For those Harry Potter fans craving a continuation of JK Rowling’s riveting series that took us on a journey with Harry, Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore- and well the list goes on, this is what you’ve been waiting for. The movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them attributes an appropriately executed new twist to the classic world of wizardry and magic. Better than the Harry Potter films, this new cinema experience opens viewers to the American way of magic and a world of unbelievable beasts. While the movie did seem to stray from a concrete plot, it was a joy to see, nonetheless.
Viewers are taken on a journey with the main character, Newt Scamander, a British wizard who travels to America and ends up getting whisked up with a politically scandalous character, an anti-magic movement and a search to track down the beasts he’s lost from his case. Electrifying plot twists and breathtaking scenes are frequented and invoke curiosity and adoration amongst viewers. With a score that is ever so evident of Harry Potter themes seen in the eight movies, the orchestral music in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them invokes a sense of nostalgia; as viewers are still thrust into a world of sheer magic and are taken on a journey reminiscent of the adventures of the classic trio with a new gang. These characters are non-archetypical and test the limits of viewer’s innermost memories from the series and create emotional bonds as the new gang gets into danger and saves the world. A world in which they are persecuted and live in cowardry.
The film leaves the lasting impression of the struggle of being a minority; as well as focusing on the vilification of beasts in the wizardry world, and why they shouldn’t be feared as they are. The American wizardry community cowers in the fear of the discovery, as the possibility of persecution by nomads (non-magics, the American word for muggle) becomes more of reality each day. At the end of the film, viewers are left with sentimental message that minorities living with fear are limited in their expression and existence and they shouldn’t have to be.
