Su+2 and Harry Potter



Fizzing wizbies, chocolate frogs, peppermint toads, wands, cats, house elves, puking pastels, broomsticks, Quidich, cloaks and a whole lot of excitement!  Yes, last Friday the Su+2 household went to Warner Bros studios near Watford, UK and immersed ourselves in the world of Harry Potter.

Chess men from the Philosopher's Stone

The first thing to say is this is not a theme park; there are no rides or experiences, you walk around the various sets used in the Harry Potter films and all the props and creatures are there for you to see. 

You can hire a digital guide which plays audio and video clips for you while you wander around, this gives you information without giving you information overload.  We moved around at our own pace, taking about 6 hours and it was all brilliant.

 

The sets really do take your breath away, they are almost all plaster and wood but look like stone or brick.  The great hall really is great and the only bit that was real stone was the floor. 

 

 At the top end of the hall there are a set of mannequins wearing the costumes of the teachers and you can see the detail and care that has been put into them. 

 

In fact everything looked amazing - it was all so detailed and you could see how much thought had been put into each thing, from the tapestry around the walls of the Gryfindor common room to the house elf armour. 

Gryfindor Common room

We spent the day just staring and asking each other “did you see?  did you notice?”.  My favourite bit was the creature shop where many of the masks and mannequins used for the film are housed.  I have to say they are stunning, its quite disconcerting to look up and see the head of John Cleese as Nearly Headless Nick looking down at you. 

Dobby

We took lots of photos, of which I have only put a few on the blog.  You can have a go at flying a broomstick using green screen magic (the Teen did that) and you can sit in a carriage of the Hogwarts Express so you can have your photo taken. 

Hogwarts Express, a real steam engine much to the Engineer's delight

Magical creatures - full sized with animatronics

Dumbledore's office

Quidich

Eyelops Owl Emporium, wands, a golden snitch, the Knight bus and much more - all real props from the films

All in all there is so much to see and the sets are so big and interesting that we were there all day.  The Teen started reading Harry Potter when she was about 7 years old is a die hard fan and can pick holes in the films.  But she loved the attention to detail that is part of the film making process and the way they brought the magical creatures to life.   Even the drawn plans for the props, sets and creatures were amazing.  As you can probably tell we had a brilliant time.