REVIEWED BY KELLY
WB released three versions of the DVD in March of 2006: single-disc full and widescreen editions and a two-disc widescreen edition that will be the subject of this review. First, the packaging: Nothing special here. A simple sleeve with the standard movie poster stamped on the front surrounds the actual plastic box, which has the exact same look as the sleeve. One wonders why WB decided to waste cardboard for this purpose. However, the back of the package does conveniently list the extras found on the second disc. They will be looked at in order later in the review.
Next, the aspect ratio of the widescreen presentation is the standard widescreen anamorphic 2.40:1. On my standard 30-inch TV, it does look strange since the top of the frame is chopped off from what this reviewer recalls from the theater experience. But, the transfer is crisp, clean and looks great, especially in the scenes with heavy special effects (such as the flying carriage, the underwater scenes of the second task and the graveyard scene). The disc is encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, but I do not own a surround sound system, so you will have to decide what you think of the audio tracks. From what I can hear, there are no glaring problems with the audio on this disc.
The second disc begins with a trailer for Ant Bully and Happy Feet and the usual interminable warnings, admonishments and disclaimer screens. In addition, the viewer has to choose whether they will watch the disc in English or French. As for the extras, they are a mixed bag. They are roughly divided by subject, with the title screen showing the Hogwarts grounds with four choices: Dragon Arena, The Lake, The Maze and Hogwarts Castle.
First, under the Hogwarts Castle option, the obligatory additional scenes do not contain scores of regrettably cut scenes from the book. Instead, they are all correctly cut from the film. The first is a scene just before the arrival of Mad-Eye Moody where Dumbledore leads the entire school in a rendition of the Hogwarts’ school song, “Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts,” which was not found in Goblet, but rather in the first book, Sorcerer’s Stone. Newell seemed to want to add a bit of levity to the scene, but it comes off as forced and unnecessary. Second is a scene where a Durmstrang student formally asks a Hogwarts student to the Yule Ball. It is quite amusing to see the Durmstrang students approaching a group of girls in full march, replete with bows, kissing of hands and formal invitations. Even more priceless is the reaction shot of Harry and Ron who have no idea what just happened, or how to recreate the situation and desired result.
Third is a scene where Harry passes Cho Chang in the tower on his way to class. He attempts to talk to her, presumably to ask her to the Yule Ball, but her friends arrive and she leaves before Harry can get a word in edgewise. It does establish more clearly that Harry fancies Cho and wants to ask her out, but it is a very short scene and unnecessary. The fourth and longest deleted scene takes place at the Yule Ball and contained the performance of the entire song “Do The Hippogriff,” comprised of members of famous British bands. While the shorter version of the scene establishes that the Hogwarts students are in fact teenagers and like to mosh, scream and go crazy, the song is rather annoying and the entire five minutes of it really just shows you that Newell had the inspiration to crowd-surf Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick) over the throng of students as the band plays.
Next is a scene where Harry steps outside for some air as the band is playing. As he walks through the courtyard, he passes numerous students making out in carriages and against walls. Newell seemed to be trying a little too hard to tell the audience that the kids are growing up and like girls. The scene ends with a confrontation with Professors Karkaroff and Snape arguing over something on their arms growing clearer and an impending danger. While Newell presented Karkaroff as a possibility for who put Harry’s name into the Goblet, this scene seems heavy-handed and an obvious psych-out. The next scene takes place immediately after the second task and Harry is talking with Barty Crouch, Sr. Professor Moody takes Harry aside and berates him for “acting the hero” in the lake and suggests that he grow up and look out only for himself. This scene foreshadows the obvious interest Mad-Eye has in Harry, and was better left out. The next scene takes place in the Gryffindor common room with the Trio discussing the death of Mr. Crouch and Harry’s obvious mortal peril. Again, unnecessary. Lastly is a scene with the trio discussing why Professor Snape stopped Harry and accusing him of stealing ingredients for a Polyjuice Potion. Too heavy-handed, and better off excised from the movie. All total, the deleted scenes are fun for one viewing, but they add nothing of substance to an already stilted telling of the story.
Next, the “Preparing For The Yule Ball” segment was a lot of fun. For one of the most visually stunning scenes of the movie, it was quite interesting to see the detail with which the crew redecorated the Great Hall set for a rather short segment of the film. The students all had to learn how to formally waltz, and it is amusing to see the boys grumbling and the girls immediately wanting to learn and practice their steps. Radcliffe has an amusing interview segment where he states that he wanted to be an excellent dancer, but that with only four days prep time, he was “pathetic” at it. We get short scenes with Katie Leung (Cho Chang) where her Scottish accent is even more pronounced than in the film. The centerpiece of this segment is Emma Watson and her portrayal of Hermione’s change from girl to young woman. We have long segments on the construction of her dress and how Newell wanted her entrance to stun every boy in the Great Hall. In a self-effacing moment, Watson reveals that she was so worried about tearing her dress that she fell down the stairs on her very first take. Overall, this segment is a fun look at the preparation and detail given to a fun scene in the movie.
Next, the “Conversations With The Cast” was interesting now that the Trio have all grown up and can converse about mature subjects without dissolving into giggles. And, there is no Shrunken Head conducting the interviews, thankfully. Watson is obviously sporting braces and has the characteristic half-smile when she speaks to cover up her teeth, Grint is not at all talkative and Radcliffe is a bundle of energy and very keen to discuss the evolution of his character. All three seem to feed off of each other and really do appear to be quite friendly. The Trio does discuss the initial hesitation in the initial films to hug each other and be very close to one another, but they now seem like typical teens who are used to one another and have no problem with physicality in scenes. Some of the more interesting questions involve British tabloids, Portkeys, distinctions between characters and their fellow co-stars. At the end of the segment, WB flew in five contest winners from all over the world to interview the Trio. While the questions are typical, the questioners ranged in age from a third-grader to a fully grown adult, and their home countries were as diverse as the USA, Britain, Japan and Australia.
The final segment, “Reflections On The Fourth Film,” is the standard recap with every young actor in the film. They all talk about how the cast is like a big family since they grew up together from a very young age. They all seem very polite and welcoming, especially to the new actors. They all talk about Newell’s approach to the film, which seems very British in nature and informed by his boarding school experiences. One amusing scene contains Newell rolling around the floor with the Phelps twins showing them how he wants them to fight each other on camera. There are shots of every actor getting underfoot in whatever technical department that interests them. Cute, fluffy and worth one viewing. The remainder of this section contains the first teaser trailer and the DVD-ROM segment which I could not watch on my laptop.
Under the “Dragon Arena” option, the “Dragon Challenge” is a clunky attempt at recreating the first task from Harry’s POV once he is on his broom. The reaction times needed for this game are intense, and no small child could successfully complete the task. Skip this option. Next is a behind-the-scenes look at the First Task, which is interesting from the special effects POV. The detail and research put into the dragon was impressive, as was the amount of physicality Radcliffe had to endure, especially in the chase scene. He performed many of his stunts, and the look of mingled fright and excitement on his face as he is dropped from 100 feet above a mat is palpable. The care and detail put into the scene shows on the screen in the final film.
Last under this section is the “Meet The Champions” segment. This one is the most interesting segment on the entire disc since the cameras follow each Triwizard champion around Leavesden Studios from 6:30 a.m. until they leave at 7 p.m. that night. It shows the hours of boredom and setup of scenes punctuated by seconds of intense acting required from each actor. In addition, multiple scenes were filmed simultaneously, so as to shorten the filming time, so it was interesting to see how one director can be in many places at once. The scene also shows the dressing rooms of the actors, which appear to be large rooms with videogame consoles for the Trio and desks for each student’s homework since all of them had to be tutored on set for their standardized exams.
The next category, “The Lake,” also has another Harry POV game, the “Lake Challenge” segment, that is easily skipped due to its difficulty and ultimate pointlessness. The mini-documentary, “In Too Deep: The Second Task”, was fascinating due to the amount of underwater diving training Radcliffe had to endure to film a scene not longer than ten minutes of the film. The tech department tried to construct a purely CGI environment, but decided that for close-ups, they would have to film completely underwater, which required the construction of a 500,000-gallon tank (the largest in movie history), complete with a bluescreen behind it for CGI purposes. Each scene was filmed in 9-11-second bursts with accompanying divers just off screen for Radcliffe’s oxygen. In total, Radcliffe spent over 41 hours underwater during the course of the shoot. There are also scene discussing the creation of the CGI mermaids, grindylows and the Shark-Krum.
The final category, “The Maze,” had several interesting spots where the techies reveal how much of the maze was a real hydraulic setup that moved the walls of the maze in and out and what was CGI. In addition, the creation of the vines that attack the Champions looked very cool on-screen. However, the ultimate segment, “He Who Must Not Be Named,” is the crown jewel of the entire second disc. To this reviewer, Ralph Fiennes’ depiction of Voldemort was spot-on and almost universally accepted as perfect by all other critics. But, the nagging question we all had was: What’s up with the nose (or the lack of one)?
The segment spares us no detail, starting with drawings of what they wanted Voldemort to look like, what his skin should look like, how his robes should move, how his voice sounds and what his eyes should look like. Fiennes gives us plenty to delve into, from how he shaved his head completely, how he had to wear small orange dots on his face for the removal of his nose, to the mood swings Voldemort experiences when he is angered. In one of his most interesting comments, Fiennes states that, at its base, the entire graveyard scene is merely “an older man torturing a smaller boy.” The segment shows us how Fiennes approaches a scene, where he will stop in the middle of the scene, try a line differently, change it, inflect it differently or completely start over, all while the camera is rolling.
Lastly, they show how the progression of Fiennes’ nose disappearing through production shots. Radcliffe states that when he first saw Fiennes, he laughed due to his bald head and orange dots all over his face. But, as the scenes started, even he started to become frightened at how intense Fiennes became as the character. The segment also shows extra lines that Fiennes created just for the scene that did not make it into the final cut of the film. Curiously absent is any discussion of the “Priori Incantatum” scene with the golden dome and the shades of Voldemort’s victims reappearing.
Final Analysis: For the diehard fans of the movie and book, the extras are both informative and frustratingly incomplete. For the diehard fans, the extras will be devoured in one sitting, with ultimately not much else learned except that WB spent GOBS of money on this installment of the franchise, what a day on the set looks like, that the Trio can now speak intelligently and that Ralph Fiennes is one bad MF. In the end, the extras were fun, but not essential to the enjoyment of a good installment in the franchise.
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