Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the scene near the end of the movie with Lucius Malfoy fuming at Dumbledore in his office, Malfoy's hair is fanned back behind his shoulders. The lighting in the room illuminates the back of his neck, where you can see his real, short brown hair. (02:22:05)
Revealing mistake: Mrs. Weasley might as well knit like a muggle because she's not making any progress with magical knitting. In the Weasley's home and we see the magic knitting, the needle shoves into the hole, but no thread loops around and it is not advancing. The amount that has already been knitted is magic indeed since all the motion shown in the film produces no results. (00:11:25)
Revealing mistake: In the many and lengthy dialogue scenes between Potter and Dumbledore, with countless facial close-ups, neither of them have glass in their spectacles. (02:19:40)
Revealing mistake: During the car flight (on the way to Hogwarts) Harry and Ron have gone out of control outside Hogwarts. During the scene when the car is approaching the whomping willow the car is massively out of proportion compared to when the car is in the tree. (00:25:25)
Revealing mistake: When Harry and Ron run at the wall to get to Platform 9 3/4 if you watch Hedwig's cage when they tumble over you can see a toy bird that is glued onto the perch. (00:22:50)
Revealing mistake: Harry and Ron's trunks are being thrown out of the car and in the shot just before Harry's close-up, Ron's trunk (the other trunk says HP) slams down on the grass. The top of this trunk has a large perfectly symmetrical hole in the center with four round marks around it, which was probably involved in the throwing somehow. In the wide shot as Hedwig is being tossed out, the trunks are clearly visible and there is no hole in either, nor is there a hole in Ron's trunk at any other time. (00:28:10)
Revealing mistake: When Harry is fighting the Basilisk on top of the skull in the Chamber of Secrets, you can see that there is a safety tip on the end of the sword. (02:12:55)
Revealing mistake: When Ron is on all fours beginning to cough up slugs, Harry says "Let's take him to Hagrid's". Hermione mouths the lines with him. (00:39:43)
Suggested correction: No, she isn't.
Revealing mistake: During the Quidditch match, just after the close-ups of Snape and Lucius Malfoy, there is a shot of Harry flying towards the camera, coming to stop, with Draco Malfoy flying in beside him and in this shot the goal posts cast a shadow on the sand. Malfoy remarks, "All right there, Scarhead?" and Harry looks down below at the approaching Bludger. Now in this shot, not only do the goal posts have a completely different shadow, there are no hoops at the top of the poles' shadows (while the angle might make them hard to spot, putting everything in a line, the shadows should at least thicken at the top where the hoops are). (00:54:10)
Revealing mistake: In the scene where the students are in Professor Lockhart's Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson you see that when Professor Lockhart lets out the Cornish Pixies, two of the pixies pull Neville Longbottom up by his ears and hang him on a chandelier. Because the pixies were computer-animated, they had to put clips behind Neville Longbottom's ears to make it look like he was being lifted up by the pixies. When he was dropped onto the chandelier by the pixies, you see his ears are still in a stretched position where the clips are. (00:37:00)
Revealing mistake: Throughout the Quidditch match, Harry's right arm guard is visible. At the top, over his elbow, there is an attached strip of leather that is tied securely around his arm and the three short straps are snugly buckled around his forearm. However, as the Bludger approaches just before breaking his arm, the ties on the strip of leather are GONE, though visibly tucked up in the close-up and the buckled straps are considerably LONGER, deliberately causing the arm guard to be very loose. The position of the arm guard differs in the two close-ups as well. (00:57:10)
Revealing mistake: When Harry and the Weasleys are standing on Platform 10, it is Ginny's turn to go, in this shot Ron's trunk is clearly visible, note the stains, the latch hardware on the right long side, the corner hardware at the four corners, etc. After Mr. and Mrs. Weasley go, Harry says, "Let's go!" and as they begin to run, Ron's trunk is clearly seen again and it is NOT the same trunk, note the stains, the lack of hardware at the right, no hardware at the four corners, etc, plus the small parcels near Scabbers are different too. (00:22:30)
Revealing mistake: In Hagrid's hut, while Ron is still slug sick, Hagrid is comforting Hermione over Draco's mudblood comment. His beard is visibly detached below his lower lip and when he speaks his jaw moves while his beard does not. (00:41:15)
Revealing mistake: After the car shows up to save Ron and Harry from the spiders, Harry shouts, "Arania Exumai!" The light from his wand illuminates the car and the NORMAL tread back tire is visible. When they are in the car Harry shouts, "Go!" In the close-up of the tire, before it starts to spin, the tread on the tire is once again visible. However it's an entirely different tire, a deep tread SNOW tire no less. (01:48:10)
Revealing mistake: As Harry climbs the Salazar Slytherine stone head's locks of hair, the Basilisk crashes his face and creates the first immense hole. As Harry tries to climb higher, it pounds into the stone again creating another huge hole, higher up on another lock of hair, to Harry's left as he hangs on. However, when the Basilisk smashes his face into the stone a third time, as Harry nears the top, the second huge hole is GONE, in this shot and in the first wide shot in which Tom Riddle is visible. (02:13:05)
Revealing mistake: The Ford Anglia's front seats keep changing. When Ron, Fred and George are rescuing Harry from the Dursleys, the front passenger seat has a curved thin back and is very dark blue with light blue trim at each side. However some examples when it differs are, as Harry hangs from the car while flying over Hogwarts Express, though the seat has a curved back, in some shots the seat is two shades of light blue and in others it is as in the shots at the Dursleys. Yet at Hogwarts, when the car ejects Hedwig, the back of the seat is thick and perfectly sraight and so on. (00:09:35 - 00:25:05)
Revealing mistake: When Harry stands at his bedroom window looking at the nearing headlights, the houses opposite him on the left are really the neighboring houses that are seen to the left of the Dursleys when facing the Dursley house and the one on the right is actually the Dursley's home. In the close-up of the car as its headlights face Harry, the Dursley's house is seen behind it, but the check curtains and patio table were added to change the look of the house. The distinctive pattern of each of the home's bricks are a giveaway. (00:08:30)
Revealing mistake: When the limb of the Whomping Willow crashes through the back window of the car, the hole changes shape in certain shots. In the first interior shot, as the branch goes through, the hole that is made is completely different than in the next exterior shot, as the tree branch leaves. (no pun intended) (00:27:20)
Revealing mistake: As Errol swoops down, there are various angles that he's seen flying over students for the drama, however the last ones are very different. First, an overhead wide shot of the dining hall. Second, heading towards the camera, as Fred and George sit on the left. Third, an overhead of the Gryffindor table. The next two differ completely. First a long pan as Errol flies between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, way past Fred, George and Ron's stand-in, who sit in front of the fireplace, causing some students at Gryffindor table to lean FORWARD, so Errol doesn't hit their backs as he goes off screen to the left. Next shot, Errol flies toward the camera passing Fred, George and the rest, who dramatically lean BACKWARD in this shot, as Errol flies over their table between them. (00:33:45)
Revealing mistake: When Harry sits in the Gryffindor common room with the diary, in the close-up, the name Tom Marvolo Riddle is gold embossed on the back cover. However in the previous shot, when Harry lifts the diary off the floor in the lavatory, both sides are clearly visible and the name is NOT on either side, nor is it seen on either side when Harry first takes it from Ginny's arm and when he closes it to stab the cover with the Basilisk fang. The name is also NOT embossed on the cover when Dumbledore holds it up in his study or in the close-up of the other side when he places it on the desk in front of Harry and Lucius Malfoy. (01:27:10 - 02:15:10)
