Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review

Ever since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was published and the last of the films were released, fans have been wanting, wishing, and begging for more Harry Potter magic. Thankfully, J.K. Rowling has granted those desires. She has continually dropped bits of information about the wizarding world, and now there is something of a prequel series.

I'm convinced J.K. Rowling allowed this story to unfold because Americans felt left out. Hogwarts is amazing, and it's so fun to read about British people and places. But what about other magic schools? The French and Russian schools are in the fourth Harry Potter book, so that's probably what made Americans ask the golden question.


What would the wizarding world in America be like?


We get a glimpse of that in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Eddie Redmayne stars as an animal loving Hufflepuff, adventurer, and future author. Can we all agree that Eddie Redmayne is a through and through Hufflepuff? You might think all that adventuring and taming beasts takes a lot of courage, like a Gryffindor. But taking care of creatures takes a tremendous amount of kindness and patience, just like a Hufflepuff.

Eddie Redmayne shuffles and ducks his head through this magical tale of New York City in the 1920s, a place of witch hunts, underground clubs, house elf bartenders, and mobster goblins. He's shy, he's awkward, and he's completely devoted to the contents of his battered briefcase. 

You'd think with magic he could make it impossible for anyone but himself to release anything from his case, but maybe that's too advanced for the 20s. 

One of my favorite aspects of this movie was that it had so many different perspectives in it. You have Newt, the British Hogwarts alumni (sort of) that we are used to, the American wizards and witches, mugs/no-majs who are affected by and suspicious of magic, and of course a muggle who gets dragged into the whole mess.

Jacob's reactions to suddenly being immersed in the wizarding world are exactly how most of us would feel. He is us. He is our way of relating to the story. Newt, always forgetting to follow the rules, takes a liking to Jacob and decides they are friends. Never mind the no wizard and muggle relationship law, not important. It's not as if Newt is rebellious, it's almost like he doesn't notice that there are rules other than proper behavior around magical creatures and not making eye contact with the humans or they will attack.


Newt and Jacob, opposites, meet another pair of opposites when Tina yells at Newt them brings the boys home to deal with them, introducing them to her mind reading sister Queenie.

The two pairs couple off and the depend on each other as they battle many obstacles in their quest to recover Newt's escaped beasts.

There are some beautiful shots of New York, charming displays of the 1920s, and a classic American twist on magic (still in love with the idea of mobster goblins here). 

I love Harry Potter. It's a world where anything can happen. with magic, you have so much more potential to create but also way more opportunity to inflict disaster. This movie was a fun way to explore wizards of other cultures, wizards of other time periods, and magical creatures. 

Fairy Tale Retellings

You would think with the number of fairy tale renditions, we would be sick of them. But these classic stories are beautiful and have a magic that is fun to apply to modern life. That's why Once Upon a Time is such a hit, why Disney is investing in live action remakes like Maleficent and Broadway movies like Into the Woods.

Because we still try to bring a little magic in our lives, and one of the best ways to do that is through stories.

Here are some of my favorite versions of these classic stories:


Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

This fantastic novel is based on a few pages by the Grimm brothers. Shannon Hale had a lot of room to create, with just the skeleton of a pollen to base her story on.

Ani is a timid princess who has been sheltered from life before being sent away to be some other kingdom's queen. She's sent away because she's odd, but ultimately it's those oddities that help her survive her journey. She has to run from her own people and blend into a new country by adopting the native accent and hiding her golden hair.

She finds bravery and confidence in herself that she never had to use, and she embraces her talents that her mother always tried to hide. On the way, she makes friends, falls in love, and saves multiple kingdoms, all while putting up with a bunch of geese everyday.

Being a goose girl teaches Princess Ani to have spunk, and she becomes a better queen for it.


Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

This is one of my favorite books. Rachelle chooses the path of needles at a young age. Driven by curiosity, unable to sit still and wait for someone else to save her, fueled with desperation to discover the truth, she is not the helpless Little Red Riding Hood. 

Again, this author has a simple children's story to go off of, but she does so many amazing things with it. She throws in a magical forest full of supernatural creatures, a demonic villain, a haunting tempter, and an old legend that Rachelle must decipher to overcome her doom. 

Crimson Bound is a beautiful combination of legend, lore, and survival. It questions what it means to be human, how goodness can prevail, and if we all deserve to be saved even if we have chosen damnation. 

Sometimes, you need to break the rules in order to find a happy ending. 

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

I read this book so much as a kid, the book fell apart. I loved the story of this girl who was given a horrible lot in life, and worked through it. She won her life over with humor and adventure and extreme stubbornness. 

Ella is cursed. She is forced to obey every and any order given to her. She loses her mother at a young age, her father is mostly absent, her fairy godmother is her cook in disguise, and her best friend is the prince. 

She learns languages instead of embroidery, she laughs at Prince Char instead of swooning, and even when her stepfamily turns her into a slave, she uses every ounce of passive aggression to mess with their heads. 

She's not bitter, she's smart. She laughs and she works and she loves. 

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Beauty and the Beast has been reimagined again and again. This novel takes a more classic approach, with the three daughters of a merchant and their request gifts, their father plucking a rose from a castle garden, and a faithful daughter going to the castle to save her father.  

Beauty is settled with her nickname at a young age, deciding Honour is a lame name, especially following her two lovely sisters Hope and Grace. 

But while Beauty may find her name ill fitting, she has the honour to fulfill her father's promise, and she manages to find beauty in a beast-like creature. She leaves her family, adjusts to a magic castle, reads her way through a massive library, and learns to accept herself along with the Beast.  

Fairy tales are hugely influential in the arts. We love taking the fun stories we adored through childhood and twisting them into a different version we can appreciate as adults. In the end, all we want is a good story. 

Getting Ready for Gilmore Girls (and other extreme sports)

I grew up watching Gilmore Girls with my sisters.

Some of our best moments together were piling on the couch, literally on top of each other, and giggling through Lorelai's witticisms and Rory's adorableness. This was usually a post cookie baking event. I know, aren't we just too cute?


Gilmore Girls shows all kinds of female relationships, something that is not so much uncommon as it is glossed over in television. Yes, Lorelai and Rory are best friends as well as a mother and daughter. They eat and laugh their way through life, all the while sharing everything with each other. But there's so much range in the relationships.

Lorelai may have passed on her name and wit to Rory, but their personalities are so different. Still too you have Lorlei's difficult relationship with her mother, Emily's downright hostile relationship with her mother-in-law, Rory's frenemy turned best friend Paris, and Rory's life long bestie Lane.

And all the while, there are boys, men, and borderline aliens that come and go from the Gilmore life.

We've seen it all, sometimes again and again. We may mark different seasons by who we watched them with, where we were, what flavor of Ben and Jerry's ice cream we were obsessed with at the time, the list is seriously endless.

As it is, I initially wasn't sure how to respond to the idea of a new ending.




It's not like the current ending is perfect or anything. It's more like a pause than a stop, and I had settled with the idea of making up an ending in my head. I like to envision Luke stop being a butt, buying that perfect house and marrying Lorelai. And of course Lorelai's business thriving. For Rory, I knew she would travel the world and have adventures and be successful. She's Rory Gilmore, she's unstoppable. And if she so happened to eventually-finally-meet a guy who was NICE and SMART and didn't get possessive or jealous ALL THE TIME, that would be great too.

But as the new episodes became a sure thing, and the hype began, the posters released, and the trailer squealed over, I got excited. Really excited. I'm counting the days, I'm planning my Thanksgiving weekend around this show, and shamelessly shunning anyone from my house on Black Friday who is not a die hard fan.

Did I try everything to get my sister/best Gilmore buddy to visit me this Thanksgiving? Yes. Am I a little heartbroken that she can't come? Maybe. Will I forever hold it against her? Also maybe.


But sisters or not, fans or no, this show is finally getting the ending Amy Sherman-Pallidino - all hail the goddess of writing - always imagined. And honestly, I fully intend to absolutely lose it while watching this new version of Gilmore Girls with pie and leftover turkey. Best Thanksgiving ever!