Over the weekend, longtime fans and newcomers alike were shown a new chapter of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world with the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. While the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (which premiered this past July), told the story of what happened with members of the wizarding world’s next generation, Fantastic Beasts takes its audience back nearly 70 years to New York, November 1926. Gellert Grindelwald, a pro-wizard, anti-Muggle radical (and in many ways, Tom Riddle’s how-to guide to becoming a dark wizard) has been causing chaos and amassing power in Europe. The wizarding community in America is anxious to avoid persecution by non-magical (“No-Maj”) folk by staying hidden, an approach strictly enforced by Draconian bans on wizard relationships with no-majs, including marriage, and bans on magical creatures. Anything that could tip ordinary people off to the existence of magic is outlawed. On both sides of the Atlantic, one wrong move could mean all-out war.
And in the middle of this strife, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a young magizoologist, has just disembarked in New York City with a magical suitcase brimming with a menagerie of fantastical beasts.
Newt’s calling is to travel across the globe, investigating, discovering, and protecting magical creatures, from the mole-like Niffler (adorable, fast, will steal anything shiny that’s not nailed down) to the Erumpent (rhinoceros-like, gigantic, will cause explosions). Newt is awkward with people, and seems to prefer the company of his animals to them, especially since so many wizards in this time period would rather kill an unfamiliar magical beast on the assumption that it must be deadly. Rescuing the beasts from traffickers, reintroducing them to them wild, and protecting those he can’t let free by housing them in artificial habitats in his suitcase; Newt has enough to do without messing around with people, thank you very much.
However, when several beasts escape from the suitcase, Newt has to count on the help of some new friends: Jacob Kowalski (Dan Folgler), a no-maj who just wants a loan to start a bakery; Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a disgraced law enforcement wizard who wants to protect her world; and Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol), Tina’s golden-haired sister with a sugary voice, a talent for mind-reading, and as much guts as her big sis. With the American wizarding government on their tail, it’s a race for Newt and his new comrades to find and defend the escaped magical beasts before they let all of non-magic New York know there are wizards and witches among them.
The special effects are fantastic, from the visual rendering of the beasts, to the characters’ spells; Fantastic Beasts has learned well from all the cinema-magic and advanced technology developed for the Harry Potter films. The aesthetic they’ve created for this new chapter is wonderful to take in, combining familiar Potter elements with an American, art-deco flair. Newcomers to Rowling’s wizarding world won’t be lost if they see Fantastic Beasts without having watched the Potter movies or read the source material, but it’s helpful if you already know that “obliviating” is memory-wiping, a “legilimens” is a mind-reader, and an “auror” is a member of wizarding law enforcement. Of course, familiarity will also reward fans of the Potter series with Easter eggs, as the movie slips in mentions of well-known names and places. The biggest flaw is probably lack of clarification on the Magical Congress of the United States' (MACUSA's) vigilance and harsh reaction to Newt's transgressions; background to American wizardkind's paranoia is explained in additional material available online, but moviegoers should have all necessary information provided in the film.
The characters themselves are a treat. For one thing, the members of the central quartet are all adults! After this movie, no one can say the Potter world is just for kids and teens. I was personally worried at how well I would bond with characters I would only know from a couple hours of screen time; with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, fans had the opportunity to read several books before the first movie came out, reading plenty of dialogue, actions, and events concerning the trio that didn’t even make it to film. With Newt, Tina, Jacob, and Queenie, I was impressed at how much we can glean from their actors’ performances. Every one of them deserves applause. Redmayne’s Newt can be a bit prickly, a bit prone to tunnel-vision when it comes to his creatures, but proves himself loyal and kind in the face of others’ vulnerability (is it any wonder he’s a Hufflepuff?). Fogler’s Jacob is a seemingly ordinary man who just wants to bake and get out of his canning factory job, but when thrust into an alien world, he rises to the occasion to help his new friend Newt, even knowing that this magical world would rather have his memory wiped. Tina shows herself to be a skilled wizard, but one torn when the laws she has sworn to uphold show their cracks; laws do not guarantee justice, nor mercy. Katherine Waterston skillfully navigates between Tina’s no-nonsense tendencies and the moments she allows weakness to show. Likewise, Alison Sudol does a wonderful turn as Queenie; when we first hear her sweet, effeminate voice and see her slip on a slinky dress, it would be easy to assume that she’s a textbook blonde bombshell, a ditzy dame at best and a wicked femme fatale at worst. Sudol sidesteps such assumptions with an open, guileless nature, and [SPOILER ALERT] a nearly-single-handed rescue mission she boldly launches later in the film proves both of the Goldstein girls are formidable women.
The movie’s ending has some final twists worthy Rowling’s past work, and there are strong hints at the direction future sequels (currently numbering four) will take—especially if you know your wizarding history. I was skeptical when I heard that so many movies were to be launched from a book that started as a fun little made-up Hogwarts textbook written by Rowling for charity. Now, I welcome the series as way to get to know the wizarding world that was only hinted at when the lens was trained so narrowly on Harry’s antics within Hogwarts.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is in movie theatres now.
