Tomorrow, I go to see HP7 Part 1. I am extremely excited and have been psyching myself up for, oh, the past month or so.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to re-watch all six films and then this week decided to do so again. I also dragged out my copy of book 7 and devoured in all of a day.
I really like the Harry Potter franchise. I know I’m an adult and I should leave well alone but I can’t help it. When the series began on screen, I was the same age as the characters. I’m the same age as many of the cast as well and because of this I feel this weird affinity. My friends and I watched these films growing up, we had schoolgirl crushes on the male leads (I still have a big adult crush on Rupert Grint – Ron) and stuck photos in our lockers. They’re like an extended family, in a world that I wish I could join. I think every boy or girl has fantasies about escaping to a magical world but the boarding school thing heightened it for me too.
When I was younger, I loved Enid Blyton’s books about boarding schools. Malory Towers, The Twins at St Clare’s; I dreamed that I was one of them. And as I got too old to think of going to a school like that as a student, I decided I wanted to be a teacher, have my own boarding school and live there forever. I imagine it’s got something to do with escaping my dreary middle class life and doing something, if not exciting, then at least something no one else I knew had done. I’d go far away, on a big adventure. Also, the fact that everyone seemed to love and respect books and learning at these places enthralled me. I didn’t really know anyone growing up who read like I did and I was always seen as a bit odd by my friends because of it. It wasn’t really until University that I met people who really loved books and read just for the pleasure of it.
So you combine boarding school, magic, cute boys and, to me, you’ve got a pretty solid starting block. Add in all the villains and intrigue and the books take you on a brilliant, exhilarating ride. The films do that just as well in my opinion. They’re not as good as the novels of course. They leave too many important details out (as with almost every other book to film adaptation) and they haven’t really matured with the audience and the characters as the books did. But on the whole, they do give me the warm and fuzzies. I’m sad that soon it’ll all be over, gone but hopefully not forgotten. It’s is the ultimate guilty pleasure, the series that spawned special adult editions so that commuters didn’t have to hide their books on the train. It generated official clothing, video games, merchandise and a theme park, along with all the unofficial fanfiction, websites, podcasts and conventions hosted up and down not just the UK but the entire world. It has poured tourists into the country, desperate to see the places described in Rowling’s books. Even Kings Cross has erected a plaque to mark where every witch or wizard on their way to Hogwarts must cross into Platform 9 ¾. Whether people enjoy the series or not, they cannot argue that it has captured and inspired an audience around the world.
