The Harry Potter novels about a young magician who was kept in a cupboard are among the best-selling books of all time, however the films arguably took the Wizarding World to the next level. For many fans it is the movies that they now connect with J.K Rowling’s stories, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry, Ron and Hermione.
And in terms of films Harry Potter fans have been absolutely spoilt with eight movies made around the original books. If that wasn’t enough then there have been three further movies about the Wizarding World under the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ franchise with The Secrets of Dumbledore released only last week.
Like all movies that reach the big screen a tremendous amount of work goes into the filming and development. While those making the films hope no errors or gaffes reach audiences it’s not entirely possible to guarantee. There’s a famous saying in showbiz that you should never work with children or animals, but maybe they should have included stuffed animals.
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In the second Harry Potter film, Harry and Ron are seen charging towards a wall at King’s Cross station to reach platform 9¾ so they can catch the Hogwart’s Express. In tow is Harry’s faithful animal sidekick Hedwig the owl who, for most of the time on screen, is played by a real bird.
But in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the gateway is sealed and the pair, with their trolleys, slam into the wall and bounce off. They do a pretty convincing job of smashing into the wall, but obviously having a live bird battered in a cage has some animal welfare issues. Instead of any clever CGI, filmmakers decided to go with what appears to be a stuffed animal, and when you slow it down, it’s all too obvious, as one Twitter user recently discovered when watching it again.
Twitter user @ElleEmSee wrote: “Paused #HarryPotter and came back to see a clearly fake Hedwig headbutting the wall and now I can’t stop rewinding it.”
It’s not the only gaffe either with a camera man famously finding himself in the shot of a scene in the same film.
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