Harry Potter movies?

ElTam

Fri, Aug 26 2011, 1:59 pm

Watched the first Harry Potter movie with my oldest, as someone I trust had let her kids watch it and said it was okay. I thought it was borderline in terms of violence, but liked that there was no boy/girl stuff.

How are the subsequent movies? Are they scarier? Boy/girl stuff? Other issues of concern to frum parents? (Yes, I know that some rabbaim don't allow Harry Potter because of the magic stuff, but we don't hold that way. My kids understand that movies are make-believe and the things/people they show doesn't really exist.)

seeker

Fri, Aug 26 2011, 4:17 pm

I haven't watched any but the first all the way through, but I've been around the house when other people were watching. I guess it's a personal judgment call but to me it definitely felt way too scary and violent for kids. Many of the scenes are very different to read about than to watch in full color and sound. The romantic aspects are also more dramatized in video whereas in the books you might have just had a passing reference to kissing or something, in the video it becomes a whole scene.

JMHO.

dee's mommy

Sat, Aug 27 2011, 10:56 pm

I have only seen the first four films. I think it may get scarier, and boy girl stuff does become more of an issue. I suspect that this is probably the case for the later movies.

I have read all the books more than once, and while I enjoy them very much. However, I must warn you that the violence goes up, and the boy/ girl stuff becomes more of a concern from about books 4 and onward.

The bottom line is that you have to know your child, and his or her maturity level. You also have to know your hashkafa and how you feel about it when it comes to this. Perhaps you could look up a detailed synopsis of each book or film online, (They are on wikipedia.) and decide based on that.

mltjm

Sat, Aug 27 2011, 11:28 pm

I don't know if you'll be able to convince your kids of this, but I watched the first movie and snippets of others and I (and a bunch of other people I know) thought they were really cheesy and melodramatic and not worth watching.

marina

Sat, Aug 27 2011, 11:35 pm

I think that the movies are much scarier without having read the books. But if your kid sat through the three headed dog in the first movie, I'm not sure what is scarier than that in the others. I don't think dementors or werewolves were scarier than the three headed dog.

auntie_em

Sat, Aug 27 2011, 11:44 pm

marina wrote:

I think the first movie is the most innocent (and maybe a bit cheesy in spots..lol) but the later movies have material which could be disturbing for young children.

The Death Eaters, in general
The Death Eaters torturing muggles and other wizards
People dying and being disappeared/murdered
War

FranticFrummie

Sun, Aug 28 2011, 6:09 am

I would watch any movie first before I let my kid watch it. Then, you have to know your kid and know if they're ready for it. I would then watch it WITH my kid, so that I can be right there if she needs to grab my hand, or if she has to pause the movie to ask me a question (happens a LOT!)

Personally, the giant spider scared me more than anything. shock

I hated that scene! DD isn't scared of any of the violence because she knows it's not real, and the bad guys are SO over the top that she can't take them seriously. What confuses her the most is the way the kids interact with each other. She has developmental delays that prevent her from grasping social dynamics, so she's always wanting to know "Does he like her? Why are they mad? Why did he say that? What is she doing now?"

It's a great way to bond with your kid, and you learn so much from observing how they relate to the movie (or any other movie). You get to see a side of your kid that you might not get to see otherwise, and it opens up great conversations.

That said, I told my 8yo that there is NO WAY she's watching any movie past "Goblet of Fire" until she is much older - probably not until she's old enough to read her way through the books on her own.

ElTam

Sun, Aug 28 2011, 4:49 pm

My child was not scared by the dog. She was scared by the scary chess game and the head on the back of they guy and him turning to stone. I think we will skip the other ones. It's not really my cup of tea, I just watched it so she chould watch it. I like cooking and nature shows.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Aug 29 2011, 2:15 am

ElTam wrote:

I caved into peer pressure because even the most frum, yeshivish kids that she knows in her age group had seen it, and they were all playing pretend about it. She wanted to know the story so she could join in the games, but she can't really read the books yet (she tried, but there were too many big words).

I have to admit, she looks pretty cute running around with the other kids, wearing a towel clipped around her neck and waving her chopstick "wand". She wants to be Hermione "Because she's the smart one." Better than wanting to be a Barbie doll!

ora_43

Mon, Aug 29 2011, 2:54 am

auntie_em wrote:

marina wrote:

I agree with this.

I don't remember movie #5, but #6 and 7 also have a much darker feel in general. They're really aimed for an older crowd. For sure if a child were scared by scenes in movie #1, I'd expect that the last 3 movies would be way too intense for them.

I think you'd be OK with movies #2 and 3 though.

Raisin

Mon, Aug 29 2011, 8:13 am

ora_43 wrote:

auntie_em wrote:

marina wrote:

the dementors are pretty scary in the books. not sure if the movies can portray quite how scary they are, since they are emotionally scary rather then visually.

we let dd read the first 4 books, but not the last 3.