Comparison and Contrast Essay: Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone Book Versus Movie

Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by the famous author JK Rowling. The book was first published on 26th of June 1997 and was later turned into a film of the same name in 2001 by Warner Bros. The story follows a 10-year old orphan named Harry Potter in his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he discovers that he is a famous wizard and begins his education.

Harry potter and the Philosopher’s stone book is the closest book-to-film translation among all the 8 movies but like any film adaptation, it had its share of praises and criticism. Some say that the film is being loyal to the book but like any other book-to-movie translation there will always be some alterations to the story.

The book and movie follow the same timeline, same initial story, and the scenes are in order with the chapters. However, they do differ in the number of characters, the scenes, history, and background.

To begin with, due to the length of the book, it had many more characters than the movie, in the sorting hat ceremony the students were called in alphabetical order, so we read names like Hannah Abbott, Susan Longbottom, Mandy Brocklehurst, Lavender Brown and Millicent Bulstrode that gave the reader a sense of presence. Peeves, a poltergeist, is a character never mentioned in the movie although he had a very important role of being a nuisance to students and teachers by throwing water balloons at students and by making rude comments that makes them uncomfortable. Although, no new characters were introduced in the movie, the writers went with the book but omitted many of the supporting characters and their scenes due to the time limit. Furthermore, Harry’s personality was expressed differently, in the book Harry was an impatient child who then matures over the subsequent books but in the movie the sassy’s side of Harry’s personality was not shown; instead he was portrayed from the beginning as the calm know-it-all child.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone had 17 chapters from “The boy who lived” to “The man with two faces” with an estimate of 20 pages in each, keeping that in mind it was certain the movie will have less supporting scenes and favor the major plots instead. SPEW (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare), founded by Hermione Granger (Harry Potter’s Best friend) was only introduced in the book and never mentioned in the movie is a society at Hogwarts that promote liberation and rights for House Elves, an enslaved caste who are basically happy as they are. That chapter gave Hermione a sense of purpose which was missing in the movie that reasoned with why Hermione’s personality was hard to understand. Warner Bros did put their touch on some scenes, like when the Dursley’s (Harry Potter’s Family) were visiting the zoo, the glass holding the snake vanishes and Dudley the bullying cousin falls in, the glass then reappears locking Dudley inside. This scene was not in the book yet gave the audience a good feeling of victory after the way Dudley treated Harry.

The producers of the movie need more credit, in the movie Potter drew himself a birthday cake on the sand to celebrate his birthday, but in the book he counted down on Dudley’s watch wondering if the Dursleys would remember his birthday or if they would care at all. Sadly, the answer was no, yet their ignorance was expressed in the movie more effectively than in the book. Also, during their first flying lesson, Ron Weasley (Harry’s other best friend) gets smacked by his broom stick in the face while commanding it to stand up which never happened in the book but was very funny since physical comedy is always necessary especially with someone as clumsy as Ron. Another one of their beautiful adjustments, at the end of the movie when Hermione says it’s sad that they’re going home, Harry implies Hogwarts is his true home which made the viewers go WOW! He finally found a place he could call home. In the book, that never happens instead there was a cheeky exchange between her and Potter on how he’ll terrorize Dudley with the threat of doing magic all summer.

Nevertheless, we can not ignore that in the movie Hermione shows Harry a plaque saying his dad was a Gryffindor seeker. In the book, McGonagall said James Potter played Quidditch but did not mention what position; later J.K. Rowling confirmed he was a chaser and not a seeker. Unfortunately, that left many fans confused and disappointed.

Moreover, in the books we get to know more about the wizardry life before Voldemort and more about Harry’s parents, their friends and their life at Hogwarts that are not mentioned in the movies even though their stories do make you understand the plot more. You also get the chance to bond with Harry’s parents and get to know how they relate to other main characters that were portraited briefly in the movies. Similarly, The Map of Marauders is explained with depth in the books, as a magical map that reveals all of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry and was created by Harry’s father (James Potter) and his friends, its function is to show the location of every wizard/witch at the school which helped his father sneak in and out back in his rebellious days. In the movie the map is gifted to Harry by the mischievous twins, but it was not mentioned that it belonged to his dad. Even though Voldemort’s background was also missing in the movie, the way he was characterized was ideal, his story was clear, and his motive was shown through the scenes.

The major difference between the book and the movie is the amount of time each has to tell their story, due to that the storyline is altered and the producers have the rights to choose what to keep and what to remove. Of course, producing a book is cheaper than producing a movie, Rowling when writing has freedom in the length of her book unlike the producers of the film, who have to express a 200 pages book in a 3 hour movie and make perfect sense with an interesting series of events that keeps the viewer hooked until the end. In the book the author shapes her characters, their physical appearances is all her choice and is not charged anything for her imagination no matter how unrealistic her characters are (elves, hippogriffs, ghosts, and all) , but when the producers decide their actors, they search for stars similar to the descriptions in script to hook the viewer in. Because of the high costs of production not only the number of Harry Potter movies are limited but also the acts with supernatural creatures are minimized like the scenes with the dragons that results in small plots missing.

The book and movie do have their similarities but also their differences which makes each unique in their own way. Both J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros have put effort in their work to create an unforgettable experience in the memories of their readers/viewers and the end results were legendary.