Harry’s Invisibility Cloaks

The first Harry Potter film gave us the initial manifestation of Harry’s invisibility cloak as both velvety and gossamer – an unusual combination – and covered in gorgeous Celtic knotwork. In the HBO Harry Potter series trailer released on 2 September, we glimpsed a new design for Harry’s invisibility cloak. This cloak seems lighter weight — sheer and longer, a veritable curtain of fabric that is more likely to hide the trio underneath it. Although, its length and breadth will require young Harry to be extra careful not to tread on it, catch it on things as he passes, or leave it trailing for others to pull off of him accidentally or on purpose.

In the film, it looks as if Harry is trying on his invisibility cloak in his dormitory, not in the Gryffindor Common Room as he did in the film. The Christmas day scene in the film has Harry running down the stairs to the Common Room to find Ron and his presents there. This is a minor change from the books that worked fine visually in the movie, but it looks like we will now get a version that is more true to the book, in which Ron and Harry find their presents at the end of their beds on Christmas morning. I wonder if the twins and Percy will come in and we will get the scene with the Weasley jumpers?

It will be awhile before we see the HBO version of “Tale of the Three Brothers”. They may not choose to animate the story as the film did. That was to make it more visually interesting to the viewer as it was read aloud in the film. Judging by the more historic look of some of the HBO props (which I love!), I expect the illustrations to look as if they came from a very old book of fairy tales, first printed hundreds of years ago. The cartoon worked in the movie but I look forward to that potentially more historical-looking take.