The Yule Ball and Chemistry

War is here, and the official Game of Thrones podcast is back to unpack the new season of the HBO original series House of the Dragon. I'm Jason Concepcion and I'm Greta Johnson. Together we will be discussing every new episode of House of the Dragon with the show's writers, cast, and crew. You will do things that your heart would have recoiled from before you came to the throne . You can watch us on HBO Max or listen wherever you get your bodcasts Gather alone with combrades, set them on a sign Sam be silent . Nakimi tells me the old buckle caretaker is standing just outside the door . Step beside the docktail so I can give our guest a proper greeting guitar Hello and welcome to Harry Potter The Official Film Podcast , where we dive into our love of the wizarding world and revisit the entire series one film at a time. I'm Riana Dylan, lifelong Harry Potter superfan, film critic, broadcaster, and a proud Slytherin, and I already have a date to you all ball. Thanks very much . On this show, we'll revisit each film with a quick recap, not that we could ever forget, and then we'll dive deeper, discussing our hottest takes, calling out the tiniest details and digging into the behind the scenes magic that makes this series so special , and you can watch every Harry Potter film along with us on HBO Max. Today we've got our game faces on for the first half of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . Here with me to share his love of all things Harry Potter is actor and content creator who you may know from the Maze Runner or CW 's Kung F u. It's Mike Bow. Hi Mike. Hello. How are you? Very good. Thanks for having me, Rihanna. Thank you for being on. I'm very excited because I hear that you are a fellow Slytherin. I am. You're a Slytherin too. I am. It's so nice to meet somebody else. Yes, here we go. Here we go. We're evil folks. We're evil. And we love it. Yes When I first got it though, it's funny 'cause in real life, I'm actually totally a Gryffindor. Like I'm literally a boy scout. So when I got it, I was like, Are you upset? I have some bad no, no, I was like, I have some badassness. I have something. Oh, you were relieved. You were like, I have an edge, guys. Yeah, yeah, totally. I'm totally a bad boy . What's your patronus? A greyhound. Oh yeah. That's so nice. So I guess that balances out, right? Because that's like that's not an evil patronus. Lovely. No, how about you? Mine is a cat, a calico cat. Yeah. Okay. When did you get into Harry Potter? So my mom , I feel like most people, my mom read me the stories as a kid. And at the time, I hated reading, right? Really? So yeah, it was like homework. So that was the first time I was like, Oh my god, reading is fun. Yeah . And then the movie came the first movie came out and I was just in love with it. That's what I love about movies in general. You just create the thing in real life. So you're an actor , which is very cool . You're in the Maze Runner, which is like another massive teenage franchise. Book series, yeah. So Harry Potter kind of was the core mem ory that changed my life because when I first saw that movie , that was the first I was the same age as all these as Daniel Raccliffe Ruberg, Emma Watson. So that was the first time I realized like, wait , this is a job because before that actors were like might as well have been alien race. Like Tom Cruise was Tom Cruise. Bratt was Brat They weren't like normal people to me. That's when I realized this was a thing, but also not just to be an actor, like kind of to spread magic around the world. So that's what jump started my need to want to be an actor. So cool. So how do people react when you tell them that you're a slitherant? Honestly, not great because there's a lot of distrust going on where you know, where it's like, oh, I can't, you're you're evil, huh? And like, oh, I just want to be badass. 'Cause Slytherins we rule. You can trust us . If any of you out there haven't done like the whole experience of being sorted or finding out what your wand or your patronus is, then head to Harry Potter. com to get sorted and discover all of these like fun aspects about yourself. One thing before we start, obviously the film version of Gobblet of Fire plays out a little bit differently than the book . As we go through our recap, we're going to discuss those differences from time to time like we would normally, but we're not going to be able to dive into every single one because we will literally be here forever. Right. Is that okay? That's okay. Great. Fine. I know, I'm sorry. Let's rewind to where this film begins. In the village of Little Hangleton at the long abandoned riddle house where Frank, the elderly caretaker, notices a light on in the empty house and decides to investigate FYI , this is a terrible decision . Inside, Frank is seen by Wormtail, a mysterious man and Voldemort , who wastes no time throwing out a voda cadaver . So that's the tone set. Welcome back everyone. The Dark Lord is doing murders again. And it's the first appearance of Nagini and we hear the parcel tongue as well. This is the first appearance of Nagini. Who is obviously we don't know yet but, a very very, important part of the tapestry of Voldemort's life. Yes. So Harry wakes up at the borough having just dreamt that whole scene. His scar is burning again. But today is Quidditch World Cup Day. And our boy has got priorities. As you said, another distraction . So Harry Hermione and all of the Weasleys head off to meet Amos Diggory and his tree climbing son, Cedric. He loves to climb trees, that guy. So they traveled to the World Cup by Porky, obviously a very useful mode of transportation for underage wizards, but Harry manages to make a fallout of himself in front of the very debonaire, Cedric. It's a really iconic entrance for our pats, right? Is he a bit of a jog, do you think? Because I feel like in the books he's very popular, he's very handsome and in this he's just a bit more laddy. Yeah, because he's like a popular dude , you know, like it's Harry versus him. Potter stinks. We love Cedric. Why are you even involved in this? Harry? Yeah . But in Robert Pattinson's performance, he's kind of like put upon where he's like , I'm not trying to be, you know, this popular I'm not trying to flaunt my clearly everyone loves me. I'm just good at everything. I can't help it. He felt empathetic to Harry. You know, he's like, oh, I want to help you too, which is also good on top of that because when he dies, like , we feel bad for him. You know, like he was just like , I think like we could tell he had his heart in the right place. Yes, you know? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Before we get any further, we have to because we can see like the hair in this picture so brilliantly. The hair is such a big thing in this film . Like the actors were like told not to cut their hair over the summer, like over the year or whatever and then they thought that they were going to be cut into a style and they just left them like really shaggy and it's so funny. Yeah, they've got such weird hair in this. I kind of love it. Do you? I kinda love it. At the World Cup there are witches and wizards from all around the world, flags flying, bagpipes playing, it's basically magical Glastonbury. Inside the Weasley's magnificent tent, it's bigger on the inside . Harry sums it up perfectly. I love magic, same Harry. Same . The group heads to the stadium and the Weasley clan is sat way up in the gods as they climb the stairs to their last row seats always they pass Droko and Daddy Malfoy . Father and I were in the minister's box Yeah cool flex Droko actually also that height is a real advantage for Quidditch . So there. And also, why is he wearing a suit to a sports match? Absolute weirdo . The stage is set. Are you ready to let the games begin? Let's go , let's do this Who's that That's the best seeker in the world At the match, the Irish show boat, I think it's fair to say, the Bulgarians dazzle, especially their star seeker, Victor Crumb, but the postgame celebrations are cut short when the campsite is attacked. Harry's knocked unconscious in the chaos, like real horror mov ie stuff. And then when he wakes up he sees the same mysterious man from his dream cast the dark mark into the sky. Barty Kraut sr and other ministry officials arrive and momentarily suspect Harry, but then Arthur Weasley able's to defend him and turn the ministry's attention to the real baddies, the death eaters . And so in this scene, we're introduced to the Dark Mark. Obviously, Harry doesn't know what it is and apparently Hermione does MEP. Tell me your first reaction on seeing the Death Eaters because I think it's such an incredible entrance for them. It's kind of freaky because they're all wearing like pointed hats you know. So it's like really insinuating like o,h, they got evil. Yeah. They even like tamed it compared to the books too because like in the books they're like torturing smuggles muggles, you know, they're bad news. Yeah. Something that struck me even more was this the is first time we're seeing horrors because it's like okay we got we need the wizard cops to get on those you know it was like oh this like clearly there's escalated dangers here that we need a legal task force to fight you, know but, also where were they? Like doors Yeah, they were just like, that's true. Letting them just like rampage where was the security of someone in the house? They burned down that whole campsite. Yeah, you know, yeah. I know. I do feel like the costuming , the masks, everything they are so like chill inducing. Yeah. Like you would be absolutely terrified if you saw them marching towards you. I do feel like the horror just feels so much more ramped up in this, do you not? Yeah. And then also it's kind of scary too because we, you know, they interacted with Lucius right before. And Lucius, in his mind was like, FYI, I'm gonna you guys don't know what's coming. You know? That's so true. I hadn't really thought about that. You like enjoy yourself why you can. You know, like that's him. That's what he's doing. Oh my gosh. Yeah. But his son as well. Like, what's he doing? Yeah. That's why Drake's wearing this suit. He's like, Daddy's gonna dress up. I want to dress up, you know ? We also get Roger Lloyd Pack as Crouch Sr in this. So in the UK, he's incredibly iconic as a character called Trigg Trigger from Only Falls and Horses , which it's so weird trying to explain this to Americans. It's a great sitcom, but this character is he's just really funny, he's really stupid. He doesn't know anything, he says really stupid things all the time. So seeing him as a like ministry official who is so sort of like elegant he has like his really neat mustache. It's such a different vibe for us. What is your kind of interpretation of Barty Crouch sorrow? So he's iconic in this. He has this like this like frantic energy like give me a one boy that's very like , you know, like, yeah, I love I love Bradercard Singer. He's so good in this. Did you notice Ron's omnocular? I actually didn't. I love seeing like these little magical things that I just kind of mentioned in passing in the book and then we see his ominoculars, which is just like one massive, like almost like telescopic lens. Obviously in the books, it's described as they can slow down play and kind of rewatch bits and it gives you loads of facts and information about the players as you're watching for quick. And yeah, and of course you can't go into all of that detail but I'm really glad that they put it in and we see Ron with his omnioculars. So back on the Hogwarts Express shout out Trolley Witch. Students are quickly distracted by the return to school and the arrival of someone sweet that Harry has clearly got ice. Very good. So this is Cho Chang . On arrival at Hogwarts, the students are treated to performances introducing two foreign wizarding schools. We have Beau Baton's Academy of Magic and then the Dermstrank Institute. Hogwarts is hosting the legendary tri iz ward tournament. And among the visiting students , the gorgeous Fleur Delacour and Bulgarian Bonbon Viktor Krum himself . I think also both like Ron's not so secret loves, like he's obsessed with both of them. So obviously we see two of the schools out of the three doing something fun . We don't see Hogwarts and I think there's a reason for this because they filmed they filmed them doing something but it's them doing their school song and it is dreadful. Yes , yes. I mean , I've seen the deleted scene. It's so embarrassing compared to like these feats of dancing and like the stunt work and it's them singing really off key . Also, can we just do a really quick moment for Filch's run into the Great Hall? Oh yes. Oh my goodness , this is such great characterization of Filch. David Bradley sort of gets more like carto onish as it goes on and it's excellent. Oh my god , it's not like he only does Goofer from now because obviously we've seen Game of Thrones, you know, so like he so he does it all he can do all the range the range Okay , D soumbledore explains the tournament rules. Three champions chosen by the goblet of fire will compete in a series of dangerous tasks and no one under the age of seventeen is allowed to play. The Weasley Twins are furious . Then the new defence against a dark arts teacher legendary Aura and Dark Wizard Capture Mad Eye Moody arrives with the energy of someone who I think it's fair has lived a life Yeah, he's lived a life. So this is the first appearance of Brendan G l asass Madon Eye, tell us about that dramatic entrance. What do you think about the way that we are introduced to Mad Eye Moody? Very cool because he is such like a anti hero badass, you know, vibes in the book too. So when you see him, like he has the mechanical leg , he has the eye and you kind of see the eye you see the eyes perspective which is awesome, right? Like what he sees. I feel like watching these movies as an adult I got even a whole new appreciation for the teacher adult actors because they're bringing so much characterization to these teacher roles like it's like he Made Moody's he's not just one like I'm just gonna be badass. He's like fun and goofy too, which is kind of heartbreaking because it's like oh my god that wasn't him the whole time but he yeah he brought multiple dimensions to Mad Eye and like the way he takes the sweet of his politicus potion, you know, like every chance . Yeah. The costuming as well is exactly and the makeup is exactly how I pictured. Like he literally like walks off the page, I think in this, they get it so right and as well. Like you can almost smell him. Do you know what I mean? I think it's like he's so real, he's so tangible. So in his very first class, Moody goes rogue and he demonstrates the three unforgivable curses with spiders . Why is it always spiders? First, Imperio which controls someone's actions , then he demonstrates Crucio which causes unbearable pain and in front of poor traumatized Neville as well. Finally, Avada Cadavra, which Moody demonstrates while explaining that only one person has ever survived it, Harry Potter. This whole thing, you kind of mention about the fact that he was he kind of can be a little bit goofy. It kind of balances the line between comedy and horror throughout this whole scene. So it kind of starts off quite like jokey. Like the music is like really and whimsical and then it cuts to like the really kind of dark tist. And we kind of we see the impact that this is having on all of the kids. Like not just Neville. It is also interesting to re watch it because it's actually pretty twisted what he's doing with Neville while, he himself is Brad Crouch Junior who tortured his parents. Absolutely. So he's literally just like, Oh, I tortured your parents, but I would like you to explain to me what the murder weapon is, you know , it's kind of kind of twisted. Yeah. Yeah. Massively. And I think every time that I see that scene, I sort of forget, you know, because you're so in the world, you're so in it. And even though obviously I know about the reveal and I've seen it so many times, but each time it's just so well layered that in my head it's just a teacher just being a little bit like old school you know and I forget that yeah he's literally showing off the way that he talked to his parents. So it has really sad that he gets two decent teachers loop in and mad and Mad Eye turns out to be this evil evil guy. So later the goblet chooses the student champions. Viork Ktrum obviously for Durmstrang, Fleur Delacour for Babaton, looking very smug, Cedric Diggy for Hogwarts, a natural hero , all perfectly normal until the goblet spits out one more name , Harry Potter . Everyone freezes, professor, did you put your name into the gumbo Dumbledore? Tries to figure out what is going on. Harry insists he didn't do anything, but according to the rules, the goblin forms a binding magical contract . So despite being the random fall champion , Harry must compete . Like, this whole scene is wild. The fact that he 's fourteen. He should not be in this game, that there's no way round it. The fact that it's only Professor McGonagall who kind of tries to offer him any comfort. They're all so angry and weird in this. This binding magical contract. Yeah . What do you think happens? Death. It's gonna be death, right? Right, right? Like, clearly there's some magic here that they can't stop from happening , which is which is an interesting concept . And also there's this kind of great moment where we see all of the teachers suddenly turn to look at Harry and immediately I was like, this is a murder mystery like it looks like a murder mystery where you see all of the suspects all at once and it's so good and it could be anyone in the frame and we know that it is and we know who it is, but it's not who we're expecting. It's just like it could be anyone. Yeah. So you say'ingre we should reed it this as like a cop show like suspect one Kigo Carcrop. Previous death theater Nethead Master question mark. Also, later, McGonagall is like you want to offer him up as bait to Dumbledore? Do you think this is like the first time Dumbledore realizes the power of using Harry as Bate? Because we know that he kind of continues to do this. Interesting . That's how he uses Harry for the rest of the series. Yeah. So Ron overreacts, as always , and turns on Harry. He's convinced that he's secretly entered himself into the tournament for glory. And stop saying Ron, be nice to your friend. Also, it's like the first one that we see a fallout on this scale , Ron also has discovered swearing. We got a very swear, Ron. The press arrives in the form of the Daily Prophets Rita Skeeter, a tabloid journalist who interviews Harry and proceeds to spin wildly untrue stories. Chief among them that Harry is just a young boy of twelve. He's fourteen . Shout out to Miranda Richardson's performance as Rich Scooter. She is excellent in the field. I love her. So good. The costuming , the green, the poison pant, like the quick notes quill, it's all excellent. It's just such a visual feast. Yeah. Harry secretly meets with Sirius, who shows up as a burning log in the Gryffindor fireplace. Sirius warns him that everything happening, the dream, the Dark Mark, the tournament might all be connected. Hogwarts isn't safe anymore, although when has it ever been? I suppose to when Sirius? Meanwhile, Ron is still giving Harry the cold shoulder, so he tries to use Hermione as a messenger. I'm not an owl. Do your best, Hermione? I'm not an owl. Okay, do it right stuff. I am not an owl. Harry seeks out Hagrid, who takes him on a little midnight dragon viewing field trip. Hagrid is extremely excited about the first task, retrieving an egg from the dragon's nest. Harry is less excited it. turn Ands out that Ron knew about the dragons and didn't tell him outright . There is some Ron logic in there somewhere. We'll find out what exactly later . Around the school, other students, especially the Hufflepuffs, start wearing potter stinks badges, siding with Cedric as the real Hogwarts champion . Despite the bullying, Harry does the decent thing and warn Cedric about the dragons, and then shortly after that, Harry confronts Ron about his bad attitude. There's this whole thing where they call each other like a g which is such an outmoded British term. I don't think kids would ever call each other gits, but I really love hearing it in this because they come a git all the time I know what you're talking about. Because I feel like Mike Newell gives very like old school boarding school vibes in this , which I really enjoy. Right. Draco Malfoy decides that this is the perfect time to antagonise Harry from a tree . During their spat, Draco tries to curse Harry, but Mad E Myoodey intervenes and promptly turns Draco into a ferret. A horrified McGonagall reminds Moody that transfiguration is not an acceptable form of punishment . So that's where Hogwarts draws the line on punishments. Moody pulls Harry aside and gives him a bit of strategic advice for the tournament. Harry needs to play to his strengths and the only strength that Harry can think of is his flying skills. During the task he's not allowed to bring a broom, but he is allowed to use his w and. Thank goodness for Akio . Before the match, the champions draw their dragons from a bag and the rules are revealed. Get past the dragon, retrieve the golden egg, don't die. Simple enough, Harry draws the Hungarian horn tail the most dangerous dragon of the bunch. I gotta give a shout out to again, Bardy Crouch Sr . Like he's adding so much like when he's giving the dragons the Chinese firebolt. Woo . It's great. And then like and then when Harry gets like the like the Hungarian hot dog, what's that boy? Like he's adding so much. I love his characterization. He has. And this movie was made twenty years ago, the effects are I think better than some effects currently. You know, the dragon was awesome to see. Good. And I love their athletic gear that they wear. I love all cool. This is so great, aren't they? Because we're not see ing them in their like usual school uniform. We're not seeing them in their muggled clothing. I just really love that they have athletic gear in the western world. Exactly. I think specifically like Fleur's outfit. Yes. Right. Yeah, is like, oh this, is okay, more modern wizards. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Also, how would you approach the task? How would you have done it? How would you have got the golden egg do you think? I would accuse the dragon of being a lizard, right? Dragons don't like being called lizards. But you taunt it? Yeah, yeah. And then you'd be like, I'm not a lizard. I'm gonna do that tongue thing. And then while he's distracted, I'd whip around and grab the egg. You would have died in the first task. Interesting. Listen, agree to disagree , okay . I would have used Geminio and I would have like duplicated the golden egg and then it thinks that the golden egg is right there and then go . I duplicate myself so then the dragon is like killing thousands of me sadly . There probably is a spell for that. Yeah, you can make it up. In the arena, Harry has to think really quickly, Akio fireballed. So he summons his broom and the dragon breaks loose, smashing through the grandstand s and chasing Harry around Hogwarts towers nearly killing him. After a few minutes hanging off the side of the castle, Harry manages to get back on his broom, outmanoeuvre the dragon, and grab the golden egg. The crowd goes wild and Ron finally apolog izes to his pal. The golden egg who wants him to open it contains a clue for the next task, a horrific screeching noise. Helpful. Try as he might Harry cannot figure out how to properly decipher the egg, and those egg troubles will continue for weeks . Which brings us to the next big hogwarts event, the Yule Ball, a night of well managed frivolity and the students have got to find dates to the dance . The whole McGonagall teaching the students specifically run to dance is one of my highlights of this film. Yes. Can you do your best McGonagall impression when she says bebbling, bumbling for the end of the bonso . Babbling, bubbling band of baboons . It's very good. It was actually really good. And a friend of likes say that five times fine. And also Neville in this, Neville learning to dance. It's like a proper old fashioned gym. I love it. He's building confidence. My confidence yeah. He asks Jinny to the ball . Harry and Ron desperately try to chat up the girls. Harry asks Choe but she's already got a date with Cedric. Ron attempts to ask for her but essentially just yells at her and then finally spots that Hermione is a girl, asks Hermione insults her in the process. But on Ron. After days of Hey, can I pull you for a chat? Harry and Ron are still dateless and at the last minute they manage to convince the Patel twins to go with them. And to that, I say, Girls, you deserved better. Also got to give a shout out to Sho Chang. Let's give a shout out . As I talked about in my origin story of like loving Harry Potter and then loving the movies and then going to the acting, then all of a sudden there's Asian representation in this. Are you kidding me? I liked it before . But also at that time, like, you know, in the dark ages of like not a lot of Asian characters in general and things then of a sudden like wait there's an Asian wizard are you kidding me that was a real exciting moment watching this movie growing up too and Katie's voice is so beautiful . Yeah has. such She a beautiful voice. She's so gentle. She's so kind of, I don't know, it's so like millithuous. It's just really sweet milituous. Just like gorgeous voice and you really feel that she wants to go with Harry as well. Like she's obviously quite torn between Harry and Cedric. Yeah. But Cedric just got in there first. Yeah, yeah. So with dates secured and dress robes donned much the chagrinners Ron, it's part y time. The Your Ball is underway and Hermione arrives looking absolutely gorgeous with Victor Krum in our arm. Ron as usual handles the whole Hermione and Krum situation terribly . Let's do a quick red carpet rundown of the ball. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry looks great, right? He looks so smart. It's really nicing Harry who's, you know, he's been given like hammy downs all of his life. He like we don't really kind of get into his style, but I feel like he really finds it in this outfit. Yeah. It's great. Yeah, like tuxedo with a cape. Yeah, basically. Gorgeous. Hermione. I'm gonna wear that at my next gala. How many gallers do you go to? I got a lot of galaxy. Okay fine. No What do you think about Hermione's lovely pink concoction? In the book, she's not necessarily pretty and then she does all those fells to make herself pretty. But here it's like, oh, she's already obviously pretty but they made her even prettier. And you can see it in her enjoyment too because she's like, oh my god like right before leaving with the crumb. When she does like a little wave at Harry, like she kind of does like a little and it's just so cute. Yeah, because again we see this like more vulnerable side of her mind. She obviously doesn't set any store or doesn't need to, that she's not interested. So just seeing her just enjoy being like a young woman is so satisfying. So on the dance floor, Harry and Pavati attempt a really awkward waltz while Professor Flitwick enthusiastically conducts the orchestra. Then the dance floor rocks out to a much rowdy tune. Do the hippogryph . And then we get some really sweet background dancing. Everyone's coupling up. Everyone's coupling up. McGonagall and Dumbledore. I know, right? Neville and J inny Filch and Mrs. Norris. Yes . Lol . Of course, who else is going to dance with Philch? So Hermione and Victor are having a fantastic time, Harry and Ron are sitting off to the side in a very committed sulk. Then Ron loses his temper and accuses Hermione of fraternizing with the enemy . They argue, leaving Hermione in tears and the night ends with emotions running high all round and that is the first half of the goblet of fire Dun dun d . Do you have like a favourite or like a standout scene in the first half of this movie? I think the standout scene is the Cho Chang asking out in the allery. Yeah, yeah, because it's the first time our main character is interested in a girl and we finally see it, like she's there, he's asking her out. It goes horribly which we can all relate to. Yeah , that was fun to finally see come to fruition. Yours is a really like heartfelt one. I just love anything with the twins. They make me laugh so much. And there's like the scene with the age line where they think that they're getting away with putting their name in the goblet of fire and then it spits them out and they start rolling around. I think Mike Newell like broke a rib trying to wrestle the twins to show them how to like wrestle each other. Yeah, it's like dude, look after yourself please. And they're like a seventeen year old boy. That behind the scenes clip just ends there where they're like, oh no, like he's like clutching his home like what happened? I want to know like did the ambulance come and fix him? Like the shooting ending for that day what happened? In terms of like a scenee staler, I feel like Hagrid has so many great moments in this, but I love it. Sticks of fork in flipwick's hand . Right. Like because he's so distracted by Madame Maxine , it just makes me laugh every time because it's just like not really referenced and Flipwig is so angry with him and they just move on straight away and I'm like, Hagrid, I would be so angry. Hagrid's going through puberty too. Everyone's getting distracted by the opposite sex. It's so funny. Okay, we've got to check the post. An owl has arrived from a fellow potter fan. Has this hot take crossed your mind ever? This is from Carl F from Dundee, Scotland . Hot take , there should be more stops on the Hogwarts Express to pick up students from other parts of the country. It's absolutely mad that Cho Chang and all of the other Hogwarts students from Scotland or North have to go all the way down to London to take the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross. For pure blood and half blood families, maybe they can floo powder themselves down to London, which is still a big inconvenience. But you mean to tell me that moggle born Scottish students families have to drive their kids eight plus hours south from Scotland to get on a train to go back up to Scotland. This is all in caps. This feels totally unfair. I think we should petition Hogwarts to add more stops or another train route to bring northern students to school directly. This is outrageous. This person is furious. Yes. Why do you think Hogwarts is going through a train strike right now? It's because of comments like these . What do you think? I mean, maybe we don't know that Cho Chang lives in Scotland currently. Right, we don't know. Like maybe she just grew up there and has since moved south. Right. But it is a really good point actually. But also , you know if we were living in that world and you had the option of taking the Hogwarts Express Yeah to Hogwarts or just flew powers walking over Yeah walking over . Come on. But yeah no, you have, a really good point , Carl from Dundee . And I feel like because you are in Scotland, you've genuinely thought about this. He heard Cho Chang's accent and was like, this I will not stand for this injustice . And listen, if we're defending Cho Chang together, Carl , hell yeah. Yeah with you. Yeah, yeah. So we want to hear from you. Keep an eye out on our socials at Harry Potter for your chance to send in your favorite moments, any of your burning questions, and of course your hottest takes . How dare you? Besides, I can take care of myself. Doubt . He's way too old. What ? What? That's what you think. That's what I think. You know the solution then, don't you? Come on. Ext time there's a ball puck up the courage and ask me before somebody else does and not as a last resort . Well , that's just completely off the point . Heter way . Where have you been? Never mind off to bed, both of you . They get scary when they get older. You spoiled everything . Is this away ? The Yor Ball might be the most unexpected turn in the goblet of fire, so we are required to discuss how the film's themes of competition and h orror fade away here. And then suddenly we're in a full blown coming of age rom com. Talk to me about the awful kind of making sure that everybody feels as like awkward and weird as possible. So there is that initial like cringe moment where Pavati and Harry are starting to dance. It's a very relatable thing again in the wizarding world. And okay, you got you guys have to dance with potentially the object of your affections in front of everyone. And I love the behind the scenes aspect too, where Daniel Radcliffe did not have as much dance practice as the other actors. Deliberately. I think 'cause he was just busy 'cause he was right. Film and Harry Potter. Yeah , but every scene in Harry Potter. Yeah. But if you notice like in the scene, he's awkwardly dancing on the special features, they're lit, that's that was an act Like he was just being awkward about it. And like he actually has awkward about it. That's so perfect . And it's like, oh shoot, we're seeing unscripted fun teenage interactions. When they're like headbanging or like in the mosh pit for the band , I really that's just them letting go. That is not any that cannot be choreographed . And so they are just genuinely having so much fun . You can tell . And like there's a really lovely moment. Like Cho Chang looks so beautiful. Her outfit is incred ible. This gorgeous like kind of white pearly silvery outfit. She's wearing a chunks arm. She's wearing a Chinese dress. Yeah. And I like that we see like more of the patild twins as well, but also they are so miserable with the boys. That's also relatable too, right? Because sometimes you're like, you have these expectations of your date for the dance and then those expectations reality versus expectations always pan out because I'm sure they were like , Oh my God, we're going to the dance with the chosen one and his best friend . But then like, oh, they're not fun. No, they're just literally talking about other girls. Grim . They definitely deserve better than that. Yeah . Also, what is going on with Ron? What is going on with Ron 's going on with Ron in this whole movie? He's always been temperamental . Yes. Yeah . So why do you think but why do you think he's suddenly getting so aggressive with both with like his best mates first Harry and then Hermione? Like what is his issue? It's that teen angst, you know, like I think that all the, you know, teen angst is not only , you know, asking out, you know, girls on dates, it's jealousies. I always notice that bit where right at the beginning when Amos Diggory is being introduced to Weasley Clan and he's only interested in talking to Harry , and Ron like just walks off and he kind of has like a little glance and just walks off . And it's that like he's just always going to be overshadowed by Harry, which I suppose must be a really bitter pill to swallow because that's not changing anytime soon. Yeah. We know that he likes Hermione and Hermione likes Ron, but I don't think it was never said, which is also against creating right. So he's just lashing out without realizing why he lashes out. He doesn't know what's going on with Ron. Yeah. Exactly . Because and he's going against his own, you know, thoughts because like he's like, I love Crumb in the beginning of you're fragmenting with the enemy, you know? Like so it's like, why are you doing this? Well we see really for goblet of Fire, Director Mike Newell was given the option to spit the story across two films, but he declined. He said there is enough incident but not enough story. So instead he compressed and it's a massive book. He compressed that into a tight narrative by stripping away a number of subplots to st ay firmly in Harry's emotional and psychological arc. I'm split with this decision because I love an extended edition , you know, but I'm already buying it to the world right. So I want me all give me all the junk food. You know, I want to I want to eat it all. As a movie though, movies are tough because if the movie doesn't flow together , you need like a good tight story for a film to work. You know? Yeah, it can't just be little kind of vignettes and things going on that doesn't work. Yeah, I like love a lore drop. But if it's just a lord drop, lore drop, lore drop, you lose the you lose a lot of the audience . So in that way I respect that as a filmmaker. Well, luckily for us, I had the opportunity to sit down one on one with Mike Newell himself. So let's see what he had to say. Mike Newell, welcome to Harry Potter, the official film podcast. I'm so pleased that you could talk to us. Find out pleased to be here. Now, when goblet of fire first came your way, what was your initial instinct? What made you think yes, I can know how I to tell this one. It was because somebody and a very particular character who meant a particular thing in the story died very surprisingly and blindsided the whole thing. You thought this was not a series of stories in which that sort of thing could possibly happen . And very surprisingly it did. And I think that that is when I began to develop what I thought the emotions of the thing should be. And absolutely key in that was Cedric Digree. He was going to be sort of the head boy figure and he was going to be the one who would be the nominee in the competition from Hogwarts. And then along comes Harry and everything gets complicated. But as soon as that particular actor walked in the room, he looked like the doomed fighter pilot. He just stank of that kind of traditional English view a particular kind of tragedy he was so gorgeous , so optimistic, so vigorous outgoing that you knew something awful to happen to you . And that gave me the idea of what the emotional shape of the thing should be. And the main event of course is Raf Fines playing the bad guy. One of the great things about Rafe is that he can be bad . He can be truly evil . So that was going to be very exciting and we then discussed endlessly whether he should have his nose cut off . And I remember that I was very passionately against having a nose job for him because I said it's his face. It's all he's got to express with . You can't take away a nose and expect his face to stay as expressive as you want it to be . And got shot down quite properly. I think Rafe was the guy that decided it all because he said, You know what? I'd love to have my nose best about with me. Which want to do with my nose? So he chopped his nose off. How did the two of you work on his performance? Because obviously it does set the tone for the rest of the series. He is the big bad. He is the one that we are all terrified of and haunts our nightmares. And it all stems from this graveyard scene . All that had to happen for Raef was that we agreed about how bad he was going to be, how much he was going to show that that badness and above everything else how cold and cruel he was going to be . There was something chill in him there and he has this in his personality . And when he wants to call it up , it is a very powerful thing. And what he knew was that that was the foundation stone of that whole character was the Chill . The Tri Wizard Tournament is, I think, one of the most exciting kind of biggest spectacles that we get throughout the whole of the Harry Potter series. And I know that Dan Radcliffe has said that this is what this was one of his favorite films because he had so much fun doing the stunts, the whole underwater sequence. So for you, what was kind of at the forefront of what were you trying make sure the audience got to experience alongside the characters who were taking part in the Tri Wizard Tournament? The title of the movie is not actually called Harry Potter for it's called the goblet of fire . And so you have to set up this extraordinary competition, this wizarding competition . And you have to make sure that you're not laughed at as you do it. Oh come on, you want us to believe what ? You have to avoid that if you possibly can. And so things like the underwater sequence. I was very excited by that because it was truly you were going to a place you've never been before and then of course the dragons . A lot of the time the guys who did this marvellous work they made the dragons. I remember going up into the design department and somebody said, You want to see the dragon? I said, Yeah, show me the dragon. There was this great big fourteen foot long plastic and plaster and God knows it's a statue of a dragon and I thought it was absolutely spiffy. That was wonderful. And then I realized that what it wasn't finished yet, David Heyman, the producer of the whole Shebang , had a very passionate view of this because he said it's too perfect. We've got to knock some of its teeth out. We've got to make sure that it's got scratches and cuts and splits and whatnot in its scales. We've got to we've got to make it less perfect. And then there are a whole load of immensely clever guys who made the damn thing fly . You know, the idea of as it were, a car chase because in the end that's what it is, that chunk of a film, it's a car chase. It's got nothing to do with cars Dear audience, it's got nothing to do with cars. I'm sorry, but it's like a car chase. The various tests in the competition, where each of them very unexpected , very inventive, magnificent visually. I mean it's the wonderful thing about those films is that they were big enough, the budget was big enough you simply to get them right. I love hearing about the action and kind of like the propulsive energy of these teenagers throughout Gobblet of Fire, but then of course on the flip side , you also have a lot of the teen angst, you have the hormones, you have feelings . Yeah, but I loved all that. I absolutely loved all that. It felt like you loved it. I'm describing a film in which I was many times ridiculously happy. One of the people that I was happiest with was Steve Clovis , the screenwriter and he and I used to phone one another every evening at five o'clock my time, nine o'clock his time. He was California. I was in London . And I would read distract and he'd written overnight. It would just make me laugh and I would pick the phone up and I would start laughing before I actually said anything. I would just start laughing and he knew it was okay. One of my favorite things about a goblet of fire is the humor and we see a lot of physical comedy like through David Bradley as Filch. He's kind of like a mime in this. He doesn't really speak, but he's his physical comedy is to run the one point David had to run the full length of the hall with some territorific information. And I went to him and I whispered to him. I said, T . And so he then did everything else from there , like this as if he was going to drop dead to the next step. Of course that makes you laugh . It certainly does. I thought that the collision of those things of this broad comedy and And but not just broad character comedy as well. They were all very good characters. Both of those things was what gave the whole film its particular character. I was wondering how you had to approach the differences between UK and US humour. They'll just have to catch up . I can't do two things at once. Your film m lakanguage throughout this, I mean, just you talking about the flying being like a car chase. What other film references are you kind of paying homage to in gobblet of fire . Well, Dan asked me that. It was interesting. So thank you. Good question. Dan said to me while we were still in rehearsal, he said, have you been watching any films ? Yes. I said, Yes, I have actually done . I've been watching paranoid thrillers . The point of those films was that something happens that is inexplicable to the leading character , and he has to find out not just what it is, what is happening to him , but why it's happening. I thought that if there was going to be a general big overall architecture in the whole thing , it would be that Harry didn't know why it was happening and the whole story was about finding out what made it tick. I feel like the goblet of fire really elevated Dan Radcliffe's performance. It feels like he's really growing up throughout this and he's obviously learning a lot on set through all of the challenges thrown at him with the tasks. He goes on a really emotional journey as well. What do you think was the biggest challenge for Daniel Radcliffe during filming? Well, you've just defined it very eloquently . I mean, that is what he had to do . He wasn't a child anymore . I remember saying to him because he's very bright down down . And he understood exactly what was going on. He wasn't there in a trained actor, he's much more so now. And I remember calling out to him quite a lot. Put it in your face, Dan, put it in your face . It's not in your face . So he learned very quickly how to do that and he was tremendously cooperative and clever with it. Mike Newell, thank you so much for talking to us. You've been an absolute delight. So know about the fight. Oh, what? You mean between the twins? Yeah, yeah, go on. There are these two burly sixteen year olds who are supposed to have a grudge fight . And they started it and they were kind of and I said no, no, no, no , chaps . This doesn't look doesn't look real at all. You look you look like little children. What are you doing? They tried again, no, it's rubbish . I said, Okay, you're going to fight me. Which one of you is going to fight me? And so they could never tell them apart anyway. They were identified between their mother, they don't worry about it . Right. So we volunteered and we set to and I gave him as hard a time as I possibly could for the first thirty seconds . And then he sort of picked me up and threw me on the floor at which point I cracked a rib , right ? And was in absolute agony for weeks afterwards because I had I had said let me show you how a real fight goes and have then been completely humiliated by his youth and well anyway, it was it was a great moment. Legendary moment. Darling, thank you for having me all over again . Thank you so much for telling that story. I really enjoyed hear ing it . All right, it's time for a bit of trivia. You ready? Bring it. Let's go. Let's go. I think you're going to do well. Okay. Like from everything I've heard you talk about, I think you'll be fine. What detailed did Miranda Richards and Monike New ell change about Rita Skeeter's appearance from the book description? Was it A they removed her red fingernails? Was it B, they replaced her three gold teeth with a diamond? Or was it C they eliminated her glasses . Oh my gosh I mean I didn't notice anything different about her teeth so the teeth won't? Yes because there's like that glint like when she does a little like you can see like a bit of a shine in her mouth Okay.. Diamond Gittery thing. Yeah , amazing. Okay. Yeah, then she goes like, everyone loves a rebel hair. , what position does Victor Krama play in Quidditch? Nice and easy. Seeker. He's a seeker. Well done . The practical Hungarian horn tail built for the forest scene reused internal mechanics from which earlier creature. I can give you a multiple choice. Yes. But see if you can figure out I think I know, but yeah, go on. So it's mechanical. It's mechanical. Okay, so it's not CGI. So to me, that means Aragog It was not Aragog, but it's in the same film as Aragog . But the Basilisk is CGI. It's not. I mean, some of it is, but it was also practically missing. Was it yeah? Oh shoot. Yeah , that's okay. I sabotaged myself. I was like, that baselist is CGI. No, it's not I know. It's so good. The magic is real, folks. The magic is real Very well done. You did incredibly well. I'm gonna give you ten points. Maybe I should give Maybe I should give you a hundred. It's my house too. A thousand points to slither in. Very good. If any of you out there want to try your hand at trivia, then visit harrypotter dot com forward slash quiz to test your knowledge . It's my favourite part of the show . It's the trolley . So I'm going to reward your hottest take or your strangest theory or if you have like a burning question that you want answered with a really sweet treat from the trolley. I'll take the lot. I'll take you the lot I love when you do an impression, I do an impression of you doing an impression . What is your hottest take related to the go blet of fire. There's a lot of will they won't be dating stuff in this movie. Yeah, show with Harry, Victor with Hermione, et cetera . I think the people that have the most chemistry in this film are Hermione and Harry . Oh my god. Yes, yes, yes. I actually really agree with you . Slither and I five. All right . So and like, right, there's so many moments , right? From the Oh, the reader skater, young love. Like they're like , they're in the tent and they're before the dragon they're like that cool shot. It's such a great rumpal moment, isn't it? Yeah. Like they're both sides of the tent. Both sides of the tent. And then she just whoops around and hugs Harry. I'm like, she has to do that. Yeah , chemistry. Yes. In the Yule Ball when Pravadi's like, Oh look, look at her, Mighty. Yeah. And he looks up at her . That the eyes don't lie. He was like, here's theed by Choe, but then as soon as he saw Hermione, he was locked in. And that's true. The editing of that too, was literally like 'cause we've established Harry loves Cho. Yeah . And then what can make him avert his eyes from Cho ? Hermione, you know? Oh my god, there's so much chemistry. And then we're gonna get into this in the next episode, but I know what you're gonna say. Well, you do. Yeah, that's exactly what you're going to say. The second task. The kiss. Yes, yes, when they come out, she randomly kisses him on like on his on his head. Yeah , but it's still it's so it's such a sweet moment. And but also Ron is so awkward anytime they do like any sort of physical interaction . Like he just can't handle it. Yeah, whereas Harry just like leans into it. Yeah. He loves it. I do think they are better matched genuinely . I kind of like the fact that Ron and Hermione are so mismatched but love each other despite that or because of those things. I think Harry and Hermione would have a much more peaceful life together. But yeah, no, I agree. I think that you do get the chemistry in this. That's a really good hot take. That is a very good hot c.ake I'm impress ed. What would you like from the trolley? Wow, anything . Anything. You got you forgotten like liquid luck here? Yeah. I don't think the trolley was sold liquid luck. I know. Felix Pelica's is right there. That's just for you. But I'm a big collector and I want a wizard card. So I think I got to do the chocolate frog. You've got to do the chocolate form. You get the double prizes, you get the candle and the product . Thank you . Oh my gosh. So there is like this fan theory going around that Voldemort was the one who reinstated the Tri Wizard Tournament . Now this doesn't work for the book. It doesn't, right ? But it actually could work for the film. Okay , because it's very it's like a big coincidence, isn't it? Yeah. The Tri Wizard Tournament is happening this year. Voldemort needs to get to Harry to get his body back. Voldemort is the one who installs Barty Crowdsun jior as the teacher . We see that at the very beginning, right? The plans are like set in motion that summer . So I wonder actually if that's a really good fan theory. I like that theory. Right? Yeah. Like it could be him. It's just him setting up absolutely everything. Like he's much more powerful. Like he's the one that he kind of imperiates because we learned about the Imperius Curse . He's the one that maybe Imperius is all of the ministers to kind of get this going and then everybody just follows suit. Yeah. And he could have even done it to Barty Crouch sror. It makes sense, like yeah, why not? Like Voldemort was full on orchestrating it from the very beginning. I think he was the original Puppet Master. Yeah. It's good, right? I'm gonna take something What am I gonna take? I am obsessed with the peppermint toads . They are so good and I love dark chocolate. So this is me. Well, cheers. So they're in high five. Cheers . Trony be gone . Well, we're halfway through gobblet of fire, but there are still two more tasks in the tournament and dark times lie ahead. Next time, Mike and I are going to play our way through to the conclusion of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I can now wait. Join us on our Film By Film Look Back through the series and re watch every Harry Potter film on HBO Max. In the meantime, we want to hear from it you. Share your thoughts and keep up with the latest from us on social media at Harry Potter. As we make our way through the series, we're going to be checking your comments to dissect the burning questions and the hottest takes, everything you throw us. Until then, practice holding your breath and don't get lost amongst the hedges. We'll see you next time. Bye . You are trying to figure this egg out, aren't you? What's that supposed to mean ? Just means these tasks are designed to test you . In the most brutal way they're almost cruel and I'm scared for you for you . You got by the dragons mostly on nerve . I'm not sure it's going to be enough this time. Harry Potter, the official film podcast, is produced by HBO Max, in partnership with Pod People. This podcast is hosted by me, Rihna Dylan. Our head writer and lead producer is Angela Paladino and our associate producer is Emily Mansfield. Our live producer and production manager is Hannah Pederson, casting by Brianna Fre ypart. Production design done by Liz Klakowski and her team, Kevin Fallon, Marcel Banks, Jeff Cross, and Amelia Casarez. Our technical director is In Sang Huang, along with camera operator Nick Gregorio. Our studio audio engineer is Frank Galvan, Her Makeup by Allie Elizabeth. Production assistance by Sam Sanders IV and Cameron Robson. Our video editor is Susanna Vasquez and the show is mixed by Carter Wogan and Marina P ayes, from the HBO Max podcast team, Alison Cohen Saroch , Michael Glostadt, Becky Row, Kenya Reyes, and Erin Kelly. Special thanks to Emily Brandon and Resegard from the Harry Potter Digital Team. Thank you for watching and listening and we'll see you next time .