A critical discussion/analysis of the film

A critical discussion /analysis of the film

A Critical Discussion and Analysis of the Film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer 's Stone ' by Chris Columbus

Youth mass culture today becomes overflowed with heap of information and children ' consciousness is overfilled with modern images of life and society . And when it seemed that magic had become something old-fashioned in children 's culture , along came Harry Potter and the Sorcerer 's Stone . After all , children 's mass culture in the late twentieth century had derived a great deal of merriment ridiculing the idea

of magic as the old fashioned ingredient of nineteenth century children 's tales . They were now simply too tame and , should we say childish , for a generation that had cut its teeth on video games and marketing campaigns designed to address them as a niche market

Now mainstream films made for general consumption , like Toy Story (1995 mocked the idea that stories of toys coming to life had to be imbued with mystery . When the toys came to life in this film they asked : Are you from Mattel ' Were you made in Hong Kong ' Or there are toothpaste commercials that deconstruct the tooth fairy by casting a man in drag as the tooth fairy . In a commercial for Disney Land and a Visa credit card , the child cajoles its parents to use the credit card putting on an innocent ' face so as to win a trip to Disney Land which had earlier cast itself as a magical place

In contrast , Harry Potter , an orphan who is left to the mercy of his upwardly mobile , suburban aunt , uncle and cousin finds out one day that he is a wizard . He also finds out that there is an entire world , a way of life with its own language and culture that lives by magic . This world coexists parallel to the world of the muggles ' the wizards term for the normal ' routine bound , monotonous , magic less , everyday world . Did Harry Potter and the Sorcerer 's Stone then indicate a return of the utopian imagination in children 's literature and film ? Not quite Instead , Harry Potter is an excellent lesson about the limits of fantasy . Here that fantasy is produced as a commodity , driven by an industry that continuously raises the stakes for a film 's survival in terms of expected returns

Undoubtedly , the film , I think , teach that magic can rescue us from hardships , misfortunes , cosmic threats , child abuse , or even prohibitions on candy and sweet drinks , and that magic can also rescue us from the aesthetic squalor which is all that is offered by public institutions . Like capital , Harry and his friends can escape the laws public institutions , authority , and surveillance through a magical promise as they learn that the laws , public institutions , authority , and surveillance can only function as obstacles on the path to ultimate freedom . As Joan Acocella of The New Yorker indicates , The subject of the Harry Potter is power , an important matter for children , since they have...