Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

The film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (released June 4, 2004) included the basic plot of the book; however, the story centred around the difficulties of becoming an adolescent. It was directed by Alfonso Cuarón and produced by Chris Columbus.

Main Characters

 * Harry Potter          - Daniel Radcliffe
 * Ron Weasley           - Rupert Grint
 * Hermione Granger      - Emma Watson

Hogwarts staff

 * Albus Dumbledore      - Michael Gambon
 * Minerva McGonagall    - Maggie Smith
 * Severus Snape         - Alan Rickman
 * Remus Lupin           - David Thewlis
 * Sybill Trelawney      - Emma Thompson
 * Rubeus Hagrid         - Robbie Coltrane
 * Filius Flitwick       - Warwick Davis
 * Argus Filch           - David Bradley
 * The Fat Lady          - Dawn French
 * Sir Cadogan           - Paul Whitehouse

Hogwarts students

 * Dean Thomas           - Alfred Enoch
 * Draco Malfoy          - Tom Felton
 * Pansy Parkinson       - Genevieve Gaunt
 * Gregory Goyle         - Josh Herdman
 * Neville Longbottom    - Matthew Lewis
 * Gryffindor Girl           - Kandice Morris
 * Seamus Finnigan       - Devon Murray
 * Fred Weasley          - James Phelps
 * George Weasley        - Oliver Phelps
 * Percy Weasley         - Chris Rankin
 * Gryffindor Boy            - Rick Sahota
 * Padma Patil           - Sharon Sandhu
 * Parvati Patil         - Sitarah Shah
 * Lavender Brown        - Jennifer Smith
 * Angelina Johnson      - Danielle Tabor
 * Vincent Crabbe        - Jamie Waylett
 * Slytherin Boy             - Bronson Webb
 * Ginny Weasley         - Bonnie Wright

Dursleys

 * Vernon Dursley        - Richard Griffiths
 * Petunia Dursley       - Fiona Shaw
 * Dudley Dursley        - Harry Melling
 * Marge Dursley         - Pam Ferris

Ministry of Magic

 * Cornelius Fudge       - Robert Hardy
 * Walden Macnair        - Peter Best
 * Arthur Weasley        - Mark Williams

Knight Bus

 * Ernie Prang           - Jimmy Gardner
 * Stan Shunpike         - Lee Ingleby
 * Shrunken Head             - Lenny Henry (voice)

Plot
Harry Potter is, as usual, spending his summer at the Dursley's house. Uncle Vernon's sister Marge arrives for a visit and at dinner time viciously insults Harry and his parents. Harry's anger and unconscious magical powers cause her to inflate and float away. Expecting to have been expelled from Hogwarts for using magic outside of school, Harry flees. Suddenly, the Knight Bus appears and takes Harry to the Leaky Cauldron. There, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge tells Harry he will not be expelled. Harry learns that Sirius Black, who is said to be a supporter of Lord Voldemort, has escaped from Azkaban. He is also informed by Arthur Weasley that Black will likely come after him.

Harry journeys to Hogwarts with his best friends Ron and Hermione; they are now entering their third year. On the train they share a compartment with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, who is sleeping when they enter the compartment. Abruptly, the Hogwarts Express is stopped and a Dementor boards, searching for Black. The creature has a profound effect on Harry, causing him to faint. Lupin awakens and repels the Dementor. At school, Albus Dumbledore informs the Hogwarts students that because Black is at large, Dementors have been set up around the school as a protection. In addition to Lupin's appointment, Hagrid is announced as the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher. As lessons begin, Hermione frequently arrives at their various classes by appearing out of nowhere. Lupin's lessons prove enjoyable,; he teaches useful spells and helps less confident students like Neville. However Hagrid's class does not go to plan; on the first day, Draco Malfoy deliberately provokes the Hippogriff Buckbeak into attacking him. His father successfully has Buckbeak sentenced to death.

During a Quidditch match, several Dementors approach Harry, causing him to fall off his broomstick; Dumbledore slows his descent. Harry then decides to learn how to fight the Dementors. Lupin teaches him to cast a spell conjuring a Patronus to repel will repel a Dementor. A Patronus is the opposite of a Dementor which breeds on unhappy thoughts and bad memories. The happier the thought used to cast the spell, the more powerful the Patronus. After several tries, Harry manages to create a Patronus. Later, Harry attempts to sneak to Hogsmeade without permission, but is caught by Fred and George, who give him the Marauder's Map so that he can enter the village through a secret passage. At Hogsmeade, Harry overhears that Black was his godfather and his parents' best friend. Black is said to have divulged the Potters' secret whereabouts to Voldemort and murdered their mutual friend Peter Pettigrew. Harry vows to kill Black, but is later astonished when he sees Pettigrew's name on the map.

In Divination class, Professor Trelawney enters a trance and predicts that the Dark Lord's servant will return to Harry that night. Harry, Ron and Hermione visit Hagrid to console him over Buckbeak's impending execution. While there, Ron discovers his rat, Scabbers, which had disappeared earlier in the year. While trio is chasing Scabbers, a large dog drags both Ron and and the rat into a hole at the base of the Whomping Willow. Harry and Hermione follow, finding a tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack. The dog is revealed to be the Animagus of Sirius Black. Lupin arrives as well and upon seeing Scabbers embraces Sirius as an old friend. After being confronted by Hermione, Lupin admits to being a werewolf. Snape appears, planning to catch Black and Lupin and hand them over to the Dementors, but is knocked out by Harry. Lupin and Black explain that Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form. Everything that Black is accused was actually Pettigrew and the pair force Pettigrew back into his human form. Lupin and Sirius prepare to kill Pettigrew but are stopped by Harry, who tells them that it was not what James would have done. As the group head back to the castle the full moon rises, causing Lupin to transform and Pettigrew to escape. Lupin and Sirius fight in their animal forms, until Lupin is distracted, and Sirius and Harry are attacked by Dementors. As Sirius is about to have his soul removed, Harry sees a figure in the distance cast a powerful stag-shaped Patronus, scattering the dementors and saving their lives.

Hermione reveals that she possesses a time-turner, which is how she has been taking multiple classes at once. She and Harry travel back in time three hours, watching themselves go through the night's events. They set Buckbeak free and return to the Whomping Willow. As the Dementors are about to attack the "other" Harry and Sirius, Harry realizes that the person he saw was actually him and casts the Patronus. Harry and Hermione rescue a captured Sirius and give him Buckbeak to escape on, as time equals out again. At the end of the year, Lupin resigns, knowing that people will not allow a werewolf to teach their children. Later, Sirius sends Harry a Firebolt, an extremely fast racing broom.

Differences From the Book

 * The movie starts with Harry performing the 'Lumos Maxima' Spell, well aware of the Restrictions of Underage Wizards and did not receive any warnings.


 * Sybill Trelawney, the Divination teacher, makes a prophecy to Harry Potter about "innocent blood being shed" and "servant and master uniting once more".  The significance of this prophecy is not explained in the movie, but in the book, Albus Dumbledore explains that this prophecy was made about Peter Pettigrew, and that he more than likely returned to his master, Lord Voldemort, after he escaped.


 * The origins of the Marauder's Map are not revealed. Indeed, the whole storyline of the Marauders was left out (including that his father was an animagus that transformed into a stag, though the stag Harry saw past the Dementors at the film's climax he still identified with his father). The Map was actually created by Harry's father, James Potter, and his three best friends: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, back when they were attending Hogwarts.


 * Like in the previous films the majority of the Quidditch season was cut out aside from the first match and the part of Gryffindor winning the Quidditch cup was also cut from the film.


 * In the book, Harry received his Firebolt for Christmas right after his Nimbus 2000 was destroyed, although he couldn't use it at first because Professor McGonagall took the broom away at Hermione Granger's request to confirm if the broom was jixned, which lead to some tension between Harry and Herminoe for awhile. Eventually, Sirius Black revealed he had sent the broom. In the film Harry Potter recieved the Firebolt at the end of the film and although it didn't say who sent it like in the book, Harry knew that Black had sent it after he noticed one of Buckbeak's feathers inside the package.


 * Only the initial scene of Ron and Hermione's arguement towards Ron's concerns of the danger of Hermione's new cat Crookshanks towards his rat Scabbers was used in the film. Most other arguements were ommited from the film.
 * On a similar note Hagrids stern lecture to Harry and Ron about their foolishness of putting their material possessions (i.e. Harry's Firebolt broomstick and Ron's rat Scabbers) over their friendship with Hermione was also ommited.


 * Harry's two visits to Hogsmeade are combined into a single trip with a few scenes intact. Although the part of Harry using the Invisibility Cloak for a prank on Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, when Draco made an insult to Ron about his family was still used. Two main differences that did not occur in the book are because there was snow, Harry threw snowballs while under the cloaks protection instead of mudballs and Hermione was present. Additionally, the scene of Draco finding out about Harry's unauthorized visit when the hood of the cloak accidentally fell off of Harry's head was ommited from the film.


 * The scene with the Dementors, where Harry, Hermione and Sirius all fainted was changed in the movie where Hermione was not present.

Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban (film)