Warner Bros. Home Video // Released October 19, 2010 // Rated PG
The Pitch
Welcome to the Third Harry Potter Ultimate Edition!
Immersive 3-Disc Set Includes: CREATING THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER, PART 3: CREATURES … the Next Chapter in the Spellbinding 8-Part Series. Never-before-seen footage of the Creature Shop. Explore never revealed concept drawings, interviews with creators who describe the quest to create real creatures with emotional power to move the adventure forward. Go behind the scenes with Daniel, Rupert and Emma interacting with a marvelous menagerie from magnificent Buckbeak to malevolent Dementors. Watch creatures develop from page to sketch to model to screen. Discover how actors are transformed from humans to rats and werewolves. Witness Voldemort’s evolution from grotesque, infant-like creature to the Darkest Force of all.
The Review
Director Alfonso Cuarón’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite film of the series. Taking over after Chris Columbus’ initial two installments, Cuarón subtly reimagined the series. Not only was the world darker and far more interesting, but the characters suddenly lived in our world; Hogwarts robes were kept for formal scenes and the characters wore jeans and sweatshirts, the students were shown genuinely laughing in their dorm rooms, and for the first time in the series Harry’s life feels like it is in genuine danger. The ensemble cast shines, and the addition of David Thewlis, Gary Oldman and Michael Gambon’s debut as Dumbledore (replacing the beloved, deceased Richard Harris) makes this the first of the Potter films to feel like a real movie, rather than an adaptation of a young adult novel.
The Ultimate Edition earns it’s title with a comprehensive number of features.
DISC 1: MOVIE
DISC 2: CREATURES • Creating the World of Harry Potter Part 3: Magical Creatures • Tour Nick Dudman’s Creature Shop • An Interview in Spanish with Alfonso Cuarón • 3 Vintage TV Specials: The Magic Touch of Harry Potter; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Something Wicked This Way Comes; The Making of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
DISC 3: SPECIAL FEATURES • Additional Scenes • Creating the Vision: Interview with J.K. Rowling and the Filmmakers • Conjuring a Scene: Creating Buckbeak and the Dementors for the Screen • Johnny Vaughan and the Shrunken Head Lead Raucous Interviews with the Cast • Self-Guided Tours of Honeydukes and Professor Lupin’s Classroom • Meet the Animal Trainers in Care of Magical Creatures • 3 Great Challenges: Test Your Memory with Magic You May Have Missed, Help Crookshanks Catch Scabbers, and Go on an Unxepected Quest with Sir Cadogan COLLECTIBLES: • 48-Page Creatures Photo Book with Rare Images from Years 1-7 • Year 3 Lenticular Card • Two in a Series of Character Cards: Hermione Granger & Sirius Black
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Ultimate Edition is one of my favorite releases of the year and a must have!
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