For those people who believe that Potterheads do not actually have the patience to sit through the eight movie adaptations of the JK Rowling novels, a fan has crunched the productions into a 79-minute summary.
Tim Stiefler’s fan edit Wizardhood is carved out of 19 hours and 39 minutes, and it unsurprisingly slices off chunks of the narrative. All the Muggle bits are edited out. The film starts with the Hogwarts Express pulling into Hogsmeade station and Hagrid escorting a bunch of wide-eyed first-year students into their school. Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger are introduced in quick succession, as is Voldemort and his rebounding Avada Kedavra curse.
The first 20 minutes of Wizardhood are like some other film, one that could have been called Hogwarts High. For the uninitiated, it would appear that all Harry, Ron, and Hermione did was attend school, have crushes, dance at the Yule Ball, and play Quidditch. That is how we quickly race through the first three productions.
Much of the fan edit is devoted to the search for the Horcruxes and then the Battle of Hogwarts. But you end up missing the urgency of the quest, especially because Voldemort doesn’t come across as the ominous Dark Lord.
That said, to condense an entire series into one film is as challenging as a wizard duel, and for that Stiefler gets 70 points (for whichever house he belongs to).
However, the editing is choppy, and the scenes jump from one moment to the next, leaving viewers with the feeling that someone has placed a Confundus Charm on them. Iconic sequences are missing, such as Dobby banging his head, Sirius Black escaping with Buckbeak, or Bellatrix Lestrange taunting Potter.
Potterheads everywhere will mourn the absence of their favourite scenes. Not that it will stop them from watching Wizardhood again and again. Not that they need an excuse to watch anything Potter.
