Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a 2004 (8 years ago) fantasy adventure film, based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. Directed by Mexican movie maker Alfonso Cuar�n, it is the third movie in the popular Harry Potter series. It stars Daniel Radcliffe as the teenage wizard Harry Potter, and Rupert Grint and Emma Watson (51 walls) as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Gary Oldman and David Thewlis joined the cast as the new characters Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. In this movie, the role of Albus Dumbledore was played by Michael Gambon who took over from the late Richard Harris who died of Hodgkin's disease. Steve Kloves returned as screenwriter, while Chris Columbus (the director of the previous two films) became a producer, alongside David Heyman. The movie was released on 31 May 2004 (8 years ago) in the United Kingdom and on 4 Jun. 2004 (8 years ago) in North America, as the first movie released into IMAX theaters.

The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards � Academy Award for Original Music Score and Academy Award for Visual Effects at the 77th Academy Awards held in 2005 (7 years ago).

Plot

Harry Potter is at Dursleys for the summer, spending his time studying new spells. When Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, visits, Harry loses his temper when she insults his parents. He unintentionally causes her to inflate and float away. Harry flees, fearing punishment for performing magic outside school. The Knight Bus appears and delivers Harry to the Leaky Cauldron where Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge tells him he will not be expelled. Harry also learns that Sirius Black, a suspected supporter of Lord Voldemort, has escaped Azkaban prison and is likely intending to kill Harry.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione head back to school on the Hogwarts Express. They share a compartment with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin. When the train abruptly stops, Dementors (the guards of Azkaban) board, searching for Black. Harry faints when one Dementor enters their compartment, but Lupin repels it with a charm. At Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore informs students that the Dementors will be guarding the school while Black is at large. In addition to Lupin, Hagrid is announced as the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Lupin's lessons prove enjoyable; he teaches practical spells and encourages less confident students like Neville. However, Hagrid's first class goes awry when Draco Malfoy deliberately provokes the Hippogriff, Buckbeak, into attacking him. Draco's father Lucius Malfoy has Buckbeak sentenced to death.

During a Quidditch match, several Dementors approach Harry, causing him to fall off his broomstick. Lupin teaches Harry to defend himself against Dementors with a Patronus charm. A Patronus is the opposite of a Dementor: as Dementors feed on depression and darkness, so a Patronus must be created with a happy memory. Because Harry lacks parental permission to visit Hogsmeade, Fred and George give him their Marauder's Map, a magical document showing every person's location within Hogwarts and secret passageways in and out of the castle. At Hogsmeade, Harry overhears that Black is his godfather and was his parents' best friend. Black was accused of divulging the Potters' secret whereabouts to Voldemort and murdering their mutual friend Peter Pettigrew. Harry vows to kill Black, but is astonished when he later sees Peter Pettigrew's name on the Marauder's Map.

In Divination class, Professor Trelawney enters a trance and predicts that the Dark Lord's servant will return that night. Harry, Ron and Hermione visit Hagrid to console him over Buckbeak's impending execution. While there, they discover Scabbers, Ron's missing rat. Fudge, Dumbledore and an executioner arrive at Hagrid's to carry out Buckbeak's execution, which the trio watch from a distant hill. When Scabbers suddenly bites Ron and escapes, the trio chase it. A large dog appears and drags both Ron and Scabbers into a hole at the Whomping Willow's base. Harry and Hermione follow them to the Shrieking Shack. Upon finding Ron, they discover that the dog is actually Sirius Black, who is an Animagus. Harry attacks Sirius, but Lupin arrives and disarms Harry. Lupin then embraces Sirius, his old friend. After being confronted by Hermione, Lupin admits to being a werewolf. Snape bursts in, intending to hand over Black and Lupin to the Dementors, but Harry knocks him out with a spell. Lupin and Black explain that Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew, an Animagus who committed the crime Black was convicted for. Lupin and Sirius force Pettigrew back to his human form before intending to kill him, but they are stopped by Harry, who says his father, James Potter would not want his two best friends to become killers. Pettigrew will be turned over to the Dementors. As the group head to the castle, the full moon rises; Lupin transforms into a werewolf, allowing Pettigrew to escape. Lupin and Sirius fight in their animal forms, until Lupin is distracted by another werewolf's howls. Dementors attack Sirius and Harry. As Sirius' soul is about to be removed, Harry sees a distant figure cast a powerful stag-shaped Patronus that scatters the Dementors. Harry believes the mysterious figure is his dead father.

Hermione reveals that she possesses a time-turner that she used all year to take multiple classes simultaneously. She and Harry travel back in time three hours, watching themselves repeat that night's events. They free Buckbeak and return to the Whomping Willow. As the Dementors descend to attack the "other" Harry and Sirius, Harry realizes that he cast the Patronus. Harry and Hermione rescue Sirius, who escapes on Buckbeak. Lupin later resigns, knowing that parents will object to a werewolf teaching their children. Shortly after, Sirius sends Harry a Firebolt, the fastest racing broom ever made.

Cast

Daniel Radcliffe reprises the leading role of Harry Potter, a teenaged wizard who is entering his third year at Hogwarts. Harry is told that escaped prisoner Sirius Black is likely to try and kill him. To help understand what an "alienated teenage Harry" was going through, Radcliffe listened to music by the Sex Pistols, The Strokes, and The Dandy Warhols, and watched the movies The Bicycle Thief and The 400 Blows.
Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, one of Harry's best friends who accompanies him throughout the film.
Emma Watson (51 walls) as Hermione Granger, one of Harry's best friends who accompanies him throughout the film. She is given a Time-Turner to enable her to attend multiple lessons that are taught at the same time.
Michael Gambon assumes the role of Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Headmaster, after Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the previous two films, died on 25 Oct. 2002 (10 years ago). Despite his illness, Harris was determined to movie his part, telling a visiting David Heyman not to recast the role. Four months after Harris's death, Cuar�n chose Gambon as his replacement. Gambon was unconcerned with bettering or copying Harris, instead giving his own interpretation, putting on a slight Irish accent for the role, as well as completing his scenes in three weeks. Ian McKellen was offered the role, but he turned it down having played the similar character Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He also felt it would have been inappropriate to take Harris' role, as the late actor had called McKellen a "dreadful" actor. Harris's family had expressed an interest in seeing Harris's close friend Peter O'Toole being chosen as his replacement.
Gary Oldman plays Sirius Black, an escapee from the Wizarding prison Azkaban and Harry's godfather. Oldman accepted the part because he needed the money, as he had not taken on any major work in several years as he had decided to spend more time with his children. He drew inspiration from Cuar�n, who he described as having "such enthusiasm and a joy for life," and compared Sirius to John Lennon. He was "surprised by how difficult it was to pull off", comparing the role to Shakespearean dialogue. Oldman suggested Sirius's hairstyle, while Cuar�n designed his tattoos. He had read the first book, and his children were fans of the series. The part made Oldman a hero with his children and their schoolmates.
David Thewlis plays Remus Lupin, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, who is actually a werewolf. He was friends with Harry's parents when they were at school, and teaches Harry to conjure a Patronus Charm to fight the Dementors. Thewlis, who had previously auditioned for the role of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was Cuar�n's first choice for the role of Lupin. He accepted the role on advice from Ian Hart, the man who was cast as Quirrell, who told him that Lupin was "the best part in the book." Cuar�n told Thewlis that he thought Lupin was gay, pitching him as a "gay junkie", although his idea turned out to be incorrect. Thewlis had seen the first two movies and had only read part of the first book, although after taking the role he read the third. He was excited about the prospect of making a children's film, and thoroughly enjoyed filming.
Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew, the man who was supposedly killed by Sirius, only to be found alive and well, masquerading as Ron's rat Scabbers.
Emma Thompson as Sybill Trelawney, the inept Hogwarts Divination teacher, who unknowingly predicts the return of Lord Voldemort.

Production

Development

With Prisoner of Azkaban production of the Harry Potter movies switched to an 18-month cycle, which producer David Heyman explained was "to give each [film] the time it required." Chris Columbus, the director of the previous two films, decided not to return and helm the third installment as he "hadn't seen [his] own kids for supper in the week for about two and a half years." Even so, he remained on as a producer alongside Heyman. Guillermo del Toro was approached to direct, but considered the movie "so bright and happy and full of light, that [he] wasn't interested." Marc Forster turned down the movie because he had made Finding Neverland and did not want to direct child actors again. Warner Bros. then composed a three-name short list for Columbus's replacement, which comprised Callie Khouri, Kenneth Branagh (who played Gilderoy Lockhart in Chamber of Secrets) and eventual selection Alfonso Cuar�n. Cuar�n was initially nervous about accepting as he had not read any of the books, or seen the films. After reading the series, he changed his mind and signed on to direct, as he had immediately connected to the story. Cuar�n's appointment pleased J. K. Rowling who loved his movie Y tu mam� tambi�n and was impressed with his adaptation of A Little Princess. Heyman found that "tonally and stylistically, [Cuar�n] was the perfect fit."

Filming

Principal photography began on 24 Feb. 2003 (9 years ago), at Leavesden movie Studios, and concluded in Oct. 2003 (9 years ago).

Some sets for the movie were built in Glen Coe, Scotland, near the Clachaig Inn. The indoor sets, including ones built for the previous two films, are mainly in Leavesden movie Studios. The Hogwarts Lake was filmed from Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. Incidentally, the train bridge, which was also featured in the Chamber of Secrets movie, is opposite Loch Shiel and was used to movie the sequences when the Dementor boarded the train. A small section of the triple-decker bus scene, where it weaves in between traffic, was filmed in Palmers Green in North London. Some parts were also filmed in and around Borough Market and Lambeth Bridge in London.

The Honeydukes set in this movie is a redress of the set of Flourish and Blotts that was seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which, in turn, was a redress of the Ollivander's set from the first film.

Rowling allowed Cuar�n to make minor changes to the book, on the condition that he stuck to the book's spirit. She allowed him to place a sundial on the Hogwarts' grounds, but rejected a graveyard, as that would play an important part in the then unreleased sixth book. Rowling said she "got goosebumps" when she saw several moments in the film, as they inadvertently referred to events in the final two books, she stated "people are going to look back on the movie and think that those were put in deliberately as clues." When filming concluded, Cuar�n found that it had "been the two sweetest years of my life," and expressed his interest in directing one of the sequels.

Effects

Cuar�n originally wanted to move away from CGI toward puppetry. He hired master underwater puppeteer Basil Twist to help, using puppets to study the potential movement of the Dementors. Once it became apparent that puppetry would be too expensive and unable to portray the specific elements of the Dementors, Cuar�n turned to CGI; however, he and his team did use footage of Dementor puppets underwater as a basis for the flowing movements of the computer-generated Dementors.

The Knight Bus segment when Harry is being taken to The Leaky Cauldron uses the movie technique known as bullet time, popularised in The Matrix series of films. This segment takes humorous advantage of the magic quality of the Harry Potter world by having the Muggle world go into bullet time while inside the Knight Bus, Harry, Stan Shunpike and Ernie Prang (and the talking shrunken head) keep moving in real time.

Music

The Academy Award nominated score was composed and conducted by John Williams and released on CD on 25 May 2004 (8 years ago). In general, his music for this third movie is not as bright as that of the previous films, with distinct medieval influences in the instrumentation. One of the new themes, "Double Trouble," was written during production so that a children's choir could perform it in Hogwarts's Great Hall in one of the film's earlier scenes. There are brief quotes of themes from the earlier films, but the majority of the material in this score is new, including statements of "Double Trouble" and several other entirely new themes.

Brand X Music scored the trailers, using the tracks "Anticipation" and "Progeny".

Reception

Prisoner of Azkaban achieved highly positive reviews, garnering an 89% "Certified Fresh" approval rating with a 90% "Top Critics" ranking at Rotten Tomatoes, being the most critically acclaimed movie of the series. The movie also received a score of 81 out of 100 at Metacritic garnering "universal acclaim". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the movie three-and-a-half out of four stars: "Not only is this dazzler by far the best and most thrilling of the three Harry Potter movies to date, it's a movie that can stand on its own even if you never heard of author J.K. Rowling and her young wizard hero." The Hollywood Reporter called the movie "a deeper, darker, visually arresting and more emotionally satisfying adaptation of the J.K. Rowling literary phenomenon", especially compared to the first two installments. Roger Ebert gave the movie three-and-a-half out of four stars saying that the movie "is not quite as good as the first two", but still called it "a delightful, amusing and sophisticated installment". Claudia Puig from USA Today praised the movie as "a visual delight", while Richard Roeper called the movie "a creative triumph". Sean Smith from Newsweek said: "The Prisoner of Azkaban boasts a brand-new director and a bold new vision", he also called the movie "moving", praising the performances by Radcliffe and Watson, while Entertainment Weekly praised the movie for being more mature than its predecessors. Some of the negative criticism came from The Washington Post: "Put delicately, this is one long sit, made all the more so by a turgid story, a dour visual palette and uninspiring action". Rex Reed, of The New York Observer, also pointed out some over the top style changes, calling it "The silliest, as well as the most contrived -- and confusing -- of them all".

Soundtrack

"Lumos! (Hedwig's Theme)" - 1:35
"Aunt Marge's Waltz" - 2:13
"The Knight Bus" - 2:49
"Apparition on the Train" - 2:13
"Double Trouble" - 1:35
"Buckbeak's Flight" - 2:07
"A Window to the Past" - 3:53
"The Whomping Willow and the Snowball Fight" - 2:20
"Secrets of the Castle" - 2:32
"The Portrait Gallery" - 2:06
"Hagrid the Professor" - 1:58
"Monster Books and Boggarts!" - 2:19
"Quidditch, Third Year" - 3:44
"Lupin's Transformation and Chasing Scabbers" - 2:59
"The Patronus Light" - 1:10
"The Werewolf Scene" - 4:24
"Saving Buckbeak" - 6:37
"Forward to Time Past" - 2:31
"The Dementors Converge" - 3:10
"Finale" - 3:24
"Mischief Managed!" - 12:06

Awards and nominations

Academy Award for Original Music Score - John Williams (Lost to Finding Neverland by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek)
Academy Award for Visual Effects (Lost to Spider-Man 2)

Source: en.wikipedia.org

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