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Ron: Mental that one, I'm telling you.

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When the letters come flying out of the fireplace, Dudley yells, "Please, make it stop." If you look at his lips during this time, they're not moving. See more...

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David Thewlis, who later played Professor Lupin in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," was considered for the role of Professor Quirrell. Ironically, Thewlis is friends with Ian Hart, who did play the role. See more...

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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) - 160 corrections

Directed by Chris Columbus, starring Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Ian Hart, Maggie Smith, Richard Griffiths, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton (add more)

Genres: Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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Steven Spielberg was offered the position as director, but was later refused when he couldn't agree with J.K. Rowling's insistence on having an all-British cast, as he wanted Haley Joel-Osment to play Harry. [This is an old rumour which has since been rebuffed by J.K. Rowling. She has stated that she would have never, nor was in a position to, decline Spielberg direction over this movie.]
Edit
In the scene in the Great Hall where Ron is looking at his Chocolate Frogs cards, Harry picks one up. It's suppose to be Dumbledore's card, but in several shots you see where Dumbledore's picture should be. Instead, all you see is the green screen attached to the cards. [Dumbledore's picture was a simple holographic foil image; the same kind you'd see on any credit card. There was no green screen effect needed for this. What you're seeing is just the way the light plays off the foil when viewed from an extreme angle.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
In 'Deathly Hallows Part 1', James and Lily Potter's gravestone says they died in 1981. When their deaths are shown in 'Philosopher's Stone', baby Harry is seen wearing a Blue's Clues shirt, but Blue's Clues didn't exist until 1996, 15 years after the Potters' deaths. [Those are bunny rabbits on his shirt.]
Edit Corrected by irenebill
Harry Potter successfully battles a Troll in this movie. A character by the exact same name also does this in the 1986 movie "Troll" [Pure coincidence. Not trivia in the slightest.]
Edit Corrected by Brad
After arriving to Hogwarts, just after Draco Malfoy is confronting Harry, Professor McGonagall taps Draco on the shoulder, when turned around, for a split moment you can see the tape that keeps on his wig to cover his brown hair. [Except he's not wearing a wig; Tom Felton's hair has been dyed platinum blonde ever since he first got the role of Draco Malfoy.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
Just after Ron says, 'Mails here!', we see the owls dropping various packages to Hogwarts students. The very first owl closeup we see is a brown one and s/he is flying to the right. It's carrying a green package. When the owl drops the package and a student catches it, however, the package has turned blue. [They are not meant to be the same package. We are shown two tight close-ups of owls - among many other owls, who are delivering/dropping the mail, which merely serve to illustrate this event. The package the first owl releases is green and rectangle, with string tied around the smaller side, and a student catches a larger, blue, square package with string tied around all of its sides. Two shots later we see another owl drop a tan, rectangle package, with a single string and it cuts to yet another student catching an entirely different smaller package. Neither of these are mistakes.]
Edit Corrected by lmao Time
In Gringott's, after visiting Harry's vault, as they stand in front of vault 713, a cart passes by on the tracks. In order to do this, it almost certainly would have had to jump the cart Harry and Hagrid had been using. [The fact that you're speaking of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, which is run by Goblins who have many enchantments in place, is in itself evidence that there really is nothing extraordinary about an enchanted cart travelling within the bank's underground passages, on its interlinked series of tracks.]
Edit Corrected by lmao
In the reptile house at the zoo, Dudley yells at his parent to come and see what the snake Harry is looking at is doing. The problem is that Dudley is facing the opposite wall when he yells out and hasn't even seen the snakes' enclosure yet. [The Burmese Python is lying down motionless at the bottom of its enclosure, when Dudley decides it's boring and walks to the exhibit behind Harry. During the conversation with Harry, the snake perks up, raises its head up high, to Harry's shoulder level, then moves about very animatedly when Harry turns to look at the zoo sign and continues talking. The next time we even see Dudley, his head and body are already turned halfway towards Harry's direction, whereupon he shouts for his parents to come see what the snake is doing. It is clear from Dudley's body position that he has just seen the snake's very noticeable actions, as it was speaking to Harry.]
Edit Corrected by lmao
When Harry, Hermione, and Ron go up the stair case, and end up in the third floor, you see there are three floors in view, plus a stair case going down, connected to the last visible floor, so in reality, it really wasn't the third floor. [In the UK, we don't start numbering right from the bottom. We start with the ground floor, which would be the first floor under the US system, then number as you go upwards. So, our first floor would be the second floor in the US and so forth. As such, the third floor that they refer to would be the fourth floor in US terminology, which fits with what's seen on-screen.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
Even before the Sorting, Harry has a Gryffindor tie on with his robes. [Harry has a Hogwarts tie on like everyone else before the sorting. The Gryffindor tie has more color to it than the ones that all first year students are wearing.]
Edit
When Harry is standing on his broomstick to catch the Snitch at the Quidditch scene and then he falls, it is impossible for the Snitch to get in his mouth without its wings cutting Harry's lips. [How so? We have no idea what the Snitch is made of. The wings could very likely be soft enough to rub right over Harry's lips without leaving a mark.]
Edit Corrected by CocoCami
When Harry is searching the restricted section, he puts the lamp down first and then the cloak. So the cloak would be on top of the lamp, but when he pulls on the cloak so he can put it on, the cloak is under the lamp. [Harry puts the cloak down as he is using the light to look at the books. He then puts the light down ON TOP of the cloak.]
Edit Corrected by Starchild
When Harry, Ron and Hermione walks towards the door leading to the third corridor the first time you can see the right banister wobble. [The stair cases move, it's possible that the banister will wobble.]
Edit Corrected by Boobra Time
In the end credits they say that there are 3 beaters on the Slytherin team. There should only be 2. [It doesn't even list Slytherin team beaters in the end credits.]
Edit
Why didn't Ron just get off the stone horse instead of risking his life by taking the hit the queen gave out? [Because then he's not playing the part of the knight, and it would end Wizard's Chess. That would then invalidate the challenge and not allow them to pass.]
Edit Corrected by CocoCami
In the scene where Ron is under the sorting hat, he is sorted into Gryffindor, but instead of heading off to the left, to the Gryffindor table, he heads off right which would send him out of his way to the correct table. [True but there is a large group of first years between him and the Gryffindor table which he has to walk round. It's not at all clear if going left or right is shorter and in any case, taking the long way round isn't a movie mistake.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time
When Harry, Ron, and Hermoine get off the stairs (which have just moved) onto the third floor, the stairs bounce, clearly illustrating that they are not made of the hard stone they appear to be. [The bounce is related to the fact that the staircase is only attached at the bottom otherwise it would be unable to turn. The flex comes from where the stairs are connected to the lower landing, not from the material itself.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time
Last shot of the Hogwarts Express as it pulls away: the trees to the left of the screen are blowing madly in the wind, while the trees to the right aren't moving at all. [The trees on the right are further away and more difficult to see but it's clear that they are blowing just as madly as the trees on the left side.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time
When Harry is in the hospital wing, and he's been sleeping there for a while (time not known) as soon as he wakes up, before even lifting his head, he reaches over to the right side of his bed, picks up his glasses, and puts them on. But earlier in the movie his nightstand was on the left side of his bed, when he slept in the dormitory. It's odd how automatic Harry knew where his glasses were, even when they changed sides - he was presumably unconscious when they put him in bed, so he can't have noticed then. [He wakes up, opens his eyes and looks to his left. Since he doesn't see his glasses there, the next logical choice would be to look right which is exactly what he does, nothing odd, no mistake.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time
After Hermione says, "It's the 3rd floor, it's forbidden." you can see all 3 actors look up at the column before the flame even erupts. [The three of them are reacting to the noise made as the flames start, not to the appearance of the flames. The noise preceeds the appearance.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart Time

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