MuggleCast 186 Transcript
Show Intro
Ben: This week’s episode is brought to you by Audible.com, the leading provider of spoken word entertainment. Get a free audiobook download of your choice when you sign up today! Visit AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast today for details.
[Intro music begins]
Andrew: Broadcasting live on Ustream to Potter fans across the world, this is MuggleCast Episode 186 for December 9th, 2009.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: Ladies and gentleman, welcome everybody to MuggleCast Live Episode 186. Ben, Matt, and me all in the MuggleCast studio, this is a MuggleCast first, three people in the studio, but also joining us via Skype, two of the most talented people in Harry Potter podcasting, Eric and Micah!
Micah: What’s up?
Eric: Hey. Hey guys.
Andrew: Ladies, it’s a pleasure to be speaking to you. You’re both based on the east coast. We are here on the west coast. We are nationwide.
Ben: We’re live.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: We’re live, we’re worldwide, and thank you to the 938 people currently joining us on Ustream this evening. We are here to discuss numerous things.
Ben laughs
First Deathly Hallows Trailer Discussion
Andrew: First up, there was a trailer that I believe took us all by surprise.
Ben: Oh yes, I was shocked.
Andrew: It was the trailer that nobody thought would become a trailer. We had heard for a while that we were going to be getting a Deathly Hallows preview on the Half-Blood Prince DVD and we all thought – well, you know, honestly we were kind of screwed with Half-Blood Prince. We got little teasers in the beginning, but they kind of sucked.
Ben: And then they pushed the movie back.
Matt: Eight months.
Andrew: And they pushed the movie back. Correct. But now, here we are, Half-Blood Prince is all out of the way. Now all eyes are on Deathly Hallows and we got this really cool trailer. This really cool Deathly Hallows trailer on the Half-Blood Prince DVD.
Eric: Woot.
Andrew: And Eric Scull, what did you think about this trailer? Did it blow your mind like it did for me?
Eric: This – no, Andrew, it made me nervous.
Andrew: Nervous? Do tell.
Eric: Nervous.
Ben: Oh.
Eric: Yeah, well this is how it starts, and this is kind of my tirade here – my personal vendetta. But I have to say that this is – right before this trailer was leaked, and it was leaked a few days before the DVDs came out, we had those two promo pictures that we got the high-res quality of and I’m worried. Now I know that this trailer thankfully was part of this DVD of Half-Blood Prince that was released, but I really hope that all the special footage ends here for quite some time.
Andrew: Why?
Eric: Warner Bros. has a habit of spoiling the film, releasing clips…
Andrew: [laughs] It’s promotional material Eric!
Eric: Yes. No, there’s promotional material – no it’s not, Andrew – there’s promotional material and then there’s spoiler, and additional, and unnecessary material and that’s what this could very quickly escalate to.
Andrew: You know, Eric, I don’t appreciate this. We’re here in the holiday season. Everybody is very happy. We’re getting a great trailer.
Ben: Warner Bros. has given us a gift, Eric.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, well, thank you.
Andrew: It was a gift.
Eric: No, it is. It’s cool. It’s freaking awesome. It’s a look into the Deathly Hallows film which I think is going to be the best two part film series – two part film ever.
Andrew: Okay, well, we’ll get into general thoughts in a little bit. We’ll get into that a little bit more later on, but right now let’s go point by point guys and discuss this trailer, because honestly, there was a lot of stuff in this. Eric you can just sit in the corner and be all, “I saw too much.” [makes whining noises]
Eric: Andrew, first you should tell people where they can find this trailer if they haven’t…
Andrew: Well, MuggleNet.com of course.
Eric: Okay, sure.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Is that legal?
[Micah laughs]
Eric: On that thing that they may or may not have purchased perhaps yesterday.
Andrew: Oh, oh.
Micah: I think it’s legal now, right? The DVDs are out, so it’s legal now.
Andrew: No…
Ben: Well, you can’t just rip a clip off of a DVD and put it online.
Eric: It’s never been legal.
Andrew: Well, here’s the thing. Here’s what happened. Somebody got the DVD early a few days ago and they sent us the clip. It was on the weekend and you know, W.B. is not working on the weekend, so we posted it.
Micah: If it’s on the weekend, it’s okay. It’s not illegal.
Andrew: Yeah, we can get away with murder. So we posted it and immediately, I go to Micah and I said, “Micah, I am scared for Monday morning because I fully expect a call from W.B. Them saying, ‘Take it down! Take it down now! It’s illegal!'” But sure enough they didn’t and I’m kind of surprised. I’m not sure why they still are okay with the trailer. [laughs]
Matt: Well, by the end…
Eric: Maybe we should call up Warner Bros., Andrew, and make sure that they have your…
Andrew: I don’t want to know!
Eric: No, make sure that they have your number.
Andrew: They do. They call me when we get in trouble for other things. So
[laughs]…
Eric: Oh, okay.
Matt: Do you think they just didn’t care though?
Eric: If they lost your number though, what would you do? What if they just stopped calling?
Andrew: Well, that would be good if they stopped calling. That means everything is all right.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: So we posted this online. This is available on the Half Blood Prince DVD. By the way, just throwing that out there, somebody in the chat is saying that I’m so beautiful. Thank you.
Ben: Well, with that new 27 inch iMac, I mean…
Andrew: That’s right.
Ben: It compliments you very well, Andrew.
[Matt laughs]
Preview Discussion: Harry/Hermione
Andrew: So with this trailer we get an intro from David Heyman, the producer, and David Yates, the director, and this part actually didn’t leak online – or no, no – it didn’t at first, but then it did a little bit later. So this little intro from them had these cool behind the scenes photos. Did you guys see these? One of the first ones that we see are Harry and Hermione dancing.
Matt: Right.
Andrew: And, when I first saw this, I thought to myself, “What? WTF? We don’t see Harry and Hermione dancing.” Well, as it turns out, David Yates said in an interview a couple weeks ago – somebody asked him, “David, what’s your favorite scene in this movie?” And he said, “It’s very difficult to find a favorite scene, but something we just did as a part of the movie truly is priceless. It’s a part where Hermione and Harry dance together and not in the book. It’s something we created for the film and is actually very tender and a very nice and respectful and – I don’t know – scene where they reveal some secrets from each other while dancing.”
Matt: Wow.
Ben: Do you think this is going to reignite the Harry/Hermione shippers?
Matt: Yeah, I think its one last…
Eric: Yeah, actually, I think that’s what they’re going for, Ben. It’s very interesting that you say that, but even some of the other news we have about Harry being nude in particular scenes. You know, which is written in the books, don’t get me wrong, but they’re really going to have to lay that on hard to kind of I think make it more – you know, real – Rupert’s seeing Harry and Hermione.
Micah: You can throw the PG rating out for that.
Andrew: Right. But, I’m wondering…
Eric: Well, they wouldn’t…
Andrew: Well, okay, but they – they’re dancing and they’re – apparently they’re sharing secrets with one another? I mean what…
Eric: Yep, that’s odd.
Andrew: Is it going – is it something like this…
[Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” begins playing]
Andrew: …where they’re going…
Ben: Oh, no.
Andrew: [singing] “So Harry…”
[Ben and Matt laugh]
Andrew: [singing] “So Harry, tell me, what do you know about the Deathly Hallows?” “Well, I don’t know. I just want to dance!”
[Music ends]
Andrew: Okay. No, but seriously…
Ben: Ah, ah, whoa!
Andrew: Seriously, all Gaga – all Gaga-ing aside, what is the – what do you think? Are they sharing secrets or something? Or what’s going on?
Matt: Well, do you think this – this is probably after Ron left, right? So it’s just the two of them.
Andrew: Oh, oh so it’s a dance. Oh I get it! So you’re implying…
Matt: Maybe it’s just a…
Andrew: …that it’s like…
Matt: He’s maybe comforting Hermione after she’s so upset?
Andrew: Well, it’s like…
[Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance” plays again]
Andrew: [singing] “Ron is gone! Ron is gone! All right! All right!”
[Music ends]
Andrew: Like that?
Ben: No.
Matt: Not really, no.
Andrew: So…
Eric: I can’t hear Matt. He’s very far away.
Andrew: Matt, what do you think is going on in this scene then?
Matt: I think maybe Harry just wants to comfort Hermione because she’s obviously really upset that Harry left.
Andrew: Hmm.
Matt: So maybe they just want to have a dance or something. Maybe, I don’t know. I haven’t seen the scene yet.
Micah: Yeah, we still can’t hear Matt.
Ben: They – they’re super tight. They’re super chill. They always…
Matt: I mean they cried together in the last film.
Ben: …and stuff.
Eric: What did Matt say?
Matt: They cried – can you guys not hear me?
Andrew: Can you not hear?
Eric: No.
Andrew: Oh! [laughs] I just realized, now you can hear Matt.
Eric: That’s what we were saying.
Andrew: Sorry.
Ben: Oh.
Matt: Is that better?
Eric: Hey, Matt!
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Eric: Welcome to MuggleCast. Good to have you.
Matt: I was wondering why everyone was talking over me.
Andrew: This – people on the stream could hear him just fine but not Micah and Eric.
Ben: On the Skype chat.
Andrew: Sorry about that. [laughs] Go ahead Matt.
Ben: So anyways Ron – I mean, Harry and Hermione, they do these things. They go off and they have little chats about Ron. We saw a little clip of that in one of the deleted scenes on the DVD actually has Harry and Hermione discussing Ron, and “You better not be snogging in front of me,” and all that jazz.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: But I think it’s just another one of those situations.
Andrew: Micah, do you have any ideas?
Micah: About the dancing?
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Where it could take place? I saw that’s one of your questions.
Ben: Do you think they’re grinding?
Micah: They’re grinding?
Andrew: Well, that’s what I’m saying you know? They’re…
[Ben and Matt laugh]
Andrew: …Gaga’s going on and they’re like, “Oh yeah! Forget Ron!” That’s what Hermione says. I don’t know. I just think it’s really cool that David Yates said this is his favorite scene, and it’s not even something from the book. [laughs]
Ben: He probably get’s asked that question so many times he just makes something up.
Andrew: Picks a different answer each time.
Ben: Yeah. [as David Yates] “Oh yeah, this scene is beautiful.”
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Didn’t that frustrate a lot of people though? I’m sure some people listening to this show right now – that his favorite scene is one that’s not in the books?
Andrew: Well, that’s what I’m saying…
Micah: Especially after…
Matt: Well, yeah, because it’s where he got to be the most creative with it.
Eric: It…
Andrew: Probably.
Eric: …it’s too early to tell. Maybe that’s not why he likes it. I think as a director you’re forced to watch the actors and he might really – I just think he really fancies the chemistry between the trio. And that’s why he gets like – if you look at this, he – they show a clip of Harry and Hermione dancing while he’s talking about them and it just looks very friendly. It looks very close and cute and quaint. But, what do you guys think? I mean, you’ve seen the – we have shots of it, screen shots, but what does the background look like to you? Because it looks like to me there are tents set up or something…
Matt: Well, yeah. It looks exactly like the tent from the Goblet of Fire.
Andrew: Yeah. I agree with that. I think – I think this is one of the tents that they bring when they’re on their road trip.
Matt: Right.
Andrew: And it does look a lot like the one that’s in Goblet of Fire.
Matt: I think it’s exactly the same one because the tables look the exact same.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I agree.
Matt: So maybe it’s the Weasley tent that they just took.
Micah: Rough economy. W.B. had to reuse material.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: Well, that would be kind of odd wouldn’t it? Because, you know, they’re tents.
Eric: It’s worth the – I think, though they’re dancing in the foreground, and I wanted to say that the steps in the tent were probably just part of the set. You know, the camera will never show them, but then Harry and Hermione are dancing in the foreground so I don’t really know what kind of…
Andrew: Well also in Goblet of Fire those tents had steps inside too.
Eric: But did they look – were they planks? Were they like a back deck?
Andrew: I think so. I think so. If people…
Eric: If people figured it out…
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody in the chat says there are steps in the tent. And I think that’s sort of just to show how dynamic, how large and insane these tents can become.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: When you go inside of them. So you know, I think it’s cool. Every person has their own little loft in the tent. I think that’s very nice.
Micah: Wasn’t that tent destroyed in Goblet of Fire? It was like a nuclear wasteland after the Death Eaters went through there.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Oh, Micah, will you stop it? They bought a new one! Okay? Geez.
Micah: They can’t afford a new one.
Andrew: They can afford a new one.
Matt: They probably made a – yeah. “I love magic.”
Eric: Fred and George donated their new one. That’s easily solvable.
Andrew: You don’t know their personal financial situation.
Micah: The Weasleys’?
Eric: [laughs] It’s pretty apparent in the books.
Preview Discussion: The Wedding
Andrew: Okay, we also see before – this is all before the trailer even starts! It’s like “whoa!” We see a quick shot of the cast filming the wedding scene. That was nice because this is our first look at the wedding scene and you see lots of purple. I’m going to try to get some images up for the people on the Ustream. I’m sort of a mess right now. We see Bill and Fleur in the center. They’re dancing. They’re having a wonderful time. Molly and Bill are on the outsides like “Yay! Yay!”
Matt: Yeah, I love Molly in this.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Give it up for Molly Weasley.
Andrew: Give it up. Come on. [applauds]
Ben: Hands in the air for Molly Weasley.
Andrew: Yeah, speaking of that, Mikey Bouchereau was supposed to be here tonight but, unfortunately, he’s very sick. Mikey, we hope you get better. He called me this morning and he’s like “I’m so” – I was going to get out my phone creator but I couldn’t. He called me, he’s very sick, so we wish you well Mikey.
Audible.com
Andrew: We’d like to remind you again that today’s podcast is brought to you by Audible.com, the leading provider in spoken word entertainment. Audible has over 35,000 titles to choose from to be downloaded and played back anywhere. Just like MuggleCast! Log onto AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast to get a free Audiobook download of your choice when you sign up today. Again, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast for your free Audiobook! So, it looks like a nice party. You can see the Phelps twins in the background; they’re dancing. But I think that’s all we see. Do we see anything else, guys?
Matt: In that shot? Not really.
Andrew: Yeah. It’s kind of quick. It’s – you know. But you get it. We see that they’re there.
Eric: They’re doing a jig, it looks like. From the – yeah, it does.
Andrew: An Irish jig.
Eric: Yeah, just from the foot movements. That’s the way it looks.
Andrew: Or it could be Gaga, I mean we don’t know, in all fairness.
Eric: It’s probably Gaga.
Ben: Gaga won’t go away.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: [singing] “I’ve had a little bit too much.”
Preview Discussion: After the Wedding
Andrew: Oh Gaga. Okay, so we also see the trio walking through some, a town area, do you guys know what, is this Diagon Alley? Or, what is this, do you know?
Ben: This is – I’m thinking this is after the wedding breaks up and they go into that pub in Deathly Hallows – they go into the pub and mysteriously these Death – they use Voldemort’s name so the Death Eaters just kind of show up, out of nowhere. Is that where they’re at?
Matt: It might be.
Micah: Yeah. That’s probably a good guess just because I don’t think it could be Godric’s Hollow with the three of them there because don’t only Harry and Hermione go to Godric’s Hollow?
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you’re right. Isn’t there a scene where Hermione has like, blood on her hands?
Matt: Yeah, that’s the – that’s the next scene isn’t it? I think it’s not in the trailer yet. This is just the previews.
Ben: Oh, okay.
Preview Discussion: The Graveyard
Eric: I think you guys missed – there’s – right before the wedding scene, there’s one where they’re at the cemetery or there’s a cemetery and snow is lightly falling to the ground.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, we also see that in the trailer.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: That might be later in the notes, but yeah, and that’s – what do you think that is, Eric?
Eric: Oh, that’s probably Godric’s Hollow. But if it is, I just want to comment on the snow falling is perfect.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: It’s like very Silent Hill-y.
Andrew: They got it just right.
Eric: They did just get it just right.
Andrew: They captured the flakes perfectly.
Eric: The right amount and the right pace is what it looks like.
Matt: The amount of flakes per fall.
Eric: And silent – yeah, exactly! That is very important.
Andrew: If you could see David Heyman right now and say one thing to him, would it be “Thank you for the perfect snowfall?”
Eric: I think I would.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: I was a little worried about the snow at first, but you know what? You pulled it off great.
Eric: Well, it captures the moment. It’s hallowed ground. He’s going to see his parent’s headstones.
Andrew: No, you’re right. You’re right.
Ben: Now, Eric, do you think there’s too much snow?
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Ben: Do you think they’re giving too much away?
Eric: They could dial it back a bit, Ben, I think.
Preview Discussion: Shell Cottage
Andrew: Okay, so we also see – and this is our first look – well it’s not our first look actually because we have seen this so many times when they were doing on location filming, they built this thing in Pembrokeshire, if I remember correctly. They built this on a beautiful beach. It’s Shell Cottage. And I got to admit, when I first saw this picture [laughs]…
Ben: It reminded you of the Jersey shore, didn’t it?
Andrew: It did. I was like…
Ben: He wanted to go home.
Andrew: Jersey baby! No, when this trailer first leaked, it was in crummy quality and I thought that thing to the right [laughs] – I thought that was the back of Hagrid’s head!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Because if you squint at it, it looks like it and the quality was so bad.
Ben: [as Hagrid] “Oh, a cottage!”
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] So, yeah, we see the cottage. It looks beautiful, doesn’t it? I mean the detail in that thing is gorgeous.
Ben: I want to buy it.
Matt: Yeah. Let’s go on eBay.
Andrew: Well, that’s the thing. It’s like the built these beautiful things and then they just destroy them.
Ben: Yeah, they should auction them off on MuggleCast Live or something.
Preview Discussion: Ollivander
Andrew: Shorefront property. I’m sure the weather there is not too pleasant. You may not want to be there too long, but at least you’ve got Shell Cottage to live in. At this point the trailer has begun. We are past the little intro from Heyman and Yates, and we see Shell Cottage. That’s the first shot. Then we see Daniel, as Harry of course. He’s talking to someone, and he says, “What do you know about the Deathly Hallows?” Now, this has gotten a lot of people up in a “Like, oh my God!” He’s talking to Ollivander. People are wondering why he’s talking to him because…
Ben: Wasn’t he missing?
Andrew: Exactly! So what do you guys think of this? I’ll try to provide my…
Matt: This is Shell Cottage he is talking to him in. After he gets rescued.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yes, but Ollivander is explaining to Harry the Deathly Hallows.
Matt: Well, maybe he wants to talk to him again about it? He probably already knows from Xenophilius. He’s probably easing in onto asking him about Voldemort.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Okay. That’s what I was going to say, but a lot of people are freaking out about this. They’re like, “oh my God!”
Eric: Well, the Elder Wand – it’s incredibly relevant.
Andrew: Yeah, but what I think is going to happen is Part I you’re going to see them talk to Xenophilius and in Part II, Ollivander is going to be explaining the Deathly Hallows to Harry again. Or going into more detail about it. I think that’s what’s going on. I think people are afraid that the way this trailer is set up, it looks like Ollivander is the one who is telling all this stuff and Xenophilius is not telling him anything.
Matt: Right.
Eric: We did have that shot of Xenophilius. We know, that shot…
Andrew: Yes. We know he is there. He was cast.
Matt: He was cast and everything so that should be an indication.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Is this really from Part I?
Andrew: That’s the other thing. People are like, “Is this trailer for Part I or it is for both?” This trailer is for both. They never designate this as being a trailer specifically for Part I.
Matt: Right. Well, I remember for the trailers for Lord of the Rings they had parts from other films too in the trailers.
Ben: The filmed all those at once, right?
Matt: Yeah, they filmed all three at once.
Eric: Oh, that’s true.
Andrew: And again, this is a preview. This is not an official trailer. This is just a preview so we are looking at the thing as a whole, right now. So, all right, that was solved pretty easily.
Ben: Yeah. And by the way, yes, the movies really are going to end. Somebody in the chat wanted to know. They said they are going to cry.
Eric: Where is this chat you speak of?
Get MuggleCast Trending
Andrew: The Ustream chat. By the way, people on Ustream, we would love to trend on Twitter. And we got to do it before Glee starts on the east coast which is in about 40 minutes otherwise we never have a chance. So right now, if everybody could please tweet something, tweet anything, but just put MuggleCast in your tweet somewhere.
Eric: I’m – I’m doing mine right now.
Andrew: Tweet MuggleCast right now and we can start – we can trend – this is pretty – we’ve done this before with other podcasts. I think this is possible for us. MuggleCast is of course our largest podcast and we are most proud of it. So tweet MuggleCast right now. Let’s see if we can get trending. And while you guys are doing that we will continue to move on.
Eric: MuggleCast Live or just MuggleCast?
Preview Discussion: The Eyes
Andrew: Well, do what you want but just make sure it includes MuggleCast. We also see these eyes. The – the spooky eyes. Whose eyes are these, Micah?
Ben: We should play a game, Name – Name the Eyes.
Micah: [laughs] I like how you asked me that question. Whose creepy eyes are those?
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Micah, you are good at identifying creepy eyes, please tell us.
Micah: I read somebody sent something in, I think – and I agree with them, I think it’s the Minister of Magic.
Ben: Mr. Scrimgeour?
Matt: Oh, Scrimgeour.
Micah: Because the next picture is – is a scene with a lot of cameras flashing…
Andrew: Do you think that’s him?
Micah: … and I thought that was a scene where he has to go before a bunch of reporters and say something.
Andrew and Matt: Oh.
Micah: I’m not quite sure. It actually looked like Gary Oldman…
Matt: Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
Micah: … as Sirius Black.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: It looked like a lot of people to me. At first I thought Snape, but this guy is a little too thin I think. Then somebody speculated Grindelwald but that doesn’t really make sense.
Ben: He looks a little too young.
Andrew: Yeah. I heard of the – the theory of the Minister. I think that’s a good idea. Somebody said – yeah – somebody said in the chat [laughs] or in the MuggleNet comment board – they said, “Oh, oh. I know whose eyes those are because those are Bill Nighy’s. Because he does the same exact eyebrow raise in Pirates of the Caribbean 3.”
Eric: [laughs] You know what she’s right though. He does that eyebrow raise in all of his movies.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Ah! Why can’t they be original?
Eric: And they do look like him.
Andrew: I’m just kidding. He’s a great actor. But Bill Nighy, sorry, sorry.
Matt: Bill Nigh-ee.
Andrew: Wait. Is it Nigh-ee or Nighy.
Eric: The ‘Y’ is silent.
Andrew: Oh, Okay. So, it’s like Bill Nighy like the Science Guy.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Bill, Bill, Bill.
Andrew: Bill Nighy, Bill Nighy, Bill Nighy.
Ben: Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Andrew: Scrim-geour Srim-geour.
Micah: It looks like reporters though, doesn’t it? That he is standing in front of.
Eric: Maybe it’s his intro as a character because he was intro-ed in the books in Book 6. So maybe it’s like….
Ben: His eyes….
Eric: Something like – [unintelligible] – oh sorry.
Ben: All right. I was just going to say if the eyes are the windows to the soul, what does this guy’s soul say?
Matt: I like to tilt my head and raise my eyebrow.
Andrew: It says, “Wow!”
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: I can’t find the eyes.
Micah: What are the other options? Who are some of the other people that it could be?
Andrew: Well, I said – somebody – some people said Ollivander because this is like – this shot comes up right after Harry says, [in British accent] “What are the Deathly Hallows?” Then boom, eyes. [laughs] Like, Oh my God, you went there!
Eric: Yeah. [laughs]
Micah: What about Gregorovitch?
Andrew: Yeah? That’s a good theory. Some people in the chat are saying Aberforth but…
Ben: Those aren’t Aberforth eyes.
Andrew: No. [laughs]
Eric: They’re creepy eyes but…
Ben: What do you mean?
Eric: But not this creepy.
Ben: Yeah but not that kind of creepy.
Micah: They’re not goat loving eyes.
Ben: Micah, you always got to talk about the goats, don’t you?
Eric: He also has to name the episodes, too.
Micah: It wouldn’t be a proper show without that.
Andrew: It’s funny because Micah approached me a couple months ago and he said, “You know what? Enough of this goat thing. We got to stop.” But he still brings it up on his own! I try not to but Micah you do.
Micah: It’s for entertainment purposes.
Andrew: I know it is.
Ben: I think – I think Micah is in to cahoots with Aberforth.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: I think Micah might have a little goat problem, a little goat thing on the side.
Andrew: Or maybe W.B. asked them to start pushing Aberforth so they can push some Aberforth merchandise because who really cares about him? Unless you…
Micah: Well now that Dumbledore’s dead, the real Dumbledore, they need to pick up…
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Where’s the real Dumbledore?
Preview Discussion: Hermione Taking a Stroll
Andrew: Okay here’s another cool shot. And we’ll talk about the whole feel of this trailer later on. It’s beautiful this trailer. But we see Hermione and she’s walking – it’s a matter of perspective, everybody has a different perspective but it looks like she’s walking towards a building. You guys know what I’m talking about? I’m going to load up the picture right now. There it is! She is walking down this road and she’s going towards this building. Somebody speculated I read somewhere maybe she was leaving her house or something? But…
Ben: In these dark times why would she be walking alone?
Matt: These are mad times they’re living in.
Andrew: Yeah. Her parents’ house – people are saying it’s her parents’ house. I think that does make sense.
Ben: What, that big tower ahead is her parents’ house?
Eric: Estate. [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] No, she’s leaving. Unless this – maybe Emma is busy with school at Brown University. So maybe they just decided to shoot at Brown.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Oh…
Eric: No, I’m pretty sure this is the Granger’s estate because…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: No, look here’s the reasoning behind it, they are dentists…
Andrew: Yeah, so they’re rich.
Eric: … but – but they’re British dentists, so they’re loaded.
Andrew: Their property is also cheap. Oh.
Eric: No, because British people need their teeth fixed.
Ben: Oh….
Andrew: But they don’t get their teeth fixed, so.
Ben: Taking a shot at the British dental hygiene.
Matt: I know, Jesus. [laughs]
Eric: I’m just saying that that would explain the estate.
Matt: Maybe.
Andrew: I don’t know.
Matt: There is no scene with Hermione alone, is there? Except – except in passing, changing her parents.
Andrew: Right, well that – yeah. So maybe they decided to include it. Because Hermione does kind of look kind of badass walking away. She looks like she is on a mission. It’s kind of cool.
Ben: Yeah, this reminds me of a song by the classic rock band White Snake called, “Here I Go Again On My Own”. Andrew, can you play it, come on.
Andrew: I can.
Eric: Oh, hey, the chat says that Harry could be under his Invisibility Cloak.
Andrew: Oh. But look how perfectly…
[Song starts playing]
Ben: Bust to the chorus, Andrew!
Eric: Yeah.
[Chorus plays]
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: This totally defines the situation.
Eric: This would go great.
Andrew: I’m just – I’m looking at the picture.
Ben: [singing] “Here I go…” Fast forward, Andrew! You’ve got to get to the part where it’s like, “Here I go!”
[Andrew skips the song ahead]
Ben: Yeah!
Andrew: Get out of there, Hermione!
Ben: Go!
Andrew: Go!
[Music ends]
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: She’s shaking her head going, “Yeah!” It’s time for Hermione Granger.
Andrew: Oh, one day.
Matt: Girl power!
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Eric: These old segments aren’t dead. The – the – the chat is convinced that we just had a session of Make the Music Connection!
Andrew: That’s right, that’s exactly what we just did!
Matt: Yup.
Andrew: Well, here, let’s experience that real quick.
[Andrew plays the intro for Make the Music Connection]
Andrew: Nice! [laughs]
Ben: [laughs] There it is. M-m-make!
Andrew: Okay, let’s move on.
Ben: Let’s move on! What are we doing?
Andrew: Grow up, Ben, please! I was going to bring up something else about that – somebody in the chat…
Ben: Are we trending, yet? Are you guys Twittering enough?
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Ben doesn’t care.
Andrew: If we’re trending the show, unless we’re Twittering.
Ben: All I see is Glee, Tiger Woods, poor guy, and Santa.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: I love Santa. I was thinking about growing a beard out and becoming Santa.
Andrew: Ben, turn into Santa right now! Then we can pretend like that’s…
Matt: I’ve got – I’ve got some bleach. We can do it!
Ben: We can do it?
Matt: Yeah!
Ben: Well, the other day I decided it was my calling. I’m giving up the Harry Potter stuff and going to work at Macy’s.
Preview Discussion: John Hurt Back Again
Andrew: We see this is the – we also see in this trailer Ollivander talking to [laughs] – “Going to Macy’s” – talking to Harry. And it was nice seeing John Hurt again. We haven’t seen the guy since Sorcerer’s Stone. There he is, he’s looking great, hot off the presses. I mean, just a few weeks ago we were talking about him and how angry he is at the way that [laughs] – at the way that they were filming the Harry Potter movies. He said a few weeks ago, “Oh, they waste so much money over there. They have all these duplicate costumes, and argh, why do they need all that, rar!”
Ben: He’s a bit old-fashioned.
Andrew: Yeah, I guess so.
Ben: I love his hair.
Matt: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: All stringy and split-endy, and all that.
Andrew: He looks like he was a prisoner.
Matt: Of Azkaban.
Andrew: No, just a prisoner of – of the Malfoys.
Matt: Oh, okay.
Andrew: So it’s clear they’re at Shell Cottage. We can see some shells on the windowsill. I think that was a nice little touch. Anything to discuss there, guys?
Matt: Is he in a crib?
Ben: Yeah, it looks like he…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: It does look like that.
Andrew: [still laughing] He’s in a crib. He’s wearing diapers.
Ben: Depends.
Andrew: Voldemort really got to him.
Micah: No, you know, he laid down Griphook in the crib, so he was tending to him.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Ben: Hey, someone’s saying we’re trending. I don’t know if they were just messing with me, though. Sorry. Sorry to interrupt.
Matt: [laughs] Way to end the show.
Andrew: Matt’s done this before too, and I’m like, you’re lying. You’re lying.
Ben: Nope, no trending.
Andrew: Yeah, I think you guys are a bunch of liars.
Ben: Now tweet hard, folks! Tweet harder!
Andrew: Tweet “MuggleCast!” Thank you. We’re not all about Twitter, by the way. I sense emails coming, “You guys just wanted to twit – trend”. So we’re clear about that now. So Ollivander comes around in Part 2 and he clarifies the Deathly Hallows.
Matt: Yes.
Preview Discussion: The Marauder’s Map
Andrew: Okay. Then we see Harry and the Marauder’s Map. That was nice, to see that come back again.
Ben: Been there, done that.
Andrew: Been there done that, yeah, it’s so P.O.A. And we see Death Eaters. Where do you guys think they are? They’re standing outside a house…
Matt: They’re standing outside Grimmauld Place!
Andrew: Oh.
Ben: Oh.
Eric: What?
Andrew: Yeah!
Matt: Yeah, don’t you remember?
Andrew: Good theory.
Ben: And Harry’s like, “Ohhh!”
Matt: Aw, dang, we can’t go outside now, guys. [Matt laughs]
Ben: Nope, no going outside.
Andrew: House arrest!
Matt: This is actually a really awesome shot, because they’re just standing…
Andrew: It’s like a spy shot.
Matt: Yeah, it’s almost like the zombies are waiting for you to come out so they can eat your brains.
Ben: Now tell me you wouldn’t be scared if you were sitting up in there.
Andrew: That would be creepy. I’ve had nightmares like that where people are just standing outside your house waiting for you to come out. It’s – it’s scary!
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: That’s going to be wonderful.
Ben: Well one of these nights, Andrew, I’m just going to come outside and just start throwing rocks off your window.
Andrew: [laughs] Who is this?!
Matt: And he just tilts his head.
Ben: [singing] “Andrew save me, you don’t have to be alone.”
Matt: Aw…
Ben: Sorry.
MuggleCast 186 Transcript (continued)
Preview Discussion: Griphook
Andrew: And then we see Griphook and he’s talking to Harry. And we see Ron and Hermione in the background. And Griphook – it was – it was cool to see him. Is it just me or did he have a lot of makeup on?
Matt: Yeah, doesn’t – he looks creepy.
Andrew: Yeah it’s too…
Micah: Looks like a leprechaun.
Ben: Wait, wait. Those aren’t his real ears?
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Eric: That’s not Griphook. [laughs]
Andrew: No, it’s – what?
Eric: It doesn’t look like him. I mean it doesn’t look like the…
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: …Griphook from Movie 1.
Andrew: Well yeah, like it looks like he has really nice like – his skin just looks too clear – [laughs] – for Griphook.
Matt: Yeah, well…
Ben: He got a new face wash.
Matt: [as Griphook] “Lamp please. Key please. Stand back.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Wait, that’s not – yeah, that’s Griphook.
Matt: Yeah that was Griphook.
Ben: [as Griphook] “Stand back.”
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Someone in the chat says he’s aged well. That’s absolutely right.
Matt: Yeah, I mean his hairs not white anymore.
Ben: This is Warwick Davis, isn’t it?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Starred in The Leprechaun. He was on episode like what, like 65 of MuggleCast?
Andrew: Of MuggleCast? Yeah.
Ben: Back in the day.
Andrew: Yeah that was a fun interview with him.
Matt: Verne Troyer though was the original Griphook.
Andrew: No.
Ben: No.
Matt: He wasn’t?
Ben: Verne Troyer was that kid from Austin Powers.
Andrew: Yeah. But he had…
Eric: Yeah but he had – he had a Harry Potter role.
Ben: Did he?
Andrew: Yeah but we have to…
Eric: In fact I thought it was Griphook.
Andrew: It’s not though and I just – I proved this again the other day. The Ultimate – Sorcerer’s Stone Ultimate Edition he – Warwick Davis was interviewed and it says, “Griphook and…”
Eric: That doesn’t prove anything. IMDB…
Matt: Yeah because it says on IMDB that he played Griphook and I heard somewhere that he did play it too.
Ben: That Verne Troyer did?
Matt: Yeah, Verne Troyer.
Ben: Where? Let’s…
Eric: It sounds like him too.
Ben: On IMDB?
Matt: Yeah, on IMDB.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: Yep, Harry – in fact that’s his most known work. If you look up Verne Troyer it says, Actor, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Ben: IMDB must be wrong.
Andrew: I don’t know. I’m telling you. I’m telling you. Ultimate – he was interviewed on these Ultimate Edition that just came out. Warwick Davis is credited as Flitwick and Griphook.
Eric: You sure that was the…
Matt: Maybe he was the voice. Maybe he was the voice of Griphook.
Andrew: Oh, yeah maybe he was the voice.
Ben: No, no, no. [laughs]
Matt: Because – okay – Grip – okay. I mean – we know Griphook is – I mean Warwick Davis is not as short as Griphook was in the film.
Ben: Well there are more – there are more – there are more goblins in that first film, aren’t there? Isn’t there…
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: Is Griphook the one…
Matt: He – no, no, Warwick Davis played the head goblin banker.
Ben: Yeah. That’s what I thought.
Matt: The one who asks for the key.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: “Does Mr. Potter have his key?”
Matt: That was him. But he didn’t – he didn’t play Griphook. Verne Troyer did.
Micah: The one who opened the vault was Verne Troyer.
Matt: Yes, thank you Micah.
Andrew: All right. You know what? Who cares?
Micah: We don’t need to go into this anymore.
Andrew: This is never going to be solved.
Ben: Verne Troyer is not going to be in the last movie.
Matt: That’s because you’re never going to agree with us.
Ben: Well, who’s the current Griphook?
Andrew: Warwick Davis!
Ben: Okay.
Andrew: It was him.
Ben: I trust Andrew.
Andrew: Thank you.
Matt: Yeah well he plays him now but I’m not saying that’s what he played in the first film.
Eric: And it looks nothing like him.
Andrew: All right. Whatever, guys. Who cares?
Ben: Come on.
Andrew: I mean we’re – whatever. This…
Ben: We digress.
Andrew: This is so Gaga.
Ben: Ooh, la, la.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Oh my God, did you guys see this?
Andrew: What?
Matt: We got a tweet from Mikey Bouchereau.
Andrew: What did he say?
Eric: He just tweeted one minute ago. He says:
“Matt Britton, woohoo. You guys are doing awesome. I dig the video setup.”
Andrew: Aw, thanks Mikey. I love…
Ben: Ask him if he thinks its rad.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well I – he tweeted towards Matt. It would be rude for me to tweet him back. Matt is…
Preview Discussion: Harry in the Forest
Andrew: All right, let’s – yeah, you’re jumping into the conversation. All right let’s move on, let’s stay focused here. Next we see Harry – okay, here’s another mini-debate. We see Harry holding something in the Forest. Is it the Two-Way Mirror or is it the Resurrection Stone?
Eric: Where do you get all these scenes, Andrew? I…
Andrew: Well, you can look at the Ustream chat right now as long as you have it muted.
Eric: I – it’s not loading for me, man. I mean it’s not updating. I still see this video – oh it’s of you guys. Do I hit play?
Matt: Yes, dark.
Andrew: Oh no, no, no. Oh yeah, hit play but then hit mute on the volume on the thing. But yeah it is a dark shot. Harry is in the Forest up against a tree. Everybody says it’s the Mirror. All right, so we’ll stick with the Mirror.
Matt: Does, well – does he have the Mirror…
Eric: Harmonica?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah he’s playing the harmonica.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: [singing] “I’m so alone.” Okay, yeah, I…
Matt: It has to be the Mirror because the Stone isn’t that big. I thought it was like a pebble.
Andrew: Well…
Micah: It’s a – it’s a part of the Mirror. It’s not the whole Mirror, I don’t think.
Eric: Right, right.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s not like Snow White, “Mirror, mirror, in my hand. Who’s the evilest of…”
Matt: God, I’m gorgeous.
Preview Discussion: The Graveyard Again
Andrew: [laughs] Show me Aberforth. Harry and Hermione at the graveyard is the next scene we see. Eric we were talking about this before. Now, you were commenting on the snowfall in the behind-the-scenes footage. Now, what about the snowfall in the actual footage?
Eric: It’s on par with…
Andrew: On par?
Eric: With what I’d expect from having seen the behind-the-scenes look at the graveyard.
Andrew: Go ahead.
Eric: It shows that in the editing process they didn’t lose or add more snow. They thought it was as good as I did.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: But you also see the Peverell gravestone.
Andrew: That’s right.
Eric: Which is very mythological, very, you know…
Andrew: What do you mean?
Eric: The mythology of the – of the book. And the history of the Deathly Hallows.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: That’s a – that’s a relic.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But it also, it reminds me of the – you guys remember the Tom Riddle Senior gravestone that they screwed up the dates on in the props department?
Ben: In Goblet of Fire?
Andrew: Yes!
Eric: Remember that? And then the fans emailed and they were like, “Dude, you’ve got it all wrong.” But it had already made it into a trailer at that point, I think, or a promo.
Andrew: I think it was – yeah, I think it was a promo picture. But remember, Goblet of Fire just had a bad year in general. There was also that poster that was missing a comma. [laughs]
Eric: Oh!
Andrew: That got people all in a tizzy.
Ben: What was the poster where they doctored up Emma Watson?
Andrew: That…
Matt: Order of the Phoenix.
Andrew: Order of the Phoenix IMAX poster.
Ben: Was that – that was Order of the Phoenix, or was that Prisoner of Azkaban?
Andrew: No, no.
Matt: No, that was Order of the Phoenix.
Ben: Oh, it was?
Matt: Yeah. And they gave her…
Andrew: But it was just the IMAX poster and people noticed because the IMAX poster had Hermione with bigger breasts whereas on the Warner Bros…
Ben: Well it’s supposed to be in 3D! Give them a break.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: It’s in IMAX, it’s that much bigger!
Eric: They’re just giving you a preview of how much improved it was.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh, that’s terrible.
Matt: In the scene though – I mean, in the book, wasn’t Hermione and Harry supposed to be disguised?
Andrew: Where? Oh, in the graveyard?
Matt: Yeah, weren’t they taking Polyjuice Potion or something?
Andrew: I think that’s right.
Matt: They were supposed to be an old couple or something.
Ben: Yeah, they were an old couple, you’re right.
Matt: What do you guys think? Do you think this is better?
Andrew: I don’t know. Well, maybe they walk in under the cloak and then they take it off because for film purposes, you can’t have them hiding under that cloak the whole time, people want to see Harry and Hermione.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: And I know they’ve done it before where they’re semi-translucent so you know they’re under the cloak but you still see them. I just think that it’s better if you can actually see them. I would take off the cloak.
Matt: Okay.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean for God’s sake they can’t fit in it anymore. I mean, it’s even described in the books, you can see their…
Matt: See their feet, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Now, they’re going to see the writer of The History of Magic, right? What’s her name, Bathilda Bagshot? Is that who they’re going to see? No. Who is it, what’s her name?
Eric: What, at Godric’s Hollow?
Ben: At Godric’s Hollow. What’s the name of…
Micah: Yeah. That’s who it is.
Ben: Yeah okay. And doesn’t her head pop off and the giant snake comes out?
Eric: Yeah, the snake comes out. It’s one of the weirdest moments in the entire literature.
Matt: God I can’t wait to see that! I hope it’s graphic.
Andrew: Ooh, ooh I forgot about that! I’m all excited now.
Matt: It’s like the – the entire snake is inside her body.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. Under – I mean, it’s magic, to be fair. But…
Ben: It’ll be great to see how it turns out.
Eric: Yeah, Deathly Hallows is definitely a G-rated film.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Yeah…
Eric: If they keep going on the trend, you know.
Ben: Well I remember when everybody was like, “Well what’s going to happen with this next film? The fifth one was PG-13, the next one could be R, then what after that?”
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Then Part II! Part II is going to be rated X.
Andrew: Rated X.
Matt: NC-17.
Andrew: Well, you could make a lame joke about that now because of that naked stuff, but we’ll talk about that in a little bit.
Ben: Oh, naked stuff?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: You know I love naked stuff.
Preview Discussion: Harry Unconscious
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, so we then see these two really cool shots. I think these two shots may be my two favorite of the trailer. We see – let me switch it back to the slideshow for everybody listening on Ustream – we see Harry and he’s unconscious, he’s knocked out…
Matt: No, that’s Ron.
Andrew: No, no, no. First, before Ron.
Matt: Oh, okay.
Andrew: Before Ron, we see Harry and he’s laying there, you can tell they just came from London and I think this is after they…
Matt: After they Apparated.
Andrew: Yeah, after they Apparated.
Eric: Because that’s just kind of…
Andrew: Hm?
Eric: It looks like he’s seizing.
Andrew: Yeah, well I just wonder why he’s knocked out? Maybe just because they were running in panic and then they Apparated, so you’re sort of winded, I guess?
Ben: Or he stopped for a quick nap.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Yeah, don’t they get chased down though as they’re leaving the Ministry, aren’t there a bunch of curses being fired at them by the people that they turned into?
Matt: Is that after the Ministry, though?
Micah: Yeah, yeah, as they’re Apparating and trying to get away from the Ministry.
Andrew: Yeah…
Micah: I though a bunch of Ministry officials are after them.
Matt: Yeah, a whole bunch of people.
Eric: Doesn’t one of them grab them, and actually make it through with them to wherever they’re going next and they have to…
Matt: Yeah. I think so actually.
Micah: Yeah, actually I think…
Andrew: This is probably when Harry gets Splinched.
Matt: No, when Ron gets Splinched.
Andrew: Well, but some people are saying – I guess Harry doesn’t because he comes back. Yes, this is when Ron gets Splinched.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Look, all I know is that Harry has to get up soon or the fan girls are going to sit on him.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Yeah so – okay so we see Harry and then we see – this is a great shot. This is another thing where, when I first saw the leaked version – in the leaked version of this there was a camera up to a screen, I thought Hermione was wearing red gloves because her hands just looked very red. And I was like, “That’s nice! Hermione looks very nice with her red gloves and her nice dress.” And then you see the hi-res trailer, and its blood! [laughs] It’s like, whoa!
Matt: This is awesome.
Andrew: Hermione looks, if I may be so honest, fabulous. I mean, look at that dress.
Matt: Well, she just changed back from whoever she was supposed to portray in the Ministry of Magic.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: So, those were the clothes that she wore.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: That that woman wore.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. So she looks great. And there’s Ron in the background and Harry’s leaning over him. What do you think is going on? Is Hermione facing someone, or do you think she’s building a magical protection…
Matt: She’s doing the charms and stuff…
Andrew: Yeah, to put them around the – That’s pretty cool.
Ben: She’s like ew, got blood on my hands.
Andrew: [laughs] Ewwie!
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: Ew. Well, she could wash those off pretty easily. I’m surprised she didn’t do that first, but that is pretty gory. That’s a decent amount of blood she’s got on her hands there.
Ben: Mhm.
Matt: Well Ron’s dying.
Ben: This is the 7th book, man.
Andrew: Anything can happen.
Ben: Blood is spilled
Matt: All bets are off.
Ben: All bets are off.
Preview Discussion: On Location
Andrew: It’s a blood bath, like J.K. Rowling said. Then we see a picture, a shot of Ron peering around a corner in London, and that’s nice. We get to see them on location there.
Matt: Sightseeing.
Andrew: And then there’s another shot of Hermione. She’s doing a quick look around her back. She’s like [gasps]. She’s looking behind her. She’s in London.
Ben: Oh there she is with the red again.
Eric: It looks like Piccadilly, actually.
Andrew: Yeah, I think that’s probably – we saw photos, paparazzi photos…
Matt: Yeah, that’s her dress.
Andrew: …from when they were filming these. Yeah, and then we have a frontward shot, or front shot looking at the trio. And Hermione’s all panicked, and Harry’s in the middle, and Ron’s all the way in the back. And then it goes into – guys, if you have anything to discuss, feel free to stop me. I’m just going to keep running through these.
Matt: Mhm. What do you think about this scene though? I mean, what scene is this, when they’re being chased by the Death Eaters?
Andrew: Yeah – no. This is right after they get out of the wedding.
Matt: Oh, I saw some other photos you were doing.
Andrew: Oh yeah, I just switched back.
Matt: The ones in the forest.
Andrew: Yeah the ones of the London streets, this is right after the wedding, right? I mean…
Matt: Yeah, yeah. This is when they’re on Tottenham Court Road.
Preview Discussion: Frolicking in the Forest
Andrew: Yeah, yeah exactly. And then it gets into all the forest scenes, and it’s interesting because Dan said just a couple weeks ago that for a good six months, all they were doing was filming were these running scenes in the forest. [laughs] And we do see a lot of these shots. And they’re cool; they’re shot well. They’re very dark eerie shots and you know, they’re just making a run for it. It’s pretty funny.
Eric: We got a comment coming in through the Skype chat line from Jeremy of HPANA, and he says that Harry and Hermione are not using Polyjuice Potion in this trailer, but I don’t know how that’s exactly relevant at the moment because we know…
Andrew: Well…
Eric: We know they cast Reg Cattermole or whatever so they will be using the Polyjuice Potion it’s just…
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: They will use it in the movie because Hermione uses it to change into Bellatrix.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Right. We had that interview of her saying how fun it was…
Matt: We see the pictures.
Eric: Yeah. And we see the pictures. My bad. So I don’t know what quote that was. Oh, I have a reply coming. Anyway, but go on.
Preview Discussion: Overall Views
Andrew: Yeah. So then – what else do we got here? I think that’s pretty much it. That was the rest. We see a lot of the running through the forest, and then it wraps up. And that’s it. So what did you guys think overall of this trailer? I mean, impressive? Micah Tannenbaum, speak to me. Speak to me honestly, open up your heart now.
Micah: Well I’m happy. Well, I was a little disappointed you didn’t play the trailer as opposed picture by picture. You know the difficulty I have with pictures, but I don’t know, I thought it was a good look into what we can expect and obviously there’s a lot more that we haven’t seen yet. And I know Eric had a little bit of an issue with that, but I’m happy with that kind of a preview. We’re still a while away from this movie being released.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But if it stops here, is what I’m saying, I’ll be happy. I mean…
Andrew: [laughs] No more trailers!
Eric: We already – all these new scenes, dude. We already have all these new scenes. We’ll practically have almost seen the second film before the first one comes out in theatres.
Andrew: Well I think this is the last of the Part II stuff.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: They’re going to start pushing Part I. They don’t want to spoil any of the plot of Part II.
Eric: I don’t care if it’s Part I or Part II, it hasn’t come out yet and it has no place being on our web.
Andrew: Are you about to cry?
Matt: Geez.
Andrew: It’s the holidays. Cheer up, it’s the holidays.
Matt: Count to ten.
Eric: Well, I have a clarification from Jeremy. He says in the graveyard scene – remember they were under Polyjuice Potion when they see Bathilda and yet somehow she beckons them, and Harry feels like she knows who he really is.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: But, yeah. So they’re walking through the graveyard in this trailer, and it shows them as themselves. As opposed to – that’s something that obviously is changed.
Matt: Right. Yeah.
Eric: Okay, so that’s the insight. That’s what makes sense.
Matt: Right.
Andrew: All right. Well, moving along. Ben, what do you think about this trailer? Are you impressed with it, I mean?
Ben: Yeah, I really am. I think that we can expect good things with this film, but I don’t know, I kind of see where Eric’s coming from where he doesn’t want to be spoiled, but then you have to also remember that you make the choice to watch it, so…
Andrew: Right.
Ben: …you can’t really get too upset at W.B.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Knowing that it exists is enough to upset me, okay. Watching it is something separate entirely.
Ben: Well you know they probably have the whole film that exists somewhere. There’s a bunch of clips that exist.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean it’s shot. Are you upset that it’s shot? [laughs]
Eric: No.
Matt: He’s just upset that the last film is starting to coming out.
Eric: Dude – you guys – No – No! I’m not upset about that!
Ben: Whoa, whoa, whoa, Eric why are you so defensive?
Andrew: All right Eric…
Eric: You guys are always with me on this…
Andrew: I’ve had enough…
Eric: …whenever I talk about this…
Andrew: No, no, no, listen…
Eric: …you are always with me. I don’t know why…
Andrew: A first look is fine. Listen, this is too off track. We’re supposed to be celebrating the trailer.
Micah: Make it snow in the studio or something.
Matt: I know; that will calm him down.
Eric: Slowly, slowly.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Anyway, enough of this, let me talk. Jesus.
Ben: Oh yeah, like you don’t talk enough.
Andrew: [scoffs] I think this trailer is really good. You see the artistic difference in this film, and they have been hyping this up since the starting of filming. They have said that this is going to be a road movie- or Part I is going to be a road movie. I don’t think we’re going to see Hogwarts at all, at least in Part I of course, and I think that’s great. Although I think it would be cool to maybe throw in a shot or two, go back to Hogwarts to see what’s going on there while they’re running around in the forest, but we don’t know what we’re going to see exactly. But I think cinematically this is really a time for the producers, the film makers to really shine, because now they can work with these out of studio, so to speak, these on location shoots and these on location scenes, and really make them special. I’m just – I am thrilled it is two parts.
Matt: It’s great.
Andrew: Matt, how about you?
Matt: About the teaser?
Andrew: Yes.
Matt: Yeah, I got to say, I was teased. I think it was actually a pretty good teaser.
Ben: Give me more, yes.
Matt: I think maybe a little bit of the editing was a little choppy. But other than that I thought it was a great teaser, even it had from both parts in it. Do you think they probably put Part II parts in it because they didn’t have some of the shots from the first film fully finished yet?
Listener Tweet: Extra Bits
Andrew: I don’t know. Well yeah, I mean obviously the film’s not finished yet, but I think overall this is just a preview. This is not specifically Part I; this is not specifically Part II, it’s just an overall broad thing, you know? We have some tweets, we asked people to send in their feedback about the trailer. We wanted to know what did you like about the trailer? And we got some tweets, this first one is from joshboulton. He says:
“It looks like they’ve put lots of the extra book details, parents, graveyard, etc., in that wouldn’t have made the cut if it was one film.”
Andrew: And yeah, I agree. I mean, we’re so lucky to have this in two parts now, because otherwise it just would’ve been – we would have been complaining.
Matt: Yeah.
Listener Tweet: Amazing and Bittersweet
Andrew: Got to send it off right. emma_849 says:
“It’s amazing! – referring to the trailer – the line, ‘If it’s true, you don’t stand a chance,’ gave me chills. It’s also a little bittersweet.”
That was quite a cliff-hanger! That is a great way to set up the film as a whole: “You don’t stand a chance.”
Matt: It was kind of a little hard to follow what he was talking about, because while he was talking all those action sequences were going.
Andrew: It was a lot to comprehend, you say?
Matt: Yeah, definitely you have to see it at least a couple more times.
Micah: Maybe that’s how the first movie ends.
Matt: [gasps] “You don’t stand a chance.”
Andrew: Oh, I hope not. Okay, let’s listen to – let’s listen to it.
Matt: Let’s watch the trailer.
[Andrew plays the preview, to view it, click this link.]
Andrew: I wish I had this guy’s voice.
[The preview continues]
[Preview cuts off prematurely]
Andrew: Oh, sorry! [laughs]
Eric: Who is that guy? Dude, who is that guy?
[Andrew continues the preview]
Matt: Yeah, get him to intro the show.
[The preview continues]
Andrew: It’s so eerie!
[David Heyman starts speaking]
Andrew: We don’t care about this part, we’ll skip this.
Matt: Oh okay.
Andrew: Okay here we go, get ready guys.
Matt: Here we go.
Andrew: Woo!
[Andrew plays the preview again]
Andrew: [laughs] Quite eerie. By the way, I know you guys couldn’t see it in the chance – in the chat. I said, let’s listen to it. Sorry I couldn’t bring it up.
Matt: Hey sorry, I didn’t bring this up while we were talking about the teaser, but isn’t it awesome that this is at the end of the trailer – or at the beginning – the clouds are actually moving away from you?
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: In every other trailer…
Andrew: You mentioned this, but what? Explain this again.
Matt: Yeah okay if you watch all the trailers, all the teaser trailers, and all the trailers for every Harry Potter film the clouds are approaching you with the graphic and then this is the only film where the storm clouds are actually moving away from you.
Eric: If that’s true Matt…
Ben: You don’t stand a chance…
Eric: …that is the coolest thing ever.
Andrew: [laughs] Where is this in the trailer? I’ll play it, I’ll actually play it.
Matt: In the very beginning or at the very end with “Harry Potter.”
Andrew: Wait this part right here? Oh this part, oh like you’re flying through the clouds?
Matt: Away from the clouds.
Eric: Oh right.
Andrew: Okay…
Matt: Like its ending.
Andrew: Let’s look at this real quick.
Matt: I’m telling you go watch.
Andrew: I’m having a hard time grasping the importance of this but, okay here we go, full screen.
[Andrew plays the end of the preview again]
Andrew: Wow! Wow! [laughs]
Matt: I thought it was awesome.
Andrew: I just – I’m confused but okay. So that’s our thoughts about the trailer. How many more trailers do you guys think there are going to be? By the way, Matt you’re absolutely right people in the chat are going absolutely crazy right now. They’re like: “Oh my gosh!”
Ben: For Eric’s sake I only hope there’s a couple more.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: So we get this preview on the Half-Blood Prince DVD. We’ll get – I think we’ll get a Deathly Hallows: Part I teaser trailer, then maybe one or two theatrical trailers?
Matt: This is going to be really interesting because they’ve got two parts to this film.
Andrew: I think we’ll have a teaser and a theatrical for each part so we’re looking at four more trailers I think.
Matt: And then 3,000 more TV spots.
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: And another 100 clips from the movie itself.
Matt: And then a documentary about behind the scenes that include every other missing scene that we haven’t seen yet.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Matt: And then the movie will come out.
Listener Tweet: Future Trailers
Micah: I think this tayfran person asks a good question related to the trailers. She or he said:
“This one is all about the Hallows, what about the Horcruxes? Could future trailers focus on those since we had no mention of them.”
Matt: Well each trailer is probably themed – like the last film.
Eric: That’s a good point because we – because the Horcruxes took a backseat in Movie 6. So seeing them – or not seeing them in Movie 7 kind of very interesting because they are the key to defeating Voldemort.
Matt: Well they just did it in this teaser; in the trailer it may be all about the Horcruxes.
Andrew: Well yeah we remember about the Half-Blood Prince trailer that all was about Tom Riddle and that was a great trailer, very eerie, very dark.
Matt: Yeah then they had the fire trailer, the one all about fire.
Andrew: Oh right.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Oh yeah that was funny, “fire!” So yeah I’m hoping for one more teaser trailer. I think it is a lot to throw the Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows into one trailer. Because that’s a lot of…
Ben: Yeah most people are going to be like, “Huh?”
Andrew: Yeah because you’ve got to explain one and then be like: “by the way there’s another really crazy in depth story line going on here.”
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: So let’s talk about – by the way since we’re in the middle of this break right now I just want to say thanks to everyone joining us on Ustream; it’s wonderful to be speaking to you all on this wonderful Wednesday evening…
Matt: We are going 24 hours a day…
David Yates on the Nude Scenes
Andrew: …in the Holiday season. 1100 of you listening, that’s great, thank you so much for listening to us tonight. Deathly Hallows – we see a couple of unique scenes in the Deathly Hallows books – in the book. This new interview, there was this new interview a couple weeks ago with director David Yates with La Vibra, and originally this didn’t get picked up because it’s a foreign – news source and they – it was like a Spanish article or some foreign language, Snitch Seeker, another Potter fansite, picked it up, they noticed it, and a lot of stuff is revealed. David Yates revealed, I’m going to quote him right now – he’s talking about nude scenes in Deathly Hallows, and he says:
“Well Dan has appeared nude in the past but there are a couple of scenes in the new film where he will undress but we’re still thinking about how we present it. It’s a fascinating scene in which Harry and Ron are trying to kill a Horcrux, he tries to defend himself and creates an image of Voldemort’s soul and there are a series of images between which are Harry and Hermione kissing and embracing and we will create something very sexy and very intriguing to bring about the reaction of Rupert whom Hermione is in love with.”
Matt: Are they going to be naked in bed?
Andrew: No, I hope not. Well naturally…
Eric: And they didn’t say that she’d be naked, I assume that she’ll be wearing a nice lingerie at least.
Matt: A nightgown.
Andrew: [laughs] Something…
Micah: Petty?
Matt: It’s going to be red.
Andrew: …something sexy from Victoria’s Secret.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, and Harry will be nude, you know.
Andrew: Okay, well anyway, so – and then we also learn that there’s a scene in King’s Cross Station where Harry almost dies and sees Dumbledore. In that scene, he will also be naked.
Micah: I bet Dumbledore likes that.
Ben: Ooh.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Look, that’s the question! That’s the question I have, Micah. Do you think Dumbledore will also be naked? Because how else could he be?
Ben: Dumbledore.
Andrew: Oh no! No!
Eric: No, look. Get this. Okay, if Harry’s naked, and Dumbledore’s just talking to him randomly about what’s going on in his head like, “We’re in your mind, Harry, and you’re nude.”
Matt: No!
Eric: Seriously, the only way it won’t be creepy is if everyone in that…
Andrew: Right. I get what you’re saying. It’ll go like this: He’ll see Harry naked, and Dumbledore will go, “Will it make you more comfortable if I took my clothes off as well?” [laughs]
[Ben laughs]
Eric: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, “Shit, I’m walking around King’s Cross without clothes on, and there’s Dumbledore, and he’s…”
Andrew: That’s very inappropriate. Eric, grow up.
Eric: …straight out…
Ben: [as Dumbledore] “It is our bare skin, Harry.”
Eric: So what is this King’s Cross – I don’t know.
Andrew: That’s funny. Well…
Matt: He is naked in King’s Cross in the book.
Andrew: First, let’s talk about the press.
Eric: Well, doesn’t he find clothes, though?
Andrew: Hold on.
Eric: Because…
Andrew: Hold on a second. We’ll get to that in a second.
Matt: Maybe Dumbledore robes him.
Andrew: All right you two, hold on a second. So, the press picked this up. They – because, you know, a very sexy scene in Harry Potter. Oh my God! So there were a lot of press articles from The Telegraph, I believe The AP, lots of local news sites across the country, and it’s a shame that it’s probably getting a little blown a out of proportion because what we’re reading is a translated article. It’s a rough translation. David Yates may have not exactly meant these exact wording. Although…
Ben: And it’s from La Vibra. [laughs].
Andrew: But I mean it’s not like [laughs] – It’s not like it was made up. Let’s start with the scene that – the Horcrux scene. I think it’s a clever idea. It’ll drive Ron crazy. I have a hard time seeing Rupert lose his mind watching this happening, but I don’t know. Eric, what do you think of this in particular? Ron watching a naked Harry, and who knows what Hermione’s going to be wearing.
Eric: It’s brilliant, because I feel it was in the book. I mean, I feel like it’s really a way to interpret what was in the book, that Harry – I mean Ron is seeing them in an intimate moment, you know, of them together. And that’s obviously one of his deeper fears, I guess. That they’ll abandon him.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: So that’s – I think it’s essential. That scene I defend him being naked in, and even in King’s Cross I do. I just – I really wonder how they’re going to do it, but, you know, I’m excited.
Andrew: Ben, what’s your spin on this?
Ben: I don’t know. I don’t really have a spin.
Andrew: Well, what do you think of it? I mean…
Eric: He’s tweeting about his hair, Andrew. He just tweeted that his hair was redone.
Andrew: Micah, how about you?
Matt: Stop stalking Ben, Eric!
Andrew: While Ben gathers his thoughts.
Micah: Well, I mean I think I expected it for King’s Cross because that’s explicitly stated in the book. I don’t think it’s as explicitly stated with the scene, you know, when they’re out in the forest…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: …between Harry and Hermione, and I don’t understand the need for him to be naked in that scene, and if one is naked, the question obviously comes up will the other be?
[Ben laughs]
Micah: I mean, you might as well be equal opportunity.
Ben: Well, I think the whole…
Eric: Co-educational.
Ben: …there’s like a symbolism thing going on here where Harry dies, like sort of pseudo-dies…
Andrew: Right.
Ben: …and he’s naked because you come into the world naked, and he’s supposedly – in this moment, he’s like completely open to the world…
Micah: Right.
Ben: …and he’s learning everything he’s supposed to know, and he has that one final moment with Dumbledore before he goes back to finish off good ol’ Voldy.
Matt: With clothes.
Eric: I mean…
Ben: With clothes.
Eric: Yeah, is Dumbledore just going to be cool with that?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Like Harry’s walking around naked. “Hi, Harry.”
Ben: Well, something tells me that I don’t think the nudity, or lack thereof, is really going to be the focus of that scene.
Eric: No, but still.
Andrew: Well not for you! [laughs]
Ben: Well, okay. I mean, for sure.
Eric: Well, I remember the bathtub scene in Goblet of Fire. Remember, it was like “Oh my God! Harry has his shirt off!”
Andrew: That was so funny. Because that was the first time – “Oh my God! Dan Radcliffe, a child superstar, without his shirt on!”
Ben: And then he went and did Equus, and everyone was like, “Oh!”
Matt: “Oh never mind!”
Andrew: That’s nothing.
Eric: You’re no longer special.
Ben: And so really, it isn’t anything we haven’t seen before.
Andrew: Well, that’s what I’m thinking, yeah.
Matt: It’s old news.
Andrew: And David Yates kind of compares it to that. He says, “Dan has appeared nude in the past,” and I’m not sure if he was referring to Potter films or Equus.
Ben: Well, let’s get this straight. He may appear nude-ish, but he’s not going to be baring it all like Equus.
Andrew: But how do you know, Ben?
Ben: Okay, when’s the – they usually don’t have those shots in Harry – in films, typically.
Andrew: You’re absolutely right. [laughs] Unless they want to go for Rated R, and that they would want to avoid, so I think it’s a pretty big given.
Matt: Well, a rear shot is PG-13.
Andrew: Is it?
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, and then…
Ben: What about a side shot? What if you get like a side/rear action going on?
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: I don’t know the exact details on what makes an “R” rating, but I think full frontal is probably “R.”
[Ben laughs]
Eric: Yeah, remember guys that there’s a group of parents that rates all these movies.
Matt: Mhm.
Ben: A group of parents?
Eric: Yeah, isn’t it Andrew?
Ben: MPAA?
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. It would be funny if it was full frontal, but Dan was artistically covering up his lower half with his leg or something you would see in, like…
Eric: Like Dumbledore…
Andrew: Not that I read it – I’m above this – but Playboy or something.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: I don’t know what you’re saying.
Andrew: Ben knows what I’m talking about.
Micah: There’s – never mind.
Andrew: Micah, final word on this topic, please.
Micah: No – no, I think you covered all the topics that need to be covered. And uncovered.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: We got word from the chat – full frontal flaccid is PG-13. [laughs]
Ben: Full front…
Matt: Full frontal flaccid?
Andrew: No, that is not true!
Eric: Not true at all.
Ben: That is a lie.
Eric: Chat said that.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I’m just reading what it says in the chat. I knew it was “X”.
Ben: I love that word – flaccid.
Andrew: Let’s not say it again, please. Please. [laughs]
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Are we not allowed to say “flaccid”?
Andrew: I don’t know. I’m sorry, I’m sorry – I’ve got Harry right here next to me. It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay – we’re covering you. And Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s, “yeah”.
Matt: Nice and flaccid.
Ben: Oh, guys, guys, guys.
Andrew: Okay, so enough with that, fellas – that’s still a year away. Let’s focus now – Matt could you do me a favor? Could you go get the Half-Blood Prince DVD for me?
Ben: Ooh!
Andrew: Let’s talk about the Half-Blood Prince DVD. In the U.S. and the U.K. it was on store shelves this week. It hit U.K. stores…
Ben: Andrew, did you rush out to get your midnight copy?
Andrew: No, not at midnight. There were Blockbuster midnight releases.
Ben: Oh, Blockbuster’s doing anything right now. [laughs] They’re going under.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Yeah, the one in my town just closed.
Andrew: Yeah, they’re all closing. They will not be having midnight releases for Movie 7. [laughs] I don’t think they’ll be around by then. At all.
Ben: Ah, let’s have a moment of silence for Blockbuster.
Andrew: [laughs] That’s right. No, you know what? I take that back. Blockbuster’s a great company and…
Matt: It had a good run.
Andrew: They had a good run. And they still have – they still got stores open. That’s beside the point.
Matt: It’s all about Redbox.
Andrew: Let’s talk about the Half-Blood Prince DVD.
Eric: Redbox for the win.
Andrew: It was released – Matt, can you do me one more – never mind, they’re right here.
Matt: Oh.
MuggleCast 186 Transcript (continued)
Theme Park Preview
Andrew: Half-Blood Prince DVD was released. We’re going to talk about it right now. Before we start, I just want to say that David Heyman – there was an interview with him about this DVD – and Mr. Heyman said that they were really going to – they wanted to add more features to the disk because they wanted to make it more marketable. Understandable, because in these hard times they want to make your purchase more worth your money. So there were a lot of features and we’re going to go through all them now, and we’re going to figure out if this was actually worth the money. I mean, it is just for the film. But were the special features good – were they worth the money? Let’s start with the theme park preview. We got an eleven-minute look at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. It’s opening in Universal Studios, Orlando next year. Ben Schoen, did you watch this preview?
Ben: Yes, indeed I did.
Andrew: What did you think of it? I see you have notes there.
Ben: Oh, always have notes. Got to prepare Andrew.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] I see.
Ben: I liked a lot of the shots of the theme park. It was cool seeing the art director’s model of everything that’s going on down there.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Got pretty excited about going to the Three Broomsticks and getting some Butterbeer. Was a bit disappointed to hear that the Butterbeer has no alcohol.
Andrew: [laughs] Well, they got to sell it to everyone, I guess.
Ben: Yeah. Let’s see, I’m trying to figure out where – okay, here we go. Yeah, I mean I wasn’t really overly impressed with it. I mean, I haven’t been down there to see it or anything…
[Matt laughs]
Ben: Or anything like that, so I really don’t know. I think it’s going to be great to have Hogwarts come to life and as Matt and I were watching the preview of this just a little bit ago, we turned to each other and were like, “Man, that place is going to be crowded.” You know?
Andrew and Matt: Yeah.
Ben: The Owlery for example – everyone’s going to be in there like, “Oh my gosh! I want to see that!”
Matt: The Three Broomsticks – you’re not even going to be able to get inside.
Andrew: It’s going to be very crowded. And I mean, I’m just wondering – maybe after a year it may start slowing down, but I wonder if they’re going to be limiting the amount of people into that area of the park. Because it’s only a certain size, it’s not an entire gigantic theme park, its one world within a theme park.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: So I think that’s going to be pretty difficult to work with. But that’s beside the point. Micah…
Micah: So the map – what?
Andrew: No, go ahead, Micah.
Micah: No, I was going to say – this is a preview I think Eric would have liked because it didn’t give anything away, really.
Andrew: [laughs] Is that true, Eric?
Eric: Actually, I had trouble finding the two-disk Harry Potter DVD. It wasn’t on shelves at all. And the Ultimate Editions too, they just weren’t – I went on Tuesday and they weren’t there.
Andrew: Well, they were probably sold out.
Eric: I don’t know, though. It was early in the morning. I mean, Target had these special – Target had the extended version of the film itself.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Like the disc two from the ultimate separate package, everything. But I couldn’t find any of the two disc Harry Potter sets. There were hundreds of – thousands of the one disc, but not the two disc. So I actually just got the one disc.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Ben: Andrew, how much money have they put into this theme park?
Andrew: Oh, it’s a lot. Micah, do you remember? There was a quote a while ago. I want to say…
Ben: A couple hundred million?
Micah: I think it was around $300 million.
Andrew: Three hundred million?
Micah: Yeah, I think that sounds right.
Ben: So do you think things are still going to be popping off at Wizarding World, you know, 2020, 2022?
Andrew: Oh, you mean will it still be really busy?
Matt: Well, Ben and I were thinking, like, are they going to expand it on to Universal Studios, Hollywood, even?
Andrew: Oh. Well maybe, but I think there’s room to grow the park because, you know, they’ve got plenty of space around the park. They could easily build it out more. I think that, you know, it’ll definitely continue to sell. I mean, look at other parts of theme parks that – like Jurassic Park. They have a world down there for Jurassic Park, they have a world for Dr. Seuss. I mean, these are all old movies and stuff, but they’re still very successful.
Ben: When’s Twilight World going up?
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: You know…
Eric: Didn’t you hear?
Andrew: Let’s not even talk about that.
Eric: All those restaurants in Forks and stuff now.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. That is Twilight…
Matt: Oh, I got it.
Andrew: Go ahead, Matt.
Matt: So, Universal estimates that the Wizarding World will cost about $265 million.
Ben: Wow.
Eric: And it’ll make that back in opening week.
Andrew: I was going to say…
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, not a week, but – six months?
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Two hundred and sixty-five – somebody do the math on that. Divide that by, like, hundred dollar tickets.
Ben: Hundred dollar tickets.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Well, plus whatever you spend once you’re inside.
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: Oh yeah, they’ll make it back in a year, maybe.
Andrew: Yeah. They’ll make it back, end of story. [laughs]
Ben: Yeah. Otherwise they probably wouldn’t be building the thing.
Andrew: Right. And it’s a huge draw. And they’re really counting on it to be their thing to kick Disney in the butt, I think.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: So we do learn some new things, actually. We do learn more about the “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” ride, and that’s the ride that’s going to be in Hogwarts Castle itself. And we learned the name of it back in September, and we heard that it’s going to be a really cool ride, but they didn’t go into any new details – in September. But now, Dan describes the ride in this preview as, “the ride is essentially a condensed form of the chaos of Harry’s life.” We learn that there’s going to be a life-sized Whomping Willow. That’s pretty cool.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I bet they’re going to make that go right over your head.
Ben: That sounds like a safety hazard.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Of course it won’t actually… [laughs] You are so – they – we learn that they shot some new footage just for the ride. That was a rumor a few months ago…
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: …but that’s confirmed now. We learn that in the queue – in the waiting line to get onto the ride there’s going to be lots of moving portraits, so you’ll be very entertained as you’re waiting in line. And we also learn – now, they didn’t make this clear if this was going to be in the actual ride or if it’s going to be in the queue, but they said we’re going to see the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, the Common Room and the Great Hall, among others.
Matt: Do you think its part of the line? Like maybe when they do – when the line gets really long they shoot you off to other rooms.
Andrew: Go through different sets?
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I think that would make sense. I’m not sure, but this “Forbidden Journey” ride is going to be the ride in the park. And for those of you who have been to Universal Studios, they have this existing Spider-Man ride and it’s really cool. It takes you all over Spider-Man‘s world, essentially. And it feels like you’re flying up in the air and you’re shooting down. You are, but it’s not as dramatic as it actually feels. And I picture it being like that. There’s a lot of fire, water, just a lot of cool stuff, and I think they’re going to be doing that with Harry Potter.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: You know, as Dan describes it, it’s “all the chaos of Harry’s life.”
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, and that ride – that Spider-Man ride is at least ten years old.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: So think of how far they can come.
Andrew: Oh yeah. They said – they’ve said they’re using state-of-the-art technology for this new theme park, so…
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: So good stuff.
Micah: And wasn’t there one thing that was mentioned about the “Dragon Challenge” ride? Dan said that you’ll get to walk through the tent.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh yeah.
Matt: I think that’s right at the beginning before the roller coaster starts.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s really cool.
Matt: It’s like you slowly go through the tent and then you just shoot out.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: It’s that entire scene, basically.
Andrew: People in the chat are bringing up the Dumbledore’s “Astronomy Tower of Terror” ride that I proposed on MuggleCast a couple of weeks ago.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Do you guys remember that?
Eric: That was funny.
Andrew: For anyone not in the chat – or for anyone who doesn’t remember – Ben, I told this to you, right?
Ben: Yeah, I heard this.
Andrew: Everybody in Ustream listen. And we’re going to petition – we are going to turn this into a ride for the theme park. The next expansion, they are going to do this. I’m going to make sure it happens.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Basically, the “Tower of Terror” ride at Disneyland, steal that concept. So when you go up top and you’re about to fall, you see a green – you hear, “Avada Kedavra,” and you see the green flash. And as you fall, Dumbledore is falling in front of you…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …and it’s called Dumbledore’s Astronomy Tower of Terror. And you go all the way down and see him land, but you shoot back up. And then you hear “Avada Kedavra” again, and you just keep seeing him. [makes explosion sounds] He keeps dying over and over again. It’s fantastic.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I said on a recent episode of MuggleCast, I did propose this idea to Universal. They loved it – they “LOL-ed.”
Matt: It’s definitely a ride for the whole family.
Andrew: They’re going to steal it – I’m patenting it.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Because I want money for it.
Micah: Speaking of Dumbledore though, I thought Michael Gambon was pretty funny when they were interviewing him…
Andrew: He was!
Micah: When they were interviewing him for this.
Andrew: Yeah!
Micah: You know, he was talking about going down there, having some Butterbeers…
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Nine pints of Butterbeer.
Andrew: He said, [as Michael Gambon] “I’m going straight there. The first thing – place I’m going is, I’m going into the tavern and having some Butterbeers.” That was really funny. And that surprises me because we’ve heard that Michael Gambon in the past – he doesn’t know anything about Harry Potter…
Eric: Yeah, so…
Andrew: So hearing it from…
Micah: He’s probably reading it off a cue card.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: I feel like the overall perception of Michael Gambon has changed since he originally took over as Dumbledore in Prisoner of Azkaban. I feel initially everyone was like, “That’s not Dumbledore! I mean, he would never – Dumbledore would never yell at Harry.”
Eric: It wasn’t…
Ben: And now everyone’s like, “Yeah, he’s kind of grown into the role.”
Eric: He redeemed himself in Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: He died really nicely.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: That death was so Dumbledore! [laughs]
Andrew: We redeem you, Michael! [laughs] You died…
Matt: You died just like Dumbledore would have.
Andrew: Just when you get good, you die. [laughs]
Eric: Did any of you guys re-watch the sixth film on DVD now that you all own it?
Andrew: No.
Eric: God, am I the only one?
Andrew: Well, not yet. Actually…
Ben: That’s Friday night.
Andrew: Yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. But actually, speaking of that death scene, was this on the Ultimate? Yeah. This was on the Ultimate Editions – part two on the Chamber of Secrets Ultimate Edition – they have this really cool segment where they show David Yates talking to the cast on the set of Dumbledore’s death site, and they’re saying, “Hey guys” – or David. And he actually sounds a little angry, and I think it’s because at first they weren’t getting the take right when they all raised their wands up in unison. But David says to them, “Guys, look. It’s really important that we get this scene right – it’s really emotional. We haven’t gotten there yet, but if we all focus on this, we’re going to make something really special tonight.” And I was like, “Aw! He really cares!” And it was just really good to see that. Like David Heyman or David Yates – Heyman, too – but David Yates really cares. So it was great to see that. It was great to see David Yates tell – and all the cast were there. I mean, Robbie Coltrane…
Micah: He knew he wouldn’t be back for Deathly Hallows if he didn’t get it right.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Matt: Yeah. Guys, I want my job, so let’s get this done.
Andrew: And it’s cool seeing him say this to such acting legends as Michael Gambon, Robbie Coltrane, you know, all the Potter actors. It was really cool.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Okay. So also on the DVD – anything else to say about the theme park, guys? [pause] With that…
Ben: Do you think it was a welcome addition if you’re just the average fan who picks up the DVD?
Andrew: I think so.
Ben: Yeah. Because to us, there wasn’t too much new information, but I guess if you really hadn’t been following it that intensely, then you wouldn’t…
Andrew: Exactly.
Ben: …know as much about the Wizarding World.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: So great – David Heyman, good job making this DVD more marketable.
Andrew: So far, so – well, we’re not done revealing it.
Ben: Oh, right.
Matt: We’re talking about the theme park.
[Andrew laughs]
J.K. Rowling Documentary Included
Andrew: So next up, the J.K. Rowling documentary. We won’t get into this because we have discussed it on the show before, but it’s nice to see it on a DVD. We all have a nice hard copy of it.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Great documentary. I watched it again. Did you guys?
Matt: Yes. Ben and I watched it.
Andrew: Eric, I know you didn’t because you have the single disc, but…
Micah: I didn’t watch it again.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Aw!
Andrew: You didn’t watch it, Micah?
Micah: I didn’t – I had seen it before when it was on…
Andrew: Watch it again! It’s good.
Micah: …ABC.
Matt: Everyone’s doing it.
Andrew: Well, it’s good. It’s just very well shot. I had forgotten a lot of stuff that Jo talks about in there. She talks about the deeper meanings in Harry Potter and it’s just great stuff. I mean, unbelievable. So there’s the documentary. Nice that it was on the DVD.
Deleted Scenes
Andrew: Let’s talk about the deleted scenes. Everybody always looks forward to these.
Ben: Oh! The things everybody’s been waiting for.
Matt: Oh, man!
Micah: What deleted scenes?
Andrew: [laughs] Micah, you didn’t like them?
Micah: Well, I think we’re all in agreement on there were some that were good – one or two – and the rest were pretty bad.
Ben: Well, what was your favorite, Micah?
Matt: That’s it. That’s basically it, yeah.
Micah: Well, I mean, I liked the one with the choir and then it kind of cuts to all the different scenes that are going on around the school as, you know, it gets darker.
Ben: You know what? I’m kind of over the choir. I’m glad they cut that scene.
Matt: Yeah, me too.
Ben: I got over the choir by Prisoner of Azkaban. [sings “Double Trouble”]Matt: What was that?
Micah: Well, couldn’t you see that being in the film, though?
Andrew: Yeah. I thought it was pretty eerie. I thought it matched the music that you see in Half-Blood Prince, I mean, particularly towards the end when Dumbledore’s death is approaching. I thought…
Eric: Well, that scene…
Ben: I just see Flitwick waving his little baton and stuff, and I just burst out laughing.
Matt: Mhm.
Ben: I can’t take it seriously.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: No, I…
Eric: This film did confirm that that was still Flitwick…
Matt: Right.
Eric: …if you remember because there was like – big question and…
Ben: Now was that Verne Troyer or was that Warwick Davis?
[Matt and Micah laugh]
Eric: That was Warwick Davis. But that scene though – that deleted scene, because I was watching the film today just before recording, I know where that scene would have played because it ends with Draco getting out of bed and putting his feet down. And that happens just after the cave scene. That’s the first thing you see right after they have just fought off the Inferi. And so it would be kind of weird, I think, if it were in the movie.
Matt: Yeah. I agree with you, Eric.
Eric: To just, you know, fire everywhere, and then cut to choir…
Matt: As much as a great scene this was – I mean, cutting shots to all the characters, including Snape, and Ron and Hermione – I think the fact that they had the choir singing and everything kind of slowed the pace down – I mean, dramatically.
Micah: Yeah.
Matt: I think that’s the only – I mean, I love that scene, but thinking about placing it where it was supposed to be placed, it would have just dramatically slowed down the entire pace and it would have been just kind of awkward.
Micah: Well, the only other scene I would say where it would be the one when Harry and Dumbledore are leaving the cave, and Dumbledore says…
Ben and Micah: [as Dumbledore] “I’m with you, Harry.”
Eric: Oh, that’s such a book-ism.
Andrew: Oh, but – but it was great.
Ben: Well, you – I think if they included that in the film, that would have been another one of those, “I love magic!” moments.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: It’s just – it’s kind of cool, but at the same time, it’s really kind of lame.
Andrew: I don’t – I didn’t think it was as cheesy as, “I love magic!” It wasn’t cheesy at all, in fact.
Micah: Well, it was in the book. I mean…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: You know, God forbid they put something from the book in the movie. [laughs]
Eric: Besides, Movie Six already had an “I love magic!” moment. It’s where they have – where Slughorn and Dumbledore fix up the place where Slughorn is hanging out.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Aw!
Eric: Harry’s like…
Matt: That was fun.
Eric: It was awesome.
Andrew: Yeah. And also – Matt and I were watching this last night and I was, like, “Urgh, it still doesn’t work.” That scene where Harry, Ron and Hermione are sitting in Ron’s bedroom in the Burrow, and they make that joke – Harry makes an old person joke about Dumbledore, and… [laughs] It’s just…
Matt: No, Ron comments.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Oh, was it Ron?
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. And they just all laugh, and it’s like, “Eh.”
Matt: Well, I think Emma kind of killed that scene because it was definitely forced – a forced laugh.
Andrew: Yeah, it was kind – I feel…
[Matt imitates Hermione’s laugh]
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I feel like that wasn’t meant to be in the film. It was sort of like an outtake, but they decided to actually keep it because it seems natural, maybe?
Micah: What about the other cave scene?
Ben: That’s when they’re entering the cave, right?
Micah: Yeah, you get a little bit more back story.
Eric: No, they’re leaving the cave because Dumbledore’s – oh, wait…
Ben: Both.
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: How do you know? You don’t have the second DVD.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: No, I’m just – I saw the – all the deleted scenes are compiled in a single YouTube video…
Ben: Right, okay. Okay.
Andrew: They are online.
Ben: Oh, okay. [laughs]
Eric: He’s limping.
Ben: I like when they arrive at the cave and Dumbledore says to Harry, [as Dumbledore] “Young Tom Riddle stood where you stand once in his life.”
Andrew: That was cool, yeah. That was cool stuff.
Matt: [as Dumbledore] “It is not clear what happened to the boys…”
Andrew: [as Dumbledore] “It is not clear why…”
Matt: [as Dumbledore] “…but they were damaged.” [as himself] So I’m going to whip this knife out and damage myself.
Ben: Yeah, it looked like he was about to pull a knife out.
[Matt and Micah laughs]
Ben: Bit scary.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: No wonder they cut that scene. But then some of the other scenes that – particularly when they were talking about the Vanishing Cabinet – there were two of those deleted scenes where they were discussing the Vanishing Cabinet. And I think that the purpose of those scenes originally may have been to try to explain that whole plot a little bit. And maybe at the end they just decided, “Okay, none of these scenes are really doing it. So let’s just cop out and not really explain what’s going on with the Vanishing Cabinet.” Because I think that was one of the more poorly done parts of the film.
Matt: Right. Well, the two scenes kind of go together, so – I mean, if they cut one, they had to cut the other. The one that – when Harry was talking to Hermione about “the Map is never wrong.” And then the other scene where – it basically is when Ron and Hermione believe Harry about the Vanishing Cabinet and about the Map being right.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Oh…
Matt: And that’s also the scene where he goes, “I don’t need luck. I’ll be with Dumbledore.”
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: Oh…
Micah: I’m also wondering that since they cut that, is that why they cut the scene when they’re leaving the cave? Because they kind of go hand-in-hand with each other. Harry is saying he’s safe with Dumbledore and Dumbledore is saying he’s safe with Harry.
Ben: Oh, yeah. That would have been really cute if they left that in.
Matt: Yeah, it wasn’t…
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Oh…
Andrew: What…
Ben: In the next film, they’re going to be naked, what?!
[Micah laughs]
Matt: [as Dumbledore] “I don’t need clothes. I’m with you, Harry.”
Ben: Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Oh, but with that Vanishing Cabinet scene – I don’t – Dan sounds like he starting smoking cigarettes or something because he…
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Yeah!
Ben: Walks around. [makes grunting nosies]
[Eric and Matt laugh]
Ben: [in a grunting voice] I’m going to be with Dumbledore.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: For a moment I was like, is that Dan’s real voice? Like seriously?
Matt: His voice went so many octaves down.
Andrew: Maybe he was just sick that day.
Ben: Or he just woke up.
Eric: There’s something wrong with that clip though, if you look at it.
Andrew: What, technically?
Matt: It’s cut.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Eric: With his voice. No, with his voice.
Andrew: With his voice, definitely. Maybe he was having a bad day.
Ben: No. Is this also…
[Matt sings “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter]
Ben: Was this also the scene where – I’m having trouble reading my own notes here. Was there also a scene – one of the deleted scenes where Harry and Hermione are talking, and they’re talking about Ron?
Matt: Oh yeah. It’s the Astronomy Tower.
Ben: Yeah.
Micah: He’s just chilling innocently behind them.
Ben: “You better not be snogging the whole time.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Anything else about the deleted scenes? No?
Ben: Was there any you guys think they should have kept?
Andrew: I actually did like the choir scene, but that was it.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Everything else was sort of eh.
Ben: You used to have a crush on Flitwick.
Andrew: [snorts] No, I thought it added an eerie feel. I mean the film was already very eerie feeling, and they really captured that tension in Hogwarts, I think right before Dumbledore was about to die.
Matt: Do you think they will add this scene in the Ultimate Editions?
Andrew: Yeah. Just throw it all in there, so they could be like “Look at this 20 minutes of extra footage in the film.”
Eric: It’s 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
Andrew: Six minutes. Whatever.
Ben: So deleted scenes, how do you think that plays into the whole more marketable angle?
Matt: I think it’s very smart actually. I think it’s going to help the franchise.
[Ben laughs]
Micah: Is it worth rating them?
Eric: DVDs not worth wasting the plastic on the disc.
Andrew: Deleted scenes are on every DVD.
Ben: They’re to be expected.
Close Ups
Andrew: Yeah, exactly. Let’s move on to another feature, Close Ups with the Cast. Basically what happens here, is each cast member goes to a different department in the Harry Potter film making-process and they talk with the people working there. It was a cool idea.
Ben: Yeah, and then the hosts of this segment were Alfie Enoch and Matt Lewis.
Micah: Who?
Ben: Alfie Enoch and…
[Ben and Micah laugh]
Ben: Exactly. He plays Dean Thomas.
Micah: I think more people know you.
[Andrew, Ben, and Micah laugh]
Ben: Aw. That’s so mean.
Eric: You guys are freaking horrible.
Ben: But Alfie…
Micah: I’m joking.
Ben: I think it was just interesting to see them sitting there tall, like they’re grown up now. Matt Lewis has stubble. You know, they actually have clothing styles and all those things, and they show clips of them back when they’re little kids and all chubby-cheeked and all that. I think that’s really cool to see them go from, you know…
Trending on Twitter!
Micah: Hey. We’re trending on Twitter.
Andrew and Ben: Are we?
Ben: Did we make it, finally?
Andrew: Let’s verify. Let’s not hold up the show though. That’s a bad idea.
Matt: Yeah, okay.
Andrew: We are now trending on Twitter! Thank you everybody!
Matt: Oh wow. We are. Nice job guys.
Andrew: Keep Twittering. We need to sustain this.
Ben: Keep the trend up folks.
Eric: Glee is still winning.
Ben: Don’t let the trend die.
[Matt laughs]
No Bloopers?
Andrew: All right. So one of the first things we see, we see Dan Radcliffe. He goes to the editing department, and I think this was the coolest look that we got.
Ben: Of course you would think that.
Andrew: Yeah. I’m a video nerd, so I do like this editing kind of thing. He goes in, and we actually see a cool blooper. They play a blooper that they edited out, and I thought it was interesting because there’s no bloopers on this DVD. I think that’s one of the coolest things that you can have on a DVD. Isn’t it?
Ben: That was like an additional deleted scene.
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: In disguise!
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: I love that scene. I mean, Emma beat the crap out of Dan.
Ben: Girl power!
Andrew: Yeah. It was so…
Matt: [in British accent] Girl power!
Andrew: It was so cute because – if you guys haven’t seen it, it’s a blooper. It’s the part where they’re in the library and Hermione hits Harry on the head, and before that Harry says, “I am the Chosen One!” and Hermione smacks him. In this outtake, Hermione hits Harry too hard. [laughs] And Dan can’t keep a straight face, and it’s funny because – poor Dan. Emma was like, [in British accent] “I’m so sorry!” [normal voice] And I was like, [in accent] “That’s so cute!”
Ben: Oh by the way, with deleted scenes – there was a part where – didn’t you say Harry just said “Oh, because I am the Chosen One.” Right?
Andrew: That’s right.
Matt: Right.
Ben: Yeah, well when Harry and Hermione are with the Marauder’s Map, she’s like, [in girlish voice] “The Daily Prophet should have called you ‘The Dim One’.”
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Oh yeah. That was awesome.
Ben: I was like, burn!
Andrew: [laughs] That was very funny.
Eric: [as Harry] “The map is never wrong Hermione.”
Matt: [as Hermione] “Oh Harry…”
Special Effects
Andrew: So moving on, we see Matt Lewis, the Phelps twins, and Tom Felton. They go into the Special Effects department. And this was another cool thing because you really see some amazing stuff going on in the Special Effects department.
Ben: Like Tom Felton’s popped collar. I thought that was pretty nice.
Andrew: Did he have a popped collar?
Ben: Yes he did.
Andrew: Only someone as stylish as you would notice that.
Ben: I know. [laughs]
Matt: It’s true.
Andrew: So they go into the Potions room to film the segment and they show how, in the cauldrons, the fire spits out of the cauldrons. That was cool. But the coolest was watching Rita Skeeter’s pen writing – how they make it move. It’s this very technical thing, they said it took a couple weeks to build and it’s controlled by a remote control like you would use for a race car. Just really cool stuff coming out of there. I mean, I can’t imagine some of the other stuff that they made.
Ben: Yeah, I think it’s just amazing all the manpower that goes into making one of these films.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: They had that thing – that knitting machine that held the…
Matt: Oh yeah.
Ben: What are those things called?
Matt: The needles? The knitting needles or something?
Ben: Yeah, those big, wooden knitting things. But they actually built a machine – it wasn’t done by CGI like a lot of people would be led to believe. So I thought that was interesting.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: I like the punching telescope. That was kind of cool. You know when you pulled it out and a big punching mitt came out?
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Doesn’t that not happen until the seventh movie? No – when does that happen? No, sixth book, that was it.
Andrew: It’s just amazing – interesting. You know, you would see some of these things on screen and you would never think how much work goes into something like Rita Skeeter’s pen writing on its own. It’s just cool stuff like that!
Matt: It’s kind of sad. I mean, after those five minutes of that thing being in the film…
Andrew: Take a sledgehammer to it?
Matt: Then it’s done. Yeah.
Ben: Well, I mean, this is what Ollivander was talking about. [as John Hurt] “Oh, you waste all that money on those damn films.”
[Everybody laughs]
Andrew: [as John Hurt] “Well, you waste three weeks on that damn Rita Skeeter’s pen! Could’ve been sucking up to me those three weeks!”
Eric: Ian Hart would prefer if these films were made in someone’s garage.
Andrew: It’s John Hurt.
Ben: Ian Hart?
Matt: Ian Hart.
Andrew: I think you’re getting it confused with Ian McKellen, maybe.
Eric: No – Ian Hart is Bilbo Baggins…
Micah: Quirrell.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: No – Quirrell? Wait – who is he?
Matt: What are we talking about?
Andrew: I don’t know! Let’s move on. Who cares? The pens. That’s what I gathered from that! Tom Felton – he meets with the special effects supervisor and Tom talks with him about how they did the bathroom scene when Harry attacks Tom. When Harry…
Ben: Sectumsempra!
Andrew: Yeah, when Harry attacks Draco, sorry. And that was cool. And so, it just goes on and on. We see some other things. Did anything else really stand out, guys? We don’t need to go through all of it.
Ben: I think Lavender Brown/Jessie Cave with the owl training.
Matt: Yeah, that was…
Ben: She can train those owls.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Oh, and Rupert jumping on the trampoline. I was like, is this really the best thing to give him?
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Is this really the most dangerous thing the producers will give him for stunts? Jump on a trampoline and catch a plastic ball?
Ben: Wow.
Matt: [laughs] And he had to stretch before that too!
Ben: Oh, and Evanna Lynch! Evanna Lynch – they showed her with the costume designer. And the thing about Evanna, you know, I think a lot of people know this, but for those of you that don’t, she takes a lot of pride and, you know, pays a lot of attention to detail what she’s wearing and is very interested and has her own ideas and creativity when it comes to dressing herself for the Harry Potter films.
Andrew: Yeah. She made all those earrings and those necklaces herself. She made – she designed the head, the hat…
Matt: The lion head, yeah. I can see Evanna being a costume designer too, for films. She’s really creative in…
Andrew: Yeah, maybe that’s her future.
Matt: …identifying with the characters and stuff.
Ben: Oh, and we get one last glimpse at Jamie Waylett. So long, Jamie.
[Everybody laughs]
Matt: And then there’s another scene where Emma’s putting the Dark Mark tattoo on her arm…
Matt: Yeah!
Ben: I’m like no!
Eric: What’d you guys think about that? I mean, they’re temporary tattoos. Do you think that’s kind of…
Andrew: I was surprised.
Eric: Yeah, I was thinking of all the money – they could’ve afforded an authentic…
Andrew: But that’s all you need! That’s all you need! You just need a tattoo. You don’t need anything fancy!
Eric: I know, but I mean…
Andrew: John Hurt was probably like…
Ben: [as Hagrid] “Oh these movies. Temporary tattoos are way too -” I’m doing a Hagrid voice for John Hurt! “No no.” Oh my…
Andrew: Temporary tattoos only please.
Ben: And then they show Emma losing – apparently Emma lost a tooth…
Eric: Yeah, in the first film.
Matt: Yeah, they bust a cap in her tooth.
Ben: Bust a cap.
Andrew: You know what’s funny? Something else you learn in the ultimate editions? The first day of filming was when they were filming the goodbye scene, at the…
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: …at the train station.
Eric: Oh yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Leaving Hogwarts. That very first day, they actually gave Emma buck teeth to wear. And apparently – I never noticed this – but apparently when you look at that scene, you can see the buck teeth. I guess she doesn’t really open her mouth much, so they’re hard to see.
Matt: But they show like behind the scenes, or in between shots, and you can see the buck teeth, like her playing with them.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: They’re huge. They’re like she has chicklets in her mouth.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: Well Dan also… Dan… [laughs] The chicklets… And Dan, they gave him green eye contacts. And I remember when the first movie came out, or maybe it wasn’t that early, but people, for a while used to wonder: “Why doesn’t Harry have green eyes?” And apparently…
Eric: I still get captions about it.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Well what happened was, they were bothering him, and they decided to get rid of them. And I don’t blame them, I mean, you know.
Ben: Oh, come on.
Andrew: It’s just a minor thing.
Matt: He’s got beautiful blue eyes.
Ben: I mean, they can spend like seventy-five hours putting together a little knitting device…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …but they can’t spend two seconds to put in some contacts. Come on.
Matt: Were they comfortable for his eyes?
Andrew: Well the problem was – the problem was that they were uncomfortable.
Ben: Well get the – they have the money – get them engineered – get comfortable ones.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Or just do it digitally.
Micah: Yeah, digitally, that’s what I was going to say.
Matt: Oh yeah, that’s not going to – that’s not going to cost five billion dollars.
Micah: Ah, they got the money.
Eric: In all the scenes that he’s, yeah.
Micah: What do you think about the – you know, the James Phelps – what he did as an assistant director. It seemed like he was getting pushed around a lot by the other cast members.
Andrew: That was weird, I didn’t really get that, like was he serious about it or was he doing it just for show?
Ben: Well, I mean, he kind of has a minor role in the films so he’s not like somebody who’s going to be guaranteed…
Matt: He’s got some free time.
Ben: …future work or whatever, and perhaps he wants to get into directing and he wants to – you know, smooch up a little bit to some of the, you know…
[Micah laughs]
Ben: …higher ups in the film franchise. What do you think Andrew?
Andrew: You know Ben, you’re absolutely right.
Ben: I mean, kind of like you suck up to me from time to time.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
Ben: Exactly.
Andrew: Ben, you are the best.
Matt: Just a little bit.
MuggleCast 186 Transcript (continued)
One Minute Drills
Andrew: Okay, so all that stuff out of the way, that stuff was great, this is in my opinion – everything from here sucks. We see the “One Minute Drills”, it’s like…
Ben: Oh, these were – these were such a letdown.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Ben and I were so excited…
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Ben: We were like “Oh my gosh, they’re going to put them on the spot, they’re actually going to make them – ask them real questions or whatever.
[Matt laughs]
Ben: You know, they’re supposed to describe their role and we’re going to see people mess up and stuff like that, but then it was “No, let’s have a little fancy edited thing and all that.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah. Could we count…
Ben: Andrew, from the time you were hired at MuggleNet in June 2004, recount everything you’ve done since then.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: Well I bugged Ben to get the role, and then this, and then this. I went to a premiere, and then I did MuggleCast.
Matt: Well it was just – it was basically just – every actress said the same thing “Oh well, in the first film I did this, and then the next film came and I was doing this…”
Ben: “And then it got darker.”
Matt: “Then movie three and then four. And then you know, it was much darker, so I had to get into the role first. And then in the fourth film, it was even darker than the previous one, so.”
Ben: “Darker.”
Andrew: Micah, what were you going to say?
Micah: No, no, I said they couldn’t even put a timer up on the screen, like give them sixty seconds and countdown?
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.
Micah: It was definitely – it wasn’t…
Andrew: It sort of – it’s something you’ll watch once and then never watch again. It doesn’t like reveal anything cool…
Ben: Particularly if you already know the series fairly well, you’re just going to be like, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing new.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: But a question I had – I hate to go back to “Close Ups With the Cast,” but to kind of group that in here with the “One Minute Drills,” how do you think – how do you think these played into their new marketing goal?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You just want to keep…
Eric: Damn, I…
Ben: No, I – no, I…
Micah: It depends – it depends on who they’re trying to market to, because one thing I was going to bring up is that they really don’t talk to a lot of the older cast members. It’s all the trio.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, so then it’s to appeal to the kids, but listen, it just needs to say it on the back of the box, once somebody buys it, they don’t care if it’s good or not – W.B. They just need to – they just need a list of features so parents can go: “Oh, look at all this stuff. All right, I’ll buy it.”
Ben: Well what about – what about the next DVD, like they watch this one and its crap, and the next one that comes out they’re not going to, so.
Andrew: They’re not going to be able to put a preview on there for Deathly Hallows – or for the next movie either. Well I guess maybe – maybe for part one. If they release the DVD and do a sneak peek of part two.
Ben: Because “One Minute Drills” sounds very enticing. It’s like “Oh, they’re going to put…”
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh, a drill.
Matt: That’s what a drill does.
Ben: It’s like – it’s like a drill.
Eric: Uncle Vernon’s company makes drills.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Indeed they do. But I think the close-ups were a really good thing, because it gave each person a – you know, kind of their own little thing, you know.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: And Dan wanted to see the editing…
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: …and the special effects and all these different things…
Andrew: And we learn stuff.
Ben: Yeah, we actually learn something.
Andrew: Yeah. And then the “What’s On Your Mind?” segment.
Ben: Oh, I liked this one.
Andrew: You did?
Ben: I did like this one. I liked it a lot more than the “One Minute Drills,” I thought…
[Matt laughs]
Ben: …I thought this was what the “One Minute Drills” was going to be.
Matt: Yeah, I – I agree with Ben, it was kind of like more of what Ben and I were thinking that the other segment would be.
Andrew: First let me set it up, then you guys can talk about it. It’s – it basically – Tom Felton would ask questions, and then the cast would answer them. It was questions like “What’s your favorite ice-cream, who’s the most famous person you’ve met, what would you like to change about the world, favorite historical figure, favorite band.” I just thought it was sort of like lame, like what is this?
Ben: They just made Tom Felton look like a homeless guy in that – in that part.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Matt: His hair was definitely a little shaggy.
Eric: It’s very not marketable.
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: No, he did pop the collar – I mean, what was going on?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Matt: Pop the collar.
Andrew: I don’t know. So Ben Schoen you like these? Did you learn stuff? Were you just watching for Emma…
Ben: No, I did learn stuff. Jamie Waylett reappeared and he likes Indian food…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And being in jail, I guess.
Andrew: Ooh…
Matt: And Tom Felton’s a chocolate guy-
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Apparently, pretty much everyone on there is a chocolate guy.
Andrew: That’s right, that’s right…
Ben: And Emma – her favorite food is Nutella that peanut butter hazelnut spread…
Andrew: Is it New-utella or Nut-ella?
Ben: Nutella. Nutella.
Andrew: Maybe that’s just how they pronounce it in-
Ben: Nutella.
Matt: And her, Emma’s, favorite musical fantasy is Elton.
Ben: Elton John.
Andrew: Really?
Ben: Yes. She said-
Andrew: Ben!
Ben: …who would you want to see? And I was just like, “Whoa, it’s meant to be…
Andrew: Ben!
Ben: …we’re connected.”
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Ben that’s huge. All this time-
Ben: All this time I had no idea and come to think of it, I love Nutella, too.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: So…
Ben: And one of the Phelps twins said Led Zeppelin and I’ve been rocking and out to Led Zeppelin lately so good job-
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: But the majority of answers for their favorite music was Kings of Leon…
Andrew: Oh yeah.
Matt: Is that huge there?
Andrew: I think that’s big in the U.K.
[Matt sings “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon]
Andrew: It’s pretty big over here, too.
Ben: And Jamie Waylett-
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You’ve got a lot of notes on Jamie Waylett.
Ben: -It’s just the last chance we get to talk about him-
Andrew: That’s true.
Ben: -so we might as well get it all out there.
[Matt laughs]
Ben: He likes Mohammad Ali. He wants to meet Mohammad Ali.
Andrew: That’s nice.
Micah: Favorite historical figure? Bob Marley.
Ben: Ooh.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Andrew: Guys, let’s be serious here. We’re a professional, Twitter-trending podcast. So that’s it. Those…
Ben: Wait a second. No it’s not, no it’s not…
Matt: You forgot to say what Emma’s…
Andrew: Favorite ice cream flavor?
Matt: No, I was going to say favorite sport…
Ben: Did she?
Matt: She said martial arts so I can kick some…
Ben: Arse.
Matt: …beep.
Ben: Sorry. She also said Evanna is the most famous person she’s ever met…
Matt: Oh yeah, what do you think about that?
Andrew: That was funny.
Ben: That was kind of rude.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: Most famous person you’ve ever met too, Ben…
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: That’s another thing in common…
Ben: That’s so true.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Oh my. The evidence is just piling up here. It’s kind of getting a little hard to ignore.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: She’s stalking you on Twitter man.
Ben: I sure hope so. She wants to go to Australia and I’m here to say, “Emma, I’ll take you wherever you want.”
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Matt: We’ll fly you…
Andrew: Virgin Australia. It’s an airline…
Ben: Oh and the other thing. Rupert – he wants a ginger world.
Matt: Everyone else said world peace and hunger and stuff and he goes…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Ginger world…
Matt: I’d really like a ginger world.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: I want a…
Ben: First, the trampoline, now this.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Good old Rupert.
Matt: A world full of gingers.
Andrew: That was funny because – poor Rupert – that’s sort of his thing; it’s always been his thing. He’s the redhead. And he just dives in with that…
Ben: Do you think he gets tired of being the redhead?
Andrew: That’s the reason he was hired so…
Ben: That’s true.
Andrew: Hey, here’s another cool fact – guys I’m sorry I’m just full of factoids after watching the Ultimate Editions. Did you guys know Tom Felton was originally screen-tested for the role as Harry Potter?
Matt: Yes I did.
Andrew: No you didn’t.
Matt: I saw the…
Ben: Oh.
Eric: Did they show it?
Matt: …behind the scenes.
Eric: Did they show it, Andrew?
Andrew: They didn’t show it.
Ben: So the rumors are true then.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: You did steal my role…
Matt: Daniel Radcliffe has become Harry Potter.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Eric what happens is Chris Columbus is talking about screen testing for Harry and they said – he said that they put glasses on Tom, they gave him the scar, they dyed his hair and they just decided he ultimately would have been best for Draco. I thought that was kind of cool.
Matt: I’m trying to picture him in the Harry attire…
Andrew: I don’t think it’d work.
Matt: …with dark hair.
Andrew: I don’t know.
Ben: If initially things were set up differently maybe. I don’t know.
Andrew: True…
Matt: Perhaps. And Dan played…
Ben: What if Dan was Draco?
Matt: …Malfoy.
Eric: It’s just…
Andrew: I don’t know what to tell you guys.
Matt: I don’t know.
Andrew: So there we go. We have some Tweets to get through. I see Ben’s still studying his notes…
Ben: Oh, but before we do that…
Matt: MuggleCast has been bumped up another spot on the trends.
Andrew: Good.
Eric: Yeah, we knocked off Santa.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Did we finally get out from beneath Tiger Woods?
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Matt: Yeah, no he’s not up there.
Eric: Now we’re on top of Tiger Woods. Did we knock off Tiger Woods?
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Yes!
Andrew: Good.
What’s on Your Mind?
Ben: Hey, so a little impromptu segment here just like the DVD had. What’s on your mind?
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: I’d like to ask my fellow co-hosts here, basically which Harry Potter actor, if you had the chance to spend a day with, who would you spend the day with? Andrew?
Andrew: Harry Potter character? Star?
Ben: Yes, one of the stars. Who would you most like to spend the day with?
Andrew: Oh boy Ben. There’s so many options. I think Dan Radcliffe because he’s a very down-to-earth dude. You know what I’m saying? I feel like I could sit in a pub with him – an English pub because I can drink there – and just have a chat with him.
Matt: Are we talking about the child actors or the entire cast of the series?
Ben: Well, if children is your thing that’s cool, but…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Whatever. Either – any actor in the film. If you want to hang out with Warwick Davis, you can do that. If you want to hang out with Nigel, you can do that. Who plays Nigel? Anybody.
[Prolonged silence]
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Gosh, and they call themselves Harry Potter fans!
Andrew: That is – all right, let’s go around the table. Matt?
Matt: Okay, I’m going to have to say Alan Rickman.
Andrew: Oh, that’s a good one.
Matt: Or Helena, but…
Ben: Turn to page three hundred and ninety three.
Matt: …I say Alan Rickman.
Andrew: Micah?
Micah: Oh, I was going to say Alan Rickman, now I’ve got to think of another one.
Andrew: No, that’s fine.
Matt: I can share Alan with you!
Ben: Whoever plays Aberforth, that’s who Micah wants to chill with.
Andrew: Eric, how about you?
Eric: Yeah, Alan Rickman. I thought of it before Matt said it.
Andrew: Oh. There you go then.
Matt: Oh. Oh, dang.
Ben: There’s no need for me to answer this question, because I already booked a flight to Australia.
[Matt laughs]
Matt: You already wrote down Nigel.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: We’re already going to go to Australia. We’re going to jam Elton John.
Eric: Oh. The room just suggested Ralph Fiennes and I have to say that would be tempting.
Andrew: That would be a good one too. So now, Ben, now ask the question. The marketable question.
Ben: Oh, oh yes. Overall, after we’ve completely evaluated this DVD…
Andrew: Which we have now.
Ben: That most of us have. Most of us have both discs.
[Andrew laughs]
Overall Views of the DVD
Ben: Now that we’ve completely evaluated it, how do you feel about its marketability? Do you think Warner Bros. has taken a step up from the previous films? Or do you feel like this is so-so, it’s a step in the right direction but there’s still room left for improvement?
Andrew: I think – listen. It’s good, it’s a good collection of stuff. I mean, how much do you need? We have these Ultimate Editions coming out too. I think it was a good collection. The J.K. Rowling documentary is fantastic, the theme park sneak peek – fantastic. What else?
Ben: Mhm.
Andrew: The Deathly Hallows preview – fantastic! On the Blu-ray we also get to participate in the Blu-ray community screening where Dan Radcliffe and David Yates will be discussing the movie while everybody watches the movie with them. And this is going to be really cool, this is happening this Saturday, December 14th, I think it is?
Micah: Twelfth.
Andrew: December 12th. And I’ll be a part of that. I mean, I’ll be watching.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Don’t be like, “Oh my God!” So that’s really cool.
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: How about the rest of you guys? Do you think it was worth the – Blu-ray was twenty bucks at Target. That’s really good.
Ben: Oh my God.
Matt: That is good.
Ben: That is great. Once you go Blu-ray, you never go back.
Andrew: Exactly, that’s what I’m saying.
Matt: Never going to go back.
Ben: Never going to go back. I think they did a good job, I think this is more marketable would be, definitely – I mean, compare this to DVD number one, where you had to play the game and search through…
Andrew: [laughs] Oh my God.
Ben: …all the codes and do all that.
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: Did they update that, by the way? If you buy Sorcerer’s Stone on DVD today, does it…
Andrew: No, I think it’s a list now.
Matt: No, because there’s different casing now, I think the whole layout is different.
Andrew: For anyone who doesn’t remember, with Sorcerer’s Stone, to get to the bloopers, you had to hit the correct brick combination on the wall, the entrance to Diagon Alley.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: It was frustrating!
[Ben laughs]
Ben: They were probably – I can definitely see some Warner Bros. marketing guy taking it way too far.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: “We’re going to make this just like Diagon Alley.”
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: And the thing with that, is that’s when DVDs just started coming out so everybody was all high on the, “Oh, let’s do all these Easter eggs!” That kind of thing. That’s when – I have the Sorcerer’s Stone VHS tape. Talk about old school.
Ben: I had one of those too.
Matt: I have the Beta tape.
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: Eric, what were you going to say?
Eric: Huh? Oh yeah, well just the British narrator guy who narrates all those DVD walk-through features.
Ben: [imitates voice] “Warner Brothers pictures…””
Eric: You’re trying to get there and he’s like, “Well you’ve got to do this.”
Andrew: Oh yeah, that was good.
Ben: …Warner Brothers Pictures takes you on another journey…
Eric: He’s still doing that stuff! Who is that? I have to find that guy.
Ben: Is that Martin Brashir?
Andrew: No.
Ben: Sounds like him. [laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know.
Eric: “Harry Potter…”
Matt: You know, I’ve got to say though, the Ultimate Edition special features are so much better than…
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: …the two-disc and everything so I think that the special features are probably going to be really good by the time Half-Blood Prince becomes an Ultimate Edition.
Ben: But why can’t they put this on one disc? I know Eric’s frustrated, and I’m just wondering why they can’t…
Andrew: What do you mean?
Ben: Is it really that hard to put it all on one disc?
Matt: Yeah, but I mean you only get one disc art. Don’t you want a whole collection with all the faces of each character on each disc?
Ben: Oh that’s true, that’s true.
Andrew: Well no, actually, no you can’t, because there’s…
Eric: Are you talking about the Ultimate Editions, Ben?
Ben: Any edition.
Andrew: No, there’s size limits on DVDs.
Ben: Well, yeah…
Andrew: They’re not a terabyte of data.
Ben: Then why don’t they make it a double-sided DVD?
Andrew: Because then you don’t get the pictures.
Matt: Because then you don’t have any pictures and you have to read the negative two font – which one’s widescreen, which one’s full screen, which one’s special features.
Ben: Ah, I guess I figure – and also if I want to come over and be like, “Hey Andrew, let me borrow the special features.” If he had a double-sided DVD, he couldn’t cut it in half.
Matt: Yeah, because then you’d have the movie, too.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Wow, wow, we got to the bottom of this quick.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: And I’m sure they would like to fit it on as few discs as possible because this costs money to make these bigger cases.
Eric: Oh, that’s bull! That’s bull, Andrew! You were there when I was talking about the Ultimate Editions when we first previewed those and there were four discs and the only difference between the first disc and the second disc is ten minutes of video that’s added back into the film.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, but then they’re also very expensive, so. I don’t know. They’re good deals, it’s not like they’re not. Okay, who cares?
Ben: Whoa, whoa, whoa…
Andrew: We’re not looking to save the DVD environment, I mean…
Micah: We were talking about marketability here…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Yeah. Is one disc more marketable than two?
Andrew: That’s true. See that’s another thing, that’s exactly right. If people read four discs they’re like, “Whoa. [laughs] I’m getting a lot of stuff here!”
Matt: “I am definitely paying fifty bucks for this.”
Andrew: Yeah…
Matt: Or eighty pounds…
Andrew: But that’s what people think. That’s what people think. But anyway, guys, let’s move on. I know Glee is starting soon in the central time zone, or mountain time. Or maybe it already started…
Matt: Yeah, yeah, we have to work around Glee, don’t we?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah. The chat room requests that you do not spoil Glee, so far people have done an okay time doing that.
Listener Tweet: Special Features Targeted Adults
Andrew: Let’s talk about – people – again we asked people to send in their Tweets via Twitter.com/MuggleCast. We wanted to know what do you think of the DVD. Lilduffboy says:
“Glad to see the special features are targeted at a more adult level. Wish J.K. Rowling was interviewed though. Trailer was perfect length.”
Ben: Huh?
Andrew: J.K. Rowling getting interviewed for it.
Ben: Oh.
Andrew: I guess for the one minute drills.
Matt: I mean she’s got some time on her hands. She just got a Twitter account.
[Matt laughs]
Ben: I know.
Andrew: But she says she’s busy writing.
Matt: Yes. Her friend is her pen and paper…
Andrew: Her priority is pen and paper.
Matt: Yes, her priority is pen and paper.
Listener Tweet: Commentaries
Andrew: VixNatyRose writes:
“The extras were funny. I liked Matt and Alfie’s commentary. It was like a bad talk show. But this is what made it really funny.”
It was kind of awkward…
Matt: I thought they were kind of like sport commentators.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Like what they do with football in England. [in British Accent] “Yeah, I was looking at that, and it was really good. Yeah.”
Ben: I thought they did alright.
Micah: Yeah, it wasn’t bad.
Andrew: Yeah.
Listener Tweet: The Documentary
Ben: Gabysm11 writes:
“I loved it. The documentary was great, to be able to see more of Jo. It was a very honest interview.”
Andrew: Yeah, I mean that’s gold to people who haven’t seen that before. I mean, that’s worth a DVD purchase itself. It’s just really well done, eye-opening documentary. Have you seen it, Ben?
Ben: A Year in the Life?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, of course.
Andrew: So good. I may watch it…
Micah: Every night before bed. Right, Ben?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Absolutely.
Listener Tweet: Deleted Scenes
Andrew: Next tweet’s from Tawny15:
“Wish there were more deleted scenes. What happened to…” – Oh yeah this was a big thing – “What happened to all those – with Slughorn, that David talks about at the premiere?”
At the premiere, Emerson Spartz, the webmaster of MuggleNet.com, said, “David! Give it to me, what we’re going to be seeing on the DVD?” David said to expect lots of outtakes from some Slughorn stuff that – he filmed stuff for, I guess, a portrait or something, I can’t remember. And they were going to include that on the DVD. And he said it twice. He said it to Emerson and then in a separate interview to somebody else. But where are they?
Micah: Huh.
Andrew: Where are they?
Micah: Yeah, that was one of the things from this – extras on this DVD set. There was nothing form Jim Broadbent.
Andrew: Maybe – oh, that’s true – maybe they’re saving them for the Ultimate Editions.
Matt: For part two of Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: No, just for the Ultimate Editions.
Matt: Oh, that too, yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Or maybe, just maybe, he lied.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Maybe it’s a hidden feature.
Eric: Well, that’s not very marketable.
Andrew: No, it’s not.
Ben: Lying is not marketable.
Matt: It can be actually.
Ben: Actually, I’m not so sure about that. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, it’s not really lying if you do it afterwards. Then it’s called a tease.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Ben: Yes, indeed…
Listener Tweet: Including Deleted Scenes
Andrew: Next tweet’s from HurtYouSold:
“After watching the deleted scenes” – oh, that just moved on my hand – “After watching the deleted scenes I can’t help but think…” – Whoa, I’m sorry – “I can’t help but think the movie would be so much better with them included in the final cut.”
I don’t know…
Matt: Mmm, I don’t know. I mean the past couple films, I think the deleted scenes are actually good that they’re not in the film. I mean, it wasn’t like with the first couple of films, when you saw the deleted scenes and you were like, “Why wasn’t that in the movie? That would’ve made everything so much better.” And then they started to wise up and incorporate it into the ABC Family extended editions. And now it’s available to buy.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, the ABC Family extended editions…
Matt: Yeah.
Ben: …they actually air the full…
Matt: Yeah, the deleted scenes and such.
Ben: Now do you think they’re going to have like a twelve hour Harry Potter – like with what they did with Lord of the Rings? Not twelve hours, it would be like six and a half hours.
Andrew: Oh, like a director’s cut?
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, no.
Matt: No. I don’t…
Andrew: They didn’t shoot enough material, simple as that.
Ben: Now, Eric Scull, I have a question for you. What do you think about – do you think they might come back like a decade from now and re-make these films?
Eric: I never thought they would do that. I would like to see a TV series sort of thing. But…
Andrew: It is way too much work to re-create the series. I mean, can you imagine?
Eric: Yeah, re-creating…
Ben: Well, at that point technology may be through the roof.
Andrew: Well…
Eric: Besides you couldn’t…
Ben: Copy, paste…
Matt: Ten years ago was the first Harry Potter film.
Eric: I would love…
Ben: Wow…
Eric: …for them to re-shoot – or to actually shoot for the first time, in film format – stuff about the Marauder’s back-story. Because a certain director didn’t include it in his movie. But other than that, no. I mean, think of the majority of things we would have already seen, Ben, just from the other movies and everything.
Matt: What do you guys think of a spin-off?
Andrew: No. Stop. [laughs]
Eric: Like what kind of spin off? What are you talking…
Matt: Like a Joss Whedon Marauders Series on TV.
Eric: If it’s by Joss Whedon we can kiss it goodbye already.
Matt: Of course.
Ben: Like there’s always scandal runs…
Matt: Okay J.J. Abrams.
Ben: …coming out of celebrities and stuff at this point. What if Jo blows all her earnings at the horse track?
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: “Billionaire squanders her wealth!” And then she has to sell all these spin-offs or something. I’m just kidding, I love you, Jo. That’s terrible.
Listener Tweet: Behind the Scenes
Andrew: At the horse track. [laughs] IloveBRITTON writes:
“Cool seeing behind the scenes with cast, also loved one minute character summaries and Tom’s questions.”
So, some people like them. BoyManKid writes…
[Everyone laughs]
Listener Tweet: Previews, Sneak Peeks and Additional Scenes
Andrew: These are wild names! Boymankid writes:
“J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life is great, ‘Deathly Hallows’ first look is phenomenal, and Wizarding World sneak peek was interesting.”
Different adjectives for every item. And lastly, Edwardsa writes:
“I really like the DVD on a whole, but the additional scenes are kind of lame, but I guess they did warn us there wasn’t much.”
Ben: I have to agree.
Andrew: So there we go.
Matt: I mean would you have rather saw deleted scenes that were really crap?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Micah: Well, we did.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
[Eric laughs]
Matt: Well, I mean even worse. I’d hate to see the ones that didn’t make the cut.
Andrew: But see, here’s the thing. They’re crap out of context. If they were in the movie, then it’s sort of just like, “oh, okay whatever.” They’re not crap. They’re just short and they’re not some epic battle or anything. They’re just little transitional scenes to stick in the movie.
Micah: I know you had this up here earlier and we didn’t talk about it, but there wasn’t really any bloopers.
Ben: Oh.
Matt: There are never bloopers though.
Andrew: Yeah, there haven’t been bloopers in a while, have there?
Matt: I don’t think there’s ever been a segment where there’s bloopers.
Ben: Oh, there was kind of bloopers. I mean, when Harry – I mean, when Hermione batted Harry on the head…
Matt: Yeah, I mean, they never had an actual segment where there were bloopers or outtakes.
Ben: Like, “Here are the bloopers.”
Matt: They never had them.
Ben: That’s probably in another DVD.
Micah: They had Alfie and Matt bloopers.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Well, yeah.
Andrew: Ultimate Ultimate Editions. That’s what’s coming on those.
Ben: Harry Potter bloopers special!
Andrew: And you got to imagine, with ten years of filming. [laughs]
Ben: Oh God.
Matt: Yeah. There’s going to be hours of bloopers. And hilarious bloopers.
Andrew: Especially when they were kids and they were messing up even more. I remember – again, we’re going to – by the way, we’re going to talk about the Ultimate Editions on the next DVD. I keep bringing the stuff up because there’s a lot of content.
Micah: On the next DVD?
Andrew: On the next episode.
Eric: You guys spent about twenty minutes talking about it this episode.
Andrew: Well, I keep throwing factoids in because I’m just so excited.
Ben: Andrew factoid, factoid, factoid…
Andrew: But they were saying how the kids used to – were – these days, three or four takes. Back in the old days, tons of takes. Tons of takes!
Eric: And pranks.
Andrew: And pranks.
Ben: [as young Hermione] “No! You’re doing it all wrong.”
Matt: [as young Hermione] “It’s levi-O-sa, not levio-SA.”
Ben: We’ve actually – me, Andrew, and Matt just watched the first film the other day. And, it was…
Matt: It was awesome.
Ben: Yeah, it was a good laugh.
Andrew: It was a good laugh!
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Well, I mean just, it’s like seeing them now, and then seeing them then and it’s just like, whoa!
Andrew: Exactly.
Ben: It’s like looking at your baby pictures or something.
Eric: [as young Hermione] “That’s Devil’s Snare.”
Andrew: [laughs] So guys, look. We’ve been recording for almost two hours now.
Eric: Which means one more hour to go.
Andrew: Oho. I think it’s…
Matt: Twenty-one more hours.
Andrew: I think it’s time to wrap up. I have to pee very badly.
Ben: Oh, T.M.I., T.M.I., T.M.I.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: And I simply cannot leave the show.
Eric: Are we going to take live calls?
Ben: But there’s nine hundred and seventy visitors on here!
Andrew: I think it’s hard to leave…
Ben: We can’t say bye to them! To nine hundred and seventy people.
Andrew: All good things must come to an end, Ben.
Ben: Aw.
Matt: [singing] “Why must all good things come to an end?”
Announcement: MuggleSpace Birthday
Andrew: But it’s been a lot of fun. The past two hours have flown by. Frankly, it feels like we just started. So before we wrap up though, we do want to talk to you guys about a couple things. First of all, little announcement related to MuggleSpace. MuggleSpace is approaching it’s one – its first anniversary. One year old.
Eric: I don’t believe that, dude.
Matt: Aw.
Andrew: MuggleSpace will be one year old on Christmas, I think. Did we launch on Christmas or Christmas Eve?
Eric: Have I not been paying attention to MuggleSpace for an entire year?
Andrew: I think so.
Eric: Have I been ignoring its existence for a year?
Andrew: You’re missing out on the best social network ever. It’s better than
Facebook, it’s better than MySpace. I mean, nothing can compare. So to celebrate the one year anniversary, the MuggleSpace staff have organized a new contest. They want users to come up with a three minute video of what the network, the MuggleSpace network, means to you. Because a lot of people have made friends through MuggleSpace and it’s great, it’s really cool. So they’re looking for people to come up with around three-minute videos showing – talking – of you talking about what the MuggleSpace means to you and the greatest MuggleSpace moments. So visit MuggleSpace.com and right there on the main page on the center, I see Matt’s on it right now.
Matt: Yep.
Andrew: He’s working on his video.
Matt: Yep.
Andrew: Find more information there. MuggleSpace.com, approaching its one year anniversary.
Ben: MuggleSpace, MuggleSpace, MuggleSpace.
Andrew: Also, later this month, we are going to be doing another – I spoke too soon. We’re going to be doing another MuggleCast. Maybe we’ll do it live. Maybe – we want to do a Year in Review show, like we do at the end of every year, but maybe we should do it live because it’s the Year in Review!
Ben: I love live shows, Andrew.
Andrew: Me too. It’s fun.
Ben: And this will be – we’re ushering in a new decade here. This is a big deal.
Andrew: Well, let’s just be live – forget about live – let’s forget about a New Year’s Eve party. Let’s just – New Year’s Eve with the MuggleCasters.
Ben: New Year’s Eve, you think?
Andrew: Well, yeah, because we’ll countdown to New Year’s, you know? It was a joke.
Ben: Oh, okay.
Matt: Oh.
Eric: Andrew, Andrew…
Ben: I was going to say, I need to check my schedule.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Your schedule.
Andrew: What, Eric?
Eric: Instead of taking – since you’re not taking live calls, what do you guys think about that LEGO trailer? Did you guys see – and it’s on the DVD too, where…
Andrew: Yeah, it’s pretty cool.
Eric: …one of the previews is for the LEGO: Years 1-4.
Andrew: It is very cool.
Ben: I love LEGO.
Andrew: I think we’ll discuss that on the next episode. We’ll catch up on all the news.
Ben: Yo, Andrew.
Andrew: What?
Ben: Is there something going on next summer that we wanted to tell listeners about?
Announcement: Infinitus 2010
Andrew: Oh, yeah, I guess that’s another thing. Infinitus 2010, Infinitus2010.org is the site. It’s a Harry Potter conference by the makers of all the Harry Potter conferences – sorry, it’s not Infinitus – what is it?
Eric: And except, you know, Terminus.
Andrew: Terminus and Leaky.
Ben: So are we – are we going to be doing a MuggleCast at that event?
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Eric: From inside Hogwarts Castle in the Islands of Adventure?
Andrew: Oh, I hope so. But you never know. So Infinitus2010.org is the site where you can register for the next Harry Potter conference. It’s going to be held July 15th through 18th in Orlando, Florida, right in the resort where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is going to be, in Universal Studios, so it’s going to be fantastic. I proposed an idea to Ben the other day for a panel and I think we’re going to do it. Do you remember that, Ben?
Ben: Oh!
Andrew: Don’t reveal now!
Ben: Okay.
Andrew: But it’s going to be very moving. It’s going to be – I really think I may cry.
Ben: I mean…
Andrew: I’m crying just thinking about it.
Ben: It brings tears to my eyes.
Andrew: Like, sad. Like, I’m going to be very sad. So again, Infitius2010.org. We hope to see you there. We hope to be doing a podcast there. If you register, please put MuggleNet in the little referral box. We’d really appreciate that. And again, we hope to see you there. It’s always a lot of fun to be meeting with the listeners and hang out with them and go to the dance with them, you know?
Ben: And if you’re looking for a date to the dance, hit me up on Twitter or something, Ben Schoen.
Eric: Ben, you know as well as I do they get younger every year.
Andrew: [laughs] And like I said, later this month we will do a Year in Review show. Maybe we’ll do it live, but we’ll see. Thank you to everyone who has been listening on Ustream tonight. We hope you guys have enjoyed it. There were over twelve hundred people at one point, listening.
Ben: And thanks for making us a trend.
Matt: Yeah!
Announcement: Podcast Awards
Andrew: Yeah, thank you. Really appreciate the support from you guys after all these years. The Podcast Awards are going to be announced – it’s this weekend, Micah, right?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: All right.
Ben: And Andrew, can you remind the listeners what the deal we made with them was?
Andrew: So if we win – if MuggleCast wins the Best Produced and Entertainment Awards, like we were nominated for – if we win, Ben and I will be doing a rendition of Bad Romance featuring…
Ben: [singing] Gaga, oh la la.
Andrew: …featuring Fawkes and Dumbledore. So it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Ben: Aw.
Andrew: We’ve been rehearsing in the studio. Its big stuff’s coming out of that, big stuff.
Matt: Yeah, it’s hilarious.
Ben: Our album might drop next Spring sometime.
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: How well at a marketing standpoint do you think that song’s going to do?
Ben: Oh, I mean, my producer, he’s telling me to make it a single but we’re still…
Andrew: Don’t know yet.
Ben: We don’t know yet.
Eric: You can put it on it on the E.P. cover, “From best-selling author Ben Schoen.”
Ben: Yes, indeed.
Andrew: To watch the podcast awards, Micah will be there. He’ll be accepting the award for us on behalf of MuggleCast. We’re going to embed the video right on MuggleCast.com. So you can watch Micah accept the award. It’s like a digital ceremony so he’s not actually – you’ll hear him…
Micah: Too bad I’m not going to Hawaii. Isn’t that where that guy is based out of?
Andrew: That is where he is, yeah.
Ben: Oh, this is going to be a digital ceremony?
Andrew: Yes, it was last year as well.
Ben: Wow.
Eric: Oh, it’s not going to be in Burbank or where was that?
Andrew: Ontario, California.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew: So, no, it will not be that. So it’s going to be digital. You’ll be able to watch the ceremony on MuggleCast.com, and if he wins, Ben will – if we win, Ben and I will head straight to the studio and begin recording what will be one of the greatest Lady Gaga remakes of all time.
[Ben sighs]
Andrew: So listen again everyone, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for listening in to the show today.
Ben: And, hold on a second, Andrew.
[Matt laughs]
Ben: You’re just rushing things here. I don’t like it. I don’t care if you have to go pee.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: What I was going to say was don’t we – did we ask for them to vote for us on Podcast Alley?
Andrew: Oh no, we didn’t. Well, it’s a live show. Things are a little different.
Ben: Oh, okay. I’m sorry. Didn’t know, didn’t quite know the landscape, bro.
Announcement: Podcast Alley
Andrew: Don’t forget to vote for us on Podcast Alley. It is a new month. It is MuggleCast Mecember so please vote for us by going to PodcastAlley.com and placing your vote there. Again, we really appreciate it. You know Ben, as a tribute to you and Emma – play an Elton John song for you. I’m thinking “Saturday Night’s All Right”? Talina South?
Ben: No, no, no, put on Your Song.
Andrew: But that’s not happy! I want something a little more upbeat…
Ben: [singing] “Saturday night’s all right, oh…”
Andrew: Come on, oh.
Ben: Okay, do it.
Matt: Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.
Andrew: All right.
Ben: [singing] “Don’t go breaking my heart…”
[Micah laughs]
Show Close
Andrew: We’re going to go for Saturday Night Live, or Saturday Night’s All Right. Thank you everyone for listening. Let’s try to do this live. I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Ben Schoen.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Micah: [over Eric] I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Eric: Oh…
Matt: I’m Matt Britton.
Micah: It worked.
Matt: I did it! I did it!
Andrew: Well, Micah and Eric, you two talked at the same time, but it’s all right because it’s live. Thanks everyone.
Micah: My name is longer so I ended after him.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: So it worked.
[“Saturday Night’s All Right” by Elton John begins playing]
Andrew: Thank you everybody for listening, and we’ll see you next time for Episode 187. Buh-bye!
Matt and Ben: [singing along with music] “Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, Saturday…”
[Outro music continues]
[Andrew presses the “That Was Easy” Button]