Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Potter fans will remember that one of the first textbooks that Hogwarts pupils are asked to buy is called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by the fabulously named, Newt Scamander. Rowling wrote the textbook under the name Newt Scamander and it featured margin notes from Harry, Ron and Hermione. It was published in 2001 and the majority of the proceeds went to Comic Relief (between this and Quidditch Through The Ages over £17 million was raised by 2011). I’ve not read either of them but that really doesn’t matter for this story because it’s not based on the textbook itself.

The film FBAWTFT is an entirely original screenplay based on the adventures of Newt Scamander. It’s the first screenplay from J.K. Rowling  and not only is the sequel already written but Rowling has confirmed there’ll be five films in total. We’ve also been told that David Yates will direct them all. That’s great news because, a) Rowling creates excellent stories that work on several levels and b) Yates directed the last 4 Potter films so he’s got plenty of experience. If you’re interested in getting the film tie-in book, please take note that it’s not a novelisation, it’s a screenplay book.

Incredible Cast

As you would expect from a Potterverse film, the cast is a who’s who of great talent. The original films used up so much of the available talent that they’ve got somewhat restricted options now. I for one am hoping that future films will be set in the UK so we can see some Potter, Granger or Weasley ancestors in evidence. I’ve picked out a selection of the characters below so you can get an idea and bear in mind, this is not the entire named cast.

• Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander
• Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone
• Ron Perlman as Gnarlack
• Colin Farrell as Percival Graves
• Samantha Morton as Mary Lou Barebone
• Jon Voight as Henry Shaw

Rest assured the cast does include a lot more women than that, though I’m afraid it didn’t pass the Bechdel-Wallace test I’ve just no idea who they are with the exception of Samantha Morton whose been in the game much longer. It would definitely be nice to see some of the later films pass the aforementioned test but we’ll have to see if they’ll be following the ongoing career of Newt or not. I certainly hope so as the Redmayne did a fabulous job portraying him. Likewise his hapless Muggle sidekick, Kowalski (a war veteran and confectionery baker) and the two female wizarding leads who help him in his quest to be reunited with his charges in order to protect them from that most dangerous of animals, mankind.

Plot Summary

Newt Scamander has gone to New York with a suitcase that contains a menagerie of magical creatures because, like almost every wizard in the Potterverse, he’s a complete idiot. Honestly, the drama in these stories is entirely the result of the fact that wizards are even less intelligent than Muggles. Fortunately for the reader or viewer, the witches and wizards of the Potterverse are terribly bad at planning for the sorts of things that will obviously be going wrong.

Shortly after arriving in New York, Scamander encounters the Second Salemers, a prohibition style group trying to expose witches. They’re gloriously creepy and clearly villainous with Ezra Miller playing a thoroughly obnoxious emo man-child that you have to hope will be the direct opposite of his performance as Flash in Justice League. Their casual malevolence is strongly reminiscent of Dolores Umbridge, possibly the only character in the original septet whose more widely loathed than Voldemort.

Also observing the Salemers is an ex-auror, a witch called  Porpentina Goldstein (Rowling’s naming is, as ever, masterful) who see one of Scamander’s creatures escape from his suitcase and run into a bank. He pursues the miscreant into the bank and there meets his sidekick for the rest of the film, Kowalski, a baker attempting to get a small business loan. Ultimately Goldstein arrests Scamander for failing to obliviate Kowalski after exposing the magical world to this ‘no-maj’ as she insists on referring to Muggles (honestly, it grates on the nerves and I think Rowling did that entirely deliberately).

At the same time Mr Graves, the American equivalent of an auror, is looking into a series of unfortunate events involving an invisible entity which is roaming New York City causing quite a lot of property damage. The local magical government, MACUSA (The Magical Congress of the USA) is more than a tad upset by this as they risk being the country that brings wizards and witches to the attention of Muggles (or No-Maj for no magics as they call them in cringe-inducing local slang). Of course, the fact that Scamander has arrived with his bag of (illegal) magical creatures at the same time that this is going on causes a certain amount of stress to the locals.

Naturally, if you collect dangerous animals in a suitcase (albeit a magical Suitcase of Holding which made me wonder if Rowling has ever done any roleplaying) they’re bound to escape. Even before going to see the film I was betting that there’s a lot of Scamander trying to convince people that these animals should not be treated like Harambe by the Muggles or the no-doubt spell-happy American wizards. I was hoping they’d work in some themes about trigger happy law enforcement, oppression and prejudice and to their credit they did hit a few of those notes just not so hard that they rammed it down your throat.

MACUSA  forbids their citizens from marrying Muggles which Scamander clearly believes is a touch Draconian (no pun intended). They’re definitely rather more violent than you’d expect if they were all that civilised but their leader is a black woman which, given the 1926 setting, demonstrates that in some areas, their culture is a lot more advanced than their Muggle counterparts. I for one wouldn’t want to be subjected to their interpretation of a justice system, though, it’s a little wand first, no opportunity to ask questions later.

Overall the plot has enough complexity to satisfy the adult audience, you’re not just reduced to following Scamander chasing a variety of exotic magical creatures around New York trying to get them back into his suitcase. Thankfully that’s kept to a sensible amount and provides a great deal of amusement, particularly the first escapee, a platypus-like creature that’s completely fixated on collecting shiny valuables from jewellery shops and banks.

The Marketing Department

This film is great for marketing purposes. They get to use the Fantastic Beasts and Newt Scamander names, both of which have name recognition and appeal to existing Potter fans. They open up another time period when Voldemorts predecessor in Dark Wizardry, Gellert Grindlewald, is making a worldwide nuisance of himself, risking exposure of the wizarding community to Muggles. They have a perfect reason to throw in some of the rarest and most enjoyable creatures that Rowling has created and thus create some great action set pieces. Because of the US setting, you start to find out a bit more about the wizarding world outside the confines of the UK so now US fans can finally find out what their house they’d belong to if they went to the American version of Hogwarts. That might not sound like much if you’re not a Potter fan but trust me when I say it’s exciting to the fans (young or middle age). This might not seem relevant to the quality of the film but its commercial viability is extremely important. It means they can get the budget they need to support Rowling’s vision (which they ably do) and the cast to bring the characters to life.

What’s this like for adults to watch?

It’s great for adults to take kids to the cinema and develop their love of the medium but you want to know that you’re getting a film that you’re going to enjoy as not just having to sit through it purely for their benefit. Fortunately, none of the Potter films have ended up in this category. They’ve always got plenty of plot, nasty things going on, great humour, enjoyable set pieces and this film continues that trend. I saw this with my two most frequent cinema accomplices and despite the fact it was just after midnight we all had a great time. None of us are the type of people to under-criticise a film if we didn’t get on with it. In fact, the entire audience was extremely tolerant and good-humoured when the 4DX showing had a false start several times in a row. I quite enjoy 4DX (this is the third film I’ve seen in the format) but the first time we got a big Marvel Studios intro and then it turned out they didn’t make this film, we were just about to watch Dr Strange. I would have been fine with that to be honest because it’s an awesome film. They apologised but it was still a couple more times before they got the right film to start and the effects to synchronise with the on-screen action properly. It was like a little cabaret before the film started and I’m not sure it didn’t actually help the mood of the audience and wake us up a bit.

If the film had not been good the atmosphere would be have been pretty awful by the end of the film, no-one wants to be up an extra half hour at that time in the morning. I’m pretty interested in the reaction of the audience around me, if a film is funny, thrilling, scary, exciting, romantic or highly emotional you can feel that in the buzz around you. Or at least I can but then I’m a Legilimens, he says, desperately making a Potter joke. Neither kids nor adults are going to have a problem with watching this film or feel short changed.

Cinematography and Effects

I saw the film in 3D and 4DX and I have to say it was a gorgeous spectacle. We got out of the cinema around 3am and if I hadn’t fallen flat on myself in the rain after leaving the gym earlier in the day I’d probably have managed to get my review out shortly afterwards. I was bushed though and had to flake out. Once they were working properly the 4DX effects were quite a lot of fun and it’s the first of those films where I got a nice big spray of water right in the face. Actually quite nice at that time in the morning, bracing you might say. Yes, it’s a bit gimmicky but with a light-hearted film like this or Dr Strange I think it adds a level of engagement with the film. The 3D was fine but it’s hard to concentrate on how well it’s done on top of the 4DX effects. Still, I might amend my review a bit if I go and see it again in plain 3D, which I’m entirely happy to do.

How good are the jokes?

The books have a strong streak of British humour and I was expecting some of that to make it into this film, fortunately, I was not disappointed. The creatures themselves are a great opportunity for humour and one, in particular, delighted the audience with it’s kleptomaniac activities. The humans get plenty of chances to be funny as well and Kowalski provides a lot of the fun with his outsider’s perspective on the magical events he’s swept up. He also gets a love interest of his own, the second Goldstein sister who is utterly charming lends humour and a touch of warmth to a film that might otherwise become a little too dark. The cow-eyed and immediate infatuation of Kowalski and Goldstein is a forbidden romance as Scamander has already expressed amazements that in the US it’s illegal for a wizard or witch to marry a Muggle. This allows Rowling to parallel interracial marriage which was illegal at the time in the US and that kind of real-world commentary is found throughout her work.

The All Important Villain

It’s no secret that Grindelwald is in the background of this story but he’s not the real villain. In fact, it’s a bit hard to work out who the real threat to Scamander is. The Salemers are anti-witch rabble rousers, with a fanatical leader whose trying to convince the local Muggle politicians and public that witches are real and a threat. The aurors of MACUSA are clearly not going to be happy once they find out that Scamander has a suitcase full of illegal magical creatures. Mr Graves seems quite suspicious the first moment you meet him, you have to be cautious about a man who has a pin through the knot of his tie because that’s just weird.

I felt like the real villain though was the paranoia of the US-based witches and wizards. Their culture is very different to that presented in the later Potter films, it’s from an earlier time, they’re terrified of being discovered by Muggles and there’s an overtone of lynch mob justice to their attitude.