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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Released on June 4, 2004
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

The third movie in the Harry Potter series features lots of action and great special effects. There are drastic changes in tone as the film shifts from humor to danger, and both the fun and the action go a bit over the top at times. Still, the movie is highly entertaining, and I like the way they pulled off the time-travel aspect of it. I'd say it's the best Harry Potter film so far, but I may be biased - the third book has always been my favorite.

The movie is reasonably faithful to the book, although of course they had to change some of the details and leave some things out. One of the things that got left out was Professor Flitwick - he was mentioned in the book several times, but he's not in the movie AT ALL. But even though Flitwick is gone, Warwick is still there, playing an unnamed Hogwarts teacher called Wizard in the credits. Why was his character changed? I don't know. On the DVD director Cuarón says he would have liked to have little men playing an organ during the welcoming banquet but Jo Rowling wouldn't allow it. That explains why Warwick got the choirmaster job, but it doesn't explain why they used a different character - Flitwick could have done this job.

Warwick does get a fraction more screen time in this movie than he did in the last one. We first see Wizard as he conducts the choir at the opening night feast. A few minutes later we see him seated next to Hagrid at the teacher's table, more or less in Flitwick's usual spot, with a brief moment of fun as Hagrid gives the table a hard bump.

We see him once again later. He's one of several teachers looking after the students who have been forced to sleep in the Great Hall because Sirius Black is in the school. Wizard has a line of dialogue in this scene. Alas, that's the last we see of him. It's possible that he might also be visible at the Quidditch match, but the shot of the teacher's box in the stands is so brief that I won't know for sure until the DVD comes out and I can freeze the action.

Wizard is a much lighter makeup job than Flitwick, and the character is a lot more recognizable as being Warwick. The look is still a bit on the eccentric side and his hair looks pretty bad in the back; we never get a very good look at him on screen, but still pictures reveal a rather interesting-looking character.

The special features on the DVD include a 'choir practice' singalong with an extended version of the song. But this doesn't mean that we get an extended view of the choir and its conductor. Instead they fill in most of the additional time with scenes from other parts of the movie.

The Articles section includes a number of Harry Potter-related articles.

The Pictures section includes Harry Potter photo galleries.

Here are some good places to find general Harry Potter information: