If you're a fan of Harry Potter you probably have those days where you'd love to sit down and spend time with your favorite boy wizard. Unfortunately, it would take you most of a day if you wanted to actually watch all the films. Somebody has fixed that now. One fan has edited down all eight movies into a single, 80-minute long cut. Sit back and enjoy Wizardhood.
Wizardhood gives the Richard Linklater's Boyhood treatment to the seven years of the Harry Potter films, showing us the wizard as he grows up. It's an interesting edit to say the least. The first half hour of Wizardhood basically gives us the first five movies, and part of the sixth. In that time we're mainly focusing on Harry and his friends growing from children into young adults. There is only the briefest discussion of Voldemort or the larger story and none of the plots of the films are dealt with. No Philosopher's Stone or Tri-Wizard Tournament here, just kids at school.
After the first half hour, however, we dive into the memories of Tom Riddle and get the details of Horcruxes. The last two-thirds of Wizardhood is essentially an edited down version of both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It makes one realize that while the rest of the Harry Potter films may have been great stories, a lot of it was really just filler if you're trying to focus on the Voldemort part of the story. Although, in an interesting move, the film's creator, Tim Steifler, has inserted shots of Voldemort throughout the early parts of the film so that he never completely leaves the conversation. He's a shadow hanging over the movie, but little more.
It is odd seeing Harry Potter age in front of your eyes. While the characters certainly grew up over the course of eight movies, the fact that each was separated by about a year made the transition less obvious. Here, Harry's hairstyle changes drastically from one scene to the next. Also, he apparently spends an entire year unconscious, as Harry gets knocked out during his quidditch match in year two, and wakes up in the infirmary during year three.
In the end, Wizardhood does tell a coherent story in its hour and a half runtime. Your favorite side characters aren't there but pretty much everything that is necessary to the story the film is telling is there. It isn't even exactly the same story that the complete film series actually tells but it works.
Sit back and enjoy Wizardhood and when it's over, let us know what you thought of the film in the comments below.
