One of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” starring Eddie Redmayne, takes viewers back into the magical world of Harry Potter and the dazzling imagination of J.K. Rowling. “Fantastic Beasts” is loosely based off Rowling’s 2001 book of the same name. It was inspired by one of the Hogwart’s textbooks from the Harry Potter series and is written to imitate the style of a used textbook, complete with margin notes by Harry and his best friend, Ron Weasley.

The movie follows Newt Scamander, the author and magizoologist, as he travels to New York in 1926 with a briefcase full of magical creatures. Naturally, troubles befall him and he his forced to search the city for his escaped creatures. At the same time, a plot involving the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald, whom fans will remember from the books as Albus Dumbledore’s childhood friend, is brewing. Rowling succeeds tremendously in expanding the world of Harry Potter, bringing a seemingly unimportant textbook to life, exploring the wizarding world in America and delving deeper into the history of Grindelwald and his desire for wizard domination of Muggles. 

Rowling had always been largely involved in the making of the Harry Potter movies, but she takes her participation a step further with “Fantastic Beasts,” writing the entire screenplay. The director, David Yates, was also no stranger to the world of Harry Potter. Yates directed “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2,” according to IMDb. These films took on a decidedly darker tone than the previous four had. Die-hard Harry Potter fans point out the evolution of the Warner Bros. symbol at the beginning of the movies and how they get progressively darker as the series goes on ,CinemaBlend interviewed producer David Heyman, who said there will be “more humor than what we saw from those darker Harry Potter movies, toward the end of the series’ eight-movie run.”  “Fantastic Beasts” recalls the lighter, more humorous, more magical dynamics of the earlier movies. It still retains, however, some commentary on such issues of prejudice and intolerance that the world faces today. 

The film is most appealing to young adults and, of course, Harry Potter fans. Peter Debruge, the chief movie critic at Variety magazine, says that, “With all its ties to Harry Potter arcana, ‘Fantastic Beasts’ has clearly been designed for the most devoted of Rowling’s fans, and though it may prove confusing to newcomers, the faithful will appreciate the fact that the film never talks down to its audience.” There are references, both obvious and subtle, scattered throughout the film to the original books and movies. Needless to say, this is a must-see for every Harry Potter fan. Even those who aren’t as avid fans of the wizarding world will enjoy the humor and beautiful cinematography the film displays. It is also worth seeing just for the fantastic acting of Redmayne in portraying the absentminded, klutzy Newt Scamander.  

“Fantastic Beasts” is planned to be a five-film series. The second is already in the making, the script by Rowling again and directed by Yates.