Freeform’s April Harry Potter Weekend

Freeform's Harry Potter Weekend starts Friday. Copyright Warner Bros. Motion Pictures.

This weekend is Harry Potter Weekend on Freeform. This one is nicknamed “Voldemort Weekend.” In other Potterverse news, the producers of   Fantastic beasts and Where to Find Them 2 announced recently that Jude Law has been cast as Albus Dumbore. The second movie in the Harry Potter prequel series is set for a November 2018 release date.

Back to Harry Potter Weekend, this marathon will not include Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix because the TV rights for the fifth film in the saga currently belong to HBO/Cinemax. As a reminder, Freeform will lose the rights for the Harry Potter movies in July of next year. After that, the rights to all of the Potter films, and the Fantastic Beasts franchise go exclusively to NBC Universal networks which include NBC, USA, and Syfy. Syfy sure would be a good home for Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movie marathons, if they care to put the effort into it. NBC also owns Universal Studios theme parks, the home of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Hollywood, and Japan.

Here’s the schedule for Harry Potter Weekend on Freeform. Freeform says that scheduled programming is always subject to change. Times listed are for the Eastern Time zone:

Friday, April 28:

3:30p – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

7p – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Sat., April 29:

7a – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

10:30a – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

2:30p – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

5:30p – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

9p – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Sun. April 30:

7a – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

10:10a – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

1:50p – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

5:30p – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

9p – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Mon., May 1:

1:30p – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

5p – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

As always, fans can tweet along with Freeform on their official Twitter account (@Freeform TV). Follow Freeform on Facebook to post, comment, and interact with Freeform and other fans. For more information, including possible programming changes to the above Harry Potter Weekend schedule, visit Freeform’s official website.

‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ Blu-ray Combo Pack: The Fairy Blog Review

Eddie Redmayne is Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes us back to Harry Potter’s magical world of Faerie, only this time to the streets of 1920s New York city. The story follows the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, one of Harry Potter’s textbooks at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Newt is a stranger in a strange land who arrives in America only to find himself in a foreign wizarding community existing in secret, living in fear of discovery by a hostile non-magical society. As if that wasn’t enough, the international wizarding world is on high alert because murderous dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is at large.

Fans of the Harry Potter films were on pins and needles, wondering if Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them would be able to live up to their beloved fairy tale saga. After all, unlike the Potter movies, there was no beloved book series on which to base this new film series, plus, J.K. Rowling had never written a screenplay before. Well, Rowling and the rest of the production team outdid themselves. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the best wizarding movie since the enchanting Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone, the film that started it all. And Fantastic Beasts is the first Harry Potter movie to win an Academy Award.

After 35 years in the business, and previous Oscars, costume designer Colleen Atwood proved she’s not sitting on her laurels with her exquisite costume designs. Attwood elevates her art, and the actor’s performances with her visionary creations, garnering her a 4^th Academy Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design. Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter himself, expressed his envy of Newt Scamander’s great coat. The costumes for each character from the leads down to the extras are spot on, helping to create the spell of this fairy story.

This production contains lots of magic, as well as talent, hard work, knowledge, creativity, and loving care. It’s so rare to see this kind of attention to each and every detail of a movie, even a big budget one like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The writing, directing, acting, production design, sound, cinematography, special effects, and CGI are all artistic triumphs. James Newton Howard’s musical score is pure magic, the best since John William’s brilliant score for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is out now on Blu-ray combo pack.

The Blu-ray combo pack comes with a Blu-ray disc, a DVD, and a digital HD copy. The quality of the picture and sound are excellent. The difference in the dreary non-magical world vs. the rich, vivid colors of the wizarding world show up as beautifully on this home video edition. The sound is exceptional as well. That’s not easy to do in a movie with so many layers of sound. This is a top quality product that immerses the viewer in J.K. Rowling’s world of wizards and beasts of Faerie.

Verdict: Fairytastic! Buy it. 5 out of 5 stars. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is available online and in stores now. Click here for my review of the movie.