annotated bibliography

Overview

For my research project, I propose to do a research on the adaptation of the Harry Potter books into movies. Specifically, I would like to examine the differences that exist between the books and the movies as a result of adaptation and what effects or implications these differences have. Settling on a research about the differences between the Harry Potter books and movies was not only because I love J.K. Rowling’s work in the creation of Harry Potter (both the books and the movies), but also because I believe that a keen examination of these differences is important for me and other millions of the Harry Potter fans out there.

A keen examination of the differences between the Harry Potter books and movies is important in answering other important question such as: Were all the difference between the books and the movies intentional or otherwise? Why was it important to alter some details to be different than they were in the book? Do the differences between the Harry Potter books and movies actually make the movies better? Was the adaptation of Harry Potter movies an excellent illustration of the books? Should fans give preference to Harry Potter books or movies? How do the differences as a result of the adaptation of Harry Potter books into movies affect or impact other subsequent adaptations?

Existing Research on the Adaptation of Harry Potter Books to Movies

There is a lot of research that has been done on the adaptation of the Harry Potter books to films. A good example is the work of Robyn Joffe Harry Potter and the Adaptation from Novel to Film which was published by the Laky Cauldron Organization. Although the exact date of the publication is not available, Joffe’s work seems a little old since at the time of the publication, not all of the present Harry Potter films have been released. Nevertheless, Joffe is very detailed and goes book to book analyzing the process of its adaptation to film and the intricacies involved in coming up with the film. One of the things I loved about this publication is that it contains the original quotes from the author, producers, directors and screenplay writers of Harry Potter films while the films were being created into books. This is important because it gives a perspective as to why certain changes were made while coming up with the films, whether the changes were intentional and the factors that necessitated the changes.

Another previous work on the adaptation of Harry Potter novels to film work that I will be using is that of Justin O’Hanley Harry Potter, 15 Movie Changes Better Than The Books (and 10 Worse), which was published by Screen Rant in May last year. This is an important work in the study of the adaptation of Harry potter novels because it outlines the differences by examples between the books and the films and what effect these changes have on the overall tone of the Harry Potter creation. Having both examples that helped to improve the Harry Potter creation and those that did not turn out so well is crucial in showing how the Harry Potter films are in a way a good representation of the novels and in other ways a distortion to the novels.

How I will conduct the research

One of the things that I will be looking out for while doing this research is using credible sources for information. One of the things that I realized after getting Joffe’s and O’Hanley’s articles was that though both of them had really good and useful content, there were issues in their credibility. Joffe’s work lacked a publication date while O’Hanley’s work was published by a not very credible organization, a blog.

Moving forward, I would use the Databases that our University provided for us to get credible scoures on the adaptation of Harry Potter novels to films. I would search phrases such as:

“Adaptation of Harry Potter books to films”

“Journals on Harry Potter’s adaptation”

“Adaptation of Harry Potter books to films + pdf”’

“Differences between Harry Potter books and movies’

“Is Harry Potter’s adaptation excellent?”

After searching the above, I will scrutinize the results I get one after one to get the ones I see that are credible and useful. I will be looking at aspects such as their content, availability of authors and dates of publications, the organizations that published them and the age of the articles. The movies will not be a problem because I already have all of them and what is remaining is just to watch them again to refresh myself on the plots.