03.31.06
Posted in Scoops at 4:47 pm by RavenclawWit
via HPANA
Just want to let everyone know that the secret door at J.K. Rowling’s official site is open. Periodically, Rowling opens the door and it usually contains small clues pertaining to the book she’s currently working on. The door usually remains open only for a limited period of time, so go check it out now. To get to the door, click on the eraser on her desk. From that point, you’re on your own!
UPDATE: The instructions on how to crack the door are now in the comments. Read at your own risk! 
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03.30.06
Posted in Humor at 12:39 am by Headmaster
50 Rules For Hogwarts [via MeFi]
My faves:
5. Putting up Doug Henning posters in Filch’s office is not appropriate. (Probably shows my age)
10. Polishing my wand in the common room is acceptable. “Polishing my wand” in the common room is not.
29. I do not weight the same as a duck. (Gotta love the Python reference)
35. Any resemblance between Dementors and Nazgul is coincidental. (It’s funny because it’s true)
50. I will not take out a life insurance policy on Harry Potter
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03.24.06
Posted in Meta at 5:22 pm by Headmaster
The “real” Draco Malfoy, actor Tom Felton, has a MySpace profile.
Turns out he’s bisexual, has a boyfriend and regularly writes in his blog.
[Via BWE]
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03.22.06
Posted in Reviews, Scoops at 4:58 pm by RavenclawWit
There’s a great post at Blogcritics.org by Adam Hoff about the similarities between 24’s main character Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) and the boy wizard, Harry Potter.
It’s quite a good article, and it does indeed point out some interesting parallels between the two characters. It seems that heroes are often the same, at least in fiction, whether tv fiction or book form.
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Posted in Scoops at 4:45 pm by RavenclawWit
via HPANA
Just wanted to let everyone know that it has been confirmed with Gary Oldman’s management that Oldman will in fact return for Order of the Phoenix as Sirius Black. This news comes after weeks of conflicting reports and more than a few publicity stunts by Oldman’s manager. It’s probably quite a relief to many fans. I myself am glad to see Oldman return, although the behavior of his manager in the matter has been less than pleasing.
Gary Oldman turned 48 yesterday.
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03.20.06
Posted in Humor at 2:53 pm by Headmaster
The Candy Addict blog has an hilarious “letter” written by a parody website, in the style of an 83-year old man. The letter was written in response to a piece of spam email in regards to the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.
A sample of the writing:
The second level on which this disturbs me is the waste of time and effort I’m sure you put into creating such an abomination of a product. If you’re going to have something taste like spinach, you might as emulate its nutritional and fibrous values as well! Of course I personally like the taste of spinach because it goes down east even without my dentures in, but I’m an ancient curmudgeon, and not your target market, although it would help kids stay “regular”.
Something I’ve always wondered as well. In the books, do Bertie Bott’s Beans have any nutritive value, or just flavor?
Enjoy!
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03.14.06
Posted in Wallpaper at 2:07 pm by RavenclawWit
Ok, I’ve made a few more wallpapers. The first is the trio. The second is Hermione. The last is Harry and Snape, and I call it “Unforgiven”.
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03.11.06
Posted in Reviews at 7:09 pm by RavenclawWit
Sorry I haven’t posted anything lately, been quite busy. I received the Goblet of Fire DVD yesterday, and wanted to let everyone know what I thought of it.
I won’t review the film itself. To see what I think of the film, see here. What I want to do is review the special features. So, if you don’t want to know what is on the Special Features disc, don’t read ahead because there will be spoilers. You’ve been warned.
First let me issue a warning to those planning to buy the DVD. If you want the special features, you must purchase the Two-Disc Special Edition of the movie. If you buy the single disc version, you don’t get any special features. This happened to someone I know, so be careful.
First the packaging. The packaging on this dvd is quite nice. The outer cardboard slipcover is done in a silver foil with the now famous poster picture of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the Triwizard champions. (See here for a picture). Very nice. The inner dvd case is basically the same. Inside, you’ll only find one booklet, the Noble Collection brochure which outlines some cool but pricey Harry Potter merchandise you can buy. Then you get the discs. Disc 1 is the movie and Disc 2 is the special features disc.
When you pop in the Special Features disc, after a couple of short previews for upcoming films and a menu asking whether you want to proceed in English or French, you’ll come to the main menu. It’s done nicely with a sort of 3D panoramic intro. Then you are pulled back over the scene and shown a menu consisting of four locations. The Dragon Arena, The Lake, The Maze, and Hogwarts Castle.
Clicking on Dragon Arena, you’ll find yourself in another menu. The first item is the Triwizard Tournament:Dragon Challenge, which is a game wherein you attempt to avoid the Hungarian Horntail and fetch its golden egg. I hate games, so I didn’t play it, and I don’t know what happens when you get the egg. On past Potter dvd’s you had to win certain games before gaining access to additional scenes or features, which I dislike. I hope that’s not the case on this DVD, but if anyone else plays the game, let me know. Also in the Dragon Arena menu there is Harry vs. The Horntail which is all about the first task. It contains interviews with various members of the crew and Daniel Radcliffe discussing the first task, the dragon, the visual effects used in the creation of the dragon. It goes into quite a bit of detail, but it’s interesting to watch and gives you a good idea of the work involved for this movie. The last item in the Dragon Arena is entitled Meet The Champions. It’s a really great feature that introduces us to the three young actors who played the Triwizard Champions, Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum), and Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour). It follows all three during a complete day of filming and is very entertaining. Robert Pattinson in particular is a very funny, albeit odd, young man.
Going back to the main features menu, you can visit The Lake. Here you will find another game, the Lake Challenge, and a feature on the second task called In Too Deep. Like the feature on the first task, it contains interviews and interesting clips on how the underwater world was created.
Also in the main features menu, you can visit The Maze. There are two games in this section, the Maze Challenge and the To The Graveyard And Back Challenge. There’s also a feature on the creation of the maze for the third task. The last feature in this section is called He Who Must Not Be Named. It has some interviews with Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) along with the director Mike Newell, Dan Radcliffe, and various other crew, all discussing the character of Lord Voldemort. It’s a really great feature, especially if like me, you thought Fiennes portrayal of the Dark Lord was absolutely brilliant. Just hearing him talk about his preparations for the role, you realize that the man is a genius and that he took this role very seriously. Really hope he returns for Order and movie 7.
The last stop on the main menu is Hogwarts Castle. There are a ton of features in this location. The first is the most exciting, Additional Scenes. There aren’t actually that many (about six or seven I think). For most of them it is apparent why they were cut. Either they just weren’t very good or they were too long without advancing the story. There was only one scene that I saw that I wish very much had been left in the film. It’s a scene where Harry ventures outside during the Yule Ball and witnesses a heated conversation between Snape and Karkaroff. It’s a good scene in my opinion, and it would have given the film a bit more Snape, which is always a good thing. The next feature in Hogwarts Castle is Preparing For The Yule Ball, about the design of the Yule Ball. It has interviews and clips of a lot of the kids. Conversations With The Cast is an in depth interview with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. It’s a nice feature with some interesting questions, and it’s fun to see how grown-up the stars of the movie have gotten. Reflections On The Fourth Film is another great feature with comments from the young cast (Dan, Rupert, Emma, and many others) about life on the set.
All in all, the special features on this dvd are great. Just the amount of clips and interviews is an improvement over the previous dvds, and the quality is wonderful. This dvd is truly worth purchasing the special edition.
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03.01.06
Posted in Scoops at 8:10 pm by RavenclawWit
Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron has released a widget for the desktop called The Harry Potter Quote Conjurer. The Widget is available for Mac as a Dashboard widget or for Windows/Mac as a Yahoo! Widget (formerly konfabulator). It displays random quotes from the books along with illustrations of the characters.
It’s quite a nice widget. Thanks to Leaky for making this available to Potter fans.
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