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Harry Potter 20th Anniversary Review

Harry Potter 20^th Anniversary: The Return to Hogwarts is a 2022 television special that saw the cast of the HP movies brought back together to celebrate the first movie’s anniversary.

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“I love you…

As a friend“

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This is pretty much a special that consists of interviews that reveal little that we hadn’t known already, but still for my first special like this, I enjoyed it much more than I’d thought I would as it is undeniably emotionally effective and nostalgic.

But first, let’s get the politics out of the way. J.K. Rowling wasn’t brought here probably due to her perceived “transphobia” and I found the actors’ siding against her on this issue an absolutely horrendous betrayal as this is a woman that was responsible for all of their careers and this is how they repay her? The special did not do itself any favors by including the one Rowling interview from 2019, making this section seem very odd.

Still, for all we know, these actors and producers are doing this only for the PR purposes and in actuality they did speak reasonably with the author, so I won’t dwell on this issue anymore. I ended up liking the special for being so charming and lovable. The magic was brought in those recreations of the sets and the magical score that was also brought back. I loved the visuals here and they made the whole experiment more cinematic. The chapter-constructed storytelling was also wonderful.

This special doesn’t really reveal anything new to the true Harry Potter fans that have followed all the HP news for decades. I personally have known the vast majority of the “revelations” here. It was still nice listening to these little anecdotes, but again more new stuff could and should have been included.

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But learning about their friendship and how Rupert and Emma were uncomfortable kissing was truly wonderful as was her bond with Felton. Seeing how the actors mirrored their character counterparts in their friendship was beautiful and those scenes were very touching to me. The In Memorial section was particularly heartbreaking and it almost made me cry how sad it was. I also liked seeing all of the movies and how they were made with all the directors being present, which was a great addition as well.