I was a Harry Potter fan. I started to read the first book of the series in primary four, about 3 years after I watched the movie on the big screen. I must admit I was very much attracted to the story plot, and the books were probably the only English novels I touched during that time. I guessed I have read the first and second books twice. The entire Harry Potter fever peaked at the last book, and slowly faded until part two of the last movie. I would say I grow out of it. Until the emergence of this new franchise.
Many details of the entire story I do not remember, including Newt Scamander as the author of the textbook "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". Though I remember vaguely there is such a textbook which Harry studied. I do not remember he appears in the Chocolate Frog Cards as well. But that's the surprise, doesn't it? That many of the small tiny details are actually hidden somewhere throughout the series.
I would say it is a nice movie, at least to me. In a way it satisfies my curiosity of the wizarding world which Rowling created. It fills the knowledge gap as what happened before the age of Voldemort and Harry Potter. And the setting of 1920s adds another sense of mystery to me as the world back then was absolutely different from the world I live in now.
I guess it's every primary school kid's dream to receive an enrolment letter from Hogwarts. But as a kid I used to gauge how big is Hogwarts. My primary school had a total of 2000 students from primary one to six. It seems like there is just a handful of students in Hogwarts, far less than the crowd depicted on the stadium during a Quidditch match. It is also the only school in Britain. The population of the wizards and witches was quite a problem to me at that age as it didn't seem to make sense in my wild imagination. In the series we know there are other schools across the globe, it made me wondered was there a Chinese school in China and how about South East Asia. In this movie we finally have a glimpse of the wizarding community in America. They refer muggles as non-mag. And perhaps you might not need a passport but you need to apply for permit of a wand. Besides, there are others magical creatures apart from the ones introduced in the series.
Next, I am particularly fond of Eddie Redmayne in this movie as Newt Scamander. He gives that innocent looking face and the care-free spirit of a young adult pursuing his passion. I notice that he always bends his neck at an angle, is this the side effect from portraying Stephen Hawking? In the movie, Newt is very passionate about all the magical creatures, he will be a great vet in our world. That motivates me to be passionate about what I am doing now. Or perhaps the courage to pursue what I really wanted to do.
As I am reminded of the characters in the book series, there are indeed a lot of possibilities where each character's story can be expanded. There are many notable ones and also many less known ones such as Newt Scamander. Really looking forward to more stories even though there are some in Pottermore already. There will be another 4 more movies in this franchise, can't wait to see how the story unfolds!
