Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
By: Ashley Brazzel
**Contains spoilers and theories**
Fantastic Beasts is a spin-off Harry Potter, which was written by J.K. Rowling. The movie is about all the magical creatures that has never been seen and are explained in depth. It follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) with Porpentina/Tina (Katherine Waterston), Queenie (Alison Sudol), and Jacob (Dan Fogler) as they try to find the magical creatures. The movie also of course had a protagonist whom is seen throughout the movie that is causing mayhem in New York City. As they try to find out what/whom is causing the destruction while also finding each creature lost as well as learning about them along the way.
The movie being a spin-off Harry Potter had a lot of fan moments where for me personally finding out about the American school of witch craft and wizardry was interesting. Also, finding more about what might have happened with Dumbledore’s sister, Ariana, since she died at a young age after being attacked by muggle boys and suppressing her magic. With her suppressing magic and having sudden outbursts as described in the series makes more since with Fantastic Beasts describing an Obscurus. The Obscurus is a dark and destructive force that is manifested by young magical children who are forced to conceal their powers. Its hosts being young children never live for very long which gives the theory of Ariana’s death.
There were many instances in the movie that was curious about the difference in witches and wizards from other countries vs. that of American witches and wizards. Since in America they weren’t allowed to associate with no-maj (Humans) while in other countries they can marry and have children with the muggles (Humans). It showed the major differences in different countries that are played as parts of a movie and in life.
While watching the movie, I couldn’t help but to try and figure up who Newt was related to in the Harry Potter franchise. Since the film is set 70+ years before Harry Potters time. I would have thought that the main characters were somehow closely related to Harry especially when the Lestrange family was brought up since Harry’s godfather, Sirius was related to the Lestrange family. With doing more research into the character Newt I found that he had a grandson, Rolf Scamander married Luna Lovegood who was a known character in the franchise. I thought about how that made since for that to be so since Newt’s family was pretty much in love with all the fantastic beasts and Luna always having that enticement to all the creatures in her world.
The movie had me wanting to see more, know more, and have more of the Harry Potter world in this spin-off. I am a die-hard fan of Harry Potter and if you like the series I would recommend seeing this. It gave such a refreshing taste of the series that I love and I surely hope that more come about from J.K. Rowling in the future even with continuing the character of Newt or maybe instead of going into the past to then head to the future of what came after Harry Potter. So many theories of what could happen. It is never a disappointment with her work and excited to see of what more there is to come.
