Harry Potter: 10 Things About Harry The Movies Deliberately Changed

The Harry Potter books are full of many details and moments, so the movies had to cut many things out or change them to make sense in a visual medium.

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When a book series gets made into movies, there are always going to be changes. Books and film are two very different mediums, so changes have to be made and things have to adapt to make sense. The Harry Potter books are full of many details and moments, so the movies had to cut many things out or change them to make more sense in a visual medium.

Some of these changes were to the plot while others were to the actual characters themselves. While it is important to give the directors credit, as the Harry Potter books are quite large and compressing those into relatively short films can be a rather imposing task, some changes were made that left fans rather disappointed. Hopefully, when they remake the films into a long form television series in 2030 (note: there are no plans of doing this, it just seems like something Hollywood would do knowing its love for remakes and the size of the wizarding fandom) they include Peeves, Harry’s quick wit, and Ron’s more sensitive moments.

Here are ten things about Harry that the movie series deliberately changed.

10 HARRY’S SARCASM WAS CUT

While there are some moments in the movies where Harry’s sense of humor and sarcasm comes through, it’s not nearly as often as in the books. Since the books are told from a third-person perspective which puts Harry Potter in the drivers seat, a lot of his snarky inner thoughts are made known to the reader.

While thoughts can’t be shown as easily on-screen, the movies don’t make much effort to show this side of him. This is likely because they spent so much energy making Ron the designated comic relief of the trio.

9 HOW INTENSELY MISTREATED HE WAS BY THE DURSLEYS

In the books, the way that Harry is treated by the Dursleys is given more attention and detail. Because the movies don’t have as much time to express everything, some moments had to be cut.

So, while they seem unpleasant in the movies, how bad they really were doesn’t come across. This means that Harry’s life with the Dursleys and what he had to go through doesn’t really come through on screen. Without this information, it’s hard to really understand just how rough of a life Harry had. One could even assume that they were just mildly strict and cold rather than being truly heinous and abusive monsters.

8 LEFT OUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH DOBBY

While Dobby is luckily included as a character in the movies, he doesn’t feature as often as he does in the books. This is probably because of the cost and effort it took to do the CGI. However, because of this, movie-only fans miss out on how important Dobby was to Harry. T

hey had a friendship of sorts that was there throughout the books with Doby helping Harry out many times and Harry giving Dobby gifts. This was a nice relationship that showed how awesome Dobby was and Harry’s kind heart. It is also important to note that the films cut out Hermione and Ron’s interactions with Dobby entirely- which makes the fact that they seem to know each other when they meet in the seventh film rather odd.

7 MADE HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HERMIONE SEEM MORE ROMANTIC

In the books, there never really seems to be any romantic feelings between Harry and Hermione. They saw each other as pseudo-siblings at most. However, in the movies, there does seem to be some romantic tension between them, especially in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

While this might be in line with things Rowling has said about her originally intending these two to end up together before realizing that Ron would be a much better romantic match for our favourite witch, it’s definitely a change from how these two were portrayed in the books.

6 HOW MUCH HE LOVED QUIDDITCH

While Harry’s Quidditch prowess is somewhat shown in the movies, his deep love of the sport isn’t really expressed in the movies.

This is likely because Quidditch isn’t as much of a big deal in the movies due to time constraints. But, this means that one of Harry’s biggest hobbies and one of the things that makes him happiest isn’t really understood by fans who are just watching the movies.

5 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FACT HE SAVED PETTIGREW

In the Harry Potter books, the fact that Harry spares Peter Pettigrew’s life when Sirius and Lupin are about to kill him is made out to be a big deal. The fact that he saved his life and created a debt that Pettigrew owed him is a major plot point later in the series that is never really explored in the films.

Though the film does explore the intense nature of the exposure of Pettigrew, the scene is truly condensed and one does not really understand the true weight of his betrayal without having the context provided in the books.

4 HOW ALONE HE WAS THE MOMENT BEFORE HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF

In the movie version of Deathly Hallows, Harry hugs Ron and Hermione goodbye before he goes to meet Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. However, in the books, this is a journey he takes along without telling anyone.

The internal monologue of Harry during this journey is extremely poignant, but it would be hard to get this across in the movies as a narration suddenly appearing when such things had not been established in the series would feel rather hokey and would take away from the intense nature of the scene.

3 HARRY BREAKING THE ELDER WAND

Of all the moments changed for the movies that made fans upset, this one is definitely up there along with the likes of angry Dumbledore. The Elder Wand is supposed to be one of the Deathly Hallows, and it’s an extremely powerful, magical item.

The idea that Harry could just break it doesn’t make a lot of sense at all as far as the plot is concerned. Also, it seems rather out of character for Harry. Though one could argue that Harry is the sort of boy that would want to get rid of something that could cause so much damage; so breaking it could make sense when considering the type of person he was even if it diverged from the book.

2 HOW MESSY HIS HAIR WAS

This is one aspect of Harry’s physical appearance that was changed for the movies. In the books, it’s mentioned often that Harry’s hair was extremely messy, pure black in colour, and disheveled just like his father’s. No matter what he did, it was nearly impossible to make his hair lay flat.

For some reason, the movies didn’t keep this detail in. Maybe it wouldn’t have looked as aesthetically pleasing for posters and such, but it seems like it wouldn’t be hard to just mess his hair up a little on-screen. Though many fans do remark that Harry’s hair was appropriately messy in the third film in the series.

1 HIS EYE COLOR

This is the most obvious and most talked about of all of the changes made to Harray from books to movies. As an aspect of his physical appearance, it’s easy to pick this change out and critique it.

While the books talk over and over about how Harry had green eyes that were just like his mother’s, in the films his eyes are blue. It is important to note that they attempted to alter Daniel’s appearance by equipping him with green contacts. Unfortunately, he was rather allergic to them and Rowling decided that his natural eyes would be just fine. Which would not have bothered fans had they not casted a girl with very dark eyes to play a young Lily in later films.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-adaptation-changed-movies-books/