Book Review: The Art of Harry Potter: The definitive art collection of the magical film franchise

I've always wondered why there weren't any Harry Potter movie artbooks and finally now we have one. They certainly took their time.

This is a huge 364-page hardcover. It's almost as big as Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey, which is still the best Harry Potter film book around.

The book has artworks that covers almost all aspects of the films. There are five chapters that look at the wizarding world, the characters, magical creatures, artifacts and the graphic art of the wizarding world.

You'll get to see concept art for the environments such as Diagon Alley, the interiors and exteriors of Hogwarts Castle, Azkaban, Ministry of Magic and many more. There are character designs for the iconic characters such as the students, professors, Hagrid, the dark forces and many more. But don't expect to see all the characters because there are just too many in Harry Potter.

Creature designs are cool. There are dragons, the inhabitants of The Forbidden Forest, The Black Lake, dementors, Cornish pixies, Buckbeak, goblins, Fenrir Greyback, Patronus, and others.

There are also plenty of artifacts and props to check out, such as the Golden Snitch, Quidditch ball, brooms, Horcruxes, wands, various Hogwarts moving portraits, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and other inventions.

The last chapter on graphic arts cover the printed materials such as textbooks that are shown in the films, e.g. Advanced Potion Making, A History of Magic, The Monster Book of Monsters, school documents, magazines, newspapers (Daily Prophet), posters, blueprints of some buildings, additional documents from Ministry of Magic, heraldry like school crests, coats of arms, signage, packaging art for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and more.

In short, there's a lot to see in this book. There are some pieces of art that may appear amateurish but the overall collections works well and gives a nice idea of how the Harry Potter film world is conceived. The only thing that could make the book even better would be the inclusion of more text because the only text included are the chapter introductions and credits for each piece of art. If you really want more insight, get Harry Potter Page to Screen.

I enjoy this book and I believe Harry Potter film fans will too. It really brings back the memories of the time when I first I saw the films. I may have to watch those films again.

The Art of Harry Potter: The definitive art collection of the magical film franchise is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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