A Magical Afternoon

As promised in my last post, this blog entry will be entirely dedicated to our tour of "The Making of Harry Potter" at Warner Brothers Studios London.  Please note that I am a HUGE Harry Potter geek.  This post contains lots of pictures and lots of spoilers if you haven't read the books or seen the movies.  If you are not a Harry Potter fan, you may want to skip this one (unless you just want to see happy pictures of my kids).

We began our tour with a queue, which is typical around London, but this one had a view of The Cupboard Under the Stairs...  

and the flying Ford Anglia.

They herded us into a room to watch a short film about the building of the studios and all of the people involved.  Then, they raised the movie screen and had us all stand before the front door to Hogwarts.  It was so exciting!

  

Then, they pushed the doors open to reveal... The Great Hall.  This set was used for 10 straight years as they filmed all of the Harry Potter movies.  They actually used real flagstones in the floors,which is unusual in a movie set, because they knew the floors needed to withstand a lot of wear and tear. 

Entering the Hall

Posing with the House Hourglasses

Next, we ventured into the area of internal sets.  The tour gave each child a passport.  There were questions to answer, Golden Snitches to find and stamps at different locations with which they could emboss their passports.  

Here were some of the interior sets:

Gates of Hogwarts

Gryffindor Common Room

Note the staircase leading up to the dormitories.
Harry and Ron's sweaters, knitted by Mrs.Weasley,
are displayed on top.

The Boys' Dormitory -- Harry's Bed

Hagrid's Hut

The set of Hagrid's hut was actually really small.  We learned that the man who played Hagrid was just over 6 feet tall.  They used a body double in much of the movie who was 6'10", and they put the body double on stilts to make him even taller.  

Next we were able to see the set for The Burrow, the Weasleys' house.  It was one of my favorite sets.  They had several "magic"elements set up, so that you could move your hand across a screen and it caused carrots to chop, clothes to iron and a sweater to knit. 

Chopping carrots:

My favorite piece in that set was Mrs. Weasley's clock.  The description of that clock always fascinated me in the books.  She could tell where any of her family members were at any time with one glance at her clock.  

We were able to visit Potions class. The detail they put into all of the sets was amazing.  Just look at how many bottles are in these rooms.

We were also able to see inside Dumbledore's office.  First, we had to get past the entrance.

The office was extremely detailed.  Most of the books you see on the shelves are actually telephone books covered in leather.

We also were able to view the pensieve, which plays a large part in the later films. 

Here is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets -- pretty cool to see up close. I restrained myself from trying to speak Parseltongue to get it to open.

Here is the pendulum from the Hogwarts clock, which figures prominently in the third movie.  The pendulum actually still swings while you tour. 

Now for the bad guys...

The kids posed in front of Delores Umbridge's office.  Sidney refused to smile out of principle, because she was one of Sidney's least favorite characters in the books.

Here is a set of Malfoy Manner during a Death Eater meeting, with Nagini ready to strike.

Enough of the scary people.  Here are the fireplaces in the Ministry of Magic.  These were the portals where people entered the Ministry.

The kids posed in a Ministry corridor.

Now for a few fun extra large props:

The Mirror of Erised...

and The Fat Lady, who guards the portrait hole entrance to Gryffindor Tower!

There were lots of smaller props that the kids really enjoyed seeing.  

Wands display

Broomsticks

Horcruxes

The Sword of Gryffindor (displayed in Dumbledore's office)

And...where it all began -- The Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in American English as opposed to British English).

There were loads of costumes displayed throughout the tour.  One of the kids' favorites was the costume that Professor Snape wore when Neville imagined Snape in his grandmother's clothes.   We learned that this was the only costume change for Snape in any of the movies. I guess Alan Rickman didn't have to spend much time in Wardrobe each day.

 We were able to see hydraulic mechanisms and green screen technology with the actual motorcyle used for Hagrid, broomsticks used for Quidditch and the moving staircases.

The kids took a short wandwork lesson:

Then, we headed outside to see a few of the outdoors sets.

First up, the Knight Bus...They had beds and a chandelier still set up inside.  The kids thought that was really neat.

Then, a visit to Number 4 Privet Drive, where Harry lived with the Dursleys.

We stood on the bridge that the students crossed so often at Hogwarts.

The kids played a game of chess with moving chess pieces on a chess board.  They commanded the pieces how many spaces to move and the pieces followed their orders.

One of the most intricate outdoor sets was the Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow, where Harry lived as a baby and withstood the attack by Voldemort. The external shots are only in about one scene in all of the movies. It is amazing to me that they went to such detail for one small portion of the movies.

We moved back inside to meet several favorite characters...

Aragog, with a Basilisk photo bomb

Buckbeak -- Jack's favorite, even though he thinks he is a giant pigeon

Dobby!  -- Grandmom's favorite (sorry for the flash reflection)

Faukes the phoenix

There were several moving props used in the productions.  The Monster Book of Monsters scared Hadley half to death when it jumped at her.

The creepiest thing in the whole tour, in my opinion, was the moving prop that shows the personification of the final piece of Voldemort's soul in the final movie.  We could push a button, and the prop would raise up and look at us.  Uber-creepy!

The kids took turns pushing the trolley part of the way through Platform 9 3/4.  

We saw the Hogwarts Express and were even able to board the train.  They had the carriages each staged for a scene in a different movie.  The kids loved the staging of the first scene aboard the train in the first movie.  

Finally, we made it to Diagon Alley.  The set was actually quite narrow.  It is still fascinating to me that movies can make things look so big.  Here are pictures of the kids' favorite shops.

Eeylops Owl Emporium

Flourish and Blotts

Gringotts Bank (not a shop, but you couldn't pass up on a picture here)

Ollivanders (Maker of Fine Wands)

Puking Pastilles display at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Pygmy Puffs for sale at Madame Malkin's (Lyndon's favorite)

Here are a few shots of the whole street set of Diagon Alley, in order to give perspective.  Who is that handsome fellow in the center?

The tour ended with one last fabulous surprise.  It was not hinted about at all during the tour. You turned one final corner and opened into a huge room that displayed an entire 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts.  The detail was incredible.  They used the scale model in the outside sweeping and panoramic shots you see in all of the Harry Potter movies with a green screen behind it to add in natural scenery.  They even covered it in fake snow for winter scenes.  

I hope I didn't spoil too much for anyone reading this.  The whole tour was amazing and resulted in us wanting to re-watch all of the movies.  I just need to finish all of the books with Lyndon, Hadley and Jack, first.  Better get reading!