Thanksgiving Thoughts on Terrific Treats from Fantastic Beasts!

November 24, 2016 by 1 Comment

Image result for wizarding world of harry potter foodWe hope that all our readers have had a lovely day of gratitude with loved ones and friends. We are, here at Hogwarts Professor, very grateful for you! Though many people really focus on the serious side of being thankful, we hope you already know that we do take gratitude seriously, but we also take seriously the other factor that is critical to Thanksgiving: food! J.K. Rowling has said that one of her favorite books, when she was younger, was Elizabeth Goudge’s The Little White Horse. One of her main reasons for loving the book was the fact that readers are always told “what was in the sandwiches.”  That is undoubtedly one of the reasons many of us love the Hogwarts Adventures as well. We are here for the food!

While we try to recover from a turkey coma, let’s have some fun with some of of the Wizarding Eats from the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Spoilers Ahead, Beware!

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Louise’s Belated Fantastic Beasts Response

November 23, 2016 by 2 Comments

fb-pictureI couldn’t hit the opening night of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them because I was attending the Morality, Moral Philosophy and the Humanities in the Age of Neuroscience Conference, so I decided to wait until my daughter was home from college so we could go as a family. As a result, I have been avoiding spoilers for almost a week. Last night, after we got home, I went through a bunch of Hogpro posts, emails and my copy of the screenplay that had been sitting in its cardboard Amazon box since last week. So, after bit of day-before Thanksgiving cooking, and a nice hot cup of cranberry wassail, I’m finally sitting down to write my initial response.

I share the positive response of most other Wizarding World fans: it was a well-written, exciting film that fills in part of the backstory of JKR’s magical world without infringing on (or re-writing) any of Harry’s story. Newt was a lovable if unlikely hero, the Goldstein sisters strong female leads and Jacob Kowalski a delightful Mary-Sue character for all Muggles:  the No-Maj who got to be part of the Wizarding World, albeit for a short time. Add that to the speculation that Queenie and Jacob’s descendent will eventually play Quidditch on the US team, and you have the ultimate wish fulfillment for many fans. [Read more…]

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Why Newt Carries His Magical Creature Friends in a Battered Brown Suitcase

November 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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Is It a Ring? First Thoughts on Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them

November 20, 2016 by 15 Comments

newt-scamanderThe movie made from J. K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay is a visual ring composition. I have not received my copy of the screenplay yet (come back Wednesday of next week for more on that) but, having watched the film yesterday and taken four pages of notes in the dark, I can say the film’s scenes conform to the chiasmus or ring formula that anthropologist Mary Douglas describes in her Thinking in Circles and which J. K. Rowling uses as something of a template for her Harry Potter and Cormoran Strike novels.

If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to be spoiled, okay. That paragraph should be your last. If you have seen the film and would like to see how Rowling brought her ring artistry to the third draft of her screenplay, I’ll see you after the jump. [Read more…]

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Five Spoiler-Free Reasons Potterphiles will Love Fantastic Beasts

November 19, 2016 by 1 Comment

14869-fantastic-beasts-one-sheet-1It’s a foregone conclusion that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will make a Gringotts-vault full of money this weekend and beyond, meaning that large numbers of people who are casual or totally uninitiated Potter watchers and readers will come out in droves to see the awesome CG artistry and to enjoy some nice escapism. Most of these folks are not terribly worried about symbolism and structure, as they just want to enjoy themselves at the movies. They will have a great time. They will love it. They will eat lots of popcorn. They will gasp and laugh and cheer. Those of us who do fret about things like symbolism and structure, who have read the Hogwarts saga repeated times, and who are seeking something deeper than  the extra-large tub of butter-substitute soaked popcorn at the cineplex will also find plenty to please in the adventures of Newt Scamander and his critters.

In the coming weeks, as more folks get to see the film, and we don’t have to tiptoe so much around spoilers, we will dig in more deeply to the plot points and structure of the new film, examining both strengths and weaknesses, making predictions about future films, and weaving in our usual deep-mining insights. But, in the meantime, here are  five aspects (since there will be five films) of the new movie that are sure to delight those of us who want more than a couple of hours of distraction and some thrilling special effects. Without letting any nifflers, er, cats, out of the bag, here are some reasons to love the new movie, for those of us who have already graduated from Hogwarts with full marks on our “N.E.W.T.s ”

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