By Donna

We spent seven straight weeks in the summer of 2024 doing nothing but Harry Potter. Seven books, eight movies, one family, and a lot of yelling about Peeves.

Harry Potter is one of our family’s collective favorites, but Rebekah had to wait for it. When she asked to read the books as a kid, Mom said no. “I thought she was too young,” Donna told us on our Sorcerer’s Stone episode. So Rebekah met Harry through the first two movies on DVD at a friend’s house and read the books after. Mom read the series later as an adult, and now she calls herself a Potterhead, maybe a “close second” behind Rebekah.

Josiah grew up with the movies. He started watching between Goblet and Order, and Order of the Phoenix was the first one he saw in theaters.

As for the midnight release: Rebekah got married the day Deathly Hallows came out. Her husband, Josh (our producer), waited up for the midnight release the night before the wedding and gave her the book as a wedding gift. She read it multiple times on the honeymoon.

This is the short version of all seven episodes: the biggest changes from each book, film by film. Every one has a full episode if you want the long version (and the yelling).

Spoilers for all seven books and all eight films.

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry, Ron, Hermione and classmates at their first flying lesson in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone — Still no Peeves. We checked. Image: Warner Bros.

The Dursleys lose their opening chapter.

The book starts with a whole ordinary day in Vernon Dursley’s life, on the same night Harry’s parents die. The movie skips straight to McGonagall and Dumbledore on Privet Drive. No Dursleys at all.

Harry finds Platform 9 ¾ by himself.

In the book, Hagrid drops Harry back with the Dursleys for a month after Diagon Alley, and the Dursleys drive him to King’s Cross. In the movie, Hagrid just… vanishes at the station.

Norbert’s exit gets rewritten.

Book Ron gets bitten and ends up in the hospital wing, Charlie’s friends collect the dragon, and Neville ends up in the forest for detention. Movie Malfoy reports the trio after the egg hatches, and Neville is out of it entirely.

Who actually kills Quirrell?

In the movie, Harry touches Quirrell’s face until he turns to ash. In the book, Voldemort kills Quirrell by leaving his body.

A cooler Dumbledore.

Book Dumbledore is tender with Harry, with a real spark of magic to him. The movie version is more distant (maybe even a little apathetic). The potion riddle and the troll obstacle get cut too, and so does a long list of side characters, Peeves included.

Peeves was the cut that stung. Mom called him the biggest miss of the whole movie, and Rebekah agreed: “That is one of the most heartbreaking things for me too.” A Peeves scene was actually filmed, and it showed up in the deleted scenes on the original DVD releases before it was pulled from later ones. Now we’re pinning our Peeves hopes on the HBO series.

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Ron, Harry and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — Plotting something Professor Binns will never get to explain. Image: Warner Bros.

The Ministry warning letter disappears.

The underage-magic letter is cut. That causes a continuity problem in film three, where Vernon somehow knows Harry can’t do magic outside school.

The swelling-potion distraction is gone.

The Polyjuice ingredient theft in Snape’s class is cut. So in film four, when Snape accuses Harry of stealing ingredients “again,” movie-only fans have no idea what he means.

Parseltongue looks worse on screen.

In the movie, it looks like Harry is urging the snake toward Justin. The book is clear the snake backed off when he spoke.

McGonagall teaches history now.

Professor Binns was cut from the films, so McGonagall explains the Chamber’s history instead.

A cliffside exit.

In the movie, Fawkes carries everyone out to a cave on the grounds. In the book, they come up through Myrtle’s bathroom and head to McGonagall’s office. The Deathday Party is also cut, and the basilisk fight gets longer.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Ron, Harry and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — Josiah’s hill number one. Image: Warner Bros.

No summer in Diagon Alley.

Harry runs away one day before term instead of two weeks before, so we lose Fortescue’s, the first look at the Firebolt, and Percy being Head Boy.

The Marauders get a single scene.

The backstory gets cut down to “these four were friends.” The movie never explains how the Whomping Willow connects to the Shrieking Shack.

The Firebolt shows up at the end.

The Christmas Firebolt (and the fight it causes with Hermione) is cut. Harry gets the broom at the very end, and the movie closes on him flying it. The book closes at King’s Cross, with Harry telling Vernon about his murderer godfather.

Cedric and Cho wait a year.

Book Cedric is Hufflepuff’s Quidditch captain here. The movie saves him (and Cho) for film four.

Crookshanks loses his best plotline.

In the book, Crookshanks works with Sirius, stealing Neville’s passwords and helping him get into the castle. None of that is in the movie, so Neville never gets in trouble for losing them. The movie also redesigns the grounds (clock tower, bridge, Hagrid’s hut moved) and goes darker overall.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Ron, Harry and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — Dumbledore asked calmly. (He did not.) Image: Warner Bros.

A very short World Cup.

The Malfoys sit in the top box instead of the Weasleys, the twins’ bet with Ludo Bagman is gone, and the movie never separates the rioting Death Eaters from whoever cast the Dark Mark.

Crouch Sr.’s death moves.

In the book, a ragged Crouch finds Harry and Krum in the forest and is later killed by his son. The movie shows Crouch at the second task, then Harry finding his body in the woods.

The loose ends aren’t really wrapped up.

Voldemort’s long graveyard speech gets trimmed, and the closing explanations from Crouch Jr. and Winky are cut. You never find out how Crouch Jr. got out of Azkaban, what happened to Bertha Jorkins, or Voldemort’s experience of murdering his family.

The maze is huge and empty.

No boggart, no Skrewts, no sphinx, no spider. The movie never says Krum was under the Imperius Curse. And the maze sits in a valley instead of on the Quidditch pitch.

A lot of people don’t make it in.

Ludo Bagman, Winky, Dobby, and Bertha Jorkins are all cut. Rita Skeeter’s Animagus secret is gone, and so is her story outing Hagrid as half-giant. It’s also the only film with no Dursleys and no Molly Weasley.

Not all of us were sad about Bagman, though. One of us read his trial memory and realized, “Wow, yeah, I’m glad Ludo Bagman got cut.” In the book, he’s mostly a red herring.

The dragon task got no love either. Movie Harry lets the dragon loose over the grounds while the adults just gasp. “This is stupid,” one of us said. Another asked, “Where is Hermione’s Society for the Protection of Dragons?”

And then there’s Dumbledore. Book Dumbledore asks “calmly” if Harry put his name in the goblet. Movie Dumbledore storms in and shouts it. As one of us put it, the film makes you wonder, “Dumbledore, do you really trust Harry that little?”

A couple of book-only favorites came up too. One of us has a favorite line to love and hate: Voldemort’s “Or are we?” in the graveyard, mostly because of how awkwardly Jim Dale reads it on the audiobook. Another favorite is the chapter title “The House-Elf Liberation Front” (maybe the best in the series). Hermione’s S.P.E.W. campaign never makes it to the screen, in this film or any of the later ones.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Dumbledore's Army members in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — Dumbledore’s Army, minus a Quidditch season. Image: Warner Bros.

Quidditch is cut completely.

Ron joining the team, “Weasley Is Our King,” the lifetime bans, Ginny as Seeker. All gone.

No St. Mungo’s.

The movie never shows Neville’s parents (or Lockhart, or the plant that kills Bode). Neville just tells Harry his parents were tortured, and the movie never says they’re still alive.

How Sirius dies.

Movie Bellatrix kills Sirius with the Killing Curse. In the book, she knocks him through the veil, which is exactly why Harry can’t believe he’s really dead.

Dumbledore’s office stays intact.

The aftermath gets cut way down. Harry doesn’t wreck the office, most of the prophecy is gone (including the chance it meant Neville), and nobody explains the blood protection at the Dursleys’.

A smaller Department of Mysteries.

It’s down to the Hall of Prophecy and the Death Chamber. The movie also tones down Harry’s anger, never explains Percy, and has Cho betray the DA instead of Marietta. (This was also the only film Steve Kloves didn’t write.)

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Dumbledore and Harry in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — Best book, worst movie (per two of us). Image: Warner Bros.

Most of the memories are gone.

The House of Gaunt, Morfin, Hepzibah Smith, Riddle asking for the teaching job. The movie keeps a short orphanage memory and Slughorn’s memory, and that’s about it.

The Burrow burns.

The movie adds a Death Eater attack that burns down the Burrow, with Bellatrix taunting Harry. It’s not in the book (where the Burrow is heavily protected).

The tower plays out differently.

Book Dumbledore freezes Harry under the Cloak. Movie Dumbledore tells him to hide below, and Snape finds him and keeps him quiet.

Less about Horcruxes.

The founders’ objects and Nagini don’t come up, and movie Dumbledore calls Horcruxes “the most commonplace of objects.” That’s the opposite of the book. J.K. Rowling’s original description intentionally drew a contrast between Portkeys (the most commonplace of objects) and horcruxes (deeply meaningful objects that would be next to impossible to discard).

A different ending.

No hospital wing, no funeral, no breakup with Ginny. Instead, everyone raises their wands in the courtyard. The castle battle shrinks to one rampage, too.

A listener asked us why Half-Blood Prince is the best book AND the best movie. Rebekah’s answer was quick: “Book, yes, for sure. Movie, no.”

Then she used the moment to get something off her chest about Snape. “There is just not a case that someone can be a decent person with integrity and treat Harry the way he treated him,” she said. Her biggest problem is how the series ends for him: “Don’t make him a saint. Don’t name your kid after him.”

Josiah took the other side: “I think it is the most human thing in this entire series that he can’t get over it.” One of our parents sat right in the middle: “I think he’s a tragic character. I think he made terrible decisions. I think he was rotten to Harry unnecessarily.”

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Parts 1 and 2)

Ron, Harry and Hermione in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 — The one that felt most like reading the book. Image: Warner Bros.

Voldemort and Harry face off in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 — Less talking, more flying. Image: Warner Bros.

Dumbledore’s secrets mostly stay secret.

Rita Skeeter’s Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore only shows up in a newspaper, and Harry’s crisis over what Dumbledore hid from him is mostly cut.

Kreacher never tells his story.

The movie skips Kreacher’s account of Regulus and the locket, and Kreacher disappears after Grimmauld Place.

Shorter Snape memories.

Lily, Petunia, and the Marauders mostly get cut. The memories focus on Snape plotting with Dumbledore.

The final duel.

In the book, Harry and Voldemort talk while they circle each other, and one Expelliarmus makes Voldemort’s own curse rebound on him. The movie adds a flight around the castle, has Neville kill Nagini mid-fight, and turns Voldemort to ash.

The Elder Wand goes over a bridge.

Book Harry uses it to repair his own wand, then decides (after talking to Dumbledore’s portrait) to put it back with Dumbledore. Movie Harry snaps it and throws it off a bridge. The movie also adds Hermione wiping her parents’ memories, gives us the Harry and Hermione dance, and moves Fred’s death off-screen.

So… are the books better?

Short answer: yes. Almost every time, for almost all of us.

All four of us picked the book for Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets. Rebekah’s problem with those first two movies is that they feel “so childish, not childlike.” Josiah put it more bluntly: the book “is superior in basically every way.”

Prisoner of Azkaban is where Josiah broke ranks. He gave it to the movie for its tone and its cinematography, which he says you don’t see much in the other films. Rebekah calls it her second-favorite movie of the eight, but she still picked the book.

Goblet of Fire went 3–1 for the book. One of us summed it up: the movie “was good for what it was, but disappointing as someone who loves all of the details in the book.” Another said the film “cut too many things that make it deeper.” Josiah went the other way. “I think Goblet might be the weakest book,” he said. “I think it’s bloated.” His verdict: “I’m going to say the movie was better, but I enjoyed both of them.”

Order of the Phoenix split us the same way. Dad called it “my least favorite book, my least favorite movie, and my least favorite character is Umbridge.” Josiah gave it to the film anyway: “It really worked for a little teenage Josiah.”

Half-Blood Prince hurt the most. It’s Rebekah’s favorite book (tied with Deathly Hallows) and, in her words, “the worst movie of the whole bunch, probably.” Josiah agreed: best book, worst movie.

The movie that came closest? For Rebekah, it’s Deathly Hallows Part 1, because “it felt like reading the book in a different medium.” Josiah was less kind to the finale: “The book is just better in basically every way.” And Mom summed up the whole summer pretty well: “If I had not read the books, I think I would have liked the movies better.”

So the books win. Josiah gets three hills (Azkaban, Goblet, and Order), and Rebekah keeps hers: Snape is not a saint.

Listen to the full episodes:

Quick facts

Books: seven, by J.K. Rowling
Films: eight (Warner Bros.)
Our episodes: S01E25 through S01E31, released June 14 to August 2, 2024
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer): Sorcerer’s Stone 81% · Chamber of Secrets 82% · Prisoner of Azkaban 90% · Goblet of Fire 88% · Order of the Phoenix 78% · Half-Blood Prince 84% · Deathly Hallows Part 1 77% · Part 2 96%
Highest-grossing: Deathly Hallows Part 2, about $1.34 billion worldwide

We’re The Book Is Better Podcast, a family of four comparing book-to-film adaptations, one argument at a time. New episodes every other Thursday. Find us wherever you listen, or come argue with us on Discord.