Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone [Blu-ray]

Director: Chris Columbus

Overview

The best-selling novel by J.K. Rowling (titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in England, as was this film adaptation) becomes this hotly anticipated fantasy adventure from Chris Columbus, the winner of a high-stakes search for a director to bring the first in a hoped-for franchise of Potter films to the screen by Warner Bros. Upon his 11th birthday, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), who lives in misery with an aunt and uncle that don't want him, learns from a giant named Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) that he is the orphaned son of powerful wizards. Harry is offered a place at prestigious Hogwarts, a boarding school for wizards that exists in a realm of magic and fantasy outside the dreary existence of normal humans or "Muggles." At Hogwarts, Harry quickly makes new friends and begins piecing together the mystery of his parents' deaths, which appear not to have been accidental after all. The film features alternate-version scenes for every mention of the titular rock. Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, John Cleese, and Fiona Shaw co-star.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/11/2007
UPC:	0085391156987
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:32:00
Sales rank:	10,715

Special Features

Additional scenes; Capturing the stone: casting and bringing the novel to life; Around the world multilanguage clip; Ghosts of Hogwarts; Yearbook character clips; Lessons in Quidditch and what it takes to hatch a dragon egg; Theatrical trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Daniel Radcliffe	Harry Potter
Emma Watson	Hermione Granger
Rupert Grint	Ron Weasley
Maggie Smith	Prof. Minerva McGonagall
Robbie Coltrane	Rubeus Hagrid
Alan Rickman	Prof. Severus Snape
Richard Harris	Albus Dumbledore
Richard Griffiths	Uncle Vernon Dursley
Ian Hart	Prof. Quirrell
John Hurt	Mr. Ollivander
John Cleese	Sir Nicholas "Nearly Headless Nick" de Mimsy-Porpington
Fiona Shaw	Aunt Petunia Dursley
Harry Melling	Dudley Dursley
Julie Walters	Mrs. Weasley
Sean Biggerstaff	Oliver Wood
David Bradley	Mr. Filch
Tom Felton	Draco Malfoy
Matthew Lewis	Neville Longbottom
Warwick Davis	Prof. Flitwick/Goblin Bank Teller
Terence Baylor	The Bloody Baron
Richard Bremmer	Lord Voldemort
Alfie Enoch	Dean Thomas,Dean Thomas
Simon Fisher-Becker	Fat Friar
Devon Murray	Seamus Finnegan
Katharine Nicholson	Pansy Parkinson
James Phelps	Fred Weasley,George Weasley
Chris Rankin	Prefect Percy Weasley
Geraldine Somerville	Lily Evans Potter
Will Theakston	Terence Higgs
Verne Troyer	Griphook
James Waylett	Vincent Crabbe,Crabbe
Bonnie Wright	Ginny Weasley
Zo? Wanamaker	Madame Hooch
Nina Young	The Grey Lady
Josh Herdman	Goyle
Harry Taylor	Station Guard
Eleanor Columbus	Susan Bones
Derek Deadman	Bartender in Leaky Cauldron
John Williams	Composer
Ben Borowiecki	Diagon Alley Boy
Jean Southern	Dimpled Woman on Train
Leslie Phillips	Voices

Technical Credits

Steve Kloves

Steve Kloves	Screenwriter
David Heyman	Producer
Chris Columbus	Executive Producer
Duncan Henderson	Executive Producer,Producer
Mark Radcliffe	Executive Producer
Michael Barnathan	Executive Producer,Producer
Greg Powell	Stunts
Jane Jenkins	Casting
John Dartigue	Casting
Janet Hirshenson	Casting
John Richardson	Special Effects,Special Effects,Special Effects
Robert Duncan	Special Effects
Robert Legato	Special Effects
John Midgley	Sound Mixer
Martin Cantwell	Sound Effects
Simon Chase	Sound Effects
Adam Daniel	Sound Effects
Henry Allen	Stunts
Simon Brown	Special Effects
Andy Kind	Special Effects
Jason Snyman	Special Effects
Ceri Nicholls	Special Effects
Dave Sullivan	Special Effects
Todd Arnow	Producer

Editorial Reviews

For all but the most nitpicking Potterphiles out there, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is nothing less than the perfect visual incarnation of J.K. Rowling's world of swooping owls and flying broomsticks. However, it's never precisely more than that, either; the very act of giving image and voice to these rich literary precepts places them in a realm inevitably less magical than the imagination. Still, it's hard to picture a more essentially faithful adaptation of Rowling's tone and story, which weighs in at a hefty two and a half hours despite streamlining some of the more vestigial elements of a quick 300-page read. Steve Kloves' adaptation of the wildly popular bestseller lingers less on some of the episodic Hogwarts' adventures, only briefly touching on such red herring plot points as the wise centaur and Hagrid's dragon. The eye-popping visuals have numerous other opportunities to shine, chief among them the grippingly rendered Quidditch match, in which players on broomsticks zoom and jockey like the speeder bikes of Endor in Return of the Jedi. It's no surprise that Harry Potter should occasionally invoke a Star Wars movie, since its hero is an orphaned boy who yearns for a destiny beyond what his aunt and uncle can provide, and who possesses unparalleled mystical powers that the dark side seeks to corrupt. The landscape Chris Columbus and cinematographer John Seale have created -- with its levitating banquet hall decorations, animated games of wizard chess, ominous trolls, and three-headed dogs -- is of equal vividness and complexity as that galaxy far, far away, and it should make just as much if not more money. Besides the film's many technical achievements, the actors really deliver, well beyond the who's who of British thespians who comprise the Hogwarts' teachers. Daniel Radcliffe has the look and reluctant heroism of Harry down perfectly, if a little too languidly; he's bested by Emma Watson's deliciously petulant and precocious Hermione, as well as the masterful line deliveries and comic timing of Rupert Grint as Ron.