Bob McCabe

I always have complimentary things to say about the Harry Potter books which explore the wizarding world further than the novels, but this one has to be the best one yet! It's an absolutely massive tome, ringing in at 532 oversized, heavyweight pages, and containing a comprehensive guide to the entire film adaptation saga which includes interview material, concept drawings, props, movie stills, and enough text to keep the whole thing grounded. Granted, if you've read any of the books which go into the specifics of sets, characters, or creatures you'll already know some of the content, but I found that this book expands even more so on the subjects for each individual film - breaking down the content in a digestible and logical way that allowed the author to give us details that would have seemed extraneous elsewhere. Specifically, I loved how they broke down so many of the crucial scenes in each film, discussing how certain elements were made with visual effects, while other were digital (and some blending of the two), and how the filmmakers came to these decisions. In some ways, the 10 years of the HP filmmaking journey is a crash course in all aspects of the industry, and it was fascinating to see it all laid out so well in this book. Now, I hope that they do the same treatment for the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise!… (mer)

Thank goodness this is almost all recordings of the actual cast members, or I wouldn’t have listened to it. As it is, and since I am a massive fan, I loved it. I just wish there had been more from Chapman, but as he is dead and has been for some time, this wasn’t particularly possible at this time.
It’s not a long listen, and was rather fun. Please check and see if your local library has a copy so you can listen to it also. I feel it was well worth it.

4 stars, and recommended to all.

“The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons (2003), compiled from interviews with the surviving members, reveals that a series of disputes in 1998, over a possible sequel to Holy Grail that had been conceived by Idle, may have resulted in the group's split. Cleese's feeling was that The Meaning of Life had been personally difficult and ultimately mediocre, and did not wish to be involved in another Python project for a variety of reasons (not least amongst them was the absence of Chapman, whose straight man-like central roles in the Grail and Brian films had been considered to be an essential anchoring performance). The book also reveals that Cleese saw Chapman as his “greatest sounding board. If Graham thought something was funny, then it almost certainly was funny. You cannot believe how invaluable that is.'[96] Ultimately it was Cleese who ended the possibility of another Python movie.[97]”


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python?wprov=sfti1

… (mer)