Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
February 2005 Reviewed by: Doug Blackburn Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

This is the third in the series of Harry Potter movies based on the hugely successful books of J.K. Rowling. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are now 13 and dealing with the first stages of adolescence. You-know-who’s wizard ally, Sirius Black, has escaped from Azkaban prison and is homing in on Harry. The so-called soul-sucking dementors of Azkaban, looking for Sirius Black, surround Hogwarts. At the same time, our trio of student wizards tries to save the life of Buckbeak the hippogryff, a creature half-horse, half-bird. We meet Peter Pettigrew and Professors Lupin and Trelawney, we encounter a boggart and a werewolf, we visit Hogsmead village and the shrieking shack, and we come upon the Marauder’s Map and the stranded wizard’s best friend -- the Night Bus. Time travel is, again, an important plot element. Director Alfonso Cuarón (Great Expectations and Y tu mamá también) does a commendable job with the danger, heroics, wonderment, subtle humor, and brisk pace of the book. This time the special effects are consistently excellent, something that could not be said about the first two movies in the series.

The colors of Prisoner of Azkaban are cool and blue because rainy, overcast Scotland was the shooting location. Brightly lit scenes with warm, saturated colors are rare. The images often show evidence of too much MPEG compression. Watch the textures in the white table cloth at the Dursleys’, and you’ll see details appear and disappear from frame to frame. The larger your screen size, the more noticeable this will be. Most DVDs have this problem to some extent. The Prisoner of Azkaban is better than average but has lots of room for improvement.

For those weary of bombastic soundtracks, Prisoner of Azkaban should be just about perfect. With the level set to hear the wind in the trees, some fairly loud moments will tax underpowered systems. But these are not the gratuitous explosions that pass for excitement in too many movies, and the overall transparency is better than average for Dolby Digital. The natural ambient sounds and excellent Foley effects are complemented by imaginative synthesized sounds. John Williams’ orchestral soundtrack is especially well recorded, and though lacking memorable melodies, it is as good as the best he has done.

As with most two-disc DVDs, the first disc offers little in the way of extras, just trailers for all three Harry Potter movies. The second disc contains close to two hours of extras that are only occasionally interesting. There are behind-the-scenes features on special effects, locations, and animal care and training. There are many interviews with cast, director, and author, tours of Honeydukes and Professor Lupin’s classroom, and two games. DVD-ROM features include a Hogwarts Timeline and Magical Trading Cards that are of minimal adult interest, though younger fans may enjoy them more. There are no hidden features (aka Easter eggs) for Prisoner of Azkaban, but there is a shortcut in one of the games to the Hogwarts art gallery.

The look, the energy, the tension, and the stronger characterizations of Harry, Ron and Hermione combine with a complex plot to make this the most adult of the Harry Potter movies so far. Yet it remains accessible to children mature enough not to be frightened by the movie’s darker elements, primarily the "soul-sucking dementors." Because of its rich content, Prisoner of Azkaban was one of the better DVD releases of 2004.

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