Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - 71 questions

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, starring Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe, David Thewlis, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Robbie Coltrane, Robert Hardy, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton (add more)

The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!

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Entry I heard that Trelawney's prophecy was worded different in the movie than in the book. Does anyone know what the change was and/or how it could change the plot? [The prediction in the book is, "The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before." It doesn't change the plot at all in the movie. It was just reworded to make it shorter.]
Time
Entry As Harry and Hermione are going back in time, after Ron has left the room, there is a part where it looks as though a number of people are unwrapping someone to the right of the screen. What is happening then? [Exactly what it looks like - a person is being unwrapped from full body bandages. It's a hospital ward and they are just showing things representative of Harry and Hermione going back in time. It's just supposed to be something that happened earlier that day that they are "passing" by.]
Answered by wolfchild Time
Entry When Hermione, Harry and Ron are in Hagrid's hut and the Ministry of Magic Knock on the door, what is it that Hagrid puts a blanket over? [A bit earlier in that scene, he tosses food to a new 'pet', aka a new strange creature, that catches it in his 'mouth' and that is what he covers up, because he doesn't want his new 'pet' to be confiscated/sent back to its own kind, just like Norbert was.]
Answered by Rikki Time
Entry Not including the Dursleys, is it known what happened to the rest of Harry's family - paternal and maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.? Is their absence ever explained? [Although I don't think it's ever been mentioned, given their absence to date, his grandparents must be deceased. I believe that it's established in the books that James Potter was an only child, while Lily had only one sibling, Petunia, who married Vernon Dursley. Dudley is therefore his only cousin.]
Answered by Tailkinker Time
Entry When the Fat Lady is gone out of the portrait, Harry is carrying something in his hand. Someone told me it was a gift that Ron gave to Harry when he was in Hogsmeade. Does anyone know what it is? [It's supposed to be the Sneakoscope that in the book is given to him by Ron at the very beginning of the book.]
Answered by wolfchild Time
Entry What was the exactly function of the spell that Dumbledore casts to save Harry in the Quidditch game?, I think it was Aresto Momentum, or something like that. ["Aresto Momentum" is kind of like saying "stop moving." It basically freezes Harry in midair and keeps him from hitting the ground.]
Time
Entry Who are Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?, I haven't read the books yet, so I don't know if there's anything about them in the books. [They're the nicknames of Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and James Potter. Lupin is "Mooney" because he's a werewolf (full moon, get it?), Pettigrew is Wormtail because he's a rat, Black is Padfoot because he's a dog, and Potter is prongs because he's a stag (with antlers).]
Time
Entry In the scene where aunt Marge gets blown up and floats away, what is the music being played? It made the scene a whole lot funnier. [It's the original score by John Williams.]
Answered by MoonFaery Time
Entry What is the spell that Hermione casts to free Sirius when he is locked in Hogwarts? It is not alohamora. It sounds like bombarda. [It is Bombarda, or something to that effect. Alohamora only opens a regular doorlock, a good old padlock obvoiusly calls for a different, more powerful spell.]
Time
Entry Time travel question: Harry has been saved after the transformation of the werewolf because of a howl. However, this only happened because of their time travel, so the "first run" is maybe supposed to end somehow differently - e.g. Harry having been killed by the werewolf, making the scenario at the hospital ward unable to happen at all. [No that howl the whole time was Hermione, it was never another wolf. Look at it this way: at Hagrid's hut the trio did not know to leave until the Future Hermione threw 2 stones through the window. This scene (and any times Hermione travels back in time) is basically on a loop. One (Hermione throwing the stone to alert her self) has to happen for the other (real time) to continue as planned. Any other sequence of events is impossible. Weird, but just how it works.]
Time
Entry When Hermione is using her Time Turner to attend multiple classes scheduled at the same time, she appears out of nowhere in the middle of the lessons. For this to happen, she must be travelling to the classroom after the lesson and then using the Time Turner in the empty classroom to send herself back. Is there any reason why she does it this way (rather than just travelling back to before the lesson and then entering the classroom with the others)? [This is probably because she can't control exactly when she gets to class (she can only go back a number of hours), so she ends up slightly late for the lesson.]
Time
Entry Sirius receives a serious wound from Lupin when he's a werewolf. According to legend, if you're bitten by a werewolf, you become one. Why doesn't Sirius? I watched this scene several times, and Padfoot (Sirius) was bit by Lupin. [As you say, this is a common legend, but that doesn't necessarily mean that HP follows all the rules of a given legend. There are many legends about how one becomes a werewolf and then transforms to wolf form, but HP is not bound to any of them because it never states this is part of the HP werewolf treatment.]
Time
Entry Lupin said he recognised Harry because of the eyes, but apart from the eyes, Harry looks like his father. Shouldn't Lupin recognise him as the son of one of his best friends? [No. As you know, everyone says Harry's eyes look exactly like his mother's. Lupin would've known that James had married Lily and had a son named Harry.]
Time
Entry Does anyone know why in some scenes with Malfoy and Crabbe that there's a tall, skinny, nasty looking kid accompanying them instead of Goyle? Did Cuaron think the actor who plays Goyle was looking too cuddly and teddy bear-like? [I am almost positive that the character is Theodore Nott, who is briefly mentioned in the books and who's father is a death eater. I don't know why Goyle is replaced by him in the first place though.]
Time
Entry Does anyone know why they changed the position of the fat lady (the entrance to the Gryffindor tower) in this film? She's along a deserted corridor in the previous films, but she's in the main stairwell in POA. [Cuaron changed the locations of a lot of things. See: Whomping Willow, Hagrid's Hut among others. Why? It's his film, he did things his way, as he had every right to.]
Time
Entry This has already been asked, but who is the black kid that reads about the Grim? Someone said it was Dean Thomas, which is what I thought, but you can see the original actor for Dean Thomas in a few scenes IN ADDITION to the new kid. [This is NOT Dean Thomas, who is played again by the same actor from the first two HPs. This is just a random Hogwarts student. No special reason he was put in this film (no conspiracy theories!), just as an extra. Remember, there are students at the school whose names are never mentioned in the books. Check out IMDB, there are 2 kids, listed as Boy 1 and Boy 2. He's got to be one of them.]
Time
Entry In the book, Lupins fear (the boggart) is a Silver ORB, It never says anything about the moon besides the fact that every full moon he transforms. In the movie, it turns to the moon with clouds and everything, was it supposed to be a moon in the book? [Actually, in the book, Lupin compliments Hermione on noticing that the boggart turned into the moon when he was present. Rowling initially describes it as a silvery orb, presumably to preserve the mystery of Lupin's nature, but it's clearly intended to be the moon all along.]
Answered by Tailkinker Time
Entry We know Professor Lupin is a werewolf, but is he also an animagus? If so, does he change into a wolf or something else? [No - he's a werewolf, nothing more. His friends, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter all became animagi so that they could help him, but he himself is not one.]
Answered by Tailkinker Time
Entry What song/music is Lupin playing in the first Boggart scene? [It sounds like some old school big band music. If you pay attention, it's played again when Harry goes to see Lupin in his office near the end of the movie. Maybe that was Lupin's favorite kind of music?]
Time
Entry Does anyone know which Scottish loch Harry rides over on Buckbeak, assuming it is a real loch and not CG? [According to the IMDB, they filmed at Loch Shiel.]
Answered by Tailkinker Time

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