Fantastic Eddie
New tale from Potter verse is a truly magical spectacle
MIX magic and muggles with monsters and the result is the movie we’ve all been waiting for since Harry Potter hung up his wand.
Fantastic Beasts is everything we could have hoped for – gripping, exciting and just gorgeous to look at. It’s also very, very funny.
Inspired by JK Rowling’s book of the same name, the setting is 1920s New York.
Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, arrives to find supernatural creatures that only wizards can see.
The magical zoologist has spent his life collecting the animals, which he studies in a lab accessible only through his leather briefcase.
But things go awry when baker Jacob Kowalski, played by Dan Fogler opens the case and unwittingly unleashes Newt’s beasts on the Big Apple. Teaming up with Jacob and witches Tina and Queenie – actresses Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol – Newt has to round them up.
And to add to the urgency, a band of fanatical No-Majs, the American version of muggles, want to start a war with the wizards.
The film is very much part of the Potterverse, with enough i n- j okes and references to delight fans. And, as you’d expect in a film with a £140million budget, it looks just amazing.
As for the cast, this is very much Redmayne’s movie. He plays a good- hearted but accident- prone innocent whose bumbling is always hilarious. This might even be his best performance.
Meanwhile, there is sterling support from Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, Samantha Morton and Ron Perlman. Watch out, too, for a small but memorable turn from Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, an evil wizard very much in the Lord Voldemort mould.
The second instalment is due in late 2018 and I can’t wait. But in the meantime, prepare to be spellbound.
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is released on Friday.