Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Director: David Yates, David Yates David Yates, David Yates,

Overview

This spin-off of the Harry Potter franchise jumps back in time to explore the wizarding world of 1926 New York, which is being threatened by both mystical acts of destruction and a group of extremist No-Majs (the American term for Muggles, i.e. those unable to use magic). Author Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives in the city as part of a global study of fantastic beasts, but he gets caught up in this conflict when some of the magical creatures in his care are accidentally released. Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller, and Johnny Depp co-star in this fantasy adventure, which was directed by David Yates (who helmed four of the Harry Potter films) and adapted for the screen by J.K. Rowling from her own book. ~ Jack Rodgers

Product Details

Release Date:	03/28/2017
UPC:	0883929564170
Original Release:	2016
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Warner Home Video
Format:	Blu-ray

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Eddie Redmayne	Newt Scamander
Katherine Waterston	Porpentina Goldstein/Tina
Alison Sudol	Queenie Goldstein
Dan Fogler	Jacob Kowalski
Colin Farrell	Percival Graves
Samantha Morton	Mary Lou
Ezra Miller	Credence Barebone
Jon Voight	Shaw Senior
Carmen Ejogo	Seraphina Picquery
Ron Perlman	Gnarlak
Sam Redford	Customs Official
Timothy Bentinck	Witness
Tristan Tait	Reporter
Tom Clarke-Hill	Photographer 2
Mathew Sim	Photographer 1
Faith Wood-Blagrove	Modesty Barebone
Jenn Murray	Chastity Barebone
Corey Peterson	Bank Employee
Lucie Pohl	Secretary
Peter Breitmayer	Mr. Bingley
Jake Samuels	Bank Guard
Max Cazier	Young Man
Dan Hedaya	Red
Christy Meyer	Guide-Inside Macusa
Guy Paul	Auror 2
Andreea Paduraru	Auror 9
Walles Hamonde	Auror 10
Dominique Tipper	Auror 1
Kevin Guthrie	Mr. Abernathy
Leo Heller	Boy with Birthmark
Miles Roughley	Poor Boy
Anne Wittman	Housewife
Erick Hayden	Policeman
Paul Birchard	Hobo
Ronan Raftery	Langdon Shaw
Tom Hodgkins	Barker
Josh Cowdery	Henry Shaw Jr./Senator Shaw
Ellie Haddington	Mrs. Esposito
Joseph Macnab	Police Officer 1
Bart Edwards	Police Officer 2
Todd Boyce	Announcer
Martin Oelbermann	Heinrich Eberstadt
Gemma Chan	Madam Ya Zhou
Richard Clothier	British Envoy
Christian Dixon	Momolu Wotorson
Akin Gazi	Auror 3
Rich Hardisty	Auror 4
Elizabeth Moynihan	Executioner 1
Miquel Brown	Executioner 2
Wunmi Mosaku	Beryl
Cristian Solimeno	Executioner 3
Matthew Wilson	Sam the Obliviator
Brian Mulvey	Watchman
Aretha Ayeh Emmi	Singer - The Blind Pig Speakeasy
Nick McGaughey	Australian Wizard
Sean Cronin	Nearby Criminal
Zoe Kravitz	Lestrange
Arinze Kene	Auror 6
Jane Perry	Female Customer in Bakery

Technical Credits

J. Rowling

David Yates	Director
David Yates	Director
Niv Adiri	Sound/Sound Designer
David Allday	Art Director
Huw Arthur	Art Director
Colleen Atwood	Costumes/Costume Designer
Suzanne Austin	Art Director
Ben Barker	Sound/Sound Designer
Neil Blair	Executive Producer
Guy Bradley	Art Director
Toby Britton	Art Director
Stuart Craig	Production Designer
Sally Crouch	Makeup
Tony Davis	Production Manager
Mark Day	Editor
Peter Dorme	Art Director
Haley Easton-Street	Art Director
Karen Elliott	Musical Direction/Supervision
Gavin Fitch	Art Director
Martin Foley	Art Director
Toby Ford	Asst. Director
Glenn Freemantle	Sound/Sound Designer
Dominc Fysh	Asst. Director
Kate Grimble	Art Director
David Heyman	Producer
James Newton Howard	Score Composer
Christian Huband	Art Director
Carmel Jackson	Makeup
Steve Kloves	Producer
Tim Lewis	Executive Producer
Josh Robertson	Asst. Director
Philippe Rousselot	Cinematographer
J. Rowling	Producer,Screenwriter
Tom Sayers	Sound/Sound Designer
Rick Senat	Executive Producer
Michael Sharp	Co-producer
Leslie Tomkins	Art Director
David Watkins	Special Effects Supervisor
Fiona Weir	Casting
Susan Whitaker	Art Director
Lionel Wigram	Producer

Editorial Reviews

It's been a whole five years since the Harry Potter saga came to a natural conclusion with 2011's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and Warner Bros. is desperate for more of that sweet, sweet coin it provided. Like every other studio in Hollywood, they're in danger of losing the franchise arms race to Disney (who already control Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars), and they're hungry for more intellectual properties that they can squeeze for every last drop of blood. If that's case, then at least expanding the world of Harry Potter makes sense (reminder: we are also getting a Transformers expanded universe soon), as J.K. Rowling's fictional realm is richly detailed enough to merit further exploration. This spin-off is charming and does a decent job of finding the balance that all blockbusters today require -- giving the audience something that feels familiar, yet new enough to justify a trip to the theater -- but it's undermined by the demands of launching a new megafranchise. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them jumps back in time to 1926, and across the pond from Hogwarts (which true Potter fans will know is located in Scotland, not England) to the wizarding community of New York City. It's a shift that lets us see Rowling's creation from a whole new perspective, as the film jettisons the boarding-school melodrama and coming-of-age narrative of the Harry Potter stories in favor of a tale about the fragile relationship between America's magic users and its No-Majs, the ordinary humans who remain (so far) blissfully unaware of the former's existence. A series of terrorist-like attacks by a dark wizard named Gellert Grindelwald (played by an A-list actor in a cameo that won't be spoiled here) are threatening to upset the peace between the two societies, and so New York City is already on edge even before protagonist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives there. Newt is in the Big Apple as part of a world tour to collect rare magical creatures, but he quickly makes things worse when his suitcase (which he uses to keep the beasts -- on the inside, it's a gigantic habitat that can accommodate thousands of different organisms) is accidentally switched with a similar case belonging to a No-Maj everyman named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). The creatures get loose and scatter throughout the city, forcing Newt, Jacob, a disgraced wizard investigator named Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), and Tina's alluring, telepathic sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) to team up to find them before their presence pushes wizard/human tensions to the breaking point. The frustrating thing about Fantastic Beasts is that it feels like two different movies fighting for screen time -- and one of them is a lot more interesting than the other. The first movie is a lighthearted adventure romp that never takes itself too seriously: Its "action" sequences feature Newt mimicking an elephant-like creature's mating ritual in Central Park in order to lure it back into the suitcase, and it has enough breathing room for quiet scenes where the characters just talk to each other and moments of genuine wonder like Jacob getting a tour of Newt's otherworldly menagerie. Then there's the second movie, which is all about turning the gears of plot -- but just slooooooowly enough that it will take five (already announced!) films to reach this story's grand finale. Colin Farrell has had a hell of a career renaissance lately, but he couldn't look more bored here as Percival Graves, a glowering wizarding official who might as well be holding up a sign that says, "I'm up to no good!" He's involved in a not particularly well-explained plot to unleash the powers of something called an Obscurus, which turns into a vague blob of grey and black that conveniently attempts to level New York City once the movie's threat level needs to be cranked up to "world-ending chaos." Maybe one problem is that the Harry Potter universe -- as brilliantly realized as it is -- never found a good way to depict action scenes involving wizard combat. When two people face off in a Star Wars film, at least they have lightsaber duels to settle things; here, two magic users fire identical beams of energy at each other, then they both make very pained facial expressions as the beams clash and generate lots of noise while killing neither of them. It begs the question: Why did we need a huge, apocalyptic showdown like this at all? The quest to recapture the fantastic beasts is clever and occasionally tense -- why wasn't that plot line enough without having to add a totally separate one? Watching a movie like this, you start to realize that, if E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial were made today, Elliott would have to get his alien pal to the spaceship in time or else California would be vaporized by a poorly explained superweapon. It feels a bit mean-spirited to beat up on Fantastic Beasts for being an example of a much larger trend crippling popcorn cinema, but that's only because the film is winning enough at times to make those flaws stand out even more. There's some real magic here, but it seems even magic is no match for the power of money.

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