Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Correction: Almost all Caucasian babies have blue eyes initially - they only change colour as the child gets older.

Corrected entry: When Harry first finds the mirror of Erised, he walks through the door and the mirror is on his right. This is the same when he takes Ron to see it, but when Dumbledore finds him in front of the mirror, if you look where the door should be, there is just wall.

Correction: It took a close look to resolve this one. The room's laid out such that the door is between the outer wall and a shorter inner wall - Harry has to run around it to get to the mirror. As such, when we see the room it looks like the door's disappeared, whereas actually it's just behind a short wall.

Corrected entry: When Ron, Hermione, and Harry are looking at James Potter's seeker plaque in the trophy case, a similar crest next to his says that McGonnagall was on the same Gryffindor Quidditch team - the movie leads you to believe she was pretty old. That means, by my reasoning, that she would have been at least 20 years old when she started playing for the Gryffindors in the 1970s.

Correction: This might be a different McGonagall, or a child of Professor McGonagall, for there's no evidence that this is the McGonagall currently teaching at the time.

Corrected entry: In the scene where the troll has just gone into the girls washroom, Hermoine quickly goes back in to the 1st stall on the right hand side, but when you see the above view she is in the 3rd from the right. (01:07:23)

Correction: The overhead shot of her shows that she has her feet in the second cubicle from the left, most of her body in the third cubicle from the left, and her head just in the fourth one. She is crawling from one cubicle to the next. When she emerges, a few shots later, she has crawled up almost to the end of the cubicles.

Corrected entry: At the end of the movie Hagrid gives Harry the photo album. After Harry looks at it and tells Hagrid goodbye, he walks back to the train with his hands at his side and there is no sign of the album in either hand.

Correction: He could just put in one of the pockets of his robes.

Corrected entry: When Harry first views the golden snitch, and it begins to fly in the air, both characters are apparently watching it, but are looking in different directions.

Correction: When the snitch is released Harry and Oliver are looking in different directions because only Harry can see it, Oliver is trying to see where it went.

Corrected entry: When Hagrid show Harry, Hedwig (the owl) If you look at Harry's forehead you can see that his scar isn't there. If you look in the previous scene, when Mr. Olivander tells Harry about his wand, his scar is right above his eyebrow, but in the next scene his scar isn't there.

Correction: If you look close enough, you can tell the scar is still there, and that it just kind of faded out a bit. It is still there, though.

Corrected entry: After Harry, Ron and Hermonie have completed the chess game challenge, Harry instructs the other two to "go back and get help". So, are they just supposed to waltz back through the previous challenges, somehow climb up through that Devil's Snare, and out the trapdoor guarded by Fluffy, who is very awake now (and hopefully not standing on the door)?

Correction: When Harry instructs Hermione to go get help, she can get out pst fluffy and the devils snare by using the broomstick in the flying key rroom. This fact is explained in the book but was omitted in the film.

Corrected entry: During the Quidditch match, someone falls from their broomstick, landing in a pile of sand. But when we first saw the pitch it was all neat grass - where did the sand come from?

Correction: There's sand visible under the goalposts in the first shot of the field.

Corrected entry: In the scene on the rock in the middle of nowhere, Harry is reading the letter from Hogwarts and Uncle Vernon tells Harry, 'You'll not be going there, Daniel.' (00:15:58)

Correction: In this scene Vernon is addressing Hagrid, not Harry. After Harry reads the beginning of his letter, Vernon comes across the room and says 'He will not be going I tell you'.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Harry is talking to Hermione and Ron about Hagrid's dragon, he says "Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," but in the movie Hagrid never tells this to Harry.

Correction: Assumes the only conversations between Harry and Hagrid are in the film, which can't be the case, as we never saw Harry taking money out of his vault, yet he has done so. This conversation is a deleted scene on the DVD.

Correction: The gun is a shotgun. Since shot consists of small pellets they could have easily passed through the bend.

Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, when the train is leaving Hogwarts, where is the big lake that they crossed in boats in the beginning of the movie? If you look at Hogwarts there is clearly no lake around it.

Correction: There's no lake around the castle - it's on the south side. First years just cross the lake because it's tradition.

Corrected entry: When the Slytherins and Gryffindors have their first flying lesson, there is a girl wearing another house's uniform. <

Correction: It isn't specified in the movie that only Slytherins and Gryffindors are in this class. This is more of a movie/book discrepancy.

Corrected entry: How come Hermione is so confident that she'll get into Gryffindor? On the Hogwarts Express Train, she is already wearing a Gryffindor tie (red and yellow) before arriving at Hogwarts or being sorted into houses.

Correction: She is wearing a black tie with Hogwarts' crest.

Corrected entry: At the beginning, Dumbledore is taking out all of the street lights, from one shot, the car in right is in the second house, but in the next shot, the same car is in the first house. (00:00:55)

Correction: The first shot of Professor Dumbledore taking out the lights is from behind him, looking over his left shoulder. He obscures the first car (a yellow one parked in the drive of what appears to be no. 1 Privet Drive). The second shot of the same scene is from some 50 yards in front of Dumbledore, looking towards him, and shot looking down from the height of a lamppost. The lamp obscures the second car (a blue one, parked in the drive of no. 2). Both cars can be seen when Dumbledore and McGonnagal walk towards Harry?s house.

Corrected entry: When Harry buys all the sweets from the cart on the train he places them on the chair beside him. But there are clearly more sweets on the chair then there were on the trolley.

Correction: He simply gave the woman a handful of money. If he had more money than there was candy, the lady could simply get (or magic) more.

Corrected entry: When Hagrid picks up the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts, he tells Harry "best not mention this to anyone". But as soon as Harry becomes suspicious about Snape, he begins discussing the fact that Hagrid emptied the vault in full earshot of all and sundry, at the dinner table.

Correction: Harry can trust Ron and Hermione, and being the kind of guy Harry is, he would tell those two anything.

Corrected entry: Dudley is supposed to fall into the water in the Reptile House, which is obviously the one at London Zoo, yet he arrives back at his home in Surrey still shivering and wet. He would surely have dried out a bit on the journey home?

Correction: It's possible to get from London Zoo to within the borders of Surrey in a very short space of time - we never find out exactly where the Dursleys live.

Corrected entry: If Harry, Ron and Hermione can walk undetected under the invisibility cloak, why can't Harry walk with the lamp underneath it when he is going to the restricted section of the library? Surely he wouldn't have to hide the light if he did so, reducing the risk of being spotted?

Correction: Two thoughts - one is that he might worry about it catching fire, the other is that it might work on a "one way" system. Light can go into the cloak, so he can see through it, but light can't escape out, so no-one can see him, and similarly the light from the lamp can't escape. If anyone has an official description of how the cloak works, I'll gladly hear it!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: During the Quidditch match Harry's broomstick tries to shake him off, due to the spell. After Hermione tells Ron, "Leave it to me," in Harry's last close-up before he flips over, the seat that is attached to the broomstick, to make it more comfortable for Dan Radcliffe to sit on, is entirely visible. Glimpses of other seats can be had during the match as well. (01:20:50)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Draco Malfoy: Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask yours. Red hair... And a hand-me-down robe. You must be a Weasley.

More quotes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Trivia: For anyone who hasn't read the book: The inscription on top of the Mirror of Erised says "erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". If you read the inscription backwards it says "I show not your face but your heart's desire".

More trivia for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Question: I get that the DADA role is cursed because of Voldemort being denied the role when he applied for it at Hogwarts, but why does Dumbledore not let Snape take the role like he's wanted to every year? I thought Snape was a double agent (he spies on the Death Eaters and Voldemort for Dumbledore, and he pretends to be on Voldemort's side too), so unless Voldemort decides that he wants to get rid of him for being in the role, he's okay to take it on provided he's given it, and yet every year, Dumbledore turns down his application. Is it because Snape's too involved in Voldemort's side of things or some other reason? I hope I explained it well.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: There are several reasons. First, the position is cursed, so there is little reason to give Snape the job when he will not last any longer than all the previous instructors. If Snape did become the DADA instructor, something could happen to him that could result in his being harmed, having to leave Hogwarts, or be otherwise incapacitated in some way; that would render him useless to Dumbledore as a double agent. Also, Dumbledore trusts Snape, but putting him in an environment where he is teaching about dark magic on a daily basis would be too tempting and emotionally compromising to someone who had been so easily seduced by the dark side. He could possibly relapse. It would be like having a recovering alcoholic work as a bartender. Of course, he does eventually become the DADA instructor, and lasted no longer than his predecessors.

raywest

In the movies it is never mentioned that DADA role was cursed by Voldemort.

This is true; though it doesn't say it's not either. With trying to fit 7 long books and years worth of pages of HP information in 2 and a half hours; as long as the movie doesn't say it's not cursed, with our knowledge, there is no problem with reporting that it is. Even directors of non-book movies do this all the time; leave background information out that helps explain things they just didn't have time so they explained it behind the scenes.

More questions & answers from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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