100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 156: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Director: David Yates
Genre: Adventure/ Fantasy/ Family
Runtime: 132 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alison Sudol, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, Zoë Kravitz, Johnny Depp, Ron Perlman, Samantha Marton, Jon Voight, Dan Fogler

Description: The adventures of writer Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school.

Review: When “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” was released, it was the end of an era for Harry Potter fans. The last film about the adventures of wizard Harry Potter. But writer J.K. Rowling wasn’t done with the wizarding world either. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a spin-off and she wrote the script for the movie herself. And thank goodness the magic is still alive.
It’s supposed to be a complete new franchise, with five movies in total. And I couldn’t be more excited! We meet Newt Scamander, a zoologist who studies mysterious fable creatures and keeps them in a magical suitcase. He travels to New York, but his animals manage to escape. The story is set seventy years before Harry Potter is even born.
Eddie Redmayne is really good as Newt Scamander. It’s like Redmayne always belonged in this universe, he fits perfectly. He is charming yet very unworldly. I also really liked Dan Fogler as Kowalski, a Muggle. He is the comic relief and he is sort of represents the audience. The one Newt explains everything to. Colin Farrell is the villain, sort of, and he is strong in his role as well.
With traveling outside the UK, the story has created room for many new characters, decors and situations. Wizarding is different in America. Muggles, called No-Maj, aren’t allowed to interact with wizards. But Rowling also connects the parallel tot he real world, to discuss themes as apartheid, oppression and intolerance. This gives the spin-off an extra layer.
But the amazement is what I love about the film. All the great fairytale like creatures we get to meet, like the Niffler, Pickett the walking stick animal and Frank, an eagle like bird.
Also the décor and costumes are fantastic, combined with an amazing musical score by James Newton Howard. Director David Yates, who directed the Harry Potter films since “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoeniex”, knows his material and again did a great job bringing this magical world to life.

Rating: 4,5/ 5