MuggleCast 236 Transcript
Show Intro
[“Hedwig’s Theme” plays]
Micah: Because the last Potter film is the first to $1 billion, this is MuggleCast Episode 236 for August 2nd, 2011.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: This week’s episode of MuggleCast is brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks, with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast.
And by Hypable.com, a brand new entertainment website created by the staff of MuggleNet. Hypable is a MuggleNet for multiple fandoms: passionate, complete coverage for all the fandoms that we cover, now with over 40 fandoms including Glee, True Blood, Breaking Bad, The Hobbit, Doctor Who, Merlin, and many more. Visit Hypable.com for news coverage you can count on. That’s Hypable.com – H-Y-P-A-B-L-E dot com.
[Show music continues]
Andrew: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 236! We have a full panel today for what’s going to be another big Deathly Hallows review show and also discussion of Pottermess – [clears throat] I’m sorry, Pottermore.
Eric: [laughs] Ooh!
Andrew: People on the panel this week include Ben.
Ben: Hello everybody!
Andrew: And Micah and Eric, and making his triumphant return after making his debut on the Part 1 review show and upsetting many people, [laughs] Richard Reid is back to give his review of Part 2.
Ben: Did he take…
Richard: And to upset many people once again.
Eric: Oh.
Ben: Did he take a big, like…
Andrew: Poo?
Ben: …you-know-what…
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: …all over the film?
Andrew: [laughs] Pretty much. And it was funny because it was his first MuggleCast ever, so people were all PO’d about how somebody just showed up on MuggleCast…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: …and dumped the film.
Ben: Well, I mean, I’m all for stirring the pot.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Some people have these little worlds of Harry Potter is at – like these movies are a hundred percent flawless and that’s just not the case.
Andrew: Mhm. So, we’ll be talking about that in a little bit. But first, Micah, we have one news item to discuss today.
News: Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Passes $1 Billion at Box Office
Micah: Yeah, Deathly Hallows – Part 2 passed the $1 billion mark at the box office. As of right now, it is currently number eight all time, just over $1 billion and I’m sure that number is going to go up later on today.
Andrew: Will it pass $2 billion? That’s the new question.
Micah: I don’t think so.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Unless – yeah. There’s not going to be a second grand opening, right? I mean…
Andrew: No.
Eric: I will say, the thing it has above the other films is that it’s still in theaters, right? So, they can’t go up, only it can.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: Well…
Andrew: It may pass Alice in Wonderland, which is $1.24 – sorry, $1 billion, $24 million…
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: …which is [laughs] just a ridiculous amount of money.
Eric: That is a lot of money. I mean, that is a recent movie. I don’t feel like – I mean, was there a website just like us in the Alice in Wonderland fandom that was just as excited as we are about Potter passing a billion? Because it’s so odd to think that a film so recently has been right where Potter is right now, because we want to think that this film is breaking all sorts of records, right? I mean…
Richard: Didn’t Avatar pass a billion as well?
Andrew: Yeah, it passed $2 billion, it’s almost at three.
Eric: That was a couple of years ago, wasn’t it now? How old is…
Micah: Well, it was re-released too, wasn’t it?
Eric: Oh, it was.
Andrew: It was. And plus, it was 3D, everybody had to see it in 3D.
Micah: Yeah. The other thing, though…
Richard: I saw it in 2D.
Micah: You’ve got to think, though, that Part 2 is going to make another $100 million, won’t it? I mean, that’s not that far out of reach.
Andrew: Right, because it’s only been about two weeks. So…
Micah: So, you’re looking at it passing Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I mean, I think it’ll make it all the way up to number three if it keeps on this trend.
Eric: Hmm.
Andrew: It is the number one Potter film of all time. It beat Sorcerer’s Stone which had peaked at $97.4 million, so beat it by a long shot. And yeah, so that’s good news. I mean, it was kind of predicted. I think the reasons everybody saw it – it made so much – was one, it was the last film. I think a lot of people were just struck by the curiosity of the franchise and decided, “Hey, okay, I’ll go check out the last one.” Plus, the reviews were so great on Rotten Tomatoes. I think it averaged 98%.
Ben: Is it still up there?
Andrew: Still up?
Ben: Is it still like 98%?
Andrew: Yeah, let me see. 96%. So, that’s great. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah. I mean, if Toy Story 3 only had – you said, 93%?
Andrew: No, no, no. Toy Story 3 had like 99% or 100%.
Eric: Oh, okay.
Micah: Did you write…
Eric: Yeah. But that’s…
Micah: …all those reviews?
Andrew: [laughs] What? No.
[Ben and Richard laugh]
Ben: I’m just shocked that this has gone – I mean, eight films. That’s over a decade. That’s a long time to be able to keep something like this going, is it not?
Eric: You’re talking about staying relevant?
Ben: Well, I mean, not just staying relevant. Imagine had they really, really messed up Movie 4 or something. Would they have been able to carry it this long? Would people have come back for Movie 5? I feel like they played their cards nearly perfectly. I mean, there are some things people aren’t going to be happy about, but you can’t please everybody. But I think they did a remarkable job of keeping people interested and – I mean, I guess that’s the power you have when you have one of the biggest movie studios and some of the best marketing minds behind your brand.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: It really gives you the ability to do that.
Eric: But still, I think you’re right. To not blow it so badly that nobody would come back. I feel like they could have done that, right? I mean, they could have blown it.
Andrew: Well, the Potter fans still would have come back, because you look at how loyal they are to J. K. Rowling, “Queen Rowling,” you know?
Ben: [laughs] As she’s called.
Andrew: [laughs] Yes.
Eric: Well, I mean, [laughs] if she had withdrawn her support, though, from the series…
Andrew: She wouldn’t have, though.
Eric: Yeah, that’s true, that’s true.
Ben: That would have been a better feud than some of the more recent ones we’ve seen, like the whole Vander Ark stuff or whatever.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: If there was a big battle between Jo and Warner Bros…
Eric: Films versus… [laughs]
Ben: …over the rights and stuff, that would be epic. That would be fun to watch.
Andrew: Mhm. So, yeah, congrats to them. I’m sure Warner Bros. was – I wonder if they had a little party once they passed $1 billion.
Ben: So, Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner, like a big conglomerate, okay? So, say this movie profits $700 million. Of course the shareholders get paid, but does anybody know who, like, Jo Warner is?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: The dude who gets most of the money off of this? Or is there one dude who gets most of it?
Andrew: Well, there is a president of Warner Bros. I think a lot of it goes back into the company.
Ben: Yeah, of course.
Eric: Well, doesn’t Disney own Warner?
Andrew: No.
Ben: No, they don’t.
Eric: Disney owns a lot, or Warner owns Disney or something. They’re always buying things, too, even the new Marvel Studios…
Richard: Disney owns Marvel, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, Disney owns Marvel now and it’s just – it’s all one big company in the end, so if a film like Harry Potter does this well, then I guess – I don’t know. The ball keeps on rolling, people can go home, feed their families, and they put it into new projects, I think.
Richard: I see that Apple now has more money than the US government. I wonder if Harry Potter…
[Eric laughs]
Richard: …or Warner Bros. [laughs] have more money than the US government.
Eric: That’s the thing, is everybody is going to – eventually, these companies – everybody’s going to have more money than the US government, and nobody is going to lend it to the US government.
Richard: That’s the next milestone. It’s not a billion dollars, it’s going to be, are you richer than America?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Before we continue with today’s episode of MuggleCast, we’d like to remind you that this episode is brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks, with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Bestsellers. For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out their great service. One audiobook to consider is The Hunger Games, the first in a trilogy of the same name. The series is hotter than ever right now because filming for the movie adaptation recently got underway. It’s one book and film series you are not going to want to miss. So, for a free audiobook of your choice, such as The Hunger Games, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. Again, that’s AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast.
Pottermore Beta: The Magical Quill Challenge
Andrew: All right, let’s talk about Pottermore. Who got a registration?
Ben: I didn’t and I was going to say something. I don’t know if this logic is correct, but some of you jimmies out there…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …tweeting about it, “Oh, I’ve registered for my tenth username.”
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: “Which one should I choose? Should I be Weasley1Off24…”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: “…or should I be DumbleDip44?”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: It’s like, geez, all those names sucked. Why don’t you just choose one of them and let other people get registrations, because now I don’t have a registration and I am not happy about it.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Neither do I, Ben. I’m not happy about it, either.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: You’re not happy about it?
Ben: Thanks for all your ten usernames, folks.
Andrew: Luckily, there will be six more days where you can go in and grab one. I have to be honest, I did grab three because I wanted the name that I liked.
Ben: You’re one of them!
Andrew: [laughs] I did not – well, I ended up with CastleCloak3. That was my original anyway, because I forgot my other two.
Ben: Really?
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: CastleCloak?
Eric: CastleCloak?
Andrew: What? Why are you blaming me? It was the coolest one of the pack!
Ben: What were the other ones?
Andrew: [laughs] I can’t remember.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Richard and Eric, you guys got in, too, right?
Richard: Yeah.
Eric: No, no, I didn’t.
Richard: I did.
Andrew: Oh, no.
Eric: I didn’t even see the Magic Quill. Oh, Richard did?
Richard: I did, but I can’t remember my username, either.
Ben: Now why won’t they let you choose your usernames? Because they don’t want people competing for, oh, I want to be…
Andrew: No.
Ben: …Pottermore.com/Ben?
[Andrew laughs]
Richard: They could at least remind you of what your damn username is in the e-mail they send you.
Andrew: Yes. It’s child safety reasons, so people can’t put in their real name or put in like “LosAngelesDweller32,” you know?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, people can track it.
Andrew: Yeah. So how it worked was, actually – it was kind of inconvenient for those in America. It went live – what’s happening is each day this week Pottermore is opening up another X amount of Beta registrations that you can – that are up for grabs. The first batch went up Sunday night at 4:00 AM Eastern Time which is of course [laughs] very inconvenient for everybody in America. Richard got his because it was morning his time over there in the UK. And I had set my alarm for 1:00 AM Pacific Time because there were rumors that it would be going live sometime after midnight. And honestly the whole process is really – it’s…
Richard: Cumbersome?
Andrew: …intense. [laughs] It’s cumbersome, yes.
Eric: Convoluted?
Andrew: You have to solve a clue that’s posted – it was posted just on
Pottermore.com. I thought it was going to be hidden or something, but it wasn’t. On – so the clues on Pottermore.com, you have to figure out the riddle and…
Ben: Is it better or worse than the Sorcerer’s Stone DVD?
Andrew: I’d say it’s just as annoying.
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Eric: Wow.
Micah: Can we try and figure the riddle out here for those of us who…
Andrew: Yeah, sure. The clue was, “How many breeds of owl are featured on the Eeylops Owl Emporium sign? Multiply this number by 49.”
Eric: Oh cool.
Andrew: Now, I guess this is in the book or whatever, I can’t remember, but the answer was two forty…
Richard: It’s in “Diagon Alley,” yeah.
Andrew: The answer was 245 because you multiply the number by 49. Yeah, so there were five owls on the sign, so you multiply that number by 49. That’s 245. So then you take that number…
Ben: Well, was that a difficult thing to find out if you looked in that chapter?
Eric: No, probably not.
Andrew: Probably not, but I didn’t have the book. I was waking up at 1:00 AM. [laughs]
Ben: Wait, you don’t have the book?
Eric: Yeah, then you’ve got to bring your book with you to the site. Wait a minute, though – correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t JK Rowling in her intro video – weren’t you supposed to go to Pottermore, enter your e-mail address, and you’d be entered to be…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: …one of the million who got the Beta?
Ben: That’s what I thought.
Eric: What is it with this question, with these clues, and this hunt?
Andrew: Well, that was the other issue. That was the other issue. Everybody submitted their e-mails for basically no reason. I don’t think an e-mail even went out explaining all this.
Richard: That was for something else. So that – to sign up for originally, was just so they would e-mail you today, to say that the Beta was now open for submission.
Andrew: But did they?
Richard: No, they didn’t.
Eric: I have not received that e-mail yet.
Richard: [laughs] They just didn’t in the end, it was…
Eric: So JK Rowling is collecting e-mail addresses for something.
[Richard laughs]
Andrew: And you take that number and you insert it at the end of Quill.Pottermore.com. So then you go into your address bar, you type in “quill.pottermore.com/245.” Then it forwards you to Sony.com which is where the Magic Quill is “hidden.”
Eric: The Magic Quill?
Andrew: And from there, the quill is like floating around, and you have to grab it. And if you don’t grab it, it says, “You didn’t grab it, try again.” So imagine me sitting there at 1:00 AM – I was sleeping for three hours. I have one eye on the screen, the other eye is in pain from this bright light shining in my face, and I’m trying to hit this damn feather that keeps moving around, very slowly because it’s Flash and Flash sucks!
Richard: It sucks even more when there’s two hundred million people trying to do it at the same time.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Servers are crashing, right? Not loading. Rebooting, resetting.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s like people are having a hard time. And then – so then you just click this quill and then the sign-up process begins, and that part was relatively okay. So anyway, this is going to be happening every day. It turns out you didn’t even really need the clue, though. I mean, once you knew that it was on Sony.com, you could just go straight to Sony.com [laughs] and start the registration process.
Eric: Where’s it going to be tomorrow? HarryPotter.com? I mean, really?
Andrew: It’s going to be on MuggleNet. No, just kidding.
Eric: [laughs] Yeah. But that’s…
Ben: So if people are already making eight usernames, to have backup usernames and all that, does this mean people are going to get sorted into a house, and if it’s not the house they want they’re just going to go to one of their other accounts and undermine the whole integrity of the system, the Pottermore…
Eric: [sighs] Yeah, it does undermine the integrity. They were supposed to prevent against that. At the Pottermore panel at LeakyCon, they were asked that question specifically and they said, “No, there’s only one shot, ever.”
Andrew: Now – well look, in fairness to them, they can’t stop people from creating multiple usernames. I mean, that’s not possible, really.
Richard: I’m selling my other ones on eBay, so…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Your names must be so much better than everybody else’s, Richard. What names did you get?
Andrew: Yeah, which – he said he forgot.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: That was the issue. My first user account kind of went bonkers, so that’s why I set up a second and third one because it gave me an error when I tried to click the confirmation e-mail which, by the way, I had to wait a half hour before so it’s going on like 2:30 AM, I just want to go back to bed. I have to be up at 6:00 or 7:00. And – so then I forget my username because you can submit with multiple – with the same e-mail address for multiple accounts. But then it just sends me the username for one and it’s just like – my third one was the one I wanted! It had like “unicorn” in it. I wanted something with “unicorn.”
Ben: Awww.
Andrew: Yeah! It was upsetting.
Ben: [in a sad tone] My third one!
Richard: [in a sad tone] Yeah.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I have extras, Ben.
Ben: Between you and Richard…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …you guys have like eight, and the rest of us are sitting here with zero.
Andrew: Listen…
Ben: This is not equal.
Richard: But I’m willing to sell you one though, Ben.
Ben: Oh.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Start the bidding at five cents! Five cents!
Eric: Do you take PayPal?
Richard: I do!
Andrew: So what happened was it went live like I said at 4:00 AM Eastern, and it was closed by about 6:00 AM Eastern. It was all done, so it was about two or three hours that it was open. They had all filled up. So again, this is going to be happening every day this week through Saturday, so you have plenty of chances.
Richard: And it’s a different book each day. The clue is from a different book. So today was about Philosopher’s Stone, tomorrow is about Chamber of Secrets.
Andrew: And apparently, the questions are going to get easier as well.
Micah: Yeah. Well – and will you always go to Sony.com?
Richard: [laughs] I’m going to try that.
Eric: I’m sure it’ll be somewhere else.
Andrew: Yeah, I imagine it may be on the official Harry Potter website, Scholastic – sort of like where all the owl banners were. That’s my guess.
Micah: Yeah, but it’s not like MuggleNet has a hidden registration page that’s waiting to go live.
Richard: Or do we?
Andrew: No.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: The people who are involved with this have major corporate deals. [laughs]
Micah: Yeah. I was going to say, guarantee the site would crash.
Eric: Yeah. Did you say though – they hit a limit, right? So this is how they’re letting the million fans in. They’re essentially capping each day how many people can register, right?
Richard: Yeah.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: So, it’s about 120,000 each day or so…
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: …that are able to get in. And I think the reason they did it so early US time is so that they didn’t crash the site – the US people didn’t crash the site, even though people were still up to get on it.
Eric: Well, because if the US were awake – see, why does the site – like JKRowling.com, or Pottermore.com – why does it crash? I mean, it’s JKRowling.com!
Richard: JKRowling.com never crashes.
Eric: Well okay, but it’s JK Rowling’s new website, Pottermore. Why does it crash? Shouldn’t they spend a little…
Richard: Because they don’t have enough servers to handle the load.
Eric: But they have to have anticipated this. It’s something they’ve been working on for four or five years now.
Andrew: Well, that’s the thing that actually got me, and I was talking to this about Richard yesterday – or talking to this with Richard yesterday. JKRowling.com never crashed, ever. It was always up. The Book 7 title, the quotes from Book 6 or whatever – never had a single issue, and then this! It just seems like it keeps being plagued by different issues, and what they just need to do is hire the people who kept JKRowling.com online. [laughs]
Richard: But remember, the people who kept JKRowling.com online was a professional tech company. It was custom built for her.
Andrew: The site.
Eric: But if you’re talking about doing something right – Pottermore is guaranteed following. Pottermore is going to break the Internet. I mean, it’s guaranteed, right? So, why not spend top dollar and construct this from the ground up to make sure that a million fans – I mean, even when you are registered now, I hear that you’re not going to be allowed on the site to Beta-test it at the same time as a certain amount of other people because, again, they don’t want it to crash. But I’m just saying, why are they having these issues at all? It’s not like they can’t afford more bandwidth.
Micah: I think it’s just…
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Eric: What’s the…
Micah: Pottermore.com funding is tied to the US debt crisis, so…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Yeah. Well, I don’t think they – perhaps they didn’t – whoever is administering their setup over there doesn’t – didn’t really understand what they were getting into, or…
Andrew: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah, somehow!
Ben: I doubt that – these issues are not going to persist because particularly come this fall when the site is fully live and open to the public. There’s no way they can be having it go down all the time, and I doubt that JK Rowling is going to stand for that.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: I mean, when you’re paying somebody – I imagine she’s paying out the wazoo to have this all done, and maybe it’s like – do you think Sony is hosting it or something?
Eric: Well, I don’t think JK Rowling is paying for it. I mean, I think the buzz around it is going to pay for it, you know what I’m saying? I think Sony agreed to go into this. They’re investing money in…
Ben: Yeah, but that’s Jo’s money, regardless, at the end of the day. She’s paying people to – she paid people to build it. Richard, can you ping their server with your hacker skills? Can we hack into Pottermore live here on MuggleCast?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Whoa!
Richard: I don’t want to risk breaking it further.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Everyone is really going to love Richard. He’s like, “The movie sucks,” and he’s about to hack into Pottermore.
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Andrew: Richard wants to get in on the Pottermore server team.
Richard: What?!
Andrew: I thought you did!
Eric: Can you blame him?
[Ben laughs]
Eric: Maybe he could improve it.
Andrew: Yesterday, you were like, “You should connect me with them.” [laughs]
Richard: I just wanted to play early, I don’t want to work for them. [laughs]
Andrew: Oh, I see. Oh, okay. All right. Well again, so new clues are going to be posted every day, so keep an eye on – now here’s where the fan community comes in, because Pottermore is not telling you when these clues go live. So…
Eric: That’s BS.
Ben: And not only that, but Pottermore doesn’t give you the answers to the clues, so you can rely on your friends on Twitter and the comments on MuggleNet to not have to solve the riddle yourself.
Andrew: Right. That’s what we’re – yeah, so…
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: Right. [laughs]
Ben: I mean, doesn’t that kind of take the fun out of it though? It’s like, “I’m going to go search Twitter and find out what the answer is.”
Andrew: But here’s why we do it: people – some people just want to get in the dang site. They don’t want to sit there, and divide and multiply by 49, and then go to Sony’s site. I mean, they’re going to have to do that anyway, but they just want to sign up and it’s so – and here’s the other thing: it’s going to be on the internet anyway, so why not us do it too? It’s going to be on Tumblr and Facebook.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: So…
Ben: Everyone is doing it!
Eric: I just thought I already signed up for Beta, and if I didn’t get the e-mail, then I wasn’t one of the lucky million. I accept that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: None of this clue thing. I’m tired of the clues. Come on!
Micah: It’s all misleading.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: How many signups did they get? Did they announce that?
Richard: Well, it must’ve been…
Andrew: In the e-mail?
Ben: Like that initial one.
Andrew: Yeah, you know what? They said it at the LeakyCon panel, I’m forgetting.
Eric: Hmm.
Andrew: But Jo’s video on YouTube has had over a million views, and there’s definitely been a lot of interest.
Ben: Well yeah, that and everybody entered like eight e-mail addresses.
Richard: That original signup didn’t work for ages.
Andrew: Right, the e-mail signup didn’t even work, initially.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, that’s right! I never actually signed up, I don’t think. I remember when it came out it didn’t work, and then I just went to bed.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well, it’s people crashing the server. So this is the preparation you’re talking about, for them to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, although it’s still going on.
Andrew: Anyway, there’s still a lot to look forward to, so keep an eye on MuggleNet and Hypable. We’ll be keeping you guys updated. People cannot spend all day on Pottermore, waiting for Betas to open up, you know?
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: So that’s why we’re helping.
Ben: But they will, though! That’s the thing.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: That’s the reason they can delay it ten hours, because Harry Potter fans – Harry Potter is like addiction. Not addiction, but it’s like a – people have such a high affinity for it.
Eric: It’s a way of life.
Ben: Yeah. They’ll wait around ten hours, it doesn’t matter. They can jerk our chains all they want.
Listener Tweets: Pottermore Usernames
Andrew: [laughs] I just – for fun, I asked to people who follow us on Twitter, Twitter.com/MuggleCast, what username did you get? Because you get to pick from one of five. And the usernames are basically two nouns put together plus a number. So, JoeRayes said – [laughs] this guy has like twelve!
“FeatherCloak3, WingWolf56, RainFelicis13, PhoenixSeer124, WizardWitch53.”
That’s kind of a cool one.
Eric: Ooh! WizardWitch!
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: This is all one person?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Micah: Ben, are you writing these down? We can e-mail these to Melissa and have them banned from the site.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: WeezyWitch.
Andrew: HenryMcNinja has the name SeekerEcho52.
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: Johndra has MidnightSun101, which is actually very interesting because that’s a thing out of Twilight.
Eric: Yeah, it’s the unwritten novel.
Andrew: Yeah. NHShavalia has SilverThestral53. That’s a cool one! CareBear has FeatherSun168.
Eric: Now, the cool thing is if I’m remembering correctly from the discussion at LeakyCon, you’re going to be able to ring up these friends if you have their username and duel them. There’s going to be like a wizard duel. So just like…
Andrew: Yeah, that’s cool.
Eric: …where you log into Facebook and you see you have pokes pending, you’re going to have duels pending, where you can duel your friends.
Andrew: Hennyhplover has SpiritPumpkin144. See, why didn’t I – why wasn’t I offered these names?
Ben: SpiritPumpkin?
Andrew: Yeah, that’s great! [laughs]
Ben: Wow.
Andrew: No?
Ben: You have poor taste in Pottermore names, Andrew.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: SpiritPumpkin.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: To be continued.
Ben: It sounds like a pet name or something.
Eric: We’ll find out what you get, Ben, and what I get.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And what Micah gets.
Ben: I guess now I’ve got to go with my first username because I’ve [censored] about it for everybody else…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: …and their nine usernames.
Andrew: Don’t be hypocritical now, just go with it.
Ben: Well, I’m not going to broadcast the fact that I registered twelve times.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: That’s not something I’m going to tell everybody.
Eric: I see.
Richard: Oh, I just remembered my name. [laughs]
Andrew: What is it?
Richard: It’s NoxDust142.
Eric: NoxDust?
Ben: That’s a good one. I like that one.
Eric: Yeah. That’s awesome!
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Andrew: [imitating Eric] “That’s awesome!”
Ben: You got a vote of approval from Eric.
Eric: That’s like extinguishing fairies, their fairy dust.
[Richard laughs]
Eric: Nox extinguishes light. You’re just like going around, stepping on fairies. That’s Richard.
Andrew: Oh my goodness. I’m trying to load up my other name. I’m trying to look at my conversation with Richard from last night.
Richard: WalnutNight188?
Andrew: WalnutNight, yeah!
Eric: WalnutNight? I love it.
Andrew: WalnutNight188. Yeah, and I said to Richard, “That’s currently my favorite.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: That’s pretty cool.
MuggleCast 236 Transcript (continued)
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Overall Thoughts
Andrew: Okay. Anyway, let’s move on to a discussion on Deathly Hallows – Part 2. We talked about it on Episode 234 which was live at LeakyCon. We had Evanna Lynch on, we had listeners coming up throwing in their opinions. Richard, let’s start with you because you’re the only one on this panel right now who wasn’t at that live show. What did you think of Deathly Hallows – Part 2?
Richard: I thought – oh, I just hated it, hated it, hated it.
[Andrew laughs]
Richard: It just sucked so much. No, I’m kidding, really. I loved it. I really liked it. This is the first movie that I’ve actually really enjoyed. I’ve never particularly liked any of the previous ones enough to want to watch them more than once or twice. But no, I came out – I saw this one twice and I came out of the cinema both times thinking, “Wow, I really liked that.” There was just – there’s various reasons for it. My biggest complaint with Part 1 was that I thought the acting – particularly from Dan Radcliffe – I thought it was really, really bad. In so many scenes, it was kind of cringeworthy. And what’s more is the trio were kind of by themselves in it for most of the film because a lot of the older cast like Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith and Julie Walters, they didn’t really appear in it so much since it was just Harry, Ron, and Hermione camping.
Andrew: Yeah.
Richard: So they had to hold the film by themselves and I didn’t really think they managed it very well, whereas in this film, a) the experienced cast came back, and b) it wasn’t really a dialogue-y film. It was very much an action film, so it didn’t need to rely on great acting. They just needed to rely on great action, and they did. They pulled that off really well. I thought, in particular, Dan was actually really convincing, really good at that type of stuff, and much better than the serious stuff. So I couldn’t really fault the film in that way whatsoever. And the more experienced cast – well, they were – they really stepped up their game, particularly Alan Rickman who was just fantastic.
Andrew: And…
Eric: Well, don’t forget Ralph Fiennes.
Andrew: Yeah, and Maggie Smith. I mean, all three of them were really standouts for me.
Richard: Yeah, exactly! I mean, there was bits that I didn’t like. I still think the Harry and Ginny thing is just – doesn’t portray well in the films whatsoever.
Andrew: No.
Richard: They’ve never got that right at all, and they didn’t get it right this time either.
Andrew: You know who I blame for that? I blame Bonnie Wright. I really…
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: I’ve never liked her.
Richard: You know something? I met her at the premiere and I asked her a couple of questions, and the way you interact with her there is a lot different to how she appears in the film, so I actually – until that, I did as well, but since I met her I don’t blame her. I blame the writers and I blame the director for it.
Andrew: Mmm.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: 3D
Richard: The 3D – 3D, ask my arse. I did not get…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Richard: …what was so big of her whatsoever. I wish 3D…
Andrew: What was that phrase?
Richard: Ask my arse.
Andrew: Ask my arse.
Eric: Ask my – like…
Richard: I guess it’s a local phrase. But the point is…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Local.
[Richard laughs]
Andrew: Go ahead.
Richard: The point is that I just wish 3D would die already, really. But in this film – it just added nothing to it at all! I didn’t – I forgot that I was watching 3D for the most part of it. The only time I remembered it was when my glasses slid down my nose and I had to push them back up again. I went, “Oh yeah! I’m watching…”
Ben: Those glasses are so uncomfortable!
Richard: [laughs] Yeah.
Ben: And I sweat a lot, naturally…
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Ben: …and I was just like wiping my eyes, drying them off on my shirt. And honestly, for parts of the film, I sat there with my glasses off…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …and stared at the blurry-as screen…
[Richard laughs]
Ben: …because I couldn’t be bothered to have the glasses on that were giving me a headache. So, I agree fully. Do away with 3D.
Andrew: There’s been reports that it’s not healthy. 3D is not good for your eyes!
Richard: Good!
Andrew: It’s a fad, it’s going to go away.
Richard: Let it die.
Eric: There will always be those reports. But – no, I will agree, with the 3D in this film. So we saw it – when I saw it the first time, I saw it in 3D, and then just today I saw it before recording this show, and I saw it in 2D. And I have to agree. Not only was the 3D not very noticeable in the film – it added some depth here, foreground, background, that sort of thing. But all in all, there were not scenes that really, really stood out. Also, just having the glasses on, like Ben said, was a distraction. There was – towards the end of the film, second half, I thought of crying, but every time I would start to cry, my glasses would fog up and I couldn’t see the screen!
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Eric: So, it’s a little restrictive there. I couldn’t really be myself when I was wearing the 3D…
Andrew: You created a climate within your eye sockets.
Eric: It was a small ecosystem.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: So I wasn’t able to really enjoy the film as much in 3D, but when I saw it in 2D I just thought it was a lot better. I could focus a lot more on the acting.
Andrew: See, David Yates had said – and I agree with him completely – it’s not supposed to really stand out in this film. It’s supposed to be out of the way. It’s not supposed to be distracting, that’s the phrase he used a lot.
Eric: Yeah, but if you’re going to do that…
Richard: So why do you have to pay more for it then? So…
Eric: Exactly. If you’re going to do that with a film, then don’t do it at all because theaters – the studios are going to charge so much more for 3D. You have to almost make it this blatant – you have to pander to 3D in order to make it worth…
Andrew: Well…
Eric: …people’s money. But yeah.
Andrew: But it does get good during the action scenes. He was saying it shouldn’t be distracting during dialogue and informational scenes like at the beginning of the film, really, when Harry is talking to Griphook and Ollivander. You really don’t see it there. You do see it – the Gringotts escape, the final battle at the end. But it’s not obnoxious and I appreciated that. I don’t know, I don’t know.
Ben: Well, when the – the only time the 3D really worked for me was when the Voldy-fetti came out at the end.
[Micah laughs]
Ben: I felt like it was coming down on me like I was in Times Square…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …New Year’s Eve.
[Richard laughs]
Ben: Not really though.
Eric: The Voldy-fetti?
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: I saw you throw your hands in the air and you were like twirling around.
Ben: Well, the thing is, if you see 3D – like actual, legit IMAX where you’re laying back in your seat a little bit looking up at the big dome screen, that would be legitimate. But sitting in these…
Eric: Well, that’s OMNIMAX.
Ben: That’s OMNIMAX?
Eric: I think so.
Ben: Oh okay, I’ve always thought that was IMAX because that was what I grew up with knowing, is IMAX.
Andrew: Well, the screens are a lot bigger in a normal – in a real IMAX theater.
Eric: That’s true.
Andrew: I think that’s what you’re talking about.
Eric: But then there’s also the difference between being shot in 3D and being converted to 3D, where…
Richard: Yeah, this was converted.
Eric: …Avatar – yeah, where Avatar was shot, and Avatar is the biggest, best example because that was the pioneer. It was shot in 3D, it was meant to – scenes are shot from a certain angle so as to be in 3D. You’re supposed to think about it. That film almost shouldn’t exist in 2D, I would argue. But then there’s Harry Potter and other films like it that are converted to 3D where it does add some depth in terms of – if Harry is in the foreground, and you see Hogwarts burning in the background. There’s more depth there, it’s a little bit out of – unusual, but they’re not able to really – even with the snake, when Nagini strikes and Neville comes and cuts his head off. In 3D, it really didn’t jump out all that much, and I guess the difference is the Voldy-fetti, like Ben said. That was really a moment where I said, “Wow, the confetti is coming out into the audience, and Voldemort is kind of disgusting right now but we’re all going to be wearing him in a moment.” So, that shocked me, but the majority of the film it just went unused or not obtrusive.
Andrew: So, let’s – Micah?
Micah: Yeah, I’m here.
Andrew: Oh. It sounded like you wanted to add some wisdom.
Micah: Oh.
Andrew: No?
Micah: About 3D?
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: No, I agree with a lot of what you guys were saying. I saw it yesterday for the first time in 2D and – the 3D just didn’t do a whole lot for me when I saw it the first two times. It just – it didn’t add anything. I think the only other scene I can remember that hasn’t been talked about yet was just with the Dementors, where they seem to pop out when they show that scene of Hogwarts, and they’re kind of just floating above it. But I mean, I don’t understand the point of why they went ahead and did the film in 3D, if they weren’t going to make it sort of this full experience. And to whoever’s point where he said when you go the theater and you pay for 3D, you are paying more so you expect to get more out of it, so I don’t it’s fair to just say that – Andrew, you said you appreciated the fact that it didn’t jump out at you, but that’s why people are spending extra money because they’re expecting more of an experience when they go to see the film.
Andrew: Mmm. Well, look – I mean, the reason that they did do 3D was because of the [pauses] money! So it wouldn’t have hit one billion by now if they didn’t have 3D, so that’s the reason why, at the end of the day.
Ben: Joe Warner!
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: We’re all here talking to line Joe Warner’s pockets at the end of the day.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Shell Cottage
Andrew: [laughs] Let’s go through some major scenes in the film. We’ll start with one of the ones that I just mentioned with the subtle 3D. It was Harry and Griphook, and Harry and Ollivander when he’s talking to both of them.
Richard: That was another thing that kind of niggled me with it, with the film, was that…
Eric: Niggled you?
Richard: Niggled, yeah. Annoyed.
Andrew: All these new phrases.
[Richard laughs]
Andrew: Keep it up!
Ben: We’re cultured here on MuggleCast.
Richard: Yeah, I kind of thought that the whole storyline of the Hallows by itself seemed to be cut from the film. I don’t know – because they’re hardly featured in it. And I remember Ollivander talking about the Hallows, and I remember thinking, “Why does Ollivander know about them in the first place and no one else did other than Dumbledore and Luna’s dad? Even Voldemort didn’t know about them in the books, he just knew about the legend of the wand.” So that kind of annoyed me for some reason, and I can see why they did it because other than that little speech there, the Deathly Hallows basically don’t make any other [laughs] appearance in the film. The Invisibility Cloak is seen very, very briefly. The Resurrection Stone again is just shown up at the very end.
Andrew: Yeah.
Richard: Other than that, they basically are irrelevant to the plot in the movie.
Micah: The big thing – yeah. I mean, the big thing that was cut out from that scene I think is that Harry is supposed to have a choice. I mean, it’s supposed to be Horcruxes or Hallows.
Richard: Yeah, and he chooses to go after the Hallows – after the Horcruxes, like Dumbledore asked him to. But again, that didn’t really make it into it, so that scene kind of ñ that was one of the few scenes in the film that bugged me. I mean, I still loved the film overall but there were just a few little things that kind of put me off it.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, and look, they’re wrapping up all these little points and I think they did do a good job wrapping up most of the big things. But yeah, I agree that was one of those things. And honestly, sort of like at the beginning of the film, I had a hard time concentrating because I’m sort of like still so excited about – oh my God, I’m watching Part 2.
Eric: [laughs] Well…
Andrew: And I can’t even focus on what they’re saying.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Plus my ears have to adjust to the British – English accent.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know if anyone else has this problem, but…
[Richard laughs]
Andrew: …for the first ten minutes of every Potter film, I’m always trying to figure out what they’re saying.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Honest to God.
Richard: Funnily enough, I don’t have this problem.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah, with Part 1 it was like that because they’re all – at the “Seven Potters” scene, right? And it’s all very quick dialogue.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: So you almost can’t – you really can’t understand what they’re saying. I still don’t know the one line that Fred says that ends with “scrawny, sucky git forever.” I don’t know how that sentence begins.
Andrew: Mmm.
Eric: Or “specky git.” I don’t understand it. But however, today when I saw the film I was paying attention to the beginning, Shell Cottage, and I was getting in the mood because it’s very mood-setting. But also I really noticed Dan Radcliffe and his acting, and how he basically goes into a bedroom where there is a complete stranger and gets what he wants from them. But the gravity of the situation is very clear and I thought that the acting of Dan did a really good job to convey that, where he pushes people and really just – he’s Harry, he’s going into the final battle.
Andrew: Okay, so back to the beginning of the movie… [laughs]
Micah: Well, I was just going to say, how creepy was Warwick Davis…
Andrew: As Griphook?
Micah: …as Griphook? [laughs]
Ben: [imitates Hagrid’s voice] Warwick Davis!
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: He was – he hasn’t been creepier since…
Micah: The Leprechaun.
Ben: …since he was Leprechaun, yeah.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: I saw Leprechaun: In the Hood the other day and I was like, “Wow!”
Micah: [laughs] Leprechaun: In the Hood.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: You went to the hood for a Leprechaun screening?
Micah: No, no, it’s a movie.
Ben: No, it’s a movie.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Oh.
Ben: It’s like a spin-off…
Andrew: [laughs] Oh! I see.
Ben: …of the original.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean…
Eric: Is that Warwick Davis though?
Ben: Yeah, I think so, I’m pretty sure.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Gringotts
Andrew: Okay, so, Gringotts! They go down in – I talked about this, I think at the Leaky – the live – the show at LeakyCon. [laughs] They’re going to turn this into a theme park ride. It’s when the trio descend deep into the bowels of Gringotts to get to the Lestrange vault.
Eric: You know what I thought about that? When I was watching it – and those train cars, though, in the movie are really cool. They’re very bare bones. I don’t know, it would be kind of dangerous to do that, but they should make the cars. If they do this ride, they need to make the cars just like that.
Richard: Were they the same type of carts that were in the very first movie?
Andrew: No, no way. You know how they always change these things? I think…
Eric: Well, even the foyer of Gringotts was different, at least I thought.
Richard: Yeah, I thought it was as well.
Andrew: Well, it’s just like the castle…
Eric: Well, yeah.
Andrew: …and the layout of the Hogwarts grounds. They change it almost every film, based on their needs really.
Eric: Mhm. Well, it helps that they have a castle like Hogwarts which changes – in the books it just changes.
Andrew: Well, it doesn’t add and remove towers, but… [laughs]
Eric: Well, it does though. The stairs…
Andrew: Oh yeah, the stairs move.
Eric: The stairs leave – yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] Right. And actually, this is where one of the 3D scenes really stood out. It’s when the gold multiplies when it’s touched in the Lestrange vault.
Eric: Oh yeah.
Andrew: And you really do see the 3D here, and it was good, I thought, but that scene for some reason – I don’t know. When Griphook yells, “The sword for the cup!” and it just…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: It felt – it didn’t look like how it did on the UK cover, [laughs] I’ll put it that way. Not that it’s supposed to be, but…
Eric: Well, in the book, doesn’t it start melting? Everything turns really hot? There’s like this claustrophobic…
Richard: Well – yeah, they become very, very hot when the new jewels or bits of metal are created, then they’re all burning as they appear.
Eric: So that element was removed from the escape scene, but obviously, they still have a lot to deal with in this scene.
Andrew: Jumping along quite a bit, Aberforth. He…
Eric: Whoa! Hang on.
Andrew: What? What?
Eric: Well, what about the escape scene? How did that look to you guys?
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: What did you think?
Ben: Oh, I thought the escape scene was good. You’re talking about the dragon, riding the dragon out of there?
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: I thought that was awesome! That was really cool. And then they kind of let go of the dragon and fall into the water. Isn’t that what they did?
Eric and Richard: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, that was cool.
Eric: My favorite part of that scene is when the dragon has just left the lobby, and he actually – he stops to take a break. He breathes in and out before…
Andrew: Yeah, that was my…
Eric: …flying.
Andrew: I really appreciated that, too.
Eric: It was…
Andrew: Because he’s breathing fresh air for the first time in probably forever.
Eric: Yeah, and he’s just exhausted. He’s been kept up, and all that, so I thought that was very, very realistic, and I really appreciated that.
Micah: Now, one of the things that came up that people were asking about on the show that we did in Orlando was: how did everybody from the bank end up in Malfoy Manor? And I watched the movie again yesterday, and it is Malfoy Manor, it’s not Gringotts, so I don’t…
Eric: Yeah, yeah. They’ve just totally turned the Malfoy Manor into a bloodbath. I’m pretty sure Lucius and Narcissa don’t appreciate…
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: So what – in the book – I can’t remember, does Voldemort summon all of them? Is that what he does, or does he…
Eric: Well, it’s policy to notify of a break-in, and when – so I think they’re dispatched to the Malfoy Manor to notify Bellatrix that her vault has been broken into, if I’m remembering correctly, and that’s when Voldemort goes insane.
Andrew: And that’s a really cool little moment, by the way, when Voldemort does have that realization of what happened. It happens when Harry – the trio jump into the water, and Harry kind of comes up for air, after being submerged in the water, and that’s when the flashes start to happen, where Voldemort knows what happens and he goes on this killing spree within Malfoy Manor. Very cool, and I loved all those little moments when Voldemort has – recognizes what’s going on, what Harry is doing.
Ben: Now, do you think – if we tried to step outside of our – we’re all, obviously, big fans. If we try to step outside our perspective of these films, as insiders, and try to look at it as somebody who’s just seen these movies and they’re witnessing those scenes going on, do you think that Warner Bros. counts on the popularity of the series? That somebody – the average moviegoer who may not understand those things, is going to have somebody within a few feet of them who can explain to them what exactly is going on? Or do you think that through the films they have accurately conveyed those story lines to the point to where the average Joe can understand precisely what is happening in those moments without the help of somebody else?
Eric: Well…
Andrew: I don’t think they can understand.
Eric: Well, if you – I can’t speak for the other movies, but this film in particular had the dialogue there to support it. Not only was there that ringing noise when Harry – how Harry finds a Horcrux.
Andrew: Yeah, that was very helpful.
Eric: Which is very helpful, but also, that scene when he first comes up from jumping off the dragon and they’re changing their clothes, it really is like three minutes of straight dialogue about how Voldemort knows that they’re destroying the Horcruxes, that there’s one left, that it’s this, that, the other thing. So that’s all they’re talking about, but it’s kind of – it’s weird because they’ve snuck that dialogue in. It’s in there, but casual fans…
Andrew: See, that wasn’t fair though.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I didn’t think that was fair because Harry and Ron were taking off their shirts and I was too distracted.
Eric: Oh. See…
Andrew: I couldn’t follow the dialogue at the same time.
Eric: Well, you missed it, exactly. So it’s…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I guess the people who wouldn’t normally watch the Harry Potter films wouldn’t normally be attracted to Harry and Ron, they’ll hear the dialogue. Meanwhile, everybody else is paying attention to the characters and not listening to the dialogue, which is a very clever way to do it.
Richard: Why did Harry and Ron take their wet clothes off, but Hermione didn’t?
Andrew: Well, duh! Because we can’t see a topless girl.
Ben: Oh, speaking of which, remember…
Micah: She didn’t have to take everything off.
[Richard laughs]
Ben: Everybody remembers back when Prisoner of Azkaban happened?
Andrew: Yeah?
Eric: That’s a good word for it.
Ben: There was that one movie poster where Emma’s breasts…
Eric: You’re thinking of Order of the Phoenix. You’re thinking of Order of the Phoenix.
Ben: Was that Order of the Phoenix?
Andrew: Yeah, it was Order of the Phoenix.
Ben: I thought there was – I thought there were – I thought it happened every book. But anyways, the – yeah, I guess – was she underage at that time? Was she eighteen or was she nineteen?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Eric: So what’s the point?
Ben: Regardless, the point I’m trying to make is that at the beginning of this film they’re making no bones about it. They’re kind of putting Emma’s whosa-whatsies out there.
[Richard laughs]
Micah: Yeah. Well, when she…
Andrew: I disagree.
Micah: No, no, when she fell in the – in the bank?
Andrew: Oh yes.
Eric: In the bank? I noticed that.
Micah: You got a clear shot of…
Andrew: See, this is where we get…
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: …a hundred e-mails from women, saying, “This is why there needs to be a girl on the show.”
[Andrew and Richard laugh]
Eric: On the show, yeah. No – although, I will say, it was very intimate – that Horcrux destruction scene from Part 1 was very intimate, where she’s topless, Harry’s topless, and they’re embracing. There’s a lot of…
Richard: They was CGI.
Eric: Yeah, it was CGI, but I’m saying…
Richard: And it was very obvious CGI.
Eric: Just in general, the films are very – I don’t know how obvious it was to you, Richard, but not very much to me. But I think that, in general, these are more mature films.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Aberforth
Andrew: So let’s get into Aberforth now. We see him having a good discussion with Harry, and Ron and Hermione, when they Apparate into Hogsmeade and knick of time, Aberforth runs to the door and is like, “Get in here!” And what didn’t sit right with me about this scene is that why would they trust Harry – why would Harry, Ron, and Hermione trust this random guy – they can’t see who it is – saying “Come in here”? I mean, that was very risky.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: They should have had this moment where they at least saw who it was, but then that wouldn’t have made sense because they don’t know who it is.
Eric: So they’re running through Hogsmeade and the guards are there. But they come to a gate, actually, and the gate is locked and they don’t seem to remember Alohomora. [laughs] So they’re kind of stuck, and somebody says, “Come here, Potter!” It just doesn’t seem to be – it’s not like an imminent threat, so I think he just goes because somebody recognizes him obviously. But it’s – very obviously somebody who wants to help them. There’s no…
Andrew: And they have no other choice, too.
Eric: Yeah, because they’ve forgotten Alohomora. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Forgotten Alohomora.
Ben: Well, what did you think about the interaction between Harry and Aberdore?
Andrew and Eric: Aberforth?
Andrew: It was good, but apparently they shot – as Richard, when he interviewed Ciar·n Hinds on the red carpet at the London premiere – he said that they shot a lot more, right, Richard?
Richard: Yeah. [laughs] I was just about to bring this up, I think I inadvertently revealed to him how much of his character was actually cut from this film. [laughs] He didn’t really know.
Andrew: Yeah, but you made it sound bad though.
[Richard laughs]
Andrew: I mean, there was still plenty of stuff in it.
Richard: Oh no, yeah.
Eric: I thought there was.
Andrew: He was about to cry.
Richard: What I was getting at was that I was disappointed that the whole backstory with Dumbledore and his family was cut.
Andrew: He probably doesn’t even know the book, does he?
Richard: No, he did say he had read the books, and he knew about the character. But I think he [laughs] assumed that his entire character was cut as a result and sort of panicked a little bit.
Andrew: Right. Yeah, you almost made him cry.
Richard: [laughs] I felt really guilty.
Andrew: We have HD video. I could see his eyes watering up.
Richard: [laughs] Yeah. But no, he was a really great guy as well.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: I thought that the – just the way there was kind of that tension between Aberforth and Harry, where Harry was kind of like, “You suck, you don’t really – you’re not out there…”
Eric: “You’ve given up.”
Ben: “…on the front lines.” Yeah, that’s what he says.
Eric: He says, “You’ve given up.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: And then he says, “Had I -” Hermione says, “Had he given up, would he be here now?” or something like that.
Eric: Yeah, she has that extra line, which was very in-character, but I was shocked because it was such an in-character line…
Micah: Yeah, the…
Eric: …where she is disagreeing with Harry.
Micah: The interesting thing about that scene was that – the interview we had with David Yates, he said that JK Rowling helped to write the whole Aberforth scene.
Andrew: Oh interesting.
Eric: He said she had input. He said she was very…
Micah: Helpful.
Eric: …helpful.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: But I…
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: In terms of how to do that.
Micah: It was weird dialogue because I don’t think he was – he was never really introduced prior to this film, except for a brief cameo in Order of the Phoenix, right? And it wasn’t even Ciar·n Hinds at the time, who played him, so…
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Eric: No, I actually felt that that was one of this film’s strengths, was having actors like Ciar·n Hinds, and the Grey Lady, for instance. Characters we had never met before, but they have such screen presence and they really have a character that you appreciate. And you cheer for Ciar·n Hinds when he shows up in battle and shoots the Patronus against all the Dementors.
Micah: Yeah, I mean, one of the complaints that I have about this film – and I like the film overall, I think it’s probably the best in the series – is just the whole – they cut Dumbledore’s backstory from this a lot. I mean, they didn’t learn a whole lot about him, and Aberforth talks about Dumbledore’s – what? I was…
Richard: They cut it because they cut the Hallows. The backstory was only relevant to the Hallows, for his quest to find them in the first place with Grindelwald. So since they cut all the Hallows out, what was the point of having Dumbledore’s backstory as well?
Micah: Well, it’s just there was a couple of things that were mentioned, like when Aberforth talks about Dumbledore’s quest for power. It’s like, well, what quest for power? We don’t – as a moviegoer, we don’t know anything about that. And then when Hermione says, “That’s your sister Ariana.” Well, how would Hermione know that? There’s no explanation.
Richard: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: She read that book!
Micah: Well, yeah, we know that, but…
Eric: She’s seen reading that book in Part 1, though. I mean, it’s not like we need to be spoon-fed everything, right?
Andrew: Yes, we do, because – I mean, this is what Ben was kind of mentioning earlier, that there does need to be somebody – say my mom. She needs guidance through these films because – she’s read the books, or she’s read a few of them, but there’s a lot here. This is a very intricate plot and they don’t really explain everything sometimes, as evidenced by this little conversation right now. So…
Richard: I just want to say for the record that you’re all being more negative of the film than I am.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Well, we’re still not to the end where we’re like, “Overall it was fantastic.”
[Eric laughs]
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: The Trio’s Performances
Ben: Well, the other thing that I wanted to comment on is the performances of Dan, Rupert, and Emma. I think that overall – I think we’ve just gotten used to their particular interpretations of these characters and so it’s like – when we say, “Oh, was that – was Dan’s performance of Harry good?” I mean, I think we’ve just known him as Harry for so long that – Dan does a good “Dan being Harry.” I don’t think…
Eric: Oh, I disagree with that. I mean, I don’t think he does a bad “Dan being Harry,” but…
Ben: Huh?
Eric: I think there were some moments where Dan exceptionally shined through as Harry, or that he brought something to the role of Harry that I’d always wanted to be there in the books.
Ben: I don’t know. I just – the older I’ve gotten, the harder time I’ve had buying these characters, buying these people as the characters. I mean, it’s been so ingrained in our minds that it’s hard to kind of detach from that, but I think that hands down the adult actors – the Alan Rickman’s, the Maggie Smith’s, the Richard Harris’s – I mean Michael Gambon’s – they save the films, I think.
Eric: That’s almost what Richard said, is that the adults saved the film from the kids, which…
Andrew: I find that fascinating.
Richard: Originally…
Ben: Oh, did you say that, Richard?
Richard: I would’ve said that originally but in this film I don’t think – I think that the adults did a very good performance, but I don’t think the kids put in a bad performance, because it was an action-packed film. It wasn’t reliant on the dialogue.
Andrew: It…
Richard: And the kids generally can do action well, they were younger. In previous films I would have agreed with you, I would have said that the adult cast bring a level of credibility to it and authenticity that the child actors just – they don’t have the pedigree to do, they don’t have the experience to do, and you can’t expect them to either.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: But in this film I thought because of the type of film it was, because it was an action film, I thought the gap in between the experienced cast and inexperienced cast – the divide was reduced a lot because it wasn’t as important.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: So I was able to enjoy the film a lot more as a result of that. I wasn’t thinking, “Oh, this isn’t believable,” or “Oh, this isn’t – this is a sucky acting performance.” I was thinking, “Wow! This is just some awesome action scenes.”
Ben: Yeah, I’ll give you that. I agree with that as well. I think that that being said with all the other films, there have been a few lines or some lame scene or something that just didn’t work that stood out to me in the initial viewings of it. And I’ve seen this one twice and I haven’t really – I can’t pinpoint a line right now offhand that Hermione or Ron or Harry said that was just so beyond lame or just didn’t work, so…
Richard: There was no cringy dancing in this, at least.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh, that was nice.
Richard: Awww, that was awful.
MuggleCast 236 Transcript (continued)
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Duel Between McGonagall and Snape
Andrew: Speaking of the adult actors, there is a great scene between McGonagall and Snape in the Great Hall, when McGonagall takes on Snape really, after Harry jumps out and surprises everybody. Harry is in his cloak – and it was nice to see Harry in his cloak again, I’ve got to say.
Eric: Well, there’s…
Andrew: It feels like you never see him in it anymore.
Eric: Guys – you remember this, though, Andrew. There was that short scene on the stairway where he puts it on, someone hands him the cape, and that was cut in the final film.
Andrew: Oh! Well, yeah…
Eric: Right? They go straight from the Room of Requirement where everybody is happy to see Harry, and Ginny comes in and is like, “Snape called us to the school.” And then the next second they’re there, and Harry is all – change of wardrobe. But I don’t know why they…
Andrew: Well, I think it’s more of a surprise that way.
Eric: I guess, yeah.
Andrew: It’s more of a surprise to the audience that, oh my God, he’s there…
Eric: And he’s in his robes.
Andrew: …listening to Snape.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. And Snape makes his escape. Was everybody satisfied with that? That was obviously a change from the book.
Ben: No.
Andrew: No, you weren’t?
Ben: I just didn’t like the way – I feel like I’m being so negative here.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: It was a great moment when Harry first walked into the common room, and everybody was all like, “Woo!” and all that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: But the way – I mean, I guess they only have so much time, and this was the shortest film yet, correct? This was the shortest one of them all.
Andrew: Yeah, it was two hours.
Ben: Yeah, and they don’t have a lot of time to have some big epic battle between McGonagall and Snape or whatever. But I don’t think that – it just all kind of happened really quick, and Snape was like… [makes whooshing sound]
Andrew: It was quick.
Ben: Why couldn’t Snape whoop McGonagall’s ass? Why wouldn’t he just hand her her ass?
Eric: Because he’s not really a bad guy, though. He’s really not really a bad guy, though.
Ben: Oh, that’s right.
Andrew: And the Order of the Phoenix came in behind McGonagall, too.
Ben: Oh yeah.
Andrew: So they were very – Snape was outnumbered. And that’s what happened in the book. I mean, he does escape.
Eric: Yeah, he does run.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But also, it is that his conviction is not there. I think Neville, in the film, has a line that says, “Oh, we don’t really worry about Snape. We don’t even see him. It’s the Carrows you have to worry about.” So you get this impression that Snape is, again, not really a bad guy. He’s letting all this stuff happen, that makes him a bad guy, but his allegiances are really elsewhere.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Protecting Hogwarts Castle
Andrew: McGonagall arming the school, this is a very cool montage, where we see all the teachers, really, but…
Ben: [imitating McGonagall] “Defend the school!”
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: What does she say?
Andrew: [imitating McGonagall] “Do your duty to the school!” That was – when I went on the set visit, that’s actually the shot they were filming. It was a night shoot, and Maggie Smith was there, Julie Walters, Warwick Davis…
Ben: “Oh, when I was on the set visit…” [laughs]
Andrew: No, I’m not – I’m just – you always have to make a…
Ben: [laughs] “When I was behind the…”
Andrew: It was such an awesome scene, guys. You really missed out.
Ben: It was actually more difficult, having been there…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: …than it was not being there.
Andrew: McGonagall – yeah, so they were shooting that basically all night. And it’s such a cool scene, especially in the trailer when you see her make the statues come to life. But my issue with it, and I brought this up in my set report and maybe on the LeakyCon show, I just did not like when McGonagall says, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to do that spell.”
Eric: [sighs] And Julie Walters is there looking like – I don’t know what she’s looking like. That face was not canon. Julie Walters was just kind of like…
Andrew: Oh no, it was. She’s a concerned mother.
Eric: But…
Ben: [laughs] “That face is not canon.”
Eric: This is – I couldn’t understand what was going on with Molly Weasley in that moment. I just – I couldn’t get it.
Micah: Yeah, it just – it seemed a little bit out of place. I don’t know.
Andrew: What, what?
Eric: Maybe if it had been edited out…
Andrew: McGonagall or – what…
Micah: No, what you were just saying. Yeah, when she made that comment, that “I’ve always wanted to do that spell.” It just – it seemed like there were a couple of times in the film there was a bit of forced humor.
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: Well, I think that that’s kind of what these films – it’s kind of “part of these films” thing, having that little bit of awkward…
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: …kind of humor.
Eric: You’ve got to keep it going, too.
Ben: Because I’ve gotten mixed opinions on that. I’ve had some people who generally are overly critical who would – have told me that they like that part, that they thought it was kind of cool. And I actually – the first time I saw it, I was like, “That sucked.” And now, the second time I saw it, I was like, “Hey, that was actually…”
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: “That kind of fit, that wasn’t bad.”
Andrew: It’s a cool scene. I mean, it’s such an epic scene in the book, too, when she’s bringing the statues to life, and Maggie Smith did a great job with it. And yeah, they do like to add comic relief and frankly, you need it in this film. I mean, there’s so much action. You’ve got to have a chuckle somewhere.
Ben: People getting singed, people blowing up left and right…
Andrew: People evaporating.
Ben: …bridges. Boom.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Boom. [laughs]
Andrew: Boom!
Eric: Boom.
Andrew: That was another part of that scene, yeah.
Eric: Boom! So boom.
Andrew: “Boom?” And then McGonagall goes, “Boom!” It’s good, it was good.
Richard: I asked Julie Walters at the premiere if she enjoyed doing all the acting scenes. She said that she got wand-arm from doing it too much, I think was her basically defining the term for bruising her arm so much.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Wand-arm.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: The Grey Lady
Andrew: The Grey Lady. It’s a crucial scene towards the end of the film, when Harry’s really trying to convince the Grey Lady, “Hey, tell me where this Horcrux is,’ and she eventually does. But did you guys like that scene? It was kind of – it was interesting because you see the battle really going on in the background still, and Harry realizes – you see the pressure as Harry sees it as well, at the same time.
Eric: Yeah, absolutely. I loved this scene. In fact, I would go so far as to call it my favorite or second favorite scene in the film.
Richard: It was a banging scene.
[Andrew and Ben laugh]
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Room of Requirement
Andrew: So then Harry does go into the Room of Requirement, and this was the part where Draco…
Ben: I think Jamie Waylett stole the show at this part.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah. Well, that effects, right? Where his wand is shooting out the fire and he can’t stop it? That was really well done.
Ben: Jamie Waylett is not in the movies anymore.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: It was a joke.
Eric: Oh, you’re talking about Crabbe. I thought you were talking about Goyle. I’m sorry.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, yeah, that was cool, when he can’t stop the fire.
Eric: No, Crabbe…
Ben: [laughs] He can’t…
Andrew: [singing] “Stop the fire. Stop the fire.”
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, but then Draco – Ron’s like, [imitating Ron] “Harry, if we die because of this, I’m going to kill you!”
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Or whatever, because they go back to save Draco.
Andrew: Yeah, which is a nice moment and very true to Harry’s character.
Eric: Well, I liked when he’s climbing the thing, and the pixies come out. Or the…
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: That was really…
Andrew: Cornish pixies!
Eric: Yeah, a little nod back to the second film, but also it’s expanding Harry’s world. It’s just something that I thought was very cool, very well done.
Andrew: You need some of that magic.
Ben: I want to see a Chamber of Secrets pixie side by side a DH Part 2 pixie.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Well, speaking of…
Andrew: Actually, I thought they were pretty similar.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: I did, too.
Andrew: Mhm.
Micah: I think there were…
Eric: Probably the same model but…
Micah: There was a lot throwback stuff in that room. Watching the film a couple of times, you get to kind of look around and see what was there. I saw one of the winged boars was in there…
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: …one of the pieces from the chess set in Sorcerer’s Stone was in there.
Eric: Oh really?
Andrew: Yeah. And I mean, really and quite literally, they probably just went into their props department…
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: …and pulled out everything they could.
Eric: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: They could have shot it in their props department and just added the walls of the Room of Requirement behind it.
Micah: Yeah, dead Aragog was in there. Not really.
Eric: [laughs] Really?
Micah: No.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: No.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Snape’s Death
Andrew: Snape’s death!
Eric: Yeah, Snape’s death.
Andrew: That was another crucial scene. Did it live up to everybody’s anticipation?
Ben: No.
Andrew: Why?
Ben: Kind of.
Richard: Oh, I love that scene.
Ben: I was kind of disappointed by when he kind of dies and he like grabs a tear at the last second, hands it to Harry or whatever.
Andrew: Harry takes the tear.
Ben: Yeah, he takes the tear.
Eric: He says, “Take it, take it! Take this.”
Andrew: Why did you like it, Richard? Why do you love it?
Richard: Why did I love it? I always liked how Rickman played Snape in the films, and I always liked Snape as a character because he was the most interesting, and as a result you’re always willing him on to be good. You always want him to be good, and in the end you find out he really was. And that was the moment in the film where that if you didn’t know, you were just like, “Awww. He’s not bad after all.” It just made me smile.
Andrew: It was emotional because you see – well, Snape’s dying! I mean, it’s huge. And you see Nagini attacking him, it’s just so much…
Richard: It was brutal as well.
Andrew: Yeah, and just – in this film, once the emotion starts, it does not stop. The – it’s just – we talked about this. The theater – it’s like non-stop sobbing for a straight hour. [laughs]
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: It was so good that I saw it today because the theater was just silent. So quiet, almost too quiet.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: And it was really enjoyable.
Andrew: Did you cry today?
Eric: No.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But there were moments when I was like…
Andrew: That hesitation suggests otherwise.
Eric: There were moments…
Richard: I didn’t cry at all.
Eric: …when I almost did. Yeah, there were moments when I almost did, and I think those moments are always going to be the same for me. Resurrection Stone, where his parents are like, “Hey, we’re in here,” or any of that, really. It’s always going to hit me in the same place. I know it will.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: The Prince’s Tale
Andrew: “The Prince’s Tale” was one of my favorites. Probably my favorite because you really see Alan Rickman finally…
Eric: Finally…
Andrew: We finally get…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: …what Snape has been up to all these years. I mean, we’ve always seen a very stoic Snape, always an intriguing character, and finally all this is revealed in a period of like five to seven minutes, and it’s just a lot of heartbreak and emotion.
Ben: Yeah.
Richard: What I really loved about that scene was that we finally get to see how good an actor Alan Rickman really can be and really is, because from Films 1 to 7, he’s playing this hard-faced guy, and you can’t – his character is [unintelligible] you can never read his expression. And he plays that really well, he’s very in-distinguished, in that regard. Whereas in this scene, we finally get to see how good Alan Rickman really can be.
Ben: Yeah, and I think that…
Eric: Well, could you see that? Or was his de-aging process getting in the way? Because I’ve heard that comment too, that people didn’t like…
Richard: I noticed that he looked younger, and I thought, “Yup, fine. I don’t have a problem with this.” I bought it.
Ben: Eric, are you and Alan Rickman doing some therapy together?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Because I swear to God, every time I see you I think you look younger.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: We enrolled in a program. No, I just – the only reason I bring that up is because I heard it. But watching it again today, I thought it was – I didn’t see any flaws with it. In fact, I’m glad…
Richard: Yeah, I thought it was fine.
Eric: …that they de-aged him. Because when Andrew and I saw it, the effects weren’t complete, I thought he still looked too old to be playing Snape from twelve, thirteen years ago. Or, gosh, seventeen years ago. So I thought the aging was great. His face is thin. He looks like younger Snape. But he still – his acting, when he picks up Lily and is – or even before he picks Lily up, and he just enters the room and falls against the doorframe. That’s unbelievable. Unbelievable.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Ben?
Ben: Yeah, and this was really the part where – I feel like Snape is perhaps the most misunderstood character in the series, and throughout seven films, seven books, Snape is built up to constantly be this guy who doesn’t really come across that good, and then this is definitely the scene where we see that…
Eric: It’s his redemption.
Ben: …redemption of Snape.
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: And what this reminded me of – have any of you guys ever seen the movie, The Green Mile?
Richard: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, where John Coffey – he’s built up as this villain kind of throughout the film, but there’s like this mysterious, softer side to him or whatever. And then he’s this inmate on death row, whatever, but he grabs Tom Hanks’ hand in this scene and it’s like a flashback scene like this. And it just really tells the real story of the character, and I thought that was beautifully done.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: For sure.
Micah: The only thing I would say about this scene – and I liked it a lot – is I’m not going to say anything about relating it to the books but I will say, as far – I do believe you would’ve had to have seen a lot of the other films in order to have a full understanding of what’s going on right here. Do you guys agree?
Eric: Because there was a lot of that stuff in the middle of – like in between memories almost, like quotes from Harry and Slughorn and Snape and Dumbledore from previous films. Is that what you’re talking about?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Because all that stuff was meshed in, too. It’s kind of like how they filled the empty space in between memories, was to do these quotes from previous films. Sound clips.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: The Forbidden Forest
Andrew: The Forbidden Forest. The emotion continues, the sobbing in the theatre continues, we see Harry, the Resurrection Stone kind of comes to life, Harry’s ready to die, he sees Sirius, James, Lily, Lupin…
Ben: That scene was absolutely brilliant, though. That was like the most touching scene in all of the films, in my opinion. Just the way that – typically, I’m kind of the guy who gets kind of cheesed-out when I watch films and stuff.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: But when they’re like, “We’ve been right here, Harry,” and they point to his heart or whatever, that was really powerful and emotional. I really like that.
Eric: You know what felt weird to me was James Potter, because we’ve just had this eight-minute long – or however long it is – “Prince’s Tale” scene about how Snape loved his mom, his Patronus is the same, all that stuff, and Harry figures out he has to die, goes down to the Forbidden Forest, and there’s this guy standing with his mom, with Sirius, with Remus, with – there’s this guy who is frankly upstaged this whole time. Snape just – when Snape is in Godric’s Hollow, he just sees dead James on the stairs, walks right past him, doesn’t cry, doesn’t hold him, just walks right past him to Lily, has this moment, these tears streaming down his face when he finds Lily. And here’s this James Potter. He’s never had a line in the Harry Potter series, at least in the films, especially not. In the books, obviously, there’s that whole issue, “Who was my dad?” But in the movies it’s glossed over, it just doesn’t exist.
Micah: And what does he say to him? The one line he has is like, “You’re almost there, son.”
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Like it’s a sporting event or something like that.
Andrew: It’s encouragement! It’s fatherly encouragement.
Micah: Yeah, you’re almost there to die. Full speed ahead.
Eric: Yeah, in King’s Cross, Dumbledore is very, very vague when Harry says, “Isn’t it interesting that my mom and Snape’s Patronuses are the same?” And he says, “No, I don’t find it peculiar at all,” and he winks at him. It makes it seem like Harry is Snape’s son. That’s what it seems like. It’s just James Potter has had no presence in the films, which I found to be a little awkward.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: King’s Cross
Andrew: Well, you just mentioned King’s Cross, let’s talk about it. It was my – again, I just said “Prince’s Tale” was one of my favorite scenes, but “King’s Cross” – I just loved Dumbledore. I think Michael Gambon really nailed it. And he even said in the UK press conference that he himself was feeling emotional. When he starts to address Harry, he starts with “Harry.” You know, he says, “Harry.” And he admitted at the press conference that he teared up a little bit. It was just such a beautiful scene. I could watch that forever.
Eric: Well, he did really good in “Prince’s Tale,” too. Let’s not forget there’s a lot of him in “Prince’s Tale”…
Andrew: Yeah. Yup.
Eric: …as well. I thought in general, Richard – Michael Gambon.
Ben: Whoa.
Eric: Yeah. Michael Gambon did an amazing job in this film.
Richard: And they filmed a lot of the “Prince’s Tale” scenes – well, you know the scenes with Snape and Dumbledore? They were actually filmed during when they filmed Half-Blood Prince.
Andrew: So – oh why? Do you know? Did they say?
Eric: Why? Is that – do you have confirmation on that? Where did you hear that?
Richard: I only know this because [laughs] when I spoke to Gambon at the premiere, he said he only ever filmed one scene for this film, which was that, the “King’s Cross” bit.
Andrew: Oh, I see.
Eric: That’s odd.
Andrew: And…
Richard: So he obviously knew it was going to be used later on.
Andrew: …a scene everybody was looking forward to: Molly versus Bellatrix. Give it up for Molly Weasley! All right, fantastic.
Ben: Yeah!
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: It wasn’t…
Ben: Oh, but hold on a second. We’ve got to go back to “King’s Cross,” because…
Andrew: What? Go ahead.
Ben: Voldemort – the Voldy fetus beneath the table…
Micah: [laughs] From Goblet of Fire.
Ben: …looked like an uncooked chicken wing…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …basted in hot sauce. I just had to point that out.
Andrew: But that’s what was so great about it, because the scene was so beautiful and clean, and Harry says, “It’s King’s Cross, but it’s clean.” And then there’s that ugly thing underneath the bench. It’s very…
Richard: And Ben got hungry looking at it.
Ben: [laughs] Yeah, I was like, “Mmm.”
Andrew: “Mmm, I want KFC.”
[Eric and Richard laugh]
Eric: You know what? In the books Dumbledore says, “That thing is beyond our help,” but Harry doesn’t quite believe him. Harry wants to try and help it anyway. And in the movie there’s that line, “It’s beyond our help,” but it is just kind of this thing left. Although there is that line that says, “It’s the part of Voldemort that was sent here to die.” So I guess that’s fine. But it was just really creepy to see that thing under the bench.
Ben: What if Dumbledore would’ve picked it up – picked up the Voldy fetus…
[Eric laughs]
Ben: …and punted it like a football?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: That would have added some comic relief.
Andrew: Or they played catch with it or something, and their hands are all bloody.
Eric: [laughs] Oh gosh!
Ben: Yeah. And he’s like, “I guess I’m going back now.”
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: “Peace out, Dumbledore.”
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Molly and Bellatrix’s Duel
Andrew: So Molly versus Bellatrix. You know, it wasn’t the yelling that you kind of expected after reading the books, because it’s in all caps, but it was a very firm, [imitates Molly] “Not my daughter, you bitch.”
Eric: And it’s almost like the spell that she casts almost sucks the life out of Bella. It’s not like your standard death curse where you’re not supposed to look any different other than the fact that you are not alive, if you’re talking about canon books’ death curse. Instead she actually – you see her skeleton popping through, almost. She breathes in deeply like [takes a deep breath] and then there’s a separate spell that breaks her into a million pieces.
Micah: Now, do you think that that was done – I know we talked about this on the live show, but – for ratings purposes? Just to kind of not make it as gory or as bloody as maybe it would have been?
Richard: I think they just wanted to give the audience a chance to cheer.
Eric: Yeah. I think that’s it, too. In terms of putting it on film, we’ve seen these villains for so long – four films for Bellatrix and Voldemort – that it’s really satisfying – in fact, more satisfying – to give them a death scene or a chance to act out their character’s death.
Ben: Yeah, and this isn’t Saw.
[Micah laughs]
Ben: You can’t be having the limbs twisted off and stuff.
Micah: Well, even with Snape, though. Snape was on-screen but kind of off-screen at the same time. You saw through the boathouse window or whatever that was, him being attacked by Nagini. You didn’t see it from the other side.
Eric: The sound, man. Every time the snake hit the – but it was also – that was more artsy, too. It’s almost sensory because you have to hear it instead of – I mean, you can feel it without seeing it. It’s very artsy.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Harry and Voldemort’s Duel
Andrew: Harry versus Voldemort was another major battle, [laughs] obviously.
Eric: We talked about this on the live show at LeakyCon, how…
Andrew: Okay, so let’s not talk about it.
Eric: No, no, no.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: That’s not what I’m saying. We talked about how Voldemort has Harry by the threads of his robes.
Andrew: Yeah, but that’s not Harry versus – well, I guess it is. I mean, it was silly because Voldemort would have just killed him. If – what Eric’s referring to is when Harry – Voldemort has Harry tied up. Voldemort just would have killed him right there. That didn’t sit right with me.
Eric: They’re at the top of the – it’s before they jump off the tower. But at LeakyCon, we asked, “Well, what stops him from killing Harry?” and some of the audience said, “Well, that was when the snake died, and it distracted Voldemort and obviously he let go.” But watching it again today, I was looking at that and no, it’s not actually. They just cut out and Harry is no longer restrained by Voldemort. So that is still sort of a little plot-hole in the film.
Andrew: The final battle, let’s just go right to that, when the two are fighting. And not many words are said, really. It’s just very visual, and Voldemort ends up disintegrating. Personally, I would have preferred Voldemort to have – to see his body there. I think that would have been better.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Neville kicks it or something, that would have been cool.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Yeah, what about that scene with Neville, though, really quick? I mean, he’s kind of waking up with – I don’t know music was playing.
Andrew: I hated that!
Micah: It was almost like “Chariots of Fire” or something like that.
Andrew: Yeah.
[Eric laughs]
[Andrew hums “Chariots of Fire”]
Micah: He’s about to – his big moment or something. I thought that was really cheesy.
Eric: Well, if you’re going to talk about that…
Micah: Could have done without it.
Eric: …seizing destiny, then talk about his speech that he gives. I mean, that whole scene was great. Ralph Fiennes is amazing in this film.
Andrew: He is.
Eric: Richard, what did you think of Voldemort? Because in the books – Richard, I had a problem in the book where I didn’t think that Voldemort was very compelling, I thought he made a lot of mistakes, da da-da da-da. I felt completely differently about Ralph Fiennes playing him in the film just because of the range of emotion that – whenever the Horcrux is destroyed earlier in the film and he just does the [gasps], where he’s like, “Ahhh,” he’s becoming less alive. I just thought it was very, very well acted. Would you agree?
Ben: Well, I think Voldemort has asthma or something…
[Eric and Micah laugh]
Ben: …because everything was like a wheeze, like [makes wheezing noises] or whatever.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: I think he’s good, but I feel like he needs to be more of a badass than he is.
Andrew: He was!
Ben: He doesn’t strike me as much of a badass. He’s like way too “Ho ho ho ho ho.”
[Andrew laughs]
Richard: I thought he was, particularly when he was slapping Lucius around the face.
Eric: Oh yeah.
Richard: Just in the boathouse scene.
Eric: Well, he slaps him because he likes him. If he didn’t like somebody, he’d Crucio them.
Richard: I don’t think he likes him at all, I think he hates him, I think he despises him.
Eric: Well, he has that line “How do you live with yourself,” right?
Richard: Yeah. I think he keeps Lucius around because he can’t be bothered killing him. He means literally nothing to him.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Discussion: Epilogue
Andrew: He’s a good toy. And finally the epilogue.
Richard: The characters didn’t look any older [laughs] than they did…
Ben: Yeah, it seems like they…
Richard: …five minutes ago.
Ben: It was kind of cheesy, but I mean, I’ve said a lot of bad things about this film. Not bad things, but very critical things, and I just want to say that when I walked out of the film, I did not have a sour or negative taste in my mouth. I felt really good about the way it ended and everything. I think that there were so many plot-lines, so many intricacies, so many things that they were trying to fit in, that it was almost like they were trying to do too much because they had such a monumental task. And I think they did what they could, but I just think when you’re comparing this to the way it was told in the books you’re just not going to be able to communicate and articulate all of the same things unless each movie was five hours long which wouldn’t work.
Andrew: And here’s the other thing worth noting: we have to be critical on this show, otherwise it wouldn’t be a show. We can’t just sit here and be like, “Oh, that was great. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, that was great.” We have to be critical and pick things apart.
Micah: Yeah, I thought…
Ben: Oh – go ahead, Micah.
Micah: No, no, I mean, I thought the epilogue – it was good. I mean, what more – I think pretty much everyone on this show was critical of the written epilogue in the books, so it’s always weird to have that transition to seeing something – with any movie where they’re like, “Twenty years later,” or however it is. But what about the end of the actual film, though? What did you guys think of that, when Harry snaps the Elder Wand? He doesn’t even repair his own wand, he throws it off the bridge there, and they end by all three of them just kind of standing there holding hands together.
Richard: I imagine…
Andrew: It was…
Richard: …Draco was slightly annoyed that [laughs] he was never getting his wand back.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: It was bittersweet.
Richard: You would think…
Andrew: I mean, I think they had to end it – go ahead.
Richard: I was going to say, you’d think in the epilogue when Harry sees Draco, and Draco sees Harry – they sort of look at each other and nod. You’d think Draco would be going, “Oye, wand please. It’s been nineteen years.”
Eric: [laughs] “You still got my wand, Potter.”
Richard: “You’d think you can give me it back now.”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I think from a filmmaking standpoint, they had to do this closing scene where you just see just the trio together with Hogwarts. I mean, I don’t know how else you could have done it. It had to be a very iconic shot, and…
Eric: Plus, it struck me as being the end of one adventure but here’s another adventure, where it’s like the trio – we’ve spent so much time with them, they’re looking off into the abyss of the unwritten story of what comes next. It just felt very, very third and fourth and fifth dimension-y to me.
Micah: Did they use the same piece of the score at the end of the film that they used at the end of Sorcerer’s Stone?
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: I think so, “Leaving Hogwarts.” Yeah, that was used.
Eric: The very, very end of it.
Announcement: Show Frequency
Andrew: Which a lot of people were happy to see. All right, so there’s obviously so much more to talk about still. And we’ll do it on the next episode, but speaking of the next episode, we are going to be switching the frequency of the show again. We are going to be going to a monthly format for MuggleCast.
[Ben gasps]
Andrew: We’re going to have two shows this month. Our next episode will be August 21st, then September 18th will be the next episode. And what we’re doing is going into a regular monthly schedule. You’ll be able to count on the show getting out on a certain day, because this is also helping us get into a steady rhythm with all the podcasts that we – a variety of us, do. Twilight fans, of course, there’s Imprint. For Hunger Games fans, we just started a new podcast on Hypable called Hypable’s Hunger Games Chat which is good. If you’re a Hunger Games fan, you should check that out. And there’s also going to be a new general entertainment podcast coming at the end of this month for Hypable. But in regards to MuggleCast, with news slowing down – we’re always going to be doing MuggleCast. We’re not ending it in any way, shape, or form, but in terms of looking out for the long term, we are going to be switching to monthly. And the good news is there are other podcasts to listen to that we’ll be producing, and those will be released at different times of the month. So the goal is there will be a new podcast from us every week, it’s just not directly MuggleCast.
Micah: Well, on that note, though, since we’re not doing another show – would you say until August 21st?
Andrew: Mhm.
Micah: I just want to say congratulations on six years of podcasting.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh yes! Because this month was six years, right?
Micah: August 7th, I think, was our first show.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: Yeah, six days is our six years.
Ben: Six years, really?
Andrew: It’s been a long time.
Eric: I’m getting really emotional.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Wow.
Show Close
Andrew: Well, thanks everyone for listening. Of course, again, there’s going to be so much more to talk about with Part 2, we’re far from done, and we’ll get your feedback into the show as well. But before we wrap up, just a reminder, MuggleCast.com has all the information you need about the show that we do.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: You can click on “Contact” at the top to send in feedback about Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Pottermore, et cetera. And then on the right side of MuggleCast.com, you can find links to our iTunes, Twitter, Facebook, fan Tumblr, RSS Feed, and oh, so much more. I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Benjamin Schoen.
Eric: I’m Eric James Scull.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Richard: [laughs] And I’m Richard Reid.
Andrew: Thanks everyone for listening and we’ll see you next time for Episode 237. Buh-bye!
Ben: [in a deep voice] Peace.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: [in a deep voice] Peace.
[Show music continues]