“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”: the Return of Magic

“After all this time?”
“Always.”

This is probably the sentence that most inspire and relight love on fans of the most famous wizard in the world, created by J.K. Rowling,  from which derived 8 films. Among gadgets, theme parks and a never ending passion with no limit of age, the wands of Potterheads (As the fans of Harry Potter are known in the world) are ready to be polished off: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, released on November 17th, is the first film of a new saga composed of 5 (the news has been confirmed recently by Rowling herself), inspired by a little book (came out some years ago together with “Quidditch Trough  the Ages” and “The tales of Beedle the Bard”) that is pratically a list of animals and their characteristics that inhabit the magical world, ideologically written by Newton Scamander, the most famous magizoologist of the world and in history.

The movie is based on the life of Newton Scamader (played by Eddie Radmayne): in particular this first film is focused on the early life’s work of the young wizard (expelled from Hogwarts, where he was of Hufflepuff), who lands in New York in 1926 after finishing a tour around the world to complete his researches on beasts. The film turns on the adventurous side when a muggle, Jacob Kowalski, accidentally opens the Newton’s briefcase setting the creatures, that were kept inside, free. It is the beginning of several problems among the magical community, which ask to the Magical Congress of U.S.A  to investigate over Newton, and among the muggle’s one too, hence making even more fragile the relationship between the two worlds, while a secret organisation conspires to expose and destroy witches and wizards.

Helped by the ex-auror Tina (Katherine Waterstone) who hopes to get back in the graces of the Magical Congress of U.S.A., and by his sister Queenie, Newton has to run all around the city to prevent damage and to recover all the dispersed animals, while a powerful  auror, Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) together with a young drifter boy,Credence (Ezra Miller), investigate over the dark events that are taking place in the magical world, and behind which there seems to be exactly a young wizard… A hunt in the hunt, with a fast-paced and an ironic tone, directed by David Yates, who has already been behind the camera of several films of the Harry Potter saga.

No more Hogwarts then, but instead the sparkling America of mid-20s, of which we will discover features and way of living of the magical American community, expanding in this way our knowledge of the world created by J.K.Rowling. In the future we will also see again some known characters such as Dumbledore and Grindelwald (who will be played by Johnny Depp), and all of this will make the connections with Harry Potter’s world brighter and more captivating. Characters have been carefully casted, beginning with Newton, who teaches us with lightness and wisdom that we can be heroes in everyday life, while some issues such as social acceptance and overcoming differences, even sexual, make this film suitable and current to the muggle’s reality.

J.K.Rowling said that a lot of curiosity has been left after the end of the Harry Potter saga, so she decided to focused on the development of one of  her favorite characters, that is Newton, and she has been truly satisfied with the result and the casting; during the premiere she confirmed that Eddie Redmayne did a wonderful job in letting the character under his skin, the actor was driven by his love for the Harry Potter saga and was able to bring to life a character only mentioned a in the young wizard’s books. The director was enthusiastic about jumping back into the world of magic and returning to work with a team that he already knew and of which he was proud, plus the great freedom of creative choice during filming since he did have a few guidelines but at the same time had the liberty of drawing himself the story.

Fans all over the world are waiting to see this film and it is already considered a success, as nobody knows what will exactly happen from the moment the book from which it is inspired is more like an encyclopedia here it gives no clues regarding the cast or the production, but it will surely be an interesting and alternative way to discover more charismatic characters of the wizarding world and to fell once again for the magical universe (starting from the soundtrack, in which is included also a reviewing of “Edvege’s theme”) we thought was gone forever.