Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone [DVD] [2001]

Product Information

Personally I don`t like extras anyway, apart from a theatrical trailer and a director`s commentary, as I never look at the rest of the *** that you get on DVDs, but each to his own I suppose. Sadly most of this is missing in the film (maybe we will see a bit more in the sequels when we visit the Weasleys` home, but I am not too hopeful). The Quidditch scene is a standout, but the poor effects let down a film that unfortunately has to rely on them. The rest of the disc space is filled up with lots of huge animated menus, with a voiceover, and then clips from the film that you have just seen, so they`re pointless.

Harry Potter The Complete Collection: 20th Anniversary Harry Potter The Complete Collection: 20th Anniversary

As there are many dark scenes and dark backgrounds in the film, and the wizards` robes are black, this is all very unfortunate - especially since the black level is set wrongly (i.Colours are mainly OK, although the greens of the Quidditch pitch are too lurid (unimpressive CGI work for a film made in 2001). I hate the features on disk 2, which are exceptionally irritating (for adults) - I particularly hated having to get the wand in Ollivanders, where there is no clue as to which one to pick and you get a cheesy explosion effect over and over again each time you get it wrong.

Harry Potter and The Philosopher`s Stone (Widescreen) (UK) Harry Potter and The Philosopher`s Stone (Widescreen) (UK)

The great ensemble adult cast are on the whole great but all have too little to do each to be of mention. Harry Potter is an ordinary boy who lives in a cupboard under the stairs at his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon`s house, which he thinks is normal for someone like him whose parents have been killed in a `car crash`. It`s not dark enough, it`s only mildly amusing, and it justs sticks to the book to much, yet cuts out Peeves the Poltergeist. It`s a bit like driving on a motorway - the plot takes you there at a steady pace and in a fairly safe manner (with a couple of points where it slows down due to congestion) - but where is the joy in that?The problem is the only extras of note are some talking heads interviews, which are OK, and then some deleted scenes, which take an age to get to by playing some pretty boring set top games. The extras kept me amused for an hour or so, but why didn`t they put the deleted scences into the main feature? For a disk that was pretty well guaranteed to sell in the millions, it is a fairly disappointing product.

A good movie on first viewing in the cinema, mainly because of the novelty of saying, it`s Harry Potter, and it`s exactly how you expected it to be! Harry Potter finds out that he is a wizard and goes to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry for the first time. while the film is one of the best family films to come out in a long time, i enjoyed every minute, and it DOES feel too short, the video is a lovely, clean, crisp anamorphic 2.Only DD, and no DTS, which is odd as it probably would have fitted on the disc with ease, particularly as there is no commentary at all.