Harry Potter and the Wizarding World

[Jeroen]

YES!!! John Williams will be back for the final Movie!!

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.ph ... 0&id=43552

[Ben]

That's some good news...I hope he's still around in three/four years!

I actually thought Patrick Doyle did an EXCELLENT job filling in on Goblet Of Fire and worked in the usual themes with a VERY Williamsesque tone, even bettering the "dark" minor key version of the theme in the main title more that Williams himself did on Prisoner Of Azkaban.

Nicholas Hooper totally dropped the ball on the last one, Order Of The Pheonix, neither using Williams' themes imaginatively or adding any memorable or unique score of his own. It did what it needed to well enough, but nowhere near being a classic score or approcahing what Doyle did, which was an almost transparent switch over.

The question is who will score the next film, Half Blood Prince? With David Yates again directing as far as I am aware, it'll probably be Hooper again, though the word is Chris Columbus may well step back in to finish the series off, and so Williams would be attached to that, which would be cool if Columbus can "go dark" and not make it so homogenised as he did with the first two.

[Jeroen]

To be honest, I think some executives will kindly point Columbus to the nearest exit.

I have nothing against the man and think he has made some great movies in the past
but he's one director I don't want involved with the final (and probably darkest) Potter flick.

...I hope he's still around in three/four years!

I thought about that a lot recently, ever since I heard the first news of Indy 4.
it's gonna be one heck of a sad day for movie & musicfans everywhere when the world loses John Williams.

[Ben]

Man, that would be the darkest day. Williams is arguably the last connection between the greats and the new.

[bawpcwpn]

It amazes me how he can still score a movie at 75. Got to love John Williams. John has really created some of the most memorable movie themes ever such as Hedwig's Theme, Star Wars Theme, Indy Jones, Jaws - the list kind of goes on. He will be sadly missed the day he goes.

[Dacey]

Apparently, one of the most beloved characters in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series has a secret that's not revealed in the books:

Who is it?

[eddievalient]

Personally, I think that's awesome. We need more strong, positive gay characters in mainstream fiction and it's great that J.K. Rowling has gone that route. If nothing else, I'll be looking at Dumbledore more closely next time I read the series. For all we know, there may have been subtle hints that we never really picked up on before. Something I've thought for awhile now is that Rowling should write a biography of Dumbledore (perhaps for charity like the two Hogwarts textbooks) and now if she ever did, I bet it would be a whole lot more interesting.

[EricJ]

Personally, I think that's awesome. We need more strong, positive gay characters in mainstream fiction and it's great that J.K. Rowling has gone that route. If nothing else, I'll be looking at Dumbledore more closely next time I read the series. For all we know, there may have been subtle hints that we never really picked up on before. Something I've thought for awhile now is that Rowling should write a biography of Dumbledore (perhaps for charity like the two Hogwarts textbooks) and now if she ever did, I bet it would be a whole lot more interesting.

She's announced one more Hogwarts textbook for charity, before "moving on to that crime novel".

The general consensus on the book/fan groups is that
A) JK was digging deeper to keep interview-controversy "fresh", and/or
B) she thought she was Taking a Socially Progressive Stand for her own activism/agenda, after all the guff her books get from the Right.

...Neither sentiment of which appears to have any bearing on the books or characters themselves.
We seem to able to distinguish The Story from She Who Tells It.

[Meg]

...Thus making his relationship with Harry all the more hilarious!

Seriously though, is this for real? It's pretty unexpected.

[Randall]

Really not a big deal. His sexuality plays no role in the story, and if there were any clues in the books then they were too subtle for anyone to pick up on before. The stories aren't about sexuality, after all, they're about good and evil, and growing up.

But, if this makes gay people happy, that's fine too.

[GeorgeC]

Personally, I think that's awesome. We need more strong, positive gay characters in mainstream fiction and it's great that J.K. Rowling has gone that route. If nothing else, I'll be looking at Dumbledore more closely next time I read the series. For all we know, there may have been subtle hints that we never really picked up on before. Something I've thought for awhile now is that Rowling should write a biography of Dumbledore (perhaps for charity like the two Hogwarts textbooks) and now if she ever did, I bet it would be a whole lot more interesting.

You obviously don't have kids, do you?

The last thing parents want their kids to be reminded more of WHILE THOSE KIDS ARE GROWING UP IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is the question of sexuality.

There's plenty of time for that LATER IN LIFE when young people have to start being responsible and start demonstrating it. In the meantime, let kids be kids and have fun while they're at it.

Remember that in spite of the fact that Harry Potter has a large over-12 audience that most of the readers of these books are still 10-and-under. Same goes for the movies.

Granted, if Ms. Rowling feels the need to instruct her UNDER-AGE kids in all the facts of life RIGHT NOW, that's her perogative as long as they don't get physically hurt or maimed in ways that the general public is not going to take kindly to.

I don't like gay-bashing, personally, but I also hate it when somebody shoves their sex life (gay OR straight) in my face and yells at a room full of people at the top of their lungs to "accept it!" It's very uncomfortable to most people, and very annoying. cloying, and childish on top of that, too.

Ms. Rowling chose a bad forum to air more of her personal politics in. This is not something most parents want their underage kids to hear at a PUBLIC children's book-reading anymore than they want to hear the same political claptrap (that they can hear on the news for free) at a concert.

You would think after the uproar at Daniel Radcliffe's "pub(l)ic unveiling" that she would have chosen her words more carefully. As Captain Hook would say, "Bad form, Ms. Rowling. Bad form."

Of course, it could also be cynically said that Ms. Rowling is trying to extend her fifteen minutes of fame another two minutes and educate the rest of us low-lifes that bought her books because her billions net worth "entitles" her to do so.

[James]

From an anonymous email:

Not a news submission, but a complaint regarding a comment I just saw on your boards:

I just heard from a website about a character being gay in Harry Potter, so I just checked your forum to see what the general feeling was towards this. Well its nice some people just think its ok, but I'm so offended by the poster 'GeorgeC' wrote. A person with that kind of a attitude doesn't belong to animated forum specially one as great as Animated News. Ditto being rude to 'eddievaliant'.

Last note - his inside joke of "pubic" was just distastful. I've seen he has been warned before but its about time he gets banned.

I have been wanting to join this nice forum, but with a person like George around (trolling) I just can't do it.

This person obviously hasn't been on the internet much as George's response was one of the most tame and un-threatinging ones I've seen on this topic!

I personally think it was a cowardly and unfair announcement on Rowling's part.

Cowardly: if she really wanted to send some kind of message or create a strong, positive gay character she should have actually put it in the book and let her income rise or fall on it. Very cowardly to not risk her story with the information but want the credit afterwards for creating the "gay" character.

Unfair: It should be up to individual parents to decide when and how to introduce their children to sexual concepts such as these. But now she has forced the issue on parents who have kids that are already into the stories. Kids into HP will hear this news and some will not understand it. If she had been upfront with this information parents could have made the decision themselves on whether their kids were ready for it or not.

[James]

BTW - remember to keep politics and religion out of the discussions here, especially with this topic! Let's discuss the issue as it relates to the books but not the political or moral aspects of the issue itself!

[Daniel]

Good to see you post again, James, I was starting to get worried!

Since I have no clue who this character is, I can't really comment...

On the anonymous email, hmm... that's kind of odd. I don't why he/she is was so offended, but I kinda agree about the "p" word.

[Randall]

As I said, the issue isn't actually in the books, so I don't see why this is a big deal. She wasn't tying to shove any views at kids. And does this really have anything to do with politics? I know some would argue this point, but after all... gay people exist in the world, regardless of how people feel about it. If she thinks of her character as gay, who are we to say he shouldn't be? She kept the issue out of the books, so... where's the problem? I don't think she's trying to "send a message"; if she were, it would have been more blatant in the books. I don't think she should be banned from discussing her concepts for her own books. Maybe while we're at it, we should prevent public figures from coming out of the closet too?

Sorry, I've just never understood why people are so threatened by this topic. And for the record, I have two young kids.