The Harry Potter world is alive and well with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. No, Harry isn't in the movie, but it does take place in the same wizarding world. If you have just seen the movie and want to reacquaint yourself with the previous Harry Potter movies, or if you haven't seen it yet and want to catch up, this new video can help, because it has condensed the entire series into under 80 minutes.
A Harry Potter fan by the name of Tim Stiefler recently posted the video to Vimeo, which is titled Wizardhood. The title is a bit of a nod to the Richard Linklater movie Boyhood, which covered many years of a young boy's life all condensed into one movie. That is basically the approach that Tim Stiefler took with Wizardhood, which is hyper-focused on the actual story of Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe, and largely on his later years at Hogwarts.
The idea of condensing roughly 19 hours worth of Harry Potter movies into 78 minutes might seem absolutely insane on the surface, but Wizardhood does manage to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. If someone were watching this and had never seen or heard of Harry Potter before, they probably wouldn't even know that anything was missing. That said, fans of the franchise will notice an awful lot is missing. Really, a lot might be an understatement.
Wizardhood uses a lot from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as well as the final three movies in the franchise, but omits an awful lot from the middle entries. The entirety of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is edited out of this version, which means no Dobby. But is that really a bad thing? There is also almost nothing from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire or Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That is a little more tough on Harry Potter fans, as all three of those are very well-liked entries in the franchise, with many considering Prisoner of Azkaban to be the best overall. But there simply isn't room for them in this narrative that Tim Stiefler decided to craft.
The Harry Potter franchise grossed nearly $8 billion at the global box office and spanned the course of nearly a decade. It is definitely interesting that someone was able to condense all of that into such a short piece of storytelling that actually works. Granted, it is a very different narrative with a serious lack of supporting elements that Harry Potter fans really love. This version has no Tonks or Remus, no Arthur and Molly Weasley and Mad-Eye Moody, just to name a few. You can check out Wizardhood in its entirety for yourself below and if you're a Harry Potter fan, you most definitely should.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/193205899