By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 2, 2001
Harry Potter fans got a sneak peek at the highly anticipated movie Thursday when Warner Bros. put up the film’s first trailer on the Internet.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” won’t be in theaters until Nov. 16, but fans may catch the nearly two-minute trailer at www.warnerbros.com. After viewing the short preview, Maggie O’Connor, 12, wanted to know what the heck was up with the teen wizard’s hair?
“His hair just doesn’t seem right,” says Maggie, of Rogers Park. “It’s supposed to be all messy and stuff and [the actor’s hair] isn’t.”
The trailer begins with dozens of owls bursting toward the screen, while the narrator declares, “There’s no such thing as magic.”
Ha!
The lush, mystical trailer shows a fantasy land where the young wizard is accompanied by a mixture of humans, giants, wizards and other pointy-eared exotics.
The preview also offers glimpses of heavily costumed actors Robbie Coltrane (as the giant Hagrid), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall) and Alan Rickman (Professor Snape).
Never mind that Daniel Radcliffe, the young actor who portrays Harry Potter, looks more like Sean Lennon than the hero portrayed on the cover of J.K. Rowling’s books.
Regardless, his hair wasn’t enough of an issue to throw off Maggie, who says she can’t wait to see the movie.
“It looks really fun,” says Maggie. “The last good movie I saw was `Lady and the Tramp II.’ ”
David Grochowski, 9, of Elmhurst is counting the days until the film opens. David, who has read each of the four Potter books several times, is an avid fan who has figurines of Harry and his owl, Hedwig, as well as a bag of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans–Harry’s favorite treat.
David was very impressed with the sneak preview.
“All the actors looked like how I thought the characters would when I read the books,” he says. “The [trailer] looked cool. I recognized some of the scenes from the book in the [trailer], so that was kind of neat to see that.”
Contemplating what he just saw, David adds, “This isn’t going to be just another movie. I think this is going to be bigger than the Rugrats movie!”
Clearly, the spell has been cast.
