Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – my thoughts and feelings

Hi,

I saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them a few days ago and I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings about this movie. I will have spoilers in this discussion so if you don’t want to be spoiled, come back and read this after you’ve seen the movie.

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I absolutely loved Fantastic Beasts, I loved getting to relive all the magic and feel all the excitement that I felt when I first read the Harry Potter books and watched the movies.

I think something that added to this nostalgia I got from just the beginning of the movie was the soundtrack. I have been listening to the Fantastic Beasts soundtrack for the past three days and it’s honestly one of the coolest things in the world. I love the Main Title I loved how it started with the Harry Potter theme and how it transitioned into the Fantastic Beasts theme. I think it made me feel more familiar and comfortable with these new characters right from the beginning.

I think one of the main reasons why not just me, but many other people, think that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is so much better than the Cursed Child is because the screenplay for this film was written by JKR and only JKR. I noticed that the movie felt a lot for “authentic” (for lack of a better word).

I know there has been a lot of discussions about the lack of diversity within the casting/characters in both the Harry Potter movies and now the Fantastic Beasts movies.

I’d like to discuss not just a few (two, well technically one) diverse characters but also the characters I really enjoyed and why I loved them.

Even though our main character(s) are all white, we do have two very intelligent bad ass female characters, Queenie and Tina. Tina is an Aura and she’s very intelligent and I loved seeing that throughout the movie. I loved how Queenie used the fact that people didn’t think she was very intelligent and underestimate her and I love how she uses that to her advantage. I loved seeing their bond as siblings throughout the movie, I love how they’re always looking out for one another and how much they’d do for one another.

Zoe Kravitz was seen in a photograph in Fantastic Beasts and will apparently be in the sequel as Leta Lestrange. Which I think will be super cool.

We also have a black female president! Which I think is one of the coolest things in the world. I got very excited when I saw her in the trailers and I thought Carmen Ejogo played her character very well.

On Tumblr I have seen people talk about whether or not Newt has autism, I think that it would be really nice to see not only diversity when it comes to the ethnicity of the cast but also having characters that have a disability. It has not been confirmed by JKR, Eddie, David or anyone in charge, however, the person who had written this particular post is autistic and felt that  they were able to relate to Newt. Here’s the link to the specific post I read if you’d like to find out more about it.

I honestly just loved Newt’s character. I loved how he told his creatures that he was their mummy, and honestly, this just reminded me of Hagrid which made we so happy because I love Hagrid’s character so much. I liked his humour, like the joke when the lady asks Newt if he’s a seeker and he replies with “I’m more of a chaser really” little things like this always make me laugh and I’m so glad that they were added.

What I’m really happy about is the fact that Newt and Tina did not kiss at the end of the movie. I feel like it would’ve felt forced and unrealistic if it had been put in as there are no actual signs that they have romantic feelings towards one another throughout the movie. Personally, I just loved their friendship, I liked seeing how the way they viewed one another changed throughout the movie.

Jacob was just all kinds of amazing. He was just a beautiful and caring character, like the reason why he wanted to open a bakery was to make people happy! I loved seeing his interest in the Wizarding World it was just so adorable and honestly the majority of the time Jacob was just saying what I’m pretty sure all of us were thinking.

 

I’d like to talk about is the ending of this movie, but mostly the reveal of Grindelwald and him being played by Johnny Depp. I knew Johnny Depp was going to be in this series, I just didn’t know what character he was.  I’m not going to discuss how I feel about him getting a role in this film franchise because I don’t want to discuss his personal life in this post (I may discuss my feelings on that in another post). I felt that he felt out-of-place in this film. I don’t know if it was his bleach blonde hair (right) or the fact that he just doesn’t look like how I pictured him/how he did in the Harry Potter films (left). I don’t know I just preferred Jamie Campbell Bower as Grindelwald.

 

 

 

 

I felt that the pacing was very good, it didn’t feel rushed at any point or slow. I think the fact that we have the Harry Potter novels and movies, which give us a lot of world building, really helped this movie be as great as it is.

I had such high expectations for this movie, as I knew it was written by JKR only, and I’m so glad that all of my expectations were met. I also believe that the reason why this movie has done so well, in comparison to the Harry Potter films, is because the story was written to be a film. In all book to movie adaptations, there are always little and usually important things that the writers and directors leave out which are crucial to the plot and or the understanding of the characters. JKR had the advantage of the only novel this is based on is the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them textbook, so she needed to include all the little important things which would usually be forgotten in an adaptation.

Honestly, I was so happy while watching this movie. I seriously want to go re-watch this movie as soon as possible because I want to pick up on all the little details I may have missed the first time. I had such high expectations for this movie, as I knew it was written by JKR only, and I’m so glad that all of my expectations were met.

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So that was most of my thoughts and feelings on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!

In the comments let me know what you thought of the movie, and who your favourite characters were.

 

 

Yasmin xx

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