- Joined
- Jun 30, 1997
- Messages
- 5,945
- Real Name
- Sean
You're all welcome for the "pain in the ass" directions. 
However, I can't really take the credit. Most of those directions are given earlier in this thread. I just fleshed them out a bit.
Yes, there has never been any suggestion in the film or the book (of which I am aware) that Nicholas Flammel and Dumbeldore are the same person. They are collegues/friends who have done some work in Alchemy together. That much is written on the back of Dumbeldore's card. Harry (or Ron) sees his name on the back of the card on the Hogwart's express, but it is just another name so it is easily forgotten. The next time they hear it from Hagrid's slip is quite a long time after that (the story takes place over about 10 months after all). "Where have I heard that name before?" They can't find his name anywhere (which isn't surprising since he is over 600 years old and probably hasn't done much in "recent history" (except maybe some alchemy work with Dumbeldore) and they also just weren't looking in the right place. The theatrical cut seems to show Hermione making a "leap" and figuring that they should have been looking in an Alchemy book. With the deleted scene, it makes more sense when they read the back of Dumbeldore's card again and saw Flammel's name and that he worked in Alchemy. Then she realzies what book to look in. It would have worked so much better with that scene left in (bad Seamus acting aside).
The book fleshes it out a bit more. If I remember correctly, Dumbeldore states that Flammel gave the Stone to him for safe keeping (partly ?or mostly? because they feared the return of You Know Who). They had some sense that someone may try to steal it which is why Dumbeldore had it brought to Hogwarts (they were lucky, as the vault was broken into the next day!). Once they realized that You Know Who was really out there and trying to come back, Flammel agreed with Dumbeldore that it should be destroyed.
Dumbeldore even mentions Flammel's wife (don't remember if in the book and/or movie), so there realy wasn't any suggestion that they weren't completely separate people. I never even considered that for a second.
I agree that the boy playing Seamus wasn't too good, but he wasn't absolutely horrible either. I think the positives of showing how they made the "Flammel conncetion", showing them studying for and discussing final examinations, and setting up Neville's "stand" later on by far outweighs the questionable acting from Seamus Finnigan.
I also agree the subway scene with Hagrid would have set up his eagerness to have a dragon better.
I strongly feel that the potions class should not have been trimmed. Sure, it doesn't add much "story-wise", but it's heavy in showing the feel of the relationship between Harry, Snape, and Grifindor House. In the theatrical version, harry doesn't stand up for himself and get "cheekey" with Snape. The extended scene had it play out the way it did in the novel. Harry is a very nice person and is at first overwhelmed with this whole new world, but he does stick up for himself when others are being unreasonable towards him. Plus, I liked that while Snape was picking on Harry by pointing out what he didn't know, he also went on to say to the Entire Class "Well, why aren't you all writing this down!?" which kind of gave the feel that he realized that no one else (except for Hermione) knew those answers either.
And then when he told the Grifindors that 5 points will be taken from their house for "Potter's cheek" that showed how Snape likes to take points from Grifindor, from Harry in Particular, and also showed how Harry does tend to loose Grifindor points because of his actions on occasion (I mean, in the book we hear all the time "5 point from Grifindor, 5 points from Grifindor"). That makes it all the better when he wins them a great deal more points. I strongly hope to see the extended version of this scene in any future release.
Ok, I have a job to get back to.
However, I can't really take the credit. Most of those directions are given earlier in this thread. I just fleshed them out a bit.
Yes, there has never been any suggestion in the film or the book (of which I am aware) that Nicholas Flammel and Dumbeldore are the same person. They are collegues/friends who have done some work in Alchemy together. That much is written on the back of Dumbeldore's card. Harry (or Ron) sees his name on the back of the card on the Hogwart's express, but it is just another name so it is easily forgotten. The next time they hear it from Hagrid's slip is quite a long time after that (the story takes place over about 10 months after all). "Where have I heard that name before?" They can't find his name anywhere (which isn't surprising since he is over 600 years old and probably hasn't done much in "recent history" (except maybe some alchemy work with Dumbeldore) and they also just weren't looking in the right place. The theatrical cut seems to show Hermione making a "leap" and figuring that they should have been looking in an Alchemy book. With the deleted scene, it makes more sense when they read the back of Dumbeldore's card again and saw Flammel's name and that he worked in Alchemy. Then she realzies what book to look in. It would have worked so much better with that scene left in (bad Seamus acting aside).
The book fleshes it out a bit more. If I remember correctly, Dumbeldore states that Flammel gave the Stone to him for safe keeping (partly ?or mostly? because they feared the return of You Know Who). They had some sense that someone may try to steal it which is why Dumbeldore had it brought to Hogwarts (they were lucky, as the vault was broken into the next day!). Once they realized that You Know Who was really out there and trying to come back, Flammel agreed with Dumbeldore that it should be destroyed.
Dumbeldore even mentions Flammel's wife (don't remember if in the book and/or movie), so there realy wasn't any suggestion that they weren't completely separate people. I never even considered that for a second.
I agree that the boy playing Seamus wasn't too good, but he wasn't absolutely horrible either. I think the positives of showing how they made the "Flammel conncetion", showing them studying for and discussing final examinations, and setting up Neville's "stand" later on by far outweighs the questionable acting from Seamus Finnigan.
I also agree the subway scene with Hagrid would have set up his eagerness to have a dragon better.
I strongly feel that the potions class should not have been trimmed. Sure, it doesn't add much "story-wise", but it's heavy in showing the feel of the relationship between Harry, Snape, and Grifindor House. In the theatrical version, harry doesn't stand up for himself and get "cheekey" with Snape. The extended scene had it play out the way it did in the novel. Harry is a very nice person and is at first overwhelmed with this whole new world, but he does stick up for himself when others are being unreasonable towards him. Plus, I liked that while Snape was picking on Harry by pointing out what he didn't know, he also went on to say to the Entire Class "Well, why aren't you all writing this down!?" which kind of gave the feel that he realized that no one else (except for Hermione) knew those answers either.
And then when he told the Grifindors that 5 points will be taken from their house for "Potter's cheek" that showed how Snape likes to take points from Grifindor, from Harry in Particular, and also showed how Harry does tend to loose Grifindor points because of his actions on occasion (I mean, in the book we hear all the time "5 point from Grifindor, 5 points from Grifindor"). That makes it all the better when he wins them a great deal more points. I strongly hope to see the extended version of this scene in any future release.
Ok, I have a job to get back to.
