Since this thread would seem only of interest to those who have already read the books and seen the movies anyway, OPEN SPOILERS FOLLOW.
There would be no way to film every scene and sideplot from the Harry Potter books without a multibillion dollar 100 hour miniseries probably, but there are some things I was really surprised they left out of the movies or even changed slightly. (This is inspired by the current “who gave Dobby the sock?” thread in CS.)
One that I regretted wasn’t mentioned was in Order of the Phoenix. I was irked that they didn’t have more of McGonagall’s backbone towards Umbridge. (In the movie they show her being cowed, but in the book she was really the only one [other than Dumbledore of course] to “tell that bitch where to get off”, and her telling Peeves “it unscrews the other way” was one of the funniest moments in the series.) What I couldn’t believe they didn’t mention, though, was the revelation that Umbridge herself had dispatched the Dementors, which sent her character from a heartless bitch into the realm of Death Eater evil.
Speaking of Peeves, he’s the character I most wished they’d shown that was omitted. I’d like to see what he’d have looked like.
Speaking of ghosts, I remember in Chamber of Secrets being surprised at how much of Nearly Headless Nick’s scenes were omitted. He had a pretty important sideplot in that book.
What were you most disappointed or surprised to see deleted/minimized/changed?
In Order of the Phoenix, I absolutely hated that Harry almost gave Lucius the prophecy. I don’t remember the scene exactly, since I haven’t seen the movie since it was in theatres, but it bothered me a lot. It just seemed really really out of character and wrong.
As a much bigger fan of the earlier generation (Remus, Sirius, James, Peter, Snape, etc.) I was terribly disappointed that Prisoner of Azkaban omitted so much from the Shrieking Shack scene (particularly the explanation of the awful incident when James saved Snape from near-death at the claws/teeth of werewolfy Remus), and the truncation of the Snape’s Worst Memory bit/subsequent conversation between Harry and Sirius/Remus in Order of the Phoenix.
Pragmatically and intellectually I understand that not everything can be included, and besides, in light of the (IMO) crappy developments of DH, it turns out that the infamous Werewolf Prank wasn’t as important an event as Rowling had hinted at in interviews anyway. (I.e., it wasn’t really Snape’s life debt to James that made him protect Harry, it was his Twu Wuv for Lily.) But on a purely personal interest level, I could’ve gladly done without either PoA’s endless Monster Book of Monsters or the Knight’s Bus scenes to show a little more interplay amongst the three best actors in the cast (Rickman, Thewlis and Oldman).
And while I’m outing myself as an unabashed Remus fangirl, I also really wish theyd left what few Remus/Tonks hints existed in OotP. In the book, Remus understandably took the lead role in escorting Harry from the Dursleys’ – he was the only Order member Harry had ever met before (excluding Mad-Eye), and was most likely to have been trusted by the suspicious Harry. Would’ve been nice to at least include him in these scenes in the movie, and to allow the cute “Don’t call me Nymphadora!” interplay between him and Tonks. Just a nice nod to the future of the story.
But again, the movies are already very long, and they’re for kids, not adults, so I know these are just grace notes and I should be glad for what little Lupiny goodness I got. Sigh. My cultural/literary/TV-watching history is littered with the bones of doomed, marginalized favorite characters.
I was pretty pissed at the incomplete explanation of the backstory of the Marauder’s Map in the movie version of PoA. So much about that story makes so much more sense once you know who Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs actually were.
Oh hells yeah, I should’ve mentioned that in my post too. Definitely a shame, especially since it would’ve taken maybe fifteen extra seconds of screentime (and would’ve added to Harry’s knowledge of his dad as Prongs, and why we saw the stag Patronus, etc.).
Much of The Goblet of Fire but one specific one at the end. Dumbledore explaining the Priori Incantatem spell would have taken about 10 seconds. Instead they just have him say, “ahh, Priori Incantatem” and then move on to something else.
And of course they skipped the weighing of the wands earlier on, so we didn’t even have a reference for that sort of magic.
the major scene between AD and HP after Sirius’ death. I so looked forward to HP trashing AD’s office and it would have made a great scene (they both have good lines). Instead we get this tepid nonsense where the two don’t even make real eye contact. Meh.
Third the whole marauder’s map being left out. That served no purpose.
The inclusion of The Twit Colin–like there aren’t enough kids at Hogwarts, so the director had to invent one. :rolleyes:
That one of the Patil twins is from Ravenclaw. It would have taken about 5 seconds to do this and it would have kept Ravenclaw present (for the last film).
Scuttlebutt (I don’t know if it’s been officialized) is that Deathly Hallows is going to be broken into two movies. I’m not sure where the cut-off would be- breaking into Gringotts perhaps.
What irked me the most about that was that Harry “broke into” Snape’s mind in the movie. I know I sound like a Trekkie, but that would never have happened in the books; Harry’s nowhere near skilled enough to invade Snape’s memories, plus it takes out the pensieve that becomes extremely important in Deathly Hallows (unless they plan to just have him drop in unannounced again).
Also, I don’t think they showed Lily yelling at James in that scene, which she did in the book and which of course becomes extremely important later.
I’ll agree with the scenes already mentioned here, and add another: S.P.E.W.
In the long run, it wasn’t really all that important to the plot, so I can fully understand why it got cut, but I still feel it was important for Hermione’s character development. The movies portray her as a bitchy know-it-all, and really do cast her in a bad light. Her brains seem to be the only thig she’s got going for her. So the inclusion of S.P.E.W. would show that she really is a caring individual, trying to do whatever she can to eliminate predjudices in the wizarding world.
Speaking of SPEW, I was shocked that Winky was cut from the PoA movie. She was almost vital to the plot of the novel. For that matter they didn’t make any mention of Barty’s escape or his father’s madness and complicity. Goblet of Fire omitted Harry giving his winnings to Fred and George to start a novelty shop, which also would have only taken about 30 seconds, as well as the whole gambling sideplot. (I believe that’s also the one that omitted the Dursleys completely; Half Blood Prince lists Aunt Petunia but not Dudley and Uncle Vernon, which must be an oversight as I can’t imagine having just her.)
I agree re the Lily yelling at James scene. That added to HP’s confusion, but since they didn’t show him talking to Sirius about it either… Lilly is so crucial to the plot and so far she’s really not present.
Also, what of Neville’s parents? Voldy is turning into cardboard with every film. Filming St Mungo’s would do much to show his evil (and Bellatrix’s, of course).
And frankly, WHY include Grawp? Rowling does nothing important with him–he’s only a smash and crash addition to the final showdown in book 7. That whole subplot could have been cut out, leaving room for more of James et al or the house elves etc.
It was Cho’s friend (whose name I forget). At least the movie showed that Cho was forced into betraying the DA. Her in-the-book buddy did it entirely voluntarily.
Marietta is the name you are looking for. Seems like her last name is familiar for some reason–her aunt works for the Ministry of Magic or something, but I may have confused her with someone else.
Dobby was annoying, yes, but as the books go on his relationship with and his unwavering devotion to Harry are crucial to a major point in the 7th book. Dobby loves Harry because he is one of the only people to treat him with respect. Because of this Dobby saves the lives of 4 members of the DA as well as Olivander and sacrifices his own life in the process.
Nitpick: Harry actually does get directly into Snape’s head at one point in the books, during one of Snape’s ill-fated attempts to teach him Occlumency. It wasn’t the result of skill on Harry’s part–he just did something unexpected, by using a shield charm (which reflects spells) to block Snape’s attempt to read his mind.
