This past Friday, November 18th, was a pretty exciting day. Pokémon Sun and Moon were released, which caused an entire fandom to geek out hardcore for the new generation (myself included). Probably half the campus of Bloomsburg went home early for Thanksgiving break. Oh, yeah! And Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was finally released in theaters! If you’ve been reading my articles consistently, you may have read an article I wrote last year about https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-fantastic-beasts-announcement-trailer-cue-the-hypewhether or not the movie would live up to its hype. Guess what! I have an answer and…it does.
[SPOILERS AHEAD! DON’T KEEP READING UNLESS YOU WANT THE MOVIE TO BE SPOILED!]
I went to see Fantastic Beasts Friday night on release day with some of my amazing mentees who are Harry Potter nerds, like myself (well, except for one). There were HP-based outfits, there were crudely made wands, we geeked out. Not going to lie, I fully contemplated not going to class so I could and see the movie earlier. No worries though, I went to my classes. It probably worked out for the best as well since thankfully there were seats in the theatre!
As the music for the theme of Fantastic Beasts started I could swear I heard squeals of excitement throughout the theatre. The theme is also still stuck in my head…I may or may not have been listening to it all weekend. If you haven’t heard it yet, you can go here to listen to it on YouTube. Think, Harry Potter’s theme but amped up and made even more awesome.
The beginning of the movie was pretty great. We see an attack from Grindelwald, an evil wizard who is long dead by the time of Harry Potter. The movie takes place in 1926, so Grindelwald’s attacks in Europe are taking place in this time frame, reasonably causing the wizarding world to freak out. Then we go into glimpses of wizarding articles in the USA to help the audience get a glimpse of what Wizarding America was like in the 1920’s. Glimpses include: “Is soccer the No-Maj’s Quidditch?!”, “President Picquery Calls for Calm”, “Ban on Ownership of Magical Creatures Continues.” Clearly the last one was a clear reference to our protagonist. Which brings us to…
Newt Scamander! Newt is the first ever magizoologist, a Hufflepuff, and is played by Eddie Redmayne. Not going to lie, I absolutely love Newt as a character. He is so kind and cares so strongly about his beasts, even more so than people and laws. His beasts are his family to him, really. He gets Manhattan pretty much destroyed to save all of them. What is interesting about Newt though, is that he seems to have a mysterious background that has yet to be explored. We learn that he got expelled from Hogwarts, yet all we know is that one of his creatures endangered some other students and that Dumbledore stood up for him. (Oh, yeah, Dumbledore apparently loves Newt…so we should too, right?) We could use some more details on this exactly. Did he do some experimental breeding like Hagrid? Or did he decide to raise a Hungarian Horntail under his bed? We need some answers! He also seems to lie. He claimed to Jacob that he worked with Ukrainian Ironbellies (Species of dragons) on the “Eastern Front” during WW1, yet when he is in front of the International Confederation of Wizards and people ask if he’s the war hero…it’s clarified that he’s the younger brother of the war hero Scamander. Did we see a Hufflepuff lie?!
Speaking of Jacob Kowalski, we finally have our first Muggle (or No-Maj) protagonist. He is definitely out of his element ever since accidentally taking Newt’s case. He is literally thrown into the world of magic in complete and utter defiance of the International Statute of Secrecy and MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States)’s own law of no interaction with No-Majs. All he wants to do is just open his bakery, which Newt actually helps him out with in the end, covertly. I think one of the saddest moments in the movie is when Jacob is obliviated with the rest of NYC. I’m not going to lie, I fully expected someone to go against President Picquery’s orders and un-obliviate him. No one did, though. Interestingly enough, Queenie goes to visit Jacob after he is obliviated and…Jacob seems to remember her!! J.K. we need some explanations…now!
Queenie Goldstein is another interesting character I want to know more about. She is our first Legilemens—meaning that she can read minds. She seems aloof and flirtatious, but at the same time capable of cunning strategies. As seen when she tries to free her sister and Newt she uses her abilities to manipulate people in MACUSA to get what she wants and needs. I don’t know how well she will be explored, but I think she definitely needs some more exploring and more depth. There’s more to her than we were shown. And what is her Ilvermorny house?! I’m thinking Pukwudgie, personally…https://www.theodysseyonline.com/im-pukwudgie-what-are-youlike myself.
Lastly, we have Tina Goldstein. Tina was an auror, who went against what she was supposed to do, and is no longer an auror. She tries several times to convict Newt in hopes of getting her position back, but her efforts actually end up getting her arrested herself. Way to go, Tina. After the events of the end of the movie, she is reinstated as an auror and actually seems sad to see Newt go. We’ll be seeing her again though. For those who don’t know, they get married eventually. (Their grandson marries Luna Lovegood.)
Overall, the movie was fantastic! There was a nice balance of funny and serious. There were also plenty of twists and turns during the movie, leading to some rather unexpected things: one of the major things being that Percival Graves, an auror for MACUSA, is actually Gellert Grindelwald himself in America. If you read that and are mad…your fault, I told you there were spoilers. Some questions I have for the next movies: What is Newt doing in Paris…did he let his beasts loose again?! Why is Tina in Paris? How does Grindelwald escape MACUSA, since we know he does? Does Jacob get his memories back?! Do him and Queenie get together?! WHO IS GOING TO PLAY YOUNG ALBUS DUMBLEDORE?!?!