‘Fantastic Beasts’ hopes to find ‘Harry Potter’ fans this weekend

In fact, you may even find JK Rowling’s characters poking fun at Hogwarts, calling it “Hogwash” in this film! Scamander arrives to find the city seized with tension: The tentative peace between the wizards and their No-Maj (that’s no-magics – the American slang for muggles) counterparts may not hold for long.

The story is a lot to take in during a two-hour movie, but much easier to digest in Rowling’s descriptive screenplay, which seems to require too much of its actors.

A very unassuming Scamander arrives in NY in 1926, decades before Harry Potter and his adventures begin. That was the only element that disturbed my 7-year-old son, who’s an enthusiastic and knowledgeable Potter fan.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2001 book written by British author J. K. Rowling (under the pseudonym of the fictitious author Newt Scamander) about the magical creatures in the Harry Potter universe. It’s a story of containment, both of the beasts and the baddies threatening war: “Second Salem-ers” protesting witchcraft (Samantha Morton and Ezra Miller) and, somewhere in the shadows, the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Big Star I Won’t Spoil for Those Who Don’t Know).

The aptly named Graves (Colin Farrell), director of Magical Security is also on the case. Although Eddie Redmayne is certainly not everyone’s taste, you get used to him immediately, and after the 133 minutes of filming she cannot imagine another actor in this role.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is PG-13 and opens, Friday, November 18. He travels to NY in the mid-1920s to find a particular creature, but while he’s there, the other odd animals in his suitcase escape.

The Warner Bros. movie, to be released worldwide on November 18, got mixed reviews, with critics in Britain generally proving more enthusiastic than their U.S. counterparts.

“Fantastic Beasts” will have to cast its spell with audiences at the box office, and not just for Warner Bros., but for an entire film industry banking on known brands and franchises.

There are a lot of fantastic, interesting, and amusing beasts, however, as to be expected in Rowling’s writing; where there is light, beauty, and happiness; there is darkness, evil, and sadness.