Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 27 November 2005.

Overall comments and recommendations

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a visually stunning and excellent story, full of witchcraft, wizardry and magic. The special effects are very well done, the clumsy teenage romances are deftly handled and many adolescents will enjoy this movie. However, due to its overall sense of brooding darkness and the very dramatic and dark climax, this movie is not recommended for young and / or sensitive children.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) receives an invitation from his friend Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) to attend the Quidditch World Cup which is being contested by Ireland and Bulgaria. The match ends in chaos when dark wizards appear, destroying everything in sight and placing the ‘dark mark’ of Voldemort, a huge skull, high up in the sky. Ron, Hermione (Emma Watson) and Harry are still trying to unravel the events when they return to school for the start of the new year.

When they return to Hogwarts, they are greeted with the news that the school is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, an event which hasn’t taken place in over a hundred years. The Tournament is a challenging and dangerous event, traditionally contested by three students, one representing each of the world’s wizarding schools, Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. The three students are chosen by the Goblet of Fire which spits out their names, with Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) chosen to represent Hogwarts. However on this occasion the Goblet of Fire chooses an additional fourth contestant—Harry Potter. Harry has to compete against students much older than himself, fighting fire breathing dragons, rescuing his friends from the bottom of the Black Lake and finding his way through a maze which is intent on strangling all contestants.

Unbeknownst to him, as he defeats each obstacle he falls further into the trap set by Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) who plans to capture him and use his blood to be reborn in human form.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There are several violent scenes in this movie mostly performed by magic, including the following:

• A caretaker is struck down by a flash of light
  
• Harry’s first task in the Triwizard Tournament is to collect a golden egg which is being protected by a dragon. The scene between Harry and the dragon is very well done, but quite violent. The dragon repeatedly attacks Harry and breathes fire on him. Harry ends up with blood on his face and quite bruised.
  
• Harry is attacked by strange and vicious underwater creatures.
  
• Diggory, the other Hogwarts’ champion, is killed by Voldemort supporter, Wormtail (Timothy Spall)
  
• Wormtail cuts off his own hand to put into a cauldron with the shrivelled baby like Voldemort. He then cuts Harry’s arm with a long knife and puts the blood into the cauldron.
  
• Voldemort presses on Harry’s scar making him scream and writhe in pain.
  
• Voldemort and Harry duel with their wands.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are many scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of eight, including:

• In a dream Harry sees a huge snake crawl through a graveyard with skulls and ghouls, into an old creaky house and up some stairs. The snake talks to some men, while eerie music plays.
  
• A caretaker walks through the old house with his flashlight but is discovered by the men and disposed of in a flash of light.
  
• Harry and his friends are flung spinning through the air by a ‘portkey’ and crash land on hard ground.
  
• Dark wizards come into the camp at the World Cup, destroying the tent city and putting the ‘dark mark’ of Voldemort, a skull, into the sky. In the chaos, Harry is trampled on.
  
• Mad Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) is very scary looking. He has an artificial eye which follows people around, a badly scarred face and an artificial leg which he removes.
  
• Moody makes a spider grow very large and crawl over the students in the classroom.
  
• Moody transforms Malfoy (Tom Felton) into a ferret.
  
• Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) appears to Harry as a face in the fire.
  
• The fire-breathing dragons are huge and fierce.
  
• Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson) is a ghost who appears to Harry while he’s taking a bath.
  
• Harry has to swim to the bottom of Black Lake which is full of nasty creatures which attack him. He grows gills and has webbed feet and hands.
  
• The other competitors while swimming in the Black Lake develop fish like faces, and one changes from being the head of a shark back into youth.
  
• At the bottom of the lake Harry finds four people including Ron and Hermione floating, suspended in the water—their eyes are open and they look like they’re dead. It is not until they are rescued and come up to the surface that they take a breath and you realise they are alive.
  
• After Harry has released Ron and another contestant’s young sister, and they are on their way back to the surface, the sea creatures drag Harry back down towards the bottom of the lake
  
• The maze closes in on the contestants, trapping them with vines and appearing to suck them under ground.
  
• Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy), the contestant for Beauxbatons, screams and collapses. Then she seems to be swallowed up by the maze.
  
• Wormtail is carrying body parts of Voldemort in a bundle which he throws into a cauldron.
  
• Voldemort transforms from a shrivelled baby like creature, into a large embryo and then into a fully grown man with a skull face, evil eyes and no nose.
  
• Harry’s parents appear to him as ghosts to encourage him.
  
• Moody’s body has been taken over by Barty Crouch Junior, an evil Voldemort supporter. Moody is shown transforming into Crouch.

Aged eight to eleven

Children aged eight to eleven are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Although children in this age group will understand that the magic and wizardry are fictitious, children aged eight to eleven could still be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Other themes could also concern children in this age group, including:

• The notion during the underwater section of the contest, that you could be responsible for the death of valued friends or family if you didn’t succeed at a task within a strict time limit could be worrying to some children.
  
• The searing pain experienced by Harry when Voldemort presses on his scar.
  
• The murder of Diggory is very emotional. Immediately after Diggory has died, his spirit asks Harry to take his body back to his father. When Harry returns with the body, the father cries with grief when we sees his son’s body.
  
• The sorrow and grief around Diggory’s death, and Harry’s role in witnessing it and bringing the body back are left unresolved.

Aged eleven to fifteen

Children aged eleven to fifteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

The death of Diggory and the unresolved grief could also disturb some young adolescents.

Over the age of fifteen

Adolescents over the age of 15 could still benefit from assistance in processing the movie’s themes, including the death of Diggory.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in this movie.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity in this movie.

Use of substances

Mad Eye Moody is constantly drinking from a hip flask.

Coarse language

The are a few uses of ‘bloody hell’ in this movie.

The movie's message

The movie gives mixed messages. While Harry appears to have done the right thing, by sacrificing his win of the tournament to help his competitor, he in fact causes his death by doing so.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• self sacrifice
  
• equal gender roles
  
• courage.

This movie could give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the use of violence as a means of solving conflict. Parents should also be prepared for questions about what happens when good doesn’t appear to triumph over evil.