Director: David Yates Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell and Ezra Miller Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Release Date: November 18th
By Evelyn Sweeney ‘Harry Potter’ fans have been going frantic this month after the release of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and Where to Find Them. It acts as a loose prequel to the ‘Harry Potter’ series, based on a Hogwarts textbook which J.K. Rowling released for Comic Relief in 2001. Their excitement is understandable, as it’s difficult to see how ‘Fantastic Beasts’ could disappoint their expectations. J.K. Rowling (Screenwriter) and David Yates (Director) throw us into the Wizarding World across the Atlantic in a 1920′s New York. We follow Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a ‘Magizoologist’, who accidentally lets loose a number of magical creatures that he must retrieve before any ‘No-Majs’ (Non-Magical Folk) become aware of their existence. One of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ most charming features is that it showcases J.K Rowling’s debut in screenwriting. Although at times it can feel a little too rapidly paced and even cluttered, it is something that works marvellously when considering that, for the first time, fans are viewing a film set in a very different section of a franchise with very little prior knowledge. Simply put, Rowling has created a huge world and capturing it is a grand task in itself. This is especially welcoming after the tragedy that was the publication of ‘The Cursed Child’, which proved that it’s incredibly difficult to impersonate Rowling’s work without it becoming a disappointing read for long time fans. The same sense of familiarity was supported by the director, David Yates, who was also responsible for the last four ‘Harry Potter’ Films. As the themes within ‘Fantastic Beasts’ are much darker than the ones we’re used to from the ‘Potterverse’, Yates’ does a great job of creating a familiar experience through ‘Fantastic Beasts’ themes, while still managing to effectively launch an entirely new story and film series. He includes an exploration of death, which has always been a key theme in Rowling’s writing, yet is depicted much more prominently and some would argue even twisted, in ‘Fantastic Beasts’. Whether or not the Anti-Fascist political statements were a deliberate reflection on current events or not, the parallels between the current American politics and the film are startling, to say the least. From a clock depicting various threat