A
curious thing happened in the Harry
Potter films. Between The Chamber of Secrets and The Goblet of Fire, Professor Flitwick
essentially became a different person.
Not the same person played by a different actor, a la Dumbledore – Warwick
Davis plays the character throughout – but, as you can see in the image above,
one completely revamped to be utterly unrecognizable.
Apparently,
it all started as a fluke. After Flitwick
made appearances in the first two Chris Columbus-directed films, the script for
The Prisoner of Azkaban didn’t have
anything for Flitwick, but Alfonso Cuarón still wanted Davis to be involved and
came up with a cameo for him playing a different character, the Hogwarts music
conductor. Then, when Mike Newell came
along to direct the fourth movie, he liked the look Cuarón had created for Davis’s
conductor character so much that he kept it, morphing the conductor into a
reimagined Flitwick. There’s absolutely nothing onscreen to explain how this
radical transformation happened.
As
groundless as it is, I like it from a visual standpoint. Yes, the books say that Flitwick’s small stature
is probably due to having a bit of goblin blood, but he’s not really described
as goblin-like in appearance, other than his size (after all, any goblin
resemblance is slight enough that his heritage is a matter of speculation, not
fact, so he must not look too gobliny.)
And really, I guess Flitwick 1.0 doesn’t really look like a goblin (when Davis pulls double duty as
Griphook in the Deathly Hallows
films, he looks totally different,) but he doesn’t really look like a person, either. It’s not just the wizard robes – he looks
nonhuman in a way that the other Hogwarts staff, even confirmed half-giant
Hagrid, don’t. I don’t like that; in my
mind, it’s a bit of unnecessary othering that sets Flitwick apart beyond his
size. And come on, how often does Warwick
Davis get to show his actual face onscreen?
I’d seen him in a ton of different movies before I connected that all
these random “creatures” were played by the same guy that starred in Willow.
So, I
love that the new Flitwick looks like he’s supposed to: a tiny man.
Personally, I’d have added more overtly-wizard clothing to the more
natural-looking hair, face, and glasses, because I think the pendulum might
have swung a bit too far in the
opposite direction. I like him looking
like a person, but he’s still a wizard, and the plain suits are a little
“normal” for Hogwarts.
However,
what I don’t like is the redrawn
Flitwick’s actual role. Once the
professor merges with the conductor, the films show him almost exclusively in
the context of music class. Gone is the
brainy charms instructor with enormous magical skill – in fact, we hardly see
him performing magic at all. Granted,
this is in part due to the increased streamlining of the films. A ton of classroom scenes are trimmed or cut,
so there’s not much time for the professors to display their talent and impart
their knowledge. But other professors
still get their magic on in incidental ways, like it’s McGonagall detransfiguring
Malfoy or Dumbledore using his Pensieve.
Flitwick? Mainly conducts
music. And that’s a bummer. It was cool in The Sorcerer’s Stone to see a little person who, like his fellow
professors, is a powerful wizard with skills to pass on to eager kids. I love how the books paint him very much in
the same light as the other professors, and one of my favorite book-Flitwick
scenes is when he so easily takes care of an unruly charm that baffles Umbridge
in The Order of the Phoenix. That’s the Flitwick I like – quietly capable,
super-smart, and a tiny bit snarky – and it’s too bad that he never really gets
a chance to be that in the movies.
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