Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is the third in the Harry Potter film series and was directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars the actors from the preceding films in the series, except for the role of Albus Dumbledore, which saw Michael Gambon taking over from the late Richard Harris. Much of the original crew also returned, including screenwriter Steve Kloves.

Deviations from the book

• The backstory involving Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs is not explained, though hinted throughout the movie.
• No solid explanation is given as to why Snape hates both Sirius and Lupin so much.
• James Potter is never disclosed to have become an animagus.
• Harry receives his Firebolt at the end of his third year rather than at Christmas.
• A choir of Hogwarts students is added, singing "Double, double, toil and trouble... Something wicked this way comes."
• The dementors float and fly rather than glide.
• A shrunken head, voiced by Lenny Henry, is added to the Knight Bus as, according to Cuarón, a "wizarding equivalent to radio" Even though a wizarding equivalent to a radio is a wireless which is just like a radio just with wizarding stations.
• Harry is caught with the Marauder's Map by Snape while wandering around at night trying to find Peter Pettigrew rather than after visiting Hogsmeade a second time.
• Malfoy mistook Harry as a ghost of the Shrieking Shack. In the book, Harry was caught by Malfoy using the invisibility cloak when his head got revealed accidentally.
• Harry (and the audience) get their first indication that Peter Pettigrew may be alive when Harry sees his name on the map, rather than in the Shrieking Shack scene.
• "Moony" is spelled "Mooney" as an in-joke referring to Karl Mooney, one of the visual effects supervisors. In the DVD subtitles, it is spelled "Moony" as it was in the book.
• The Quidditch Cup is left out altogether. Only part of one Quidditch game is shown, thus the part in which Malfoy and his crew dress up as Dementors was also omitted.
• Romantic tension between Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger is implied. J. K. Rowling approved of this.
• A close relationship is implied between Remus Lupin and Harry's mother, Lily Potter. There has been much debate over whether the director intended to to imply a romantic past between the two characters or simply a deep friendship.
• Ron confronts the boggart spider by giving it roller skates rather than removing its legs. The boggarts of other characters were changed as well. For example, Parvati Patil's boggart is a snake in the film, whereas it was a mummy in the book.
• Snape (who was going to bring Lupin his Wolfsbane Potion) discovered him heading for the Whomping Willow. He used Harry's Invisibility Cloak to follow Lupin in the book but wasn't wearing it in the film.
• While in the Shrieking Shack, only Harry attacks and knocks out Snape, as opposed to Harry, Ron, and Hermione together. This had the bizzare effect of rendering the Expeliarmus charm very random--sometimes all it did was knock a wand out of someone's hand but here it bolwed Snape right over.
• Ron's line in the book "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" is given to Hermione.
• Professor Trelawney is depicted as an eccentric and cheerful lunatic, not as a mysterious, lone, oddball.
• All of Professor Trelawney's predictions except the ones about Harry's death and Voldemort returning are left out. Also, the prediction about Harry's death is only mentioned in one scene of the film.
• In the film, the present-time Harry actually witnesses the corporeal stag Patronus cast by his future self. In the book, he passes out first. You can see the corporeal Patronus from future Harry's perspective if you look closely at Harry's wand.
• In the film, when Lupin is teaching Harry how to perform the Patronus Charm, the happy memory that finally allows Harry to be successful is Harry "just talking" with his parents; in the book the memory is of Hagrid telling him he is leaving the Dursley's to go to Hogwarts.
• In the book, Hermione experienced a small mental breakdown due to the fullness of her schedule and complexities of time travel. In the film, this was replaced by a running gag, where Hermione appears seemingly out of nowhere to which Ron exclaims "Where did she come from?!"
• Originally Harry spent two weeks at London and bought all his books by himself except for Monstrous Book of Monsters which was his birthday present by Hagrid.
• In the book Mr. Weasley didn't tell Harry about Sirius. Instead Harry heard that accidentally, when he was going to take back Scabbers' rat tonic from the bar.
• In the film we didn't see how Hermione bought Crookshanks, also we were given no clues of strange behaviour of Scabbers.
• Sir Cadogan was cut from the movie, although we can see him in deleted scenes on DVD.
• Episode when Sirius sneaked into Gryffindor boy's dormitories was omitted, though events which happened afterwards were present in deleted scene on DVD.
• In the movie we have no clues how Sirius escaped from Azkaban.
• In the book when Harry was caught with the Marauder's Map by Snape, Lupin was called using fireplace (Floo powder network).
• In the book Harry practised Patronus Charms in the classroom of History of Magic not in Dumbledore's Office.
• Buckbeack had a series of trials and appeals that occurred throughout most of the year, not just one as implied in the film. Also, no mention of Hermione helping Hagrid prepare appears on film.
• Harry heard that Sirius was his Godfather in some private room of Madam Rosmerta in Three Broomsticks, while in book he was just hiding under the table in the bar.
• In movie Harry ran away shocked when he heard that Sirius is his Godfather; in book Ron and Hermione just looked at Harry beneath the table, lost for words.
• In movie Harry threw snowballs at Malfoy while they were near Shrieking Shack, in the book this scene happened in spring, Hermione wasn't with them and Harry threw mud, not snowballs.
• In the movie, the presence of Dementors is shown to instantly frost over the surrounding environment; in the books, they were merely described as surrounded by a chill.
• In the movie Harry didn't reply Sirius whether he wanted to live with him, in the book he replied positively, saying he could not miss the chance to move out from the Dursleys' house.
• In the book Lupin didn't allow Harry to face the boggart.
• In the book, Lupin's Boggart turned into a cockroach after his Riddikulus spell. Also, it originally took the picturesque form of a very obvious full moon (complete with clouds) whereas in the book it was described as being a "shiny orb," or less obviously the moon.
• The film shows an American-style werewolf (bipedal, extremely large) whereas in the books, Lupin becomes a normal wolf (werewolves and wolves nearly identical according to one Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook) albeit an unusually vicious one.
• In the book, when Sirius is captured at the end, he is locked in Prof Flitwick's office and the children have to remove the window (via magic). The film has Sirius locked in a dungeon in a high tower and Hermione blasts the door off.
• In the book, it is explained that Sirius was supposed to be the Potter's "Secret Keeper" and thus he would have been the only one who could have told Voldemort their location. This is the reason why everyone so strongly assumed his guilt. At the last moment, however, he gave the task to Peter Pettigrew and only he and the Potters knew about it. This is cut completely from the film.
• No explanation as to how Black knows where to find Pettigrew occurs in the film, unlike the book where he tells that he saw a picture of Pettigrew (in rat form) in the newspaper.
• At the end of the book while living school on the Hogwarts Express Ron recieves Pig his owl. He does not recieve the owl at the end of the movie.