Episode 120 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004) (with Rhianna Dhillon)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004).

The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!

No sooner have Chris and Alex finished their examination of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Chris Columbus, 2002) than they make a swift return to Hogwarts for the third (and best?) in the franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuarón, 2004). Joining them in this instalment to separate their Leaky Cauldrons from their Time-Turners is very special guest Rhianna Dhillon, Film/TV critic and Presenter who has featured on BBC Radio One, Front Row, Sky News, and Channel 5, and is currently the film critic for BBC6Music and Radio 5 Live as well as regularly appearing on Kermode and Mayo's Take. Listen as they get to grips with Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘darker’ approach to the Harry Potter universe as a vital moment of change for the series; fantastical transformation stories and the power of the VFX animagus; enchantment and wizarding spells of de-animation; the power of Pam Ferris as the magically-inflating Aunt Marge; shifting narrative chronology and the film’s links to Hollywood’s emergent ‘puzzle film’ tradition; the visualisation of childhood trauma through the dark Dementors; and how Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban successfully captures Harry’s anger at a world in which his family, friendships, and loyalties are becoming increasing fractured and fragmented.

**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**

Suggested Readings

  • Brummit, Cassie. 2022. Harry Potter and the Transmedia Wizarding World: The Franchise Post-Harry Potter. London: Bloomsbury.

  • Brown, Noel. 2012. The Hollywood Family Film: A History, from Shirley Temple to Harry Potter. London: I.B. Tauris.

  • Lane, Cara. 2005. “The Prisoner of Azkaban: A New Direction for Harry Potter.” Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 35, no. 1: 65-67

  • Leslie, Esther. 2002. Hollywood Flatlands. Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-Garde. London: Verso.

PODCASTChristopher Holliday and Alexander SergeantHARRY POTTER, HOLLYWOOD, FRANCHISE, ADAPTATION, SPECIAL EFFECTSComment