Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Book-To-Film Adaptation
On November 15, 2002, almost a full
year after the release of the first Harry Potter film, hardcore Potter fans across
the globe would finally receive what they had spent four agonizing years
awaiting: Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets was coming to the Big Screen.
Much as the first film was quite
similar to the novel, the film for Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets remained very faithful to J.K.
Rowling’s second masterpiece.
However,
there were (of course) still quite a few omissions, and general liberties taken
by the filmmakers, which is why I have dedicated my time to analyzing the
differences and creating yet another blog post (I’m sorry . . . or perhaps,
you’re welcome).
As
this novel seems to have even more differences of greater significance than its
predecessor, I shall attempt to refrain from stressing the utterly pointless,
minor details. (No promises . . .)
Once
again, I will reiterate that I am not suggesting that there is anything
necessarily “wrong” with the movie. Rather, I am simply here to note and
examine the second novel-to-film adaptation that Chris Columbus and company
have so kindly provided us.
We’ll start with the beginning of
the novel, where young Harry has recently returned from his first full year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
and is currently suffering through the morning of his twelfth birthday at 4
Privet Drive.
As the dull morning progresses,
Harry catches a glimpse of something moving in the bushes outside of the
Dursley home, and is somewhat unnerved by the sight. In contrast, the movie completely
excludes the morning's events, and proceeds to later that evening, when
Harry’s delightful relatives (hello, sarcasm!) are preparing for Mr. and Mrs.
Mason’s visit. It is then that Harry first notices Dobby, the house-elf who has
arrived on the scene to warn him that he should not
return to Hogwarts for his second year of school. When Harry refuses to heed
Dobby’s warning, however, the house-elf resorts to drastic measures.
Herein
lays another differing scene: in the novel, Dobby proceeds down the staircase
and drops Aunt Petunia’s pudding onto the floor, splattering both the walls and
Harry himself. Nevertheless, the Mason’s do not
leave because of this supposed action from the Dursley’s “disturbed”
nephew. Instead, an owl from the Ministry of Magic swoops into the dining room
to deliver a letter to Harry (regarding the usage of a hover charm, which was actually performed by Dobby), and Mrs.
Mason goes absolutely berserk, as she is mortally afraid of birds. In the film
sequence, however, Dobby drops the dessert squarely onto Mrs. Mason’s head, and
well . . . now it is certainly understandable why the couple is no longer
interested in buying any drills from Uncle Vernon. Onward, ho!
In the
third chapter of the novel, when the three youngest Weasley brothers swipe their
father‘s flying Ford Anglia to rescue Harry from Privet
Drive, Fred and George come inside to help Harry pick the lock on his bedroom
door and retrieve his school supplies from the cupboard underneath the stairs.
Later, as Fred, George, and Ron are attempting to escape with Harry, all three
Dursleys pounce on him and end up hanging
out of Harry’s bedroom window. In contrast, for the film’s purposes, Harry’s
things are all stored within his room (which is a bit dull, if I’m being
honest), and it is only Uncle Vernon who attempts to stop Harry from escaping .
. . but he actually falls out of the window. Well done, Warner Bros., well
done.
As we continue, in the novel’s
return to the Burrow with the Weasley brothers, Harry finds a furious Mrs.
Weasley, who punishes Fred, George, and Ron for the incident by forcing them to
“de-gnome” the garden. The film, however, chooses not to include this glorious
scene – though I must say that Julie Walters still does scold the three boys in splendid fashion.
After spending some time at the
Burrow, Harry is forced to travel by Floo Powder to Diagon Alley with the
Weasley family. Unfortunately, however, he swallows a bit of ash and
mispronounces his desired destination, turning up instead in a dodgy shop in
Knockturn Alley, called Borgin and Burkes. In the film, Harry makes his way out
of the shop to find Hagrid, who guides him to safety. In the novel, however,
Harry also witnesses Lucius and Draco
Malfoy attempting to sell dark objects to Mr. Borgin, and immediately passes
this bit of information on to Ron, Hermione, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
Additionally, in the novel, it is not Hermione who repairs Harry’s broken
glasses in Diagon Alley (as that would most certainly have been illegal –
hello?), but Mr. Weasley (who is definitely more than certified to do so). Let’s
all take a moment to subconsciously glare at the moviemakers – what exactly were they thinking here?
As the day progresses, the trio’s
new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, gives
Harry an assemblage of his collected works, completely free of charge. In the
novel, Harry quickly gifts all of these books to Ginny Weasley (as he is
certainly capable of purchasing the textbooks which he needs, in contrast to
the rather poor Weasley household). Curiously, this scene was also omitted from the
film.
Before the dust settles in Flourish
and Blotts (the store in which Lockhart is signing autographs), there is a rather
nasty discussion between Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy. In the film, this
confrontation is merely that: a discussion – and one which assists the viewer
in understanding precisely why Draco Malfoy came to be such an unpleasant child.
In the novel, however, this conversation ends with Arthur Weasley lunging
towards Lucius Malfoy, resulting in somewhat of a brawl, which infuriates
Arthur’s wife, Molly.
And now we shall finally board the
Hogwarts Express . . . . .
In chapter six of this ingenious
novel, there is a particular scene where Professor Lockhart explains to Professor
Sprout exactly the most precise way to care for the battered Whomping Willow,
and proceeds to lecture Harry about his pursuit of autographs and the immediate
difficulties associated with fame. (I mean, if you don’t already hate this
arrogant jerk by the end of the chapter, you definitely should.) On the
contrary, the film captures nothing of the sort.
Later, in their first Defense
Against the Dark Arts lesson, Professor Lockhart gives an irksome test to assess which students have already familiarized themselves with his works, with questions about his likes and
dislikes, as well as his greatest ambitions. This scene only adds to the
unlikableness of his pompous, fraudulent character, and is also not included in
the film. (In case you’ve forgotten: Hermione, of course, receives full marks
on this vexatious test.)
As we proceed, we call into question
one of the most offensive of terms in the wizarding world: “Mudblood”. While
the history of the word is unclear, it is typically used by “Pureblood”
wizards who tend to believe that they are superior to their peers. In this
case, it is used by Draco Malfoy, after the correlation between his family’s
wealth and his status on the Slytherin Quidditch team has been exploited by
Hermione Granger. In the film, Hermione becomes quite upset after this
encounter, and explains to Harry (and the audience) exactly what a “Mudblood”
is. In the novel, however, Hermione is unclear about precisely what the term
means, yet Ron is incensed by Malfoy’s usage of it. While this may not be an
overly significant difference, it is certainly worth noting. We do know that Hermione is a bookworm who
has read everything imaginable – however, would she have spotted a term this
offensive in one of her school textbooks? After all, her parents are both "Muggles", so she would not have learned the term from them.
And now we have stumbled upon a
chapter which was essentially omitted in the film: “The Deathday Party”. As the
month of October proceeds, Nearly Headless Nick (the Gryffindor House ghost)
invites our favorite trio to attend his Deathday Party, on the very same
evening as the Halloween feast. After Nick persuades Peeves to cause a
disturbance above Filch’s office (thus saving Harry from punishment), Harry
decides that he has little choice but to accept Nick’s invitation. Thus, on the
night of Halloween, Harry, Ron, and Hermione proceed to the dungeons and have a
rather miserable time in an abnormally dreary party atmosphere. As they leave
the party and proceed towards the Gryffindor Common Room, however, the trio
finds that Mrs. Norris (Argus Filch’s cat) has been petrified, and is hanging
by her tail from a torch bracket.
In the film, however, it is as Harry
is returning from his “detention” with Professor Lockhart that he (conveniently)
meets up with Ron and Hermione, and the three of them find themselves in the worst
possible place at the worst possible time. In the novel, this event seems to
hold much more weight, as Filch accuses Harry of attacking Mrs. Norris with
somewhat reasonable backing: as Harry was detained in Filch’s office, he found
a Kwikspell letter and learned that
Filch was a Squib (someone with a magical bloodline, who cannot perform any
sort of tangible magic). If Harry was actually
seeking to inflict pain upon “enemies of the heir”, Filch would have made a
perfect target. (Oh, the potential plot twists . . .)
But for the sake of forgoing a
full-length novel, I will now skip ahead to the next significant difference
between the novel and the film: the Moste Potente Potions book. In this scene,
Harry, Ron, and Hermione need access to a book from the Restricted Section
(which they can only obtain with a signed note from a teacher) in order to
discover who may have opened the Chamber of Secrets. Thankfully, Professor
Lockhart (who, in Ronald Weasley’s opinion, is a brainless git), signs a
permission slip for Hermione (the best student of the year) without paying any
attention to what he is doing. (I can’t help myself from wondering how little
his intelligence actually diminished
after he ‘Obliviated’ himself – see chapter sixteen). Unfortunately, none of
this was included in the film.
We’ll bypass the obvious differences
in the year's Quidditch matches (as they have very little bearing on
the plot of the novel) in favor of a continuation of the Polyjuice Potion
pursuit. In order to properly create the potion, Hermione is in need of certain
ingredients – ingredients which she can only find in Professor Snape’s
collection. For this reason, Harry and Ron cause a major disturbance in Potions
class one day, as Hermione slips off to steal the necessary supplies. While
this is not in the film, it definitely should have been – you have to give
props to Hermione for breaking school rules (something that she has never been
too fond of).
And so, once again, here we stand:
with nearly 1,800 words of novel/film differentiation behind us, and still so
much required analysis remaining. As we continue, it becomes quite significant
to acknowledge the fact that the “Dueling Club” scene in the film was horribly depicted. This is the one scenario in which I will be brutally
critical of the film. In the novel, there are countless pairs of students
dueling each other at once – hence the name, the “Dueling Club”. In the film,
however, there is one long platform situated directly in the middle of the
room, with the remaining students surrounding it as spectators, as though only
two students will be permitted to duel at once. How effective is this technique
for learning magic, when you really think about it? I’ll help you out here: not
at all.
While I’ve lost my objective point
of view, I’ll continue my journey upon the novel’s bandwagon. Just one more
note about Polyjuice Potion, and then I’ll move on to more significant details.
In the novel, the Polyjuice Potion causes the drinker to completely transform
into the desired individual – this transformation includes voice, eyesight, and
essentially all other relevant attributes. In contrast, the film seems to depict
a sort of diluted Polyjuice Potion, which was perhaps improperly brewed by
Vincent Crabbe or someone, but certainly not
Hermione Granger.
Although perhaps I shouldn’t be
giving Hermione too much credit, as
she did pluck cat hairs off of Millicent Bulstrode, thus transforming herself
into a feline with the Polyjuice Potion, rather than an unpleasant human being
(assuming that Slytherins can actually be considered human). Once again, we have
spotted an obvious difference between the novel and the film. In the novel,
Hermione’s botched transformation earns her a long stay in the Hospital Wing,
and a “Get Well Soon” card from Gilderoy Lockhart (oh, why must we still be discussing
that idiot?). In the film, however, she seems to “Get Well” quite “Soon”, and
her tenure in the Hospital Wing is never captured.
Almost there, everyone! Okay, so
then there’s this Professor by the name of Cuthbert Binns. He
taught until a very old age, when he fell asleep in the staff room and died in his slumber. Professor Binns was
undeterred, however, as he continued to teach History of Magic (widely regarded
as the most boring subject at Hogwarts) through Harry’s time at the school. In
the novel, it is he who explains the Chamber of Secrets to his students.
Unfortunately, however, neither Professor Binns nor Peeves (the Poltergeist
that we all love to hate) were included in the films. Thus, in the on-screen
portrayal of this scene, it is Professor McGonagall who explains the history of
the Chamber of Secrets to her Transfiguration class.
Before we proceed into the climactic scenes of this
story, let us first discuss Valentine’s Day. In the novel, there is a great
deal of interest surrounding this holiday, as Professor Lockhart arranges a
special Valentine’s Day breakfast for the students in the Great Hall.
Additionally, Harry receives a Singing Valentine (assumedly from Ginny), and
Professor Lockhart receives a vast number of cards, including one from
Hermione. While none of this necessarily affects the plot, it is still
noteworthy due to the fact that it further develops many important characters.
Unfortunately, however, the filmmakers did not find Valentine’s Day (1993) of
great enough importance to include in their production.
As we continue, it also seems
important to note the differing scenarios surrounding Harry’s journey into Tom
Riddle’s diary. In the novel, Harry arrives in Headmaster Dippet’s office, and
watches interestedly as Dippet informs Tom Riddle that Hogwarts will be closing
due to the recent attacks. In the film, however, it is Dumbledore that conveys
this information to Riddle. Once again, this alteration is of little
consequence, but still worth noting. Perhaps the filmmakers simply didn’t want
to have to introduce a brand new character for such a short scene. Moving on.
In effectively analyzing the
differences between the novel and the film, it is most certainly important to
also mention that Ginny Weasley shows numerous
signs of emotional distress in the book, trying desperately to convey her
dreadful situation (of literally being controlled by a typically-inanimate object) to Harry
and Ron. On the other hand, in the movie, Ginny is a largely inconsequential character
until we suddenly discover that she has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets.
Admittedly, this is not quite as much of a head-scratcher. Or maybe it’s more
of one, because she just seems so
unimportant in the earlier stages of the film. Hmmm.
And now we shall follow the spiders
. . . but wait. In the novel, Harry and Ron do not “follow the spiders” until long
after Hagrid’s arrest. In the film, this scene occurs directly after Hagrid
is removed from Hogwarts. Perhaps this particular difference was simply due to
the obvious time constraints, but doesn’t it seem a bit unlikely that Harry and
Ron would immediately know exactly what
Hagrid wanted them to do? What would you do if a half-giant told you to “follow
the spiders”? Don’t answer that.
Let’s talk about Penelope. No, not
the wife of Odysseus, nor the omnipresent Christina Ricci. I’m talking about
Penelope Clearwater, the girlfriend of Percy Weasley (and yes, we all feel
sorry for her). In the novel, poor Penelope is attacked by the Basilisk at the
same time as Hermione, leaving Percy quite distraught (although nobody is quite
sure why). Near the end of the novel, after the resolution of the conflict,
Ginny informs Fred, George, Harry, Ron, and Hermione (no, I really couldn’t have
abbreviated that) that Percy and Penelope are a couple. Ahhhh, so this is why
he was so concerned about her
well-being. That makes sense . . . Yet meanwhile, in the film, her character is simply irrelevant. *sigh* Oh well . . .
And now we shall wrap this up with
one final significant difference. In the novel, after Harry defeats the
Basilisk (much more quickly than he does in the film, by the way – nice work,
Warner Bros.), he proceeds to Professor McGonagall’s office. There, we find
Arthur and Molly Weasley, Minerva McGonagall, and many more of our favorite
characters. In the film, Harry and Dumbledore simply share a one-on-one
conversation in his office, and are later quite rudely interrupted by Lucius
Malfoy. (YOU SHALL NOT HARM HARRY POTTER!)
Joking aside, that’s pretty much all
I have to say about that, Forrest – a mere 2,900 words or so. As noted in my previous
blog, I want to thank you for taking the time to consider my thoughts, and
request that you please feel free to sound off in the comment section below.
If you're interested in my assessment of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone", click here.
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