To borrow one of Mary Poppins’ famous phrases, the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them trailer is ‘practically perfect in every way’.
Despite Beasts being written by J.K. Rowling and having a stellar cast attached, I was wary about returning to the magical world of Harry Potter, mainly because I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a cynical cash grab by a movie studio which had run out of books to adapt.
So I’m more than happy to say that I think Beasts looks great. In fact, not just great, but compelling, funny and most importantly exciting.
The film will follow Newt Scamander, a famed Magizoologist, before he made his name, as he visits America and gets embroiled in the witches and wizards of New York City’s battle with the fanatical New Salem Philanthropic Society, who want to destroy all things magical.
In the brief teaser we get glimpses of America’s wizarding world which seems similar to what we saw in the original Potter saga, but with an interesting twist that I’m sure will delight audiences especially now that they’re free from the confines of the original books.
Eddie Redmayne looks perfectly cast, dialing his bumbling British charm all the way up to 11 in the trailer, and looks fantastic as the slightly befuddled Scamander, making the character charming and likeable before he’s even opened his mouth.
Perhaps most intriguing is finding out that Newt was expelled from Hogwarts for ‘endangering human life with a beast’, and yet Albus Dumbledore fought for him to stay at the school, does this mean we’ll be seeing a younger Albus in the movie?
Having a tin ear for music, I rarely talk about the music in trailers/films, but I challenge anyone to listen to the dramatic reprisal of the main Harry Potter theme in this teaser and not feel shivers run down their spine.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be apparating into theatres worldwide on November 18, 2016, and I can’t wait.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.