By this point, almost everyone and their pet rock has heard of Harry Potter. The best-selling book series not only spawned a popular stage musical and several spin-off books, but also spawned eight hugely successful films that saw its young stars grow up before our eyes.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in the three lead roles, the films follow the adventures of Harry Potter, a seemingly ordinary boy who discovers that he actually has magical powers, and is forced to confront an evil fascist. We will have to fight against the dictator. To save the wizarding community.
But what if you’ve seen all the movies and still crave some cinematic magic? We’ve assembled a list of Harry Potter-like movies that will scratch that itch – all of which are currently available to stream.
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
In the early 2000s, A Series of Unfortunate Events was one of Harry Potter’s main competitors when it came to children’s fantasy books about unfortunate orphans. It revolves around the three Baudelaire children (Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny) who lose their parents in a mysterious fire. They are taken in by Count Olaf (Jim Carrey, who must have got a stomach ache from chewing all the scenery), a distant relative who has nefarious intentions for his new wards. What sets A Series of Unfortunate Events apart from other films in the same genre is that it has a dark sense of humor, putting its young heroes in extremely desperate situations and still winking at the audience.
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Before Harry Potter became the apple of JK Rowling’s eyes, The Chronicles of Narnia was mesmerizing children for generations (and continues to do so). But when the film version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out in 2005, it was at least partially greenlit in an effort to capitalize on the success of the popular wizarding franchise, making it clear that young The audience responded well. Fantasy genre.
The Pevensie children, a group of four siblings from World War II-era England, are magically transported to the land of Narnia through an ordinary wardrobe. There, they get caught up in geopolitical conflicts, fight an evil witch, meet Santa and eventually become king and queen. Not bad for a quartet of preteens.
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Another day, another quasi-Harry Potter movie with Christopher Columbus in the director’s chair. Like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson is the perpetual underdog who is surprised to discover he has both unusual powers and a stoic legacy. Like Harry Potter, the Percy Jackson book franchise took the YA market by storm, captivating young readers around the world. But where Harry Potter revolves around the life of a young wizard transferred to a school for magic, Percy Jackson’s roots are firmly rooted in Greek mythology.
Percy discovers that he is actually the god son of Poseidon, and is sent away for his own safety to what is essentially a summer camp for all the wandering half-human offspring of the gods. As the son of one of the three most powerful gods – all of whom have sworn not to father another god’s children, for the good of all – Percy has an immediate target on his back. Almost as if he was “the chosen one”.
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house with clock in the walls
There are countless similarities between The House with a Clock in Its Walls and Harry Potter. Both involve young orphans sent to live with their strange relations as a result of a car accident in which their parents die (or at least, that’s the party line in Harry Potter, even if that’s not true. not be). In both films, the aforementioned orphan inadvertently discovers a world of magic at his fingertips, and is forced to do battle with the forces of darkness to protect those around him.
However, unlike Harry Potter, The House with a Clock in Its Walls was only intended to be a standalone film, despite many fans’ interest in a sequel to further the adventures of its young wizard hero.
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hugo
In terms of plot, Hugo and Harry Potter don’t have much in common – except for the fact that it’s based on a popular children’s book, and it’s about a young orphan boy who discovers magic. Hugo (Asa Butterfield) lives alone in a crowded Paris train station, avoiding the security guards who are determined to capture him.
He befriends a grumpy toy maker (Ben Kingsley) and his granddaughter (Chloë Grace Moretz), but discovers that the bitter old man is actually Georges Méliès, the renowned father of silent film in France. Directed by Martin Scorsese, with a playful imaginative eye, Hugo depicts its young hero’s journey to help Méliès rediscover the magic of cinema – something Scorsese hopes to impart to audiences as well. .
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beautiful creatures
Who needs an old British boarding school setting for their magic when they’ve got Southern Gothic? Beautiful Creatures revolves around Lina Duchaine, a teenage girl whose life will change forever as she reaches her 16th birthday. Cursed by supernatural powers beyond her control, she will be claimed by either the light or the darkness, as each member of her family has done before her.
It takes the magic of Harry Potter and its central battle between the forces of good and evil, and injects brilliant family drama into the proceedings. Then, for good measure, it’s full of the kind of star-crossed romance that made Twilight so popular at the time.
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Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children
What if Harry Potter grew up not in a grand castle in the Scottish countryside, but in a small institution for children with special abilities? The result might sound a bit like Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children, where Jake (Asa Butterfield) travels back in time to 1943 to discover a cozy English house inhabited by a group of children with unusual qualities (for example, One can breathe underwater). the other has the power to bring the dead back to life) and his caretaker, Miss Peregrine (Eva Green).
The entire school exists within a time bubble, where the strange residents can be protected from the dangers of the outside world and the evil forces that threaten to hunt them down. In terms of world-building and magical atmosphere, Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children matches the best of what Harry Potter has to offer.
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young sherlock holmes
Young Sherlock Holmes may not be in a world of magic, but it still has something in common with Harry Potter. Detailing one of the teenage Sherlock Holmes’s first cases, it involves a trio of heroes: a lanky ginger, a short, handsome boy with graying hair, and a bushy-haired female companion. (And that’s to say nothing of the film’s pale blonde antagonist, who bears a striking resemblance to Draco Malfoy.)
It classically depicts the British boarding school experience, and there’s a reason it will feel familiar to Harry Potter fans: it was directed by Christopher Columbus a decade and a half before he directed the first two Harry Potter films. His stylistic choices of Young Sherlock Holmes are echoed in Harry Potter, from its castle-like boarding school aesthetic to the long tables of the student dining hall.
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never ending story
In the early 2000s, A Series of Unfortunate Events was one of Harry Potter’s main competitors when it came to children’s fantasy books about unfortunate orphans. It revolves around the three Baudelaire children (Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny) who lose their parents in a mysterious fire. They are taken in by Count Olaf (Jim Carrey, who must have got a stomach ache from chewing all the scenery), a distant relative who has nefarious intentions for his new wards. What sets A Series of Unfortunate Events apart from other films of the same genre is that it has a dark sense of humor, putting its young heroes in extremely desperate situations and still winking at the audience.
see here Maximum