Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: An Adaptation Gone Right - Miranda

  You guys seemed to enjoy my Percy Jackson book to movie comparison last month, so I have decided to do another installment in the series- but this time, an adaptation gone right. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Of course, it still follows the rule that the book is almost always better than the movie. There are a few things they left out that I wish they hadn’t, but for the most part, I found both very good and enjoyed both the book and the movie. Here are some of the things the movie added, removed, and changed. Warning: spoilers ahead. Though if you haven’t read Harry Potter at this point, are you ever going to do it?

1. Added- The Shrunken Head

There wasn’t a whole lot that the movies added onto the books, but this was one of the few things. It was just a little touch that added all the more chaos to the Knight Bus scene.

2. Reverse Aging

This isn’t really a point about how the movie adapted from the book, but I thought it was worth mentioning. How did Professor Flitwick suddenly de-age between the second and third movies? Huh?

3. Changed- Harry’s Boggart

In the book, Lupin specifically avoids letting Harry deal with the boggart in the fear that it will take the form of Lord Voldemort (which would have been incorrect). In the movie, Lupin allows Harry to face the boggart which takes the form of a dementor. Harry freaks out and Lupin puts it away. The end result in both book and movie however, is the same. The encounter inspires Harry to start taking lessons with Lupin on how to protect himself from the boggart.

Slightly unrelated, but speaking of boggarts, they're supposed to be thinking of something FUNNY. But for some reason, Parvati decides to turn the boggart, which was a giant snake, into a far more creepy clown.

What the heck.

4. Mostly removed- Quidditch

Quidditch never seems to be quite as big a deal in the movies as it is in the books. In the book there are three matches- one against each of the other houses. It is significant because for the first time in years (and the first in Harry’s years at Hogwarts), Gryffindor wins the Quidditch Cup. In the movie, there is just one match: the one against Hufflepuff. Harry ends up falling because of dementors flooding the field and the terrible weather. His broom also broke, and given that his Firebolt doesn’t appear until the end of the movie, it must have been a very rough season.

5. Removed- Introduction of Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory

Neither character was very important in this book, but both would play a more substantial role in the next one. It wasn’t a huge loss since we only see them in one scene each, a Quidditch scene, and those were for the most part excluded.

6. Changed- Peter Pettigrew on the Map

In the book, Lupin finds Peter Pettigrew’s name on the Marauder’s Map sometime between when he confiscated the map and the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack. In the movie, it was Harry who noticed this, not Lupin. He was wandering down the school hallways when he sees Pettigrew’s name on the map, but is unable to find him. 

7. Removed- Two of the Hogsmeade Trips

This is an understandable cut.  They were able to consolidate everything that was important into just one Hogsmeade trip instead of three. One thing I would have liked to see though, is the exact passage Harry takes to Hogsmeade. This probably would have been lengthy and not very interesting, but I want to know how he gets in nonetheless.

8. Changed- Who Knocked Out Snape

Expelliarmus is a spell meant to disarm, not knock someone out. It makes sense in the book that since Hermione, Ron, and Harry all cast the spell at the same time, the force was enough to knock Snape out. However, in the movie it is just Harry and makes no sense how he takes out an adult man using a spell meant to knock his wand out of his hand.

9. Removed- Crookshank’s Credit

I feel like they really did Crookshanks dirty here. Through the book, Crookshanks is constantly found chasing Scabbers and eventually accused for his death. This causes Ron to shun Hermione and creates a rift in their friendship. Eventually, Scabbers is found and shortly after revealed to be Peter Pettigrew. Crookshanks played a key role in exposing him and helped Sirius a lot in finding him. Sirius even describes him as “the smartest cat he’s ever met.” In the movie, Crookshanks serves little to no purpose other than sitting in Hermione’s lap. The argument between Ron and Hermione is only glazed over and resolved much quicker than in the book.  

10. Removed- Marauder’s Lore

This was probably my biggest issues with the movie. Learning about the Marauder’s Map and the pasts of the marauders was one of the most fascinating parts of the book to me and one of the reasons why it is my favorite in the series. I was very disappointed to see that there was no mention of this topic in the movie, the only allusion to it being that Lupin knows exactly how to close the Marauder’s Map. For some reason, this doesn’t seem to faze Harry at all who acts as if this is completely normal. 

11. Changed- Lupin’s Werewolf Appearance

Lupin did not look like how I imagined him as a werewolf in the book, in fact he did not really look like a werewolf at all in the movie. He looked like a gangly hairless rat. Perhaps they did this because of budget issues, because fur is a lot harder to do with CGI than leathery skin but still, it felt weak.

12. Changed- Receiving the Firebolt

For a somewhat major plot point in the book, this was changed a lot. In the book, Harry is sent the Firebolt as an anonymous Christmas gift. Hermione suspects it is from Sirius Black (who they do not know is innocent yet) and reports it to McGonagall. Ron and Harry are very mad at her and it tears their friend group apart. They don’t come back together for several months. In the movie, Harry is given the Firebolt in the very last scene and they figure out pretty easily that it is from Sirius as it came with one of Buckbeak’s feathers. The movie ends with a blurry freeze screen of Harry riding it, which was an iffy way end to an otherwise strong movie. 

In conclusion, the book will almost always be better. There is always room for improvement, but as far as adaptations go, I thought this one was both strong and enjoyable.