Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review *

       The year is 1926, and young Newt Scamander, famed author of the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, finds himself in New York City. He sneaks in a case filled with his creatures. When an disaster occurs as well as one of his creatures escaping, Newt Scamander along with a Muggle and two feisty witches must come together to reveal the culprit of the disaster and find Newt's creatures.

       I had a lot of feels about this movie. Mostly good ones. I was impressed with the case first of all. Eddie Redmayne did an outstanding job portraying a young Newt Scamander. He was the perfect mix of weird, smart, and magical creature-obsessed. The actress who plays Queenie stole the show with her sassy attitude, beauty, and let's be honest, the part where Queenie (who knows the fact that she can use her beauty to get what she wants) tricks her boss into letting Newt and Jacob escape. Jacob stole my heart. Porpentina and Newt's suggestive relationship makes me impatient for the next installment in the series.

Things I didn't like: Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald. To me it made the entire movie corny as hell. It was almost ruined because of Johnny Depp. Not only was it corny but that's not how I imagined Grindelwald at all.

Overall though, I adored this film. I'm terribly excited for the latest installment in the series.

Follow the Spiders

         Follow the spiders. Harry Potter fans recognize this sentence from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets but now you'll be seeing it elsewhere. Over the weekend, Harry Potter fans have been encouraged to follow the spiders all over the internet. Fans are suspecting something new from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Is it possibly hinting at something new at the Harry Potter theme parks? Or maybe an update on Pottermore?

Follow the Spiders teaser

      Unfortunately nothing further will be revealed until January 27. In the mean time, you can check out the Instagram account followthespiders to see a teaser. There's also a teaser trailer floating around on Twitter as well. In the mean time, I suppose we'll just have to occupy ourselves until more information is released.

5 Things You'll Recognize in 'Fantastic Beasts'

       Although we're all terribly excited about seeing some of the new things that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has to offer, it'll be a comfort to see some of the familiar aspects of HP that we know and love. MILD SPOILERS WILL BE MENTIONED, SO READ WITH CAUTION.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them poster

The No-Majs or Muggles
     As usual, the Muggles or nonmagic folk will make their regularly scheduled appearance in the new film. Although in the United States, they're not called Muggles; they're called No-Majs.

Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander

The Magic
       We'll also run into pieces of magic that we're familiar with in the new movie. New Scamander makes use of Petrificus Totalus. Obliviate is used quite liberally in the film and some poor New York citizens.

Characters Queenie Goldstein and Jacob Kowalski

Legilimens
     During the movie, you'll even see that the character Queenie is revealed to be a legilimens. If you remember from the Harry Potter series, Snape and Dumbledore were also legilimens.

One of the creatures from Newt Scamander's briefcase

The Lestrange Family
       Not only will you see phrases, magic, and abilities that you recognize, but you'll also see a family that you are familiar with. In Fantastic Beasts, you will also see a family that you are familiar with: the Lestranges. There is a photograph of a Leta Lestrange, whom Newt Scamander may have had a romantic relationship with.

Book Ginny vs. Movie Ginny: Which One Did You Like Better?

      For the past few days, I've been re-watching all of the Harry Potter films as well as re-reading all of the books. That got me wondering more about one of the most interesting characters in the series: Ginny Weasley.

    From the early Harry Potter books we can see that Ginny is going to grow up to be one kick-ass, no-bullshit kind of girl. She keeps up with all of her brothers (and with your brothers being two of the most well-known pranksters to ever step foot on Hogwarts grounds, that's saying something), can take care of herself, and is funny as hell.

Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley 

     However, when we get to movie version of Ginny, there is a lot to be desired in my opinion. In the early movies, I thought they were doing pretty well with Ginny. After all Ginny does start off to be shy and timid around Harry towards the beginning of the series. However, as Ginny got older, she didn't seem to evolve that much. She only seemed a little less shy. The biggest difference was that Ginny had boyfriends.

Fan art of Ginny Weasley

    In my opinion, they could've done so much better with Ginny. For example, they could've added that  bit where she hexed some Slytherins. Or they could've just included Ginny more with the Trio. After all, Ginny was good friends with Hermione. She did hang out with them pretty often.

The Harry Potter Movies Are Returning to Theaters?!

      If any of you are anything like me, nothing can replace the magic of seeing the Harry Potter films for the first time in theaters. At least that's what I used to think. What if I told you that you could have the opportunity to relive the magic as an adult?

     Since October 13, select theaters throughout the United States have been hosting showings of all eight Harry Potter films. This is only lasting for a week though, so be sure to see all of the films at a nearby theater if you get a chance. Not only will you have the chance to see all eight HP films, but here in a few weeks you'll get to feast your eyes on the newest film from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

      I don't know about you guys but this is personally something I am SO FREAKING EXCITED for. It's the ultimate Harry Potter marathon. If this is something you are able to do, do it!

The Illustrated Version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

      I don't know about you guys, but ever since the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released, I've been excited to see more. Fortunately, the illustrated version of the Chamber of Secrets was recently released so I got the opportunity to check it out. And let me tell you, was it awesome.

Illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Ron Weasley illustration

Harry Potter illustration

Draco Malfoy illustration

Hermione Granger illustration

     The colors that illustrator Jim Kay used were absolutely vibrant and really brought out some of the details that the Harry Potter movies missed. It was interesting to see another artist's interpretation of the Harry Potter World. At one point you even get to see Dobby's bare ass running down a hallway. There are pages upon pages of this amazing artwork. To get a closer peek, check out this video:

Three New Harry Potter Books?!

       Your humble blogger here has had a giant void in her heart since the Harry Potter series ended. Fortunately though, J.K. Rowling is going to refill it again. After learning about The Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts, I thought that would be the last we'd hear from the wizarding world for a while. However, I'm happy to have learned that Jo has released three new Harry Potter books (which are available as ebooks only). I don't know about you guys, but I am personally very excited about this.

The Harry Potter ebooks

     Although these books are not specifically about Harry, they're bound to be a good read. These three books dive into the details of the lives of several favorite characters, including the detestable Dolores Umbridge and Gryffindor's Head of House,  Minerva McGonagall.  Each book is about 10, 000 words long.

The three books are entitled: Power, Politics, and Pesky Poltergeists, Heroism, Hardship, and Dangerous Hobbies, and Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide. The books are currently available for purchase.