Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their third year of study, where they delve into the mystery surrounding an escaped prisoner who poses a dangerous threat to the young wizard.
áááȘáš reviewedJanuary 28, 2025
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The importance of The Prisoner of Azkaban to the Harry Potter film series cannot be overstated. This is the movie that established the creative direction and formula for the films that followed, as the series faced a crucial issue post-Chamber of Secrets. How does one adapt increasingly lengthy books into satisfying feature films? The solution: everything that is told from Harryâs point of view or that directly affects his character goes in, everything else is fair game for being dropped.
But it wasnât only the POV rule that Azkaban established going forward; it was also the freedom to get creativeâreally creative. Director Alfonso Cuaron significantly altered the look and feel of Harry Potter without completely removing what Chris Columbus had built in the prior two films, while at the same time expanding the depth of the characters and, well, getting weird. From the Knight Bus sequence to the Hogwarts choir (plus frogs) to the Dementors, Prisoner of Azkaban is absolutely tactileâyou can feel this world. And itâs a testament to Cuaronâs vision and cinematographer Michael Seresinâs beautiful photography that nearly every frame of film on this thing looks like a painting. The irises, the Womping Willow marking the changes of the season, the camera move through the clockâthis thing is filled to the brim with unforgettable imagery.
Azkaban is also the film in which Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson really come into their own as actors and begin to forge a path that makes these characters their own. Radcliffe in particular shines opposite Gary Oldman and David Thewlis (Lupin), as the characterâs unending search for a father figure continues. And Cuaron and Co. had the unenviable task of recasting Dumbledore following the great Richard Harrisâ passing, but Michael Gambon picks up the baton beautifullyâhis performance neither tries to emulate Harrisâ nor does it dishonor the actorâs previous characterization.
And while the time turner business is executed to perfection (Azkaban really is one of the most streamlined stories in Rowlingâs book series), simply telling the story is not enough for Cuaronâeverything is in service to character, which in turn services the filmâs thematic throughline of burgeoning adolescence. As they enter puberty, these young characters begin to forge a path of independence, and Cuaron captures this wonderfully in manners both subtle (each actor wears his or her uniform slightly differently in this film) and obvious (Harry ârunning away from homeâ at the beginning).
The merits of Prisoner of Azkaban are almost unending, and while the Harry Potter franchise would lead to other outstanding entries in subsequent years, Cuaronâs film still marks the creative highpoint in one of the best, most diverse, and most satisfying film franchises of all time. At the risk of sounding clichĂ©, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is pure magic.