Fantastic Beasts

Today I’m going to talk a bit about my potter-obsession and review the latest Fantastic Beasts movie, while sharing the BTS of what really went on with our recreation shoot. At the end, I’ll ask for your opinion on the movie, and something I have been planning for a while, I hope you stick around and weigh in.

I haven’t written much this month, well that’s a lie I’ve written a ton but I haven’t published much, I just haven’t been in the mood. If you didn’t know I lost my brother at the top of November and haven’t been much of a functioning human since. I share all I am willing to share about it at the moment here & here One thing that I have found more comfort than I would like to admit in is Harry Potter, and so although this is generally a place for body confidence, color and style sharing today I’ll share one of the only things that I’m about to talk about with a bit of happiness at the moment, the wiziarding world.

I don’t talk about my potter obsession much here, and some will be surprised by it. I don’t speak of it much because it’s not currently trending and there isn’t much new mainstream things out there surrounding It that the majority of my following would relate to, I also don’t cover it because so much of my connection to it predates color me courtney so I haven’t really found much of a fit.

My history of Magic
So before we dive in, let’s look back a bit.

My brother, Trent was one of the most well read people I knew. He also wrote quite a bit, I’ll estimate 2 hours by hand every day – very Alexander Hamilton of him now that I think about it. He read most of the Harry Potter books in their original British form before they were released in the US at a young ague maybe 6 or 7 and to this day was the biggest potterhead I knew. It was always his thing, but I like to think we shared it. When the films were announced, Trent, being about the right age, spent a summer practicing his British accent in the hopes that he would be cast as Harry. He promised that he would use that influence to cast me as Hermoine and said I was a shoe in with my curly hair – lucky for Daniel Radcliffe, we never made it to London to audition. We were fortunate enough to grow up in the potter generation: picking up the first few books from the scholastic book fair, listening to the book on tap (yep, a literal cassette tape) on our drive to school and watching the classroom parents fight over if the book should be banned all before we were Hogwarts aged. Then, staying up till midnight in our robes to get the new book first only to rush home and stay up reading it, heading to midnight premiers for the films and eventually hosting dinner parties and dressing up with our friends. Some of my favorite memories with my brother are intertwined to this series, and he understood the world more than anyone else I’ve ever known.

Here are some VERY OLD photos from my pervious Harry Potter parties – can you spot Paris?

^ above is my brother Trent and best friend Kristin

Back to Hogwarts

On October 25th I decided to begin rereading the series from book 1 through 7 and the best part was being able to call Trent 6 or 7 times a day to ask him random questions or debate theories, especially about how the original series would relate to the upcoming new Fantastic Beasts Crimes of Grindelwald. I’ll be honest, I knew the answer to most of questions I asked, but I just liked to talk to him about it. He knew Harry Potter better than anything else, and it was nice to let him take the lead on something and see how confident he was when he spoke to it. I lost him about 10 or so days after I started and found some small comfort in being able to leave my pain to get lost in potterverse, only to be revisited by it when that desire to pick up the phone kicked in again. This week I finished the seventh book, rewatching the movies with Paris after each completion yearning to talk to Trent about every scene, I also listened to some of the the audible exclusive Pottermore pieces like a history of magic, fantastic beats and where to find them and quidditch through the ages. Finally, I watched fantastic beats (the first film) 6 times in the past 30 days, or six and a half if you include it being on in the background as I write now, I just arrived at the part where met Queenie. I saw the second one (crimes of Grindelwald) in theaters twice, but would love to go again. I will confess that although I will indulge in Pottermore, I dont spend much time searching the fan sites or theories unless I have a super specific question I need answered. Before I would direct those at Trent, but in the past 2 weeks I have done maybe half a dozen specific searches looking for answers that used to be solved with a phone call, but otherwise I don’t really fall down those potter-filled passage ways, there Is just too much there. So I’m no Trent and I’ll never be on his magic-level, but I’m as prepared as I’ll ever be to give you the best Fantastic Beasts review as I can, I hope its enough or if it’s so off, I hope it’s at least entertaining.

Oh and if you’re curious about re-reading the books or reading for a first time I highly recommend it. I’m mad at myself for not getting into it ages ago. Although the movies are fantastic, one and two are kind of hard to watch unless you have that nostalgia to push you through. The acting isn’t great, the effects are okay and you’re watching 10 year olds with wands. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE THE MOVIES (even one and two) as they are and I wouldn’t change a thing, but if you didn’t watch them when they came out watching them now can be a bit iffy. This isn’t true for the books. They totally stand up and you don’t have to worry about any of the above. If you’re not into reading I suggest the audio books on audible. I’m obsessed with audible in general, but the Harry Potter series is really special on there because of the fantastic narration by Jim Dale. It’s actually hard to go back to normal audible after spending seven books with him, it’s a real experience! If you’re read the books before, have only seen the movies or have never given either of them a chance I recommend the books. I would recommend them to anyone over the age of 10, honestly they’re that good – even as a reread. I read the books once when they came out, again right before the movies and never since then, but still found SO MUCH greatness in this reread. I learned things I never noticed before or forgot about and found so much more story than what you see in the movies (honestly if you’ve never read you only know half the story). SO PLEASE give it a read, or re-read… I’m begging you 🙂

This Photoshoot

So the photos you’ll see here are from a recreation shoot we did during the Fantastic Beasts 2 release weekend. I hadn’t left my apartment all week because I was depressed about Trent. I had planned on doing this shoot for a week or so before and it was the only kind of photo I was interested in taking, also one of the only ones I took for about 2 weeks. We went out, took the photos and got home right as the sun set. I went to pull them off the card and the card was unreadable making the photos undiscoverable or usable … gone. I had a break down, overcome with grief and the overwhelming disappointment of feeling like I couldn’t do anything right at the moment. I then cried in the shower for about an hour and went to sleep. I woke up around 9 and felt the need to finish the project, but unable to do so without light. So we packed and got ready for our trip (we were flying out for his service Arizona the next morning) when Paris had the idea to shoot this in Grand Central station that closes at 2 AM. Around 1 AM we set out to Grand Central and shot these photos, returning to my apartment around 230 and leaving again for our 7 am flight around 4 AM. I tell you this not for pity (I really hate being pitied) but to share what goes on behind the scenes sometimes. It isn’t as wonderful as it always seems and things rarely ever go as planned but we push through and don’t give up. I hope you never give up too.

Alright finally on to Fantastic Beasts 2, Crimes of Grindelwald

If you’re still here, you made it to where I share my initial thoughts & predictions, Serious Spoilers below so if you haven’t seen it yet STOP READING. You can pick up again at the second titled Regrets

So here is almost everything I thought about the film.

Come Nagini – Paris has always had a weird connection and obsession with Nagini, thats why I let him pretend he was a Slytherin for so long (we’ve since resorted him as a Hufflepuff, and I’ve forgiven his previous pure blood ways) so we were both quite excited to meet Nagini BV or before Voldemort. I had NO idea that nagini was actually a person or I guess a Maledictus (carrier of a blood curse which will ultimately destine them to transform permanently into a beast) but now feel quite silly for not making that assumption, and Paris claims he always knew doubtful P. I actually cant wait to reread the books for a 3rd time and see how many hints I missed pointing me in this direction, I wonder if this is something JK always had figured out or something she stumbled upon when writing the Crimes screen play. We both (paris and I) agree that we really want a one movie spin off that shows us how she got cursed & her whole journey to becoming a horcrux.I feel like a Tom BV (before Voldie) movie could tackle this, telling us the tale of Tom Riddle and his Salazar Slytherin family heritage that we’re introduced to through Dumbledoor’s memories in Half Blood Prince on paper, but remain excluded from the book. Here we could easily hear the whole story from Tom’s POV sharing pieces of his story as he learns them perhaps while creating horcuxes (horcruxi? I know thats wrong but it feels so right). For example, we could meet Tom Riddle Sr (Voldemorts Muggle father), Merope Gaunt (his witch mother who won Tom Sr’s love only through love potion and betrayed the ways of with her pure blood family in doing so) and Slytherin descendant grandpa Marvolo when we learn about how soon-to-be you-know-who kill his muggle father in split his sole to create the resurrection stone ring horcrux. << that would probably be the most interesting origin story, maybe second only to the tale of Nagini. Here we could learn about Nagini, how she became a Maledictus, her transition & how she came BFF with Tommy boy. Actually now that I think about it, I want this as a 7 part mini series (one for each horcux please and thank you) on Netflix!

Race & Gender – I’m not sure if you caught it, but both Fantastic Beast films tell us a lot about race and gender in the wizarding world. It is important to note that there is some serious race and gender related accusations rolling around with the idea of Nagini and although I wasn’t offended as a woman about the idea that this female would eventually become the pet of a white male oppressor, some were. Some of this anger associated with the fact that Nagini is stated to be of Indonesian decent while played by a Korean actress (which for the record I noticed in the film and was a bit surprised when they stated she was Indonesian, because I know my K pop and was SURE that actress was Korean) but since I am not from either group, I don’t really have any ground to stand on here. If people where offended or felt underrepresented on the casting, I’ll stand by and support them, because they know more than me. BUT I will say that I’ve learned not to read too much into race in the wizarding world. My interpretation as a bi-racial woman of color has been that race and even gender don’t have such implication in the wizarding world as they do in ours – maybe that’s some of the allure to me. Race and gender issues in the wizarding world aren’t tied to black and white, in fact I cant recall any moments of color based racism or strict gender bias exist in the films. In Crimes of Grindelwald we see Thesus a white celebrated ministry of magic official engaged to Leta Lestrange a bi-racial witch from a pureblood family, and see no issue with their relationship. In fact, Leta is bi-racial herself because her white father bewitched her black mother and then created Leta we do learn that said father never loved Leta but I think it is because he had issues with women, not with her race so I guess HE had some gender bias, but so did Marvolo, Tom Riddles Grandpa so maybe its a pure blood thing? In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them we learn that the United States has rather backward laws when it comes to muggle and wizard relationships according to British Newt Scamander; so we know that the US has a far less progressive way of thinking in contrast to the British-based Wizarding community. And yet, in the same film we meet Madam President Seraphina Picquery head of MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) in 1926, she is both black and a woman. SO we can assume that in 1926 the wizarding community in the US has a black, female leader, where in contrast the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote was only is passed 6 years prior in the non magical world of the same country. Leading us to the conclusion that the race and gender issues we still face in the non-magical United States today aren’t even issues back in 1926 when the first film is based. Instead, we see prejudice against other magical creatures and the focus on the preservation of pure blood starting in the 20’s and continuing throughout the 1990’s when we meet the boy who lived and see the return of our good friend Voldie. Of course, these issues are closely paralleled to some of the ones we see in the non magical world which is probably why they evoke such an emotional response to the reader or viewer and just one of the many reasons why J.K. Rowling deserves all the money and the sorcerers stone.

Fire with Fire – I’ve been reluctant to say so because I KNOW I’ll get attacked but here it goes. I prefer Fantastic Beasts to Harry Potter I said this after I saw the first film and maintain said stance after seeing the second and rewatching the whole series. This doesn’t lower my love for the OG, but just showcases how much I love this new series. I can’t get into the why now or this post would be three times longer than it already is but one reason is the characters, and for the purpose of this section, Newt. I love that Newt is neutral, that he isn’t willing to take a side in this or any fight. Dumbledore said it best: “Do you know why I admire you, Newt? You do not seek power. You simply ask ‘Is a thing right’, and this is what I admire about Newt too, but I couldn’t put it into words until Dumbledore did it for me. BUT in the endish when Grindelwald is about to pull a full Paris is burning we watch Newt, his brother Theseus, my favorite Nicolas Flamel and so many more characters literally fight fire with fire, and watch Newt choose a side. THIS I LOVE. In the Harry Potter series it is usually so much more black and white, sure we have our Snape’s of the bunch and even Dumbledore walks the line between good and evil at times but we always know Harry is good Voldemort is bad, Harry picks a side early on when he meets Malfoy for the second time on his first trip to Hogwarts and chooses to stand up for Ron when Draco tries to tell him some wizarding families are better than others. Maybe because they’re so young or because their destiny was decided by their parents, their houses, their scars, their blood status or so many other random pretdermined things, but our 3 potter hero’s were always on one side and willing to fight, or die for those beliefs. BUT NEWT, sweet darling newt isn’t powered by some of the traits we see in our potter 3 and therefore isn’t one to choose a side until his heart, and his brothers is broken which for him changes everything. AH! I loved this scene so much because of all that hidden and not so hidden symbolism I got serious chills the first time I saw it.

Hufflepuff love – while we’re talking about Newt, lets talk about that Hufflepuff love! Incase it wasn’t quite obvious I’m a Gryffindor through and through. Although we never talked about it I think trent was a Hufflepuff, and Paris too. If you’re not familiar with Hufflepuff-isms I find my favorite decripti9ons to be ones in the Sorting Hat Songs, heres’s a few from different don’ts

From year one, sorceres stone

“You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil;”

From year four, Goblet of Fire (my favorite book for the record)

“For Hufflepuff, hard workers were most worthy of admission;

And from year 5 (Order of the phoenix) and the the most telling song in my opinion

Said Slytherin, We’ll teach just those Whose ancestry is purest.

Said Ravenclaw We’ll teach those whose Intelligence is surest.

Said Gryffindor We’ll teach all those With brave deeds to their name

Said Hufflepuff I’ll teach the lot And treat them just the same.

This tells me all I need to know about Hufflepuff and is such an accurate description of Newt, and how he treats all creatures with equal love, admiration, curiosity and respect. We see this rings even more true when you meet young Newt in the second film flashback. He is even more introverted and awkward (he’s the cutest thing) but crazy well cast, extremely nurturing and willing to give up things like his Christmas break to care for other creatures. Hufflepuff is the house that gets the least love in the Harry Potter series, sure we meet Cedric for a short time in book 4 but I would argue that he is less “Hufflepuff-y for a variety of reasons. I still feel he was sorted correctly, but has there ever been a more puffy huffle than Newt, who values hard word, patience, loyalty and fair play? Perhaps Helga Hufflepuff, but I’ve yet to really meet her so for now, I’ll hail Newt. I was so happy to see this house get some real love through the loving eyes of Newt – oh and it’s important to note that another favorite character of mine, although she gets very little love in the films is Nymphadora Tonks and she too is a Hufflepuff.

Random Tonks Ramble – Ps, does anyone else think Natalie Tena who plays Tonks looks wildly different from half blood prince to deathly hollows, I actually had to look it up to see if she was randomly recast because I couldn’t believe it was the same actress – I mean I know that she looses some of her whimsy when she looses her cousin, but it had me wondering if Tena was a Metamorphmagus herself!

Down with the ship – I love history so I was so into all the historical references we saw in the film. in the theatre I was so convinced that the shipwreck scene where Leta and come to find out, credence survive was actually the Titanic. I mean it looked like it, the timeline kind of fit and it was a boat coming from the UK headed to America that sunk so YEP TITANIC, right!? Wrong well maybe. So we know that Crimes takes place in 1927 and that Leta is like 25ish in the film (thats a guess based on the knowledge that Newt faced his biggest fear and worked in the ministry for 4ish years before being like BYEEE and setting off to study beasts and pursue a career in magizoology, and that Newt and Leta are the same-ish age give or take a year). We know the titanic sank in 1912 on April 15th (Trent was born on the same day 70 years later so Iâ€˜ve always randomly known the date) and in the film we see a flashback to little Leta looking anywhere between 9-13 on the boat. So if she’s 15 in 1927, she could yeah totally fit that time frame in 1912. BUT then I got home a looked up miss LeStrange on Pottermore, where her birthday was not shared, but found that Newt was born in 1897. So assuming Leta was also born in 1897, that would make her 15 when the titanic sank, which I guess we could maybe believe but she looked like 12 max in that flashback. I’ll hold my judgement for now, because 15 year olds looked a lot younger pre youtube and hormone filled foods, but I sadly don’t think that ship was the titanic, tear. For the record, the internet mostly disagree’s with me and so many people make the assumption that it is indeed the titanic, and we could also assume she’s a year younger than Newt or so making her closer to 14 or maybe even 13 depending on when she was born and the theory that much more believable!

WW2 – Another more obvious historical reference you might have caught was the WW2 visions Grindelwald used to try and rally support from the Wizarding World in that creepy Parisian conference. THIS got me super excited for a few reasons, one it showed that Grindelwald is a crazy manipulator and lair lair robes on fire which supports some of my later theories, but it also answered a question I always had every since I started reading the Potter series what happened to Wizards when Muggles go to war? Do they help? Do they stay out of it? Are they fighting their own super secret war in the shadows and obliterating any of our memories? WHAT IS HAPPENING. So, not to get history geek on you again but we know that WW2 goes on from 1939 -1945, specifically Paris (where Crimes takes place) falls in June 1940. In a few of the potter books, but mostly in Deathly Hallows when we read life and lies of Albus Dumbledore and hear for the hundredth time about his eventual duel with Grindelwald in 1945. SO can we assume that this duel helps mark the end of not only the wizard war but also WW2? Are we going to get real dark and have blood status concentration camps? We learned in The Deathly Hollows book of Nurmengard Castle when Hermoine tell us it is “The prison Grindelwald built to hold his opponents. And we even see a glimpse of it in Deathly Hollows film part 1 when Voldemort goes to visit a very old and imprisoned Grindelwald there was it used to exterminate muggles, or non-pure blood wizards for the greater good? Or is Grindelwald only obsessed with overtaking Muggles and not so interested in blood status compared to good ole Voldie? I DONT KNOW but I’m very excited to see how Wizard history coincides with no-maj history. OH OH OH and did you notice Grindelwald’s elder wand in Crimes? I’m sure you did, it had almost as many close ups as a main character but that just reminded us that Dumbledore will defeat Grindelwald and win that wand wee !

Close Ups – Speaking of close ups, I think its important to notice that I love the use of close up shots and foreshadowing that director David Yates used throughout this movie. Those crazy close up shots of Newt, Leta, Queenie and more where their faces just filled the frame was memorizing. And the foreshadowing was more present in the filmography that I’ve ever seen in a Potter film, but usually in a very un obvious way. This is quite helpful in a film like Crimes where there is SO MUCH packed into there but you haven’t had a book to read before, as potter-heads were used to having a general gist of what’s about to happen in the film but in Beasts we’re all kind of flying blind. It’s nice that Yates realized that and has adapted his filmography to adjust, he also has a unique style for each character to associate with their music theme and just does a fantastic FANTASTIC job of portraying this beast of a film.

While we’re talking filmography, I have to share one reason why I love the Beasts series so much – the acting and casting! They did such a good job in selecting characters and casting for this film, and because they weren’t restrained by some of the previous defined characteristics that we faced in the potter series (Weasleys must have red hair, malfoys must be pail AF) I feel they were able to select the best person for each role and ind of create the character around the actor as well, which makes a difference. I don’t need to tell you how amazing Eddie Redmayne is (but how amazing is Eddie Redmayne) but I’ve been blown away by Dan Fogler’s performance as Jacob Kowalski in both films. I mean, that final scene between him and Queenie in Where To Find Them? COME ON! Fun fact about Dan – he would apparently always bring sweets to set to get in touch with his baker roll, and I watched a cast interview with him and the other 4 where he showed up with cupcakes and stated that he got there early so walked around the block and stumbled upon a bakery where he purchased cupcakes for the cast I mean, we love him. Anyways, I could go on and on about the amazing casting decision and spend a day talking about how fantastic Jonny Depp is in everything he does – but I was most impressed with the flash back casting because that’s the toughest. Although, I was not at all surprised by the excellency here, we know from the Snape flash back in Deathly Hollows Part 2 that they can perfect a flashback cast, but I was blown away with young Newt and his crazy resemblance in both appearance AND demeanor. It was quite remarkable, and would have been the most impressive one if it wasn’t for Dumbledore. Casting a young Dumbledore has to be one of the most challenging things because you have to pay homage to not one, but two actor portrayals from a much older version. PLUS younger Dumbledore is dealing with some serious demons, in 1927 he is still probably not over the tragic loss of his sister Ariana who we know he blames himself, he likely has no relationship with his brother, continues to carrier grief for his mother and perhaps is still confused about how he feels towards the actions of his late father. Oh yeah, and he’s still heart broken over loosing the love of his life who is off doing crazy dark things that he helped him think of all while being asked to fight him knowing he cant because of the blood oath! AND I forgot to mention that this portrayal of Dumbledore might have to be gay, which has never really been seen before in the potterverse so NO PRESSURE! Yeah there is a lot that goes into this younger Dumbledore and I think Jude Law was the perfect casting decision, but also the perfect portrayal. He had a great combination of whit and wisdom all while maintaining a mysterious edge that we love to hate about Albus.

Honorable Mentions – Other honorable mentions I have to bring up was hilarious introduction of Nicholas Flamel, although I wondered where his wife Perenelle Flamel was since we learn in book 1 that they both live to be 600 or something and make plans to die towards the end of the book following the choice to destroy the stone – do WHERE SHE AT.I can’t wait to learn more about Eulalie Hicks, who he spoke to in the book she appears to be American but that’s pretty much all you could direct from the scene. A quick google search told me she’s a Ilvermorny School professor but nothing else, so more to come I hope? My favorite part of Where To Find Them was the Nifflers, so the fact that we got to meet BABY Nifflers was the best thing that could of happened. I also quickly became almost equally obsessed with the Collider who might now be my third favorite fantastic beast right behind Dougal the Demiguise. Of course I also love meeting Leta Lestrange although it was too short-lived, wish we had more! I found the Bunty character quite fun, but think there is much more to her that we’ll learn in later series unless a bunch of her scenes we’re just cut because otherwise why would you introduce her for such a small role?

Theories – The last thing I’ll say is that I don’t believe Credence to be a Dumbledore, I believe that to be a lie Grindelwald uses to get what he wants, but I’m also not discounting the Dumbledore dark twin theory and am excited to see how that plays out. I also wasn’t as mad about the Minerva Mcgonagall mistep” as everyone else was. I believe in JK and think that she wouldn’t just make this mistake unless there was a real reason for it. One of my favorite youtube channels has two videos that I agreed with on both counts, you can check those out here & here if you want to see hear detailed explanations of these theories.

Regrets – The week following my brothers passing, we were scheduled to go to Orlando together. Trent hadn’t been to Disney World since our childhood trip in 1998 during which we survived a plane crash, and I couldn’t wait to take him. I was even more excited to show him the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando because I know how much it would have meant to him. I got to take him to the California one but it’s kind of rubbish so I wanted him to see Orlando. We never got to take that trip and it’s one of the things I regret most. Trent, if you’re reading this I hope you found your own bit of magic wherever you are, I’m really sorry I didn’t take you to Hogwarts when I could.

I know this post was a lot, if you made it through, thank you. I’ll never recover from the loss of my brother and I hate that I dont have him to talk to about any of this anymore, not only do I miss his knowledge but more so his company and that this was something we shared, something he taught me. Trent I love you always I hope you’re okay and happy and free – I hope that you know that I’ll never stop missing you.