Last night, I saw something magical. Something that brought me life in a way I have not experienced in years. It reminded me to dream, and to love, in the way that only truly beautiful fantasy can, that very particular feeling that anything is possible. And this reminder could not have come at a better time, given the current national climate (to be perfectly explicit in my meaning: in the aftermath of a Trump election); it was exactly the thing I needed to re-inspire me. I am talking about "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
This new story from writer J.K. Rowling and director David Yates is an enormously successful delve back into the wizarding world of Rowling’s creation. It is a new, completely separate story from “Potter” which can appeal to new viewers in a more historical, more “adult” way (my opinions on what makes a work of fiction “adult” will have to be shelved for another day); but for those of us who have grown up Potterheads, it served as a reimmersion into the world we know and love and a reminder of what we loved about it in the first place.
When the Warner Bros. logo first appeared on the screen and Hedwig’s Theme began to swell, I very nearly cried. It was as though I had waited years for this moment without even realizing it. When the last “Potter” movie debuted in 2011, I thought that was it. I knew everything would go on in our hearts and minds, and that fan theories would be produced forever, but the idea of new, canonical material was not something I could conceive of. These stories which were such a part of my life, such a defining factor in the way I approached the world, were, I believed, over. Of course, the release of Pottermore shortly after the final movie did allow for new stories, or at least of character backgrounds and insights into the workings of the magical world, but it was a rather bulky, unwieldy way to acquire that information. Then, this year, “Cursed Child” was released, but it was overall a disappointment. Rowling’s voice was not in the text, in the characters, and it was her voice that brought the world to life, her ideas alone that made me believe that if I could just find the right phone booth in London, I could get into the Ministry of Magic, that if I just looked closely enough, I could find gnomes in my garden.
Watching “Fantastic Beasts,” this deep, heartfelt desire for magic to be real came soaring back. As I watched Eddie Redmayne turn into the wonderfully Hufflepuff Newt Scamander, I found myself turn into a child giddy with excitement at the prospect of magical creatures, and into an adult who half-expected an erumpent to come barreling down the aisle of the theatre, or a pixie to fly past my ear. The film quality is excellent in itself, with beautiful sets and effects, and some solid historical positioning, but those alone are not what makes the film great. It is great because it makes you feel those feelings that were supposed to be accessible only to children. It makes you want to find a time-turner and go back to help Newt round up his creatures. It makes you believe that you can achieve anything with the right attitude and a little help, like you can even thrive in the next four years that look as bleak as a brooding obscurus. It makes you believe in magic.
