DVD: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry runs away from the Dursleys and travels on the Knight Bus to London, before heading for the new term at Hogwarts. Sirius Black’s escape from the wizard prison Azkaban has everyone worried and the Dementors are called in until he is found, causing headaches for Harry...


This latest outing shows how strong the franchise is, creating the best Potter adventure so far. The movie starts in the usual formulaic way with an incident at the Dursley house, before moving the action to Hogwarts (following a great sequence in the Knight Bus, where the addition of a talking shrunken head voiced by Lenny Henry suits the fast pace of the scenes).

Apart from the darker themes in this movie, which seem completely natural as Harry grows up, the most noticeable thing is the accomplished performances by the three main actors. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) have lost the stiffness of previous movies and grown into the roles nicely.

For the most part the CG holds up on the small screen, it’s just a shame no recent movie seems able to create a convincing werewolf. The Marauder’s Map is also brought to life brilliantly and offers a great homage to Alien.

The extras are – dare we say it? – magical. Split into five sections they include Divination Class (interviews, featurettes, deleted scenes and more); Tour of Honeydukes; Great Hall (interactive games and karaoke); Defence Against the Dark Arts (quiz and interactive tour of Professor Lupin’s classroom); and Hogwarts’ Grounds (creature and effects featurettes). Highlights include Paul Whitehouse’s deleted scenes as Sir Cadogon and an interview with director Alfonso Cuaron and author J. K. Rowling. Rowling admits there are things in the movie that foreshadow what is to come in the new books – a surefire way to get fans obsessively watching the DVD.

Buy Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com