Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts takes you back in time, and punches you in the gut all over again with all the memories. For everyone who has grown up alongside the protagonists, it is a surreal experience per se. Return to Hogwarts is that disquieting pain of memorabilia that will once again have you in tears. There are so many memories tacked alongside its runtime that it would shove you down your own childhood. By the time the TV Special ends you will be in tears as if you were taken through a mirror of the many lives you had lived along with the realization that one day all of it had to finally end.

The end is once again so tragic that it is hard not to shed tears alongside the cast, the people you have known all your life as if they were a part of you. To not feel their pain is absolutely impossible. Empathy writes itself as you listen to them talk about this immense pillar crumbling down eventually as if a child’s fancy was being broken, akin to an agonizing epiphany of magic not being real.

A Trip Down the Memory Lane

I cried my eyes out watching them in tears one by one, making us realize once again that magic was long over, that I was living in a world without one. That it has been more than a decade since the last part came out. To relive the tragedy of it being over for good makes you realize it is a reflection of a closed one’s death, that life would never be the same. That you really miss them with all your heart, that you wished more time with them, just like the actors who had passed away marking their perfect parts in history.

Years would pass by before any producer might even attempt to achieve such a feat again, and goes without saying that nothing would ever be good enough in posterity. What we have witnessed in our era is one of those rare events that only a few get a chance of experiencing. The anticipation, the jitters, the discussion, and the contemplation that layered with every part was the telltale of our childhood. We should remain extremely grateful for that.

The Relatability Factor

What makes Harry Potter one of a kind is that it is very much relatable to its readers and viewers. Return to Hogwarts talks about that quotient, about what makes Harry Potter click so well with the masses. In the segment where you see the insane fad around the book launch events and the extraordinary heat it gets, you ponder that question yourself.

Deep down everyone is an unfortunate spandrel child. In their tiny little claustrophobic worlds, they dream of a life filled with possibilities, of magic that would take them away from their miserable lives. With the Harry Potter franchise, they get to taste that elusive life, and the starting two parts bear testimony to that.

It is a very hopeful build that gets people reeled in almost immediately. All the latter parts manage story building so well alongside some brilliant acting that the bandwagon gets set, and the horses begin to neigh.

A Proper Look at the Ensemble in Return to Hogwarts Harry Potter

The documentary takes us through the production bits, the absolutely stunning design, the cast of perfect directors, and an ensemble that crafted it all.

It does it effortlessly by maneuvering through the parts that came out in chronological order segregating based on directors and the stellar cast that was picked along the way. There is so much learning inbred that you didn’t know actually went on behind the sets.

The amount of work that goes into making each frame is simply phenomenal and overwhelming. When put together you realize the creation is massive. Apart from the fact that it has generated so much employment, it has also managed to change a bazillion lives. It continues to do so even when it is a finished title. The tributaries it emanates to date remain overwhelming and worth many standing ovations.

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts TV Special documentary still of Tom Felton and Emma Watson

The talk of the town is how Emma Watson was absolutely crushing over Tom Felton who was fully aware of it. Being each other’s favorites they really cared for each other like good friends, but that’s what it was for them.

You can’t help but feel sorry for the relationship the trio shared with each other. How both Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint were the pillars of support with an unspoken bond throughout the years. The final chat between Rupert and Emma is shattering. You can’t help but feel immense love and reverence for both of them.

The Amazing Creators in Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts begins by giving credit to where it is due – the writing. What can’t be overlooked is that the enormous creation had been just one brain’s work – J. K. Rowling‘s. You can’t begin to imagine how it all got consummated inside a brain and managed to see it through till the end. It was her all along, with the analogy, with the magic, with the sojourn of a kid’s life, with countless characters that tied everything taut. No doubt that she deserves every accolade that she has received to date.

We get to witness crucial characters talk through important scenes that literally changed the way we had seen them in the first place. You realize how good Gary Oldman was with Sirius Black in the Prisoner of Azkaban, and how Dan looked up to him taking pointers. What an amazing bond they shared as if he were a real uncle! Those are delightful bits strewn across the movie with the brilliant cast who make it and the talks about those who had left us early.

The documentary pays an ode to everyone who had made the magic happen. Starting with Chris Columbus who helped with the perfect casting was responsible for laying out the foundation that set a benchmark for every other part to come. Alfonso Cuaron making arguably the best part in the series who set a darker universe that was to define the teenage years of the trio. Mike Newell was an absolute necessity for the coming of age story who drove down a piledriver in the end telling everyone how the movie wasn’t about life but death. David Yates finishes everything in a grandeur dark tone the way it was supposed to be.

So many fond memories and the director Casey Patterson does justice to it all by lining things perfectly and not missing any of the important stuff.

Witness Your Entire Life

The Harry Potter Series is a person’s entire life. If you think about it, it is watching someone’s life with its countless ups and downs. The many challenges that life brings to you with age, like the things one goes through when someone is a child to the things one experiences being a teenager. It has it all before sifting through the darker enclaves.

It is you looking back at your life wondering about the numerous ages that you have lived. Various junctures that had been the defining moments of your life. It almost calls for introspection. How your actions defined you and slapped you against your defining character.

You can order all the Harry Potter parts from here:

The End All Over Again

The saddest part in the whole TV documentary is holed up at the climax. The best bits are saved for the last. You get to taste it with the taste of your own fears – the fact that it would end as well. But it brings to light footage where everyone is crying with the end, and it is heartbreaking that you almost immediately wear Dan, Rupert or Emma’s shoes.

It is shattering to see them parting with the series that was a major part of their lives. Their pain is extremely tangible and it is hard not to feel it. That empathy can’t be possibly resisted. Watching them talk about it makes you realize that it is not acting. It is their true unadulterated feelings about each other, and that’s absolutely crushing.

The final lines by Robbie Coltrane talking about how his character would live on, even though he might die tomorrow shatters you. The truth behind it is so palpable that you can taste it in your tears. So many amazing actors lost, maybe not appreciated enough. Their contribution to the film industry and to movies that make them a significant leaflet in the pages of history is peerless.

Makes you wonder how every amazing thing in this world will cease to exist one day. Every important thing in life will meet its end. It makes you question – did you savor them all enough while they existed?

Check out the trailer of Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts here: