From start to finish: Where Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gave me what I really wanted out of a Harry Potter game–authentic free exploration of a realistic Hogwarts–Half-Blood Prince really improved on that concept. Even more previously inaccessible locations were added to Hogwarts (thanks to the Aurors for opening them), making the…
From the very beginning, this movie feels intense, like the open of the close that it is. Our first glimpse of Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, with his unblinking stare (he actually blinks three times but who is really counting), starts the film, followed by the incredible music composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, underscoring…
Half-Blood Prince continues almost directly from where Order of the Phoenix ended, showing Harry and Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic shortly after the battle with Voldemort. Reporters are taking pictures of them for the Daily Prophet. I love this opening. I thought it was brilliant. From there, the film continues in a muggle office…
Technically, this isn’t an editorial because it doesn’t express any opinions, and technically, Baxter isn’t my dog since I gave it to my sister, but I think this makes for an interesting article nonetheless. J. K. Rowling has said that the four Hogwarts houses roughly coincide with the four “major elements”: earth, wind, fire, and…
I had been a fan of Ministry of Magic ever since I heard their song “Nothing to Fear” on The Leaky Cauldron’s Christmas release “Jingle Spells 3”. However, I hadn’t heard any more of their songs until I went to LeakyCon 2011 in Orlando, Florida in July. Hearing them live, I knew then that they…
On Monday, I posted the following question on the FictionRow page on Facebook (which you are still more than welcome to answer): Pottermore: Did you devour the content or do you plan to savor the experience? I decided to post this question after I saw the following complaint on Hypable.com, a website that I frequent…
There were some updates to Pottermore today. The “Log In” button was removed from the Pottermore website. I can only speculate that this means the Pottermore team is working on something, possibly updating their system to get ready to send out the first set of Hogwarts letters. Update: currently, I am only able to access…
From start to finish: I understand that I’m writing these last few reviews of the Harry Potter video game franchise out-of-order. I vastly preferred this game to its predecessor, Deathly Hallows Part 1, in part because this game features Hogwarts, where the previous one did not. Of course, the story for the Deathly Hallows Part…
I am determined to make this my last post about LeakyCon. After I finish this tonight, I’m going to take a break from the Internet (including all social media and my websites/blogs) for a while. I understand that my posts have been few and far between (but wordy) in the first place, but that’s because…
I interrupt my planned post about my three very full days at LeakyCon with this bulletin: while I was in Orlando, Florida, my car was in St. Paul, Minnesota. Why was it there? Well, I drove from my home in northwestern Minnesota to my friend’s house by St. Paul. Jeff was my college roommate, and…