The Corner Penthouse

In honor of the film's 20th anniversary, Warner Brothers recently re-released Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) on DVD with "Magical Movie Mode". Read on to find out more about it...

[ SYNOPSIS ]

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) learns on his 11th birthday that he is the orphaned son of two wizards and also has magical capabilities of his own. During his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry learns new spells, plays the popular wizarding sport Quidditch and, along with best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), works to once again face the Dark wizard from his past.

[ QUICK THOUGHTS ]

I can't say that I've seen every Harry Potter film. I stopped about halfway through the 8-film series because it got rather tedious to keep track of all of the plots and subplots. I will say that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is the first film in the series, is my favorite. It introduces the characters and keeps things simple enough that even us Muggles can follow along. Watching the film again for this review was a joy, and reminded me of why I liked it so much. Everything about it clicks. The characters, the actors, the story, the direction, and the score by the legendary John Williams. It's definitely one of the best book-to-scene adaptations.

[ SPECIFICATIONS ]

The movie is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 2:32:12. Audio languages include English and Spanish (both in Dolby Digital 5.1). Subtitle languages include English SDH and Spanish.

[ SPECIAL FEATURES ]

There are no special features on Disc 1; it's just the movie only. Disc 2 features this:

• Magical Movie Mode (2:42:04) - Discover filmmaking secrets, spell incantations, magical creatures and artifacts, and more in this enchanting collection of fun activities and curiosities. Test your knowledge with the Hogwarts Trivia Challenge, and let the magic begin! Magical Movie Mode includes director's commentary from Chris Columbus offering candid insight and amusing anecdotes from the production of the film, deleted scenes, quizzes testing your potent knowledge of a vast array of topics from the film, graphics and audio during select scenes in the film draw you further into Harry's world, and much more! (The first 1:27 is an introduction, and last two minutes is an outro and score tally.)

A handful of Warner Brothers Blu-rays from the past 10 years have a "Maximum Movie Mode" special feature. It's a picture-in-picture (PIP) feature in which the director, basically, hosts his own movie. It combines behind-the-scenes featurettes and commentary for the "maximum" insight. Past Blu-rays that have had this feature include (but are not limited to) 300 (The Complete Experience), Watchmen, Sucker Punch, Terminator: Salvation, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Cop Out, and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole. To get a better idea as to what this is, here is the introduction I grabbed from the DVD that explains this feature.


Warner Brothers only provided me with the DVD release, so the feature probably works better, and is more interactive, on Blu-ray. In fact, I think Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone might be the first DVD release to contain the "Maximum Movie Mode" feature (here called "Magical Movie Mode"). For the DVD, all of the PIP content is burnt-in to the video, not displayed over it through the use of Java, as on Blu-ray. I enjoyed having the director chime in with information from time to time, the trivia, and the occasional branching away from the movie for deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes footage. What I didn't particularly care for was the addition of the Golden Snitch "hiding" in scenes and the "game" aspects. The "game" simply has you answering questions before the answer is eventually revealed, while you keep track of your score on a piece of paper. At the end of the movie, you'll be told how you rank depending on what range your score is in. These types of things are for the younger viewers, even though the "Maximum Movie Mode" feature is usually geared towards adult viewers.

Sadly, all previous DVD and Blu-ray special features are not included here, which is a cryin' shame. Since the "Disc 1" included here is a new disc (or it may have come from the 2016 Two-Disc Special Edition), you don't even get the Theatrical Trailer and Teaser Trailer from the first disc in the original 2002 Two-Disc Special Edition; much less the other stuff from the 2002 and 2016 releases.

[ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ]

No Digital Copy code voucher is included in the standard two-disc black DVD case. The first print run includes a slipsleeve.

[ PURCHASE LINKS ]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Magical Movie Mode) is available on Blu-ray and DVD. It's really hard to whole-heartedly recommend this. The "Magical Movie Mode" is great, but I have to wonder how much of it was cribbed from the "Ultimate Edition" Blu-ray set's "In-Movie Experience" picture-in-picture feature with director Chris Columbus. I have doubts as to whether any of the material from the "Magical Movie Mode" feature is new. Without "Magical Movie Mode", this would be a "Movie Only" release. I would really just recommend that you pick-up the whole 8-film series on Blu-ray, whether it's in the deluxe 31-disc set with a MAXIMUM amount of special features or the 8-disc set with minimal special features (because it's only the Disc 1's of each film from the other set).


This item has been provided by Warner Brothers for review on this site.