the seven sets of Potters are going to these secured locations and eventually just catching a portkey from their secret locations all to the Burrow. But none of the places seem to be the Burrow right away. So, yeah. So, that’s the whole deal. But they’re about to get on their brooms…
Is Harry Going With Hagrid Safe?
Micah: I want to bring up a point…
Eric: Yep.
Micah: …that’s not – it’s not, you know, talked about right in the plot, but is Harry going with Hargrid, really the safest plan? I mean, the guy’s a bumbling oaf.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: For the most part.
Eric: Whoa, whoa, wait! Wait a minute…
Micah: Seriously, no, no, no.
Eric: Yeah but look who lives and look who dies, okay? And this is obviously a next chapter spoiler, but who would you put him with? Who would you put Harry with? You’d put him with Mad-Eye, wouldn’t you? Though, arguably, if Mundungus didn’t get out of the way… I’m trying to think who you would put Harry with, and look who – look how it ended up. So, yeah you’re right.
Matt: Well that’s exactly why they put him with Hagrid though, because…
Eric: I wouldn’t really put him with Hagrid, to answer your – yeah, that’s true too.
Andrew: You wouldn’t expect it.
Matt: You would expect him to be with the strongest person, which is either Kingsley or…
Eric: Oh!
Matt: Or Mad-Eye Moody, and he would also be…
Eric: And they said that as well, that’s why they didn’t put him on a broom.
Matt: Yes. And he would also – yeah.
Eric: Yes.
Matt: The broom. Yes.
Eric: Again, good writing by J.K.R.
Andrew: But he’s also kind of safe in that little thing attached to Hagrid’s…
Eric: No he’s not! It falls off!
Andrew: No, he – it falls off.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: However, it is mentioned in this chapter how he ducks in it, you know? It’s much…
Eric: And he – yeah. Yeah.
Andrew: It’s much more enclosed than, say, a broom or a thestral. I mean, you’re just out in the open. At least with this little thing you – he did say it was small, but you can duck down in that and hide, I think, better than you could on a broom or a thestral. And Hagrid’s huge. He was fighting off spells. So…
Eric: Yeah, yeah, I’m just thinking of the scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame where he said, “Sanctuary!” And I’m thinking that the side-car is Hedwig’s sanctuary.
[Andrew laughs]
Hedwig’s Death
Eric: Which is our next point [laughs], but, oh no, that’s this point; before they get on the bikes, they’re each given – each of the seven Harrys are given a stuffed owl and a cage, so that they all have little decoy – teeny, little decoy Hedwigs. To go with the decoy Harry Potters.
Matt: Yes, Beenie Baby Hedwigs.
Eric: Beenie Baby! Yeah, I think Ty manufactures, their ones as well. Now, guys, wasn’t this the funniest thing in the world in retrospect – and, listeners, all of you who went to Borders across the – at least in – I’m sure they did it in the States too. And gave out plush owls with every pre-order.
Andrew: Wait, did they give out owls – oh! Was this at the actual midnight release or just if you ordered it online you also got an owl?
Eric: Well our Borders had a whole supply of them. We were selling them for like 10 bucks or something, but with every pre-order you also get this Beenie Plush Owl.
Andrew: Oh, that is funny, yeah. [laughs]
Eric: [laughs] So, they gave away stuffed owls with Harry Potter, and who’s the first casualty of Harry Potter Book 7? “Hedwig” the Owl.
Andrew: Did his eyes have X’s over them?
Micah: No.
Andy: Charity Burbage.
Micah: It’s not Hedwig; it’s the Muggle Studies teacher.
Andrew: Okay! That Micah, being all technical.
[Micah laughs sarcastically]
Eric: Oh, the first – you’re right. Well, who’s the second casualty of the Harry Potter…
Andrew: No but still, the first major one.
Micah: Okay, the first casualty people actually care about.
Andrew: Right, exactly.
Matt: Well, we don’t really know exactly know when Mad-Eye Moody was [whispers] murdered.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: Yeah, but I think it is assumed, because Hedwig does die very quickly.
Eric: Well, the first one to be listed as dead.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Or the second one in this case, thank you, Micah. Anyway, Hedwig dies! Why did the owl die? Come on, people, that was a bad marketing idea. Why did not J.K.R. say, [laughs] “You shouldn’t give out these owls. I can’t tell you why but…”
Matt: Well, not only did Hedwig die, but she didn’t die a very honorable death.
Andrew: No.
Matt: She died in a cage! She didn’t do anything!
Eric: She got hit by… And then Harry had to blow her up!
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Well, let’s repeat something that Jo has already told us: It was the way of symbolizing the end of Harry’s childhood. However, I think Eric does make a good point, or someone did somewhere, by saying that, well, there’s other things that ended – symbolized Harry leaving his childhood.
Eric: Somebody else said that.
Andrew: There was the leaving the Dursley’s. What else?
Eric: J.K.R. has said that Hedwig was Harry’s magical connection, or last big magical connection, or connection to the magical world. The fact that he had Hedwig always at home with him, even in his room when he was alone otherwise. Except Hedwig was always kind of – I don’t want to say – Hedwig was always kind of mad at him a lot in the books.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: She would peck him here and there and it was always like, I didn’t mind when I was reading about Hedwig, but like…
Matt: Well, she’s a woman.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: It’s almost like a marriage between them.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: And he’s not paying enough attention to her and she’s getting upset.
Eric: It is.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: She’s going to throw pots and pans and stuff.
Eric: I think you understand it, man, you’re in there and you understand her. Are you going to be their counselor?
Matt: Um, yeah.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Have they seen you for counseling?
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Eric: “He doesn’t let me out enough.” “Well, you know, it’s dangerous times.”
Matt: “He never talks to me anymore!”
[Andrew and Andy laugh]
Eric: [laughs] Yeah, “All I get is a few owl pellets; he doesn’t even talk to me anymore. Geez”
Micah: I think, though, it was more so even to just show the reality of everything that was going on. I mean, Hedwig was Harry’s tie to some of the first magical experience that he had, all the way back to Sorcerer’s Stone, and I think this kind of was more of a reality check to him – not that the previous people who died weren’t impactful on him, but this was sort of – I don’t want to call it like a wake up call.
Matt: This was the first…
Eric: It was, though.
Matt: …death that directly affected him.
Andrew: And makes…
Eric: And he has to deal with it. He has to cause the curse that explodes Hedwig. He has to do it so that she doesn’t fall to the ground and suffer. You know, he sets the side-car on fire. That’s him disposing of – just like later when he buries Dobby, this is something that he has had to decide upon, and something that he can’t control, just like the other deaths. But this is something so very close to him.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And it could’ve been him. And if it wasn’t Hedwig, maybe she flew in front of him. Maybe.
Andrew: I also think that this marked for us readers the realization – this was a reality check for us to make us realize that wow, the innocent are going to die in this book. Jo’s going to – Jo won’t stop…
Eric: Yeah. This book is…
Andrew: …an owl. She’s not going to stop at anything.
Eric: There are no stops.
Matt: That’s kind of mean, though. “I’m going to show you that the innocent are going to die. You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to kill the owl.”
Andrew: [laughs] The other thing that’s kind of sad about this was, this was really Harry’s first gift. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it did come from Hagrid…
Eric: From Hagrid!
Matt: Well, besides the birthday cake.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, but, yeah, you know?
Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah. What is it with all these Harry Potter readers that are doing this? Micah corrected me, you corrected Andrew.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: The birthday cake? Come on.
Andrew: And, of course, Hagrid – Hegwig died right in front of Hagrid. And their names sound alike. And if you say their names next to each other, you get all tongue-tied. Hegwig, Hagrid, Hedwig, Hagrid.
Eric: But Hagrid and Hedwig – Hagwig and Hedward were concentrating on driving, so I don’t think he saw Hedwig die.
Andrew: Well, okay, but he was present.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: He was present and accounted for. Let’s move onto the next point.
Harry’s Use of Expelliarmus
Eric: Okay. So, suddenly, everybody knows who the real Harry is.
Andrew: Yes. The Death Eaters are throwing – well, the Death Eaters… We shouldn’t…
Matt: No, when they find out it’s the real Harry, they disappear.
Andrew: Right, and they find out through Expelliarmus.
Micah: Which, okay I have…
Andrew: Yeah, how!?
Micah: …a huge problem with this. Because one time – he says it one time? He threw out how many other spells before that? And because he says it one time, you’re telling me nobody else tried…
Matt: No, it’s the reaction…
Micah: …to do that?
Matt: …that he made when he saw Stanley Shunpike. Because he recognized him.
Eric: No, because then – really?
Matt: Yes.
Eric: No. Well, later on they tell Harry that it’s the curse that he fired. Later on they tell him it’s because he used Expelliarmus, “that’s your signature move.” Except if you’re going to raise issue with that, don’t make it be the move he says when he kills Voldemort at the end!
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Don’t keep using it. If you’re going to fault it in the fourth chapter – I thought it made sense. I was like, “Oh, Expelliarmus, he uses that, of course. He always uses that. So, by the end of the book, he’s going to learn to use a better spell.” Or something. But he didn’t. But, anyway…
Micah: But would he honestly be the only person that tried to use that spell throughout the other six people?
Eric: He couldn’t be.
Andrew: My thing is – weren’t the other fake Harrys even fighting back?
Eric: And they were, because… Yeah.
Andrew: I mean, because that could’ve been a good reason for them to realize that that’s the real Harry, because he was the only one [stumbles] throwing spells back.
Eric: Well, they all have to fight back because none of them want to die.
Matt: They all know that Expelliarmus is Harry’s favorite spell.
Andrew: Okay.
Eric: Yeah, so I pity any of the other…
Micah: Well, the fact that he was yelling, “Hedwig, Hedwig!”
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Like he really cared about the bird, you know, would’ve given it away to begin with.
Andrew: Yeah.
Andy: The others aren’t really going to be getting emotional about a plush toy owl.
Eric: Yeah, he’s the only one with the real Hedwig.
Andy: They’ll let it fall to the ground.
Andrew: The thing that really got me with this whole scene, though, was that they put all this work into planning this transfer, and they’re up in the air for ten seconds and “BOOM!”
Eric: And there’s thirty Death Eaters. They said there’s thirty of them.
Andrew: Yeah. They were just waiting.
Eric: Waiting for them
Andrew: Yeah. Such a shame.
Inside Information
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: I think…
Eric:Now, it’s times like these when I want to go back to the first chapter and see what Snape said. Because they had the wrong date, but then Snape was sure they had the right date. Or something?
Matt: I think you were right in a couple episodes ago when they were talking about the inside information. And I think it is Mundungus, because he – he was really nervous about the whole situation because he knew that the Death Eaters knew that – when the day was. That’s why he Apparated when it all happened.
Andrew: And maybe if he wanted to be a fake Harry, then he would’ve been brought back and could’ve gotten…
Matt: Mhm. Well, also, they would know who he is.
Andrew: Right. Yeah.
Matt: If he wasn’t under Polyjuice Potion, so he maybe be thinking that, “Well, since I’m the one who’d given information they won’t harm me.”
Andrew: Oh yeah. Oh, that’s true.
Eric: Maybe. Well, either way, if he wasn’t such a slimy, squeaky…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Yeah, and he ended up…
Micah: Well, he probably didn’t want to be there in general.
Eric: …being operated and then Moody got hit with the curse.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Okay, so Voldemort can fly. But we’re not going to mention that.
[Micah laughs]
Harry’s Wand
Eric: Harry’s wand acts of it’s own accord. Yeah, so Voldemort shows up and he’s flying without a broom, or a Thestral, or Sirius’ motorbike, and Harry’s scar sears with pain. And all the Death Eaters have backed off because Voldemort says, “He’s mine! Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. My plushy owl toy. My little Harry Potter.” So, he flies after him, guys, and Harry can’t believe his scar is forcing his eyes closed – la, la, la. All of a sudden he feels his wand raise, this – yeah, like a magnet. Like this liquid, fire bursts out of his wand. Now, I personally – I forget what actually was going on here. But, something strange happens indeed. I forget why. But he believes that his wand acts of his own accord and Voldemort’s wand, I think, snaps – the wand that Voldemort is using, which is Lucius’ wand – as we know from Chapter 1 – snaps, and Voldemort’s like, “WTF,” and suddenly, there’s this big fall and that’s the end of the chapter. But Harry’s wand acts of its own accord. Abd that’s something we haven’t seen before.
Andrew: I wonder if it’s like part of his mother’s protection.
Eric: They do answer it, though, in the book, don’t they? It does get answered. And it turns out it wasn’t really his wand acting of its own accord or something. And I’m not sure if that has to do with the other wand. But, do you guys remember what the actual answer is for this whole wand…? Because doesn’t it appear like two or three more times?
Matt: It’s – well, the wand acts through the wizard. And didn’t they say that that would only happen through, like, a really, extremely, powerfully magical wizard?
Eric: Yeah, I think so.
Matt: So, it was probably just a – like an initial reaction. And probably just all the – a whole huge amount of magic that just seared through his body. Just took a reaction to it and went through his wand.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Or something, Because they’re connected.
Eric: They are.
Micah: See, yeah.
Eric: And Voldemort’s not even using his own wand, which is a problem, because if he uses another wizard’s wand, you’re screwed. You’re not as good. I’m sure there’s an answer, though.
Clearing Up The Source
Micah: Right. I was just going to clear up what I said before. Because I found my part about the whole source thing. It’s – technically, it’s Dumbledore. But it’s Mundungus through Dumbledore because Dumbledore says, you know, “You’ll have to give Voldemort the correct date of Harry’s departure…”
Andrew: Oh.
Micah: “…from his aunt and uncle’s. Not to do so, will raise suspicion. When Voldemort believes you’re so well informed, try Confunding Mundungus Fletcher. And, Severus, if you’re forced to be…”
Andrew: Oh! Okay.
Micah: “…take part in the chase, be sure to act your part convincingly.”
Andrew: Makes sense.
Matt: Mmmm. Okay.
Favorite Lines
Eric: Hmmm. Well, I – just again, think it’s funny. We have it down as favorite lines. “Harry, your eyesight is really awful.” That scene, where they’re all, sort of, changing clothes and stuff in front of Harry and Jo writes, “They wish they would treat his body with as much respect as they would treat their own.” Because they were kind of like – and there’s a – Fleur walks up to Bill and Bill says, “I’ll be taking Fleur safely on the Thestrals,” or something, and she gives him a pouty look that it says, “Harry wished for everything that would never appear on his face again.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: That was hilarious.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: That was absolutely hilarious. And it’s just Jo dealing with – writing a cool situation. A funny situation.
Andrew: My favorite line comes on page 46 of the U.S. edition. It was a little bit of foreshadowing. Not even, really. It was just like – I don’t know what the literary term for this is. I know there is one, but it comes from Moody. It says – they’re trying to catch up on stuff. Harry’s talking to Tonks about getting married and Moody says, “All right, all right, we’ll have time for a cozy catch-up later.” No you won’t, Moody. No you won’t.
Matt: Ohhh, irony.
Andrew: Oh, irony.
Eric: I’ll cry when I’m done killin’.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Matt: Oh, I have one too!
Andrew: Okay.
Matt: Okay, well, you know, I always go for the sarcasm, so this is right after everybody turns into Harry. And Fred and George…
[Eric laughs]
Matt: Let’s see, where is it? Oh yeah, “Fred and George turn to each other and said, ‘Wow, we’re identical!'” [laughs]
Eric: No, it was, “Hey, we’re identical.”
Matt: No – oh, I have the U.K. version.
Eric: Oh yeah, I do too. Oh! Really? Did they say “Wow, we’re identical”?
Matt: “Wow – we’re identical.”
Matt: Oh my gosh!
Andrew: This is a revelation! Stop the presses!
Eric: Oh, I’m sorry, Matt. I didn’t mean to correct you if I was wrong.
Matt: Oh, it’s okay. You were just trying to be like Micah and me.
Andrew: Or smarter than us.
Eric: “Hey, we’re identical!” I could’ve sworn…
Matt: Oh, sorry.
Andrew: Let’s have…
Eric: Chapter 5 – what?
Listener Rebuttal: Harry Saying Goodbye
Andrew: All right, let’s move on. We have one listener e-mail this week from Mira, 15 of Illinois. She writes:
“In Chapter 4, “The Seven Potters,” when Harry starts walking around the house with Hedwig telling her she should say goodbye to it, he opens his door to his cupboard under the stairs and Harry says, ‘Blimey! It’s small, I’d forgotten.’ That part was just so great. He was saying goodbye to his childhood. It was sad yet at the same time happy because he’s leaving all of those horrible memories of the Dursley’s behind. Yet he is also leaving the time when he didn’t have to worry about being attacked by Voldemort every other day.”
Just a little comment. And there’s another example of Jo just reminiscing.
I love that too. Great, great, great example.
Andy: That was nice.
Quote Quiz
Andrew: It’s time for Quote Quiz!
[Andrew and Matt echo “quiz”]
Eric: Geez.
Andrew: From “Fallen Warrior” the quote is, “Always the tone of surprise. Are we the last back?” So, obviously, if you remember the order where people came back, you should have an idea of who that is.
Eric: I think Moody said that. I think Moody said that.
Matt: It was Hedwig!
Andrew: [laughs] You think Moody said that.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Eric and Matt just made the same joke there but I don’t even think they realized it. [laughs] All right, so reminder to send in listener e-mails about next week’s chapter so we can discuss them on next week’s show. Read the chapter, get in some good thoughts, e-mail them to mugglenet at staff dot mugglenet dot com, and put in the subject line, “Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior.”
Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul: Finals Edition
It’s time to wrap it up today with Chicken Soup: Finals Edition.
Eric: This is from Scott Sullivan, age 18 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“My M.C. Chicken Soup. I have a life where I am insanely busy and insanely stressed out. I am a full time college freshman with classes everyday, and I have to drive to school every morning at 7 AM. Toppling traffic, homework, tests and especially the finals that are coming out in the next few weeks, I feel like the world fell on me and won’t get off.”
Oooh!
“However, I have one positive note. Every Monday morning, sometimes Tuesday…”
[laughs] That’s his way of saying we’re not consistent.
“…I am in a different world and can’t even realize that I have cars around me or that I’m totally stressed. Of course that’s because I have you all. Literally, my stress levels and cares leave for those long minutes in my rash and tired state when I get to listen and think ‘Harry.’ So, this is my thank you to all the MuggleCasters for being my personal Saint Mungo’s. Thanks, Scott.”
Well, that was really well put. “Personal Saint Mungo’s.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I’m kind of worried that you can’t realize there’s other cars around you. [laughs] I hope you’re not driving.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: That’s like driving to school like – yeah. I used to wake up all the time – in high school, I used to wake up in third period, you know, where I had driven the whole way.
Andrew: Oh, yeah, that was dangerous. Yeah. They let us kids drive at six in the morning when we were up until like, one in the morning. [imitates old man] “Back in my day, we would walk uphill both ways!” I can’t do an old man impression anymore. I used to be able to, for the record.
Matt: Finals stink.
Eric: Yeah, finals do stink. Let’s get a resounding, “Finals stink!”
Andrew: Finals stink!
Matt: Finals stink!
Eric: Finals stink!
Andy: Finals stink!
Andrew: [laughs] Micah’s been battling them…
Eric: Micah and Andy…
Andrew: …for years.
Micah: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Geez.
Micah: I’m done with those. I don’t have to think about them anymore, so – but I’ll say, “Finals stink.”
Eric: Think about what, Micah? Finals?
[Matt laughs]
Micah: Yeah, finals stink.
Contact Information
Andrew: It’s time to wrap up the show today. We want to remind everyone about our contact information. To send us some far – par, farcel mail. To send us some parcel mail [laughs]…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …you can mail to:
MuggleCast
P.O. Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia, 30028
You can also e-mail in your questions, comments, whatever you want to mugglecast at staff dot mugglenet dot com, or using that handy feedback form located on MuggleCast.com. You can also contact any one of us at our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com with the exception of Matt, who is matthewb at staff dot mugglenet dot com, and Andy, webmaster – his e-mail address is webmaster at harrypotterfanzone dot com. You can also visit the MuggleCast website for various community outlet links, including MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr. You can also Digg the show at Digg.com…
[Show music begins]
Andrew: …vote for us at Podcast Alley, and rate and review us at Yahoo! Podcasts. I, like, race myself every week to see how fast I can do it, but then I just screw it up.
Eric: What’s your record, Andrew?
Andrew: Oh, I don’t know. Someone should figure that out.
Eric: I’ll time you. Go.
Andrew: Don’t forget about the poll and also whatever else you want, it’s all available on MuggleCast.com.
Show Close
Andrew: Well, guys, we got 16 shows left. [laughs]
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I think we can do it. I like how we have a plan now, and we know where we’re going. We can – you know, we know exactly what we’re doing. We’re not fooling around, you know? We’re not just running around in the dark being like, “Hmmm, what can we use to fill the show this week?”
Eric: We’re not doing RambleCast.
Andrew: Yeah, right.
Eric: It’s MuggleCast.
Andrew: That’s a good point. There won’t be anymore rambling – like, we don’t, I don’t think we ramble that much to begin with, but it’s a very focused show now.
Matt: Oh, yeah. Now, it’s a focused show.
Andrew: Now it is, yeah.
Eric: Now it is officially now a focused show.
Andrew: Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us for this 124th episode of MuggleCast. Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.
Eric: I am Eric Scull.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Matt: I’m Matt Britton.
Andy: And I’m Andy McCray.
Andrew: We’ll see everyone next week for Episode 125, our holiday episode. Bye bye!
Eric: And I’ll be back in the States for Christmas!
Andrew: Yay!
Eric: Yay!
Micah: Yeah. Bah-hum-bug!
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Micah says, “Bah-hum-bug!”
Matt: That just came so naturally from him.
Bloopers
[Someone cheers in background]
Andrew: JK…
Eric: Is that…
Andrew: Somebody crying?
Eric: …somebody jumping into a pool or something? Off a high cliff?
Matt: It’s my hallway. Everyone finished their finals today.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: Ohhh.
Matt: No, it was Beedle the Bard. That’s why they’re all excited.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. [laughs]
Micah: Cue the blooper?
Andrew: So, Beedle the Bard… Yeah.
———————–