It was a shock to everyone when the newest international Teaser Trailer for Half Blood Prince leaked online this morning. Now that we have gotten over the initial shock of the unexpected gift, we have had sometime to look at and analyze the trailer. In this week’s episode Greg and I discussed our initial thoughts and impressions about this newest trailer. We don’t see eye to eye on everything- especially Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. However, there is a lot that we do agree on about this trailer. We look forward to hearing your impressions of both the trailer and our analysis of it.
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Hopefully by now, you’ve seen the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We sat down immediately after watching to record out thoughts. What do you think of the trailer? Does the voice of the woman in the orphanage belong to J.K. Rowling?
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We’ve all been anticipating the 9pm EST release of the official Half Blood Prince teaser trailer; but we can now see it an early released copy on MSN movies. It looks fantastic (although if one didn’t know better they might think that Tom Riddle was the main character in the story)!
Yesterday it was announced that that the worldwide debut of the trailer for the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, would take place via satellite on Tuesday, July 29th, from 9:00 – 9:15pm EST.
However, today we got a tip from the Spanish HP site, BlogHogwarts.com that the satellite feed of the trailer will be available on aol.com. Here is the report:
I inform you that we contacted Warner Bros. Mexico today, and they
have confirmed to us that the teaser trailer of the upcoming movie
‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ will be exclusively aired in
the AOL website for the USA, next Tuesday 29th. It’s not confirmed yet
if the AOL websites for other countries will have the trailer also,
but they say that this is the first time that a website is going to
set up his satellite signal to transmit the trailer directly =
We will keep you posted with any further developments.
One of the over-arching meta-themes of the Harry Potter books is, without a doubt, choice. From early on the books the theme of choice is empasised, when the Sorting Hat defers to Harry’s wish to be in Gryffindor, or when Dumbledore makes it clear to Harry that it is his choices, far more than abilities that make him the wizard that he is. It’s clear that J.K. Rowling is a proponent of the idea that we make ourselves who we are and are ultimately responsible for who we become.
Putting aside a scientific discussion of free will and determinism, a greater question, from within the stories themselves, comes to light. With the conclusion of Book 7, and the revelation of Dumbledore’s less than altruistic motives, does J.K. Rowling’s position on free will and choice change? Did Harry, in fact, make all those choices of his own free will, or, perhaps, was he influenced by forces beyond his control? Despite Dumbledore’s protestations to the contrary, could Harry ever have avoided the final showdown with the Dark Lord, had he simply chosen to walk away?
In this week’s episode, we examine the nature of free will and choice as presented in the books after Book 7, and what J.K. Rowling might be saying about what it means to be free.
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The first official Half Blood Prince Teaser is now being shown at Imax viewings of the Dark Knight movie. BlogHogwarts.com put it up on youtube and you can see it here:
We showed this teaser trailer (which may or may not…ok, may not, be the teaser trailer for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie) at our panel at the Portus Podcast Palooza (which was awesome, thank you so much for everyone who came to our panel).
This appeared in a survey I took from Borders Books. It seems that it might be some kind of Half Blood Prince Promotional poster which will grace the cover of the book once the movie comes out. What are your thoughts?
What do you think? Could this be the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie poster? (Hat tip to Bill)
This week, we discuss J.K. Rowling’s commencement address to Harvard University’s graduating class of 2008 (with audio snippets!) and conclude our Patterns in Potter discussion for the theme of Book 6.
We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.
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This week, we begin our Patterns in Potter coverage for Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The theme of this book is quite ambiguous; in fact, it is ambiguous. Sorry if I’m not being too clear here, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to figure the rest out.
We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.
Today is a new month (June, for those of you who have been hiding under a rock), so please vote for us on Podcast Alley and as always rate and review us on iTunes and Odeo.
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Was it just us, or was Draco’s finale just a bit disappointing? By the end of Book 6, it looked like Draco was prime for some kind of glorious and game-changing redemption. His failure to off Dumbledore left him in a bad place, but it was clear that there was still some good left in him. Along with the hints that, in order to prevail, Hogwarts would have to unite against a common threat, we had all the signs that Draco was going to turn coats at a crucial moment, a la Darth Vader, and help Harry save the day. But alas, all we get is a mopey blond kid, more scared than anything else. What happened? How did Draco lose his mojo?
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One of our most favorite characters from the Harry Potter series is the one and only Neville Longbottom. From a shy, sheepish kid in the first book, to Snake-Killer, Neville goes through one of the most noticeable transformations of any other character in the book. In this episode, we take a look back at Neville, the significant moments in his life, both before and at Hogwarts, and how he progressed from less than a wizard to a full-fledged Wizard Hero. In particular, we examine how J.K. Rowling uses Neville to show how cultures and societies reinforce images of acceptable traits and tacitly punish or stigmatize those that fail to embody those traits; also, we discuss Neville’s character as a mirror of Harry’s character.
I had to resist the urge to entitle this episode “Neville Longbottom: From Zero to Hero.”
Please check out the new Harry Potter T-Shirt Store on Zazzle, and let us know what you think. If you’ve purchased a t-shirt from us at either of our stores, please send us a picture (we won’t post it unless you say it’s OK).
As always, please rate and review us on iTunes and don’t forget to vote for us on podcast alley! We appreciate it.
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Without question, Severus Snape is one of the most intriguing characters in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. In the beginning, he was simply a mean teacher, and obstacle for Harry; but by the end of the series, Snape became a paradigm of sacrifice for love and courage, to the point that Harry names his son after his once-despised teacher. In this episode, we take a closer look at Snape, now that we have the complete picture of his tale.
For an insightful and prescient examination of Snape’s character, check out Orson Scott Card’s essay Who is Snape? (If you haven’t already, read Orson Scott Card’s book Ender’s Game. You’ll thank me later.)
Check out our new Harry Potter t-shirt design; we call it “Always.” It looks good on most light colored tees (ignore the white background around the image; that will be removed when the shirt is printed).
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. You’ll thank me later.)
