Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) review

The Harry Potter series is a franchise that needs no introduction at this point. The brainchild of author J.K. Rowling, this is very much one of the best ‘success stories’ in recent memory. After a few years spent struggling to get by as a single mom living in the U.K., Rowling published her first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (later retitled Sorcerer’s Stone for the U.S. release) in 1997, having come up with the idea for Harry Potter while on a delayed train ride to London. While it was initially rejected by 12 different publishers (who I’m sure are now fully regretting that decision), the book became a worldwide best-seller, as did its six follow-ups. With over 500 million copies sold to date, it is the best-selling book series of all-time. That success was then equally translated into film when Warner Bros. bought the film rights in 1999. The film adaptation of Sorcerer’s Stone was released in 2001 and the series would continue up until 2011 with 7 more films, including a two-part adaptation of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And like their book counterparts, the films were a massive critical and commercial success. It’s legitimately one of the rare franchises in which every entry in the series is great and the series ended up grossing over $7 billion worldwide, with the final entry, 2011’s Deathly Hallows Part 2, even going over $1 billion. And at that time, it seemed as if the series had come to an end. While Rowling has expanded the series since then through various forms of media, including a recent stage play titled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that serves as the eighth installment of the series, it seems as if the story of Harry Potter, ‘the boy who lived’, has come to an end.

But this isn’t the end for the wizarding world, though. In 2013, it was announced that Rowling was writing a screenplay for a new film set within her wizarding world; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This new project was particularly interesting given its ‘source material’. Instead of being based on a full novel like the Potter films were, this film is inspired by an in-universe textbook of the same name by author Newt Scamander that was one of the many textbooks that Harry Potter owned while at Hogwarts. Rowling even released the book for real in 2001. Obviously, the idea of a film that was inspired by a ‘textbook’ seems like a weird concept. But, we are talking about J.K. Rowling here, who makes her screenwriting debut with this ‘spin-off’ of the Harry Potter series that is set in 1920’s New York and follows the adventures of Newt Scamander. After spending a whole series overseas, we’re finally getting to see the American side of the Wizarding World. And not only does this film see the return of some of the franchise’s primary behind-the-scenes players, including producer David Heyman and writer Steve Kloves (who, for the record, is only a producer here), but also director David Yates, who helmed the final four Potter films. With that kind of pedigree, it seems like this should be another full-on success for this beloved franchise. And, ultimately, you would be right on that one, as Rowling and co. give us another highly entertaining adventure in the wizarding world that truly manages to stand on its own merit.  

In 1926, around 70 years prior to the events of the Harry Potter films, magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives in New York City by boat. His primary possession is a suitcase containing various magical creatures that he has collected over the years. Things get rather complicated, however, when a run-in with No-Maj* (the American term for what the Potter books referred to as ‘Muggles’, AKA ‘non-wizarding folk’) Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) ends up resulting in their suitcases getting switched and some of the creatures getting loose. And, unfortunately, this happens at a very bad time, as the American wizarding community, specifically the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA), is in the middle of dealing with the possible threat of exposure to the non-wizarding community. This is primarily due to a mysterious force that has been attacking the city and may or may not be connected to the dark wizard Grindelwald. And because MACUSA has instigated a ban on owning magical creatures, that puts Newt’s creatures in even more danger as they’re being blamed for the incidents. Thus, Newt and Jacob team up with MACUSA employee Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) to find his creatures before any harm can come to them.  

Despite a change in scenery, the world that this film creates is, for lack of a better term, just as magical as what we saw from the Potter films. Once again, you are fully immersed in the world that Rowling creates and the new setting of 1920’s New York provides plenty of creative scenarios that feel both new but also familiar (in a good way). And being a film called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, this film is very much full of ‘magical creature’-related sequences that are super fun to watch. But one of the coolest things about the film is that it is very much its own story. Sure, there are references to Harry Potter here and there (e.g. Dumbledore, Hogwarts, etc.) but they’re minor at best. And sure, these references might get more prevalent in future films. But for being the first installment of a new franchise, this film does succeed in standing on its own instead of having to rely on the arguably now nostalgic value of the Harry Potter films. Ultimately, though, the best thing that I can say about this film, as was the case with the eight Potter films, is that it does a fantastic job of balancing out the various traits of the story; the humor, the drama, the emotional depth, the charm, and the spectacle. That, my friends, is the sign of a great director and a great writer and this film has both in David Yates and J.K. Rowling, respectively. Yates’ direction is just as great as it was in the last four Potter films while Rowling’s writing, as usual, provides us with a terrifically-layered story that tackles strong themes like bigotry and prejudice amidst all the light-hearted magical adventures that the main characters find themselves in.

Speaking of which, one of the best things about this franchise in general has always been its ensemble cast. Every member of the Harry Potter cast was perfectly fit to play their respective roles. And the same can be said for the cast of Fantastic Beasts. The four main leads; Newt, Tina, Queenie, and Jacob, prove to be an excellent group of likable protagonists. They work well together and are well-matched in terms of their personalities, with Newt being the socially awkward main protagonist, Tina the kind but no-nonsense gal with a chip on her shoulder (as the result of an incident that led to her being removed from her position as an Auror (AKA basically a ‘wizard cop’)), Queenie the sweet flirt, and Jacob basically being the audience avatar of the situation; the No-Maj/Muggle (whatever one you prefer) who gets caught up in the wizarding world. In fact, this is basically the first time we’ve ever seen a non-wizard main character in this series. These four prove to be such an endearing group that, without giving anything major away, the way that the film closes out one of their story arcs is quite emotional. All in all, excellent performances from Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, and Dan Fogler. But like with any ‘Wizarding World’ film, this film also benefits from an excellent supporting cast playing an eclectic and interesting bunch of characters. There’s Colin Farrell as the rather sinister Auror Percival Graves, Ezra Miller as the mysterious young man Credence, Samantha Morton as Credence’s extremely bigoted No-Maj adopted mother Mary Lou who leads an extremist group looking to expose wizards, Carmen Ejogo as the stern president of MACUSA, the list goes on and on.

I’m not going to lie when I say that this was very much one of my most anticipated films of the year. Harry Potter is easily my favorite film franchise of all-time. Therefore, I was excited to see what would come out of a ‘Wizarding World’ film set in 1920’s New York with a screenplay written by J.K. Rowling herself. And I must say that the results are incredibly satisfying. Heck, I’m already imagining what they could do to implement this new side of the franchise into the ‘Wizarding World of Harry Potter’ lands at Universal Studios. Really, that’s the best part about the world that J.K. Rowling creates. It’s so imaginative that the possibilities are endless. But this is not just a prequel to Harry Potter. Aside from a few slight references here and there, this new film does stand on its own merit thanks to a great new cast of main characters and plenty of fun mayhem involving magical beasts. After all, this is called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. But through it all, thanks to the always great direction of David Yates and the always fantastic writing of J.K. Rowling, this film perfectly blends the charming spectacle of it all with a well-written story that contains strong themes, dark moments, and heartfelt emotional depth. In other words, exactly what the Harry Potter films had been doing for a decade. All in all, this film is an impressively self-contained story, so much so that it’s actually rather unclear as to where this series will go next, especially considering that there will apparently be four more films after this. But I assure you that this Potter fan is very much eager to see more of this new side of the Wizarding World.

Rating: 5/5!