Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts
“Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts” manages to be heartwarming and sentimental even with recent controversies.
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, along with a ton of the cast and crew of the Harry Potter films, get together and reminisce about the films they made together. They talk about the filmmaking process, what it was like, and the impact the series had as a whole. There are a ton of never-before-told secrets revealed along with touching tributes to those who have passed on.
I’ve only recently become a Harry Potter fan and this documentary made me feel like I’ve been on the adventure with the cast and crew this whole time. It truly gets the feel of coming back to Hogwarts right. It’s touching to see people reunite with their costars and directors. I love that this film got all the directors back to have dedicated segments about their movies. I also love the small stories the cast share because it truly strengthens the idea that they’re going to be friends forever. I also appreciate the behind-the-scenes look into certain scenes because it makes me appreciate the craft of filmmaking as a whole. Some of the stories had me laughing out loud and some of the stories had me grieving with the cast. It’s incredible to see how well these child stars turned out to be. It’s great to see that they’ve stayed humble and are able to meaningfully reflect on how this amazing opportunity has shaped their futures. This film also does a great job at tastefully respecting the cast members that couldn't be with them today. The whole thing is only soured by recent events with JK Rowling’s Twitter. It sucks to see that she couldn’t be a real part of this since she’s the creator of this fantastical world. I understand the decision to leave her out, but it’s jarring to see her segments only be from an interview from a few years back. I think the smarter route would’ve been to just get rid of all the unrelated video interviews with her and just mention her by name. She’s a big part of creating the world and writing the books, but there are so many other people that worked tirelessly to make the movies happen. They’re their own entity and there were a lot of people that they could’ve focused on instead of awkwardly incorporating clips of a separate interview.
Watched on April 18th, 2022
