Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone completed from the DVD version by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 3 February 2011.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• 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

After being orphaned as a baby, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) has been living with his aunt and uncle in a cupboard under the stairs. Harry is actually a wizard who was placed in the home by Professor Dumbledore (Richard Harris) and Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith). They are two veteran wizards who run Hogwarts, a boarding school for sorcerers, and they wanted to keep the boy away from the evil wizard Voldemort who killed his parents.

Harry’s aunt and uncle have attempted to conceal his wizard background but, in spite of their efforts, Harry is retrieved by Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) on the eve of his 11th birthday and is soon bound for Hogwarts School. While on the train to the wizard school Harry quickly makes friends with two other first year students, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson).

As they begin their training at the school, the three friends become suspicious about some of the strange things occurring there.  They learn about the Philosopher’s Stone, a rock with magical powers that can turn any metal into gold and creates the elixir of life that insures immortality. They soon become involved in a number of frightening adventures which bring them up against the evil Voldemort.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Death of parents; the supernatural; cruelty to children

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 is some violence in this movie including:

• As the result of Voldemort's attack on Harry and his parents, we see Harry as a baby with a slightly bloody lightning-bolt shaped cut on his forehead
• Harry’s cousin Dudley deliberately pushes Harry into a cupboard and then kicks the door closed while laughing. In another scene, Uncle Vernon grabs Harry by his hair, shoves him into a cupboard and bolts the door.
• While looking at a snake exhibit at the zoo, Harry is shoved out of the way by Dudley and falls to the ground. The glass on the snake enclosure disappears and Dudley falls through into the snake’s enclosure.  A very large anaconda slithers across him while people scream.
• Uncle Vernon points a shotgun threateningly at Hagrid who grabs hold of the end of the shotgun and effortlessly bends the gun’s barrel upwards.  The gun goes off and blasts a hole in the ceiling.
• A giant troll walks down a hall at Hogwarts and enters the girl’s toilets to find Hermione. Hermione screams and then hides in a toilet cubicle. The troll uses his giant club to smash the toilet cubicle and toilet bowl, narrowly missing Hermione. Harry and Ron arrive and throw debris at the troll, hitting him in the head. Harry jumps on to the troll’s head and the troll grabs him and holds him upside down while trying to hit Harry with his club. Ron levitates the troll’s club into the air and it falls on to the troll’s head, knocking it unconscious. 
• During a quidditch match (a cross between basketball and rugby on flying broomsticks) we see students deliberately running into and knocking students off of their broomsticks and forcing students into stands knocking them off their brooms. We see riders/flyers violently kicking, elbowing and throwing balls at other riders in an attempt to dislodge them from their brooms with riders falling to the ground.
• Hermione points her wand at a fellow student and chants a spell, and we see the boy stiffen and fall backwards.
  During a game of giant wizards’ chess, the giant chess pieces use swords and axes to smash and destroy each other. Ron is thrown off a horse, unconscious.
• Professor Quirrell uses magic to compel Harry to walk towards him, shouting and threatening him. Quirrell clicks his fingers and a wall of flames erupts in front of Harry preventing him from escaping
• Voldemort, in the form of a face on the back of Professor Quirrell’s head, orders Quirrell to kill Harry. While being attacked and strangled by Quirrell, Harry grabs hold of him and he takes on a burnt, mummified appearance before turning to ash and disintegrating. A swirling grey ghost-like image rises up out of Quirrell’s ashes and flies through Harry’s body. Harry falls back unconscious with his face and hands covered in bloody cuts and scratches. Later we see Harry in a hospital bed with his hands bandaged.

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 some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• The shadowy/silhouetted image of a cat transforms into a woman.
• Aunt Petunia and Dudley hold each other and scream hysterically as their house shakes and a storm of magical letters bursts out of the fireplace and swirls around them.  
  Harry, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley are in a small cabin. The wooden door is banged on loudly and then smashed open. A very large, hairy, wild looking man (Hagrid) comes through the door.  
• Scary characters include goblins, a three-headed dog, a green scaly troll and a centaur
• A flashback image of Voldemort murdering Harry’s parents.
• Transparent images of ghosts float through the air and through walls at Hogwarts castle. One ghost almost pulls his head nearly off; it is left attached by a thread of skin and we see some blood and gore on the neck wound. 
• Harry opens a magical book and a scary/creepy looking face tries to push its way out with accompanying screams.
• While doing detention in the forbidden forest, Harry and another boy come across a dead unicorn with a cloaked figure sucking its blood. We see a quick image of silver blood dripping from the sides of the mouth beneath the hood.
• Professor Quirrell unwraps his turban to reveal Voldemort’s scary  face  pushing out of the back of his head

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen 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.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the above-mentioned images

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

None of concern

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Hagrid talks about visiting pubs. He walks into one pub and the bartender asks him if he would like "the usual".  

Coarse language

Low level coarse language, name calling and put-downs include:

• “Pumpkin”, “you great prune”, “freak”, “fat arse”, “pea brain” 
• The use of the word “bloody” in a variety of contexts: bloody brilliant, bloody hell, bloody coward

The movie's message

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, based on the book of the same name, is a fantasy film targeting a young adolescent audience. It follows the book faithfully and is also likely to entertaining adult audiences. Parents are strongly cautioned that the film is at times intense and contains violence, dark moments and visual images capable of scaring or disturbing children under ten, particularly those who have not read the book. At 151 minutes, the film is also too long for younger children.

The main messages from this movie are:

• not to dwell on dreams while forgetting to live
• the importance of friendship
• that good will triumph over evil

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• bravery
• selflessness:

Parents may also wish to discuss the real life consequences of knowingly placing yourself in a dangerous situation. These may be far more serious than depicted in the film.