On Nov. 17, 2016, Warner Bros. released “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” to theaters. Directed by David Yates and written by J.K. Rowling, the story follows the adventure of wizard and scholar Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) in the wizarding world located in New York in 1926. He travels to New York as a brief stopover, after finishing his global excursion of finding and documenting information about a variety of magical creatures. He keeps his creatures in a magical case, which he misplaces after running into the No-Maj, or person with no magic, Jacob Kawolski (Dan Fogler). This causes some of the creatures to escape and risk the revelation of the wizarding world, along with other problems caused by dark times. Newt and Jacob, accompanied by Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and her sister Queenie (Fine Frenzy) begin their search to find these creatures, encountering the dark magic times in New York along the way.
The movie currently has grossed $607.5 million in the box office worldwide, and over $74 million on opening weekend as Harry Potter fans revisit the magical world they fell in love with in the beginning. It has a 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, 4/5 on Common Sense Media and 3/4 on Roger Ebert.
J.K. Rowling yet again succeeds fans’ and critics’ expectations by receiving positive reviews on her story. She also revealed the movie is going to be apart of a series that will include a total of five movies.
The movie does an amazing job at combining the features of the magical world fans are familiar with, with the new aspects brought by a new setting and different time period. The movie mentions characters and names that are famous in the Harry Potter series like Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. This makes watching it even more enjoyable because it gives fans of Harry Potter the nostalgia from Harry Potter. A person who is not as familiar with the Harry Potter series can still watch and enjoy FBWFT, but it helps others to understand some aspects of the movie more clearly if they were familiar with it.
The actors were perfect fits for the parts they played because each character was given their unique qualities from the actors that portrayed them. Eddie Redmayne was the most qualified to play Newt Scamander. He showed his whimsical and brilliant attitude through appearance and expression, giving the impression of how much he was focused on his character.
When they would get to the more complex parts of the movie and explain backstories or magical knowledge, you would have to pay closer attention to understand something that would happen later on. Viewers that weren’t familiar with the Harry Potter series, would not get as strong of a reaction or get easily confused. Likely, J.K. Rowling’s targeted audience was her original fans.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” brings a unique view to the wizarding world fans know and love. It’s easy to get attached to the characters and magical creatures. It gives fans a feeling of nostalgia and causes new fans to be curious and impressed.
