Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Corrected entry: Ron tells Professor McGonnagal that her tranformation was "bloody brilliant" and she doesn't bat an eye. This is rather obscene language for an eleven-year old to use in school. Americans don't realize how inappropriate this language would be in a formal British school.

Correction: This probably has more to do with McGonnagal's charactor than anything else. Remember when Harry caught the Remebrall in flying class she got him on the Quidditch team, we he should have been expelled. She also teased them a little after he said that.

Corrected entry: When Professor Quirrel runs into the dining hall, to tell everyone about the troll, he faints. It is shown that he falls down face first, but when it shows all the students running, Quirrel is suddenly flipped over, lying on his back.

Correction: He remains face down.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione have fallen through the trap door and are caught in the devil's snare, Harry yells "Hermione, where are you?". If you watch closely he is not wearing his glasses when he says this. In the next shot, he is.

Correction: If you look really closely, you can see the light reflecting off the left corner of the glasses.

Corrected entry: When Harry tries to open the door on the third floor, if you look closely you will notice that the wall which moves in is actually a curtain painted to look like a rock wall.

Correction: After viewing the scene many times it looks to me as though what we are seeing waving in the draft is a bunch of cobwebs, not the entire wall.

Corrected entry: When the Durselys and Harry return from the zoo, as the door is just about to shut you can see the crew equipment and boxes outside the door.

Correction: I watched the scene in question in slowmotion, there isn't enough time to show boxes or equipment outside because the bodies block the doorway until Uncle Vernon closes the door and all you can see outside is the house across the street. The "boxes" that you may have seen are the windows which can be confirmed when Vernon leaves for work.

Corrected entry: As the first years take the boats to Hogwarts, the camera goes from boat to boat. Neville can be seen on two different boats.

Correction: Neville is only seen in one boat, the one with Harry and Ron. Seamus Finnegan is in the other boat with Hermione and Susan Bones. These two actors look a bit alike and have similar hairstyles.

Corrected entry: Hermione says on the train, "I tried a few spells, but they've all worked for me." Underage witches and wizards aren't allowed to use magic. How could she have tried a few spells?

sdgirl98

Correction: She doesn't specify where she did the spells so she could have done them on train. Harry and Ron didn't meet her until they were on the train for a while.

sdgirl98

Corrected entry: As Harry purchases the candy on the train, we see a large body of water outside the train window. The next shot shows the train going through a dense forest. When the boys start eating the candy, the view from the train is again the body of water. If Harry and Ron are typical boys, they wouldn't wait very long to start eating their candy; certainly not long enough to pass through a forest and return to the shoreline. (00:35:12)

Correction: It's quite possible there's a lake in the forest. Beyond that, this sounds more like artistic license than a mistake.

Bob Blumenfeld

Corrected entry: Harry, Ron, and Hermione go into the forbidden hall after the staircase moves, believing there is no other way out, when in fact there is a second staircase right in next to the door.

Correction: Harry, Ron, and Hermione take several steps into the chamber before they realise they're in the forbidden chamber. As they turn to leave, Filch's cat enters, blocking their way back to the stairs. Fearing that Filch is soon to follow, the kids run and hide.

Corrected entry: In the overhead shot of Olivander's wand shop, you can see three wands on his desk that are in a fanned out position. Then when Olivander is handing wands out to Harry, the wands are straightened out. (00:24:06)

Correction: Mr. Ollivander puts the box from the first wand on top of the three wands. This would make the wands roll and change positions.

Corrected entry: At one stage in the sea hut scene, Harry is standing beside the BARE wall of the fireplace. The camera then goes to Hagrid, who turns and pulls the broken door down saying "Unless you'd rather stay, of course?". The camera then goes back to Harry, who is stil by the wall that now shows his coat is hanging right there beside him, which Harry then grabs on his way out. (00:17:21)

Correction: Actually Harry's coat is hanging on the wall the whole time, you just really have to look close. The coat is hanging a little lower than Harry, but there are angles where you can see it there before he picks up the coat.

Corrected entry: When the centaur speaks to Harry in the Forbidden Forest the close up shot shows tape around the bridge of Harry's glasses. In the next shot the glasses are once again repaired.

Correction: On a High Definition television, you can see that there is no tape on Harry's glasses-it is just the way the lighting is reflecting off of the bridge of his glasses.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Ron, Harry, and Hermione play chess, Ron, the knight, is directly next to the Queen. In chess, the knight is placed next to the castle and the bishop goes next to the queen.

Correction: Ron, the knight, is not directly next to the Queen. Harry is the bishop and he is next to the Queen. Ron is next to Harry.

Corrected entry: In the scene when Harry is sitting in the dark looking at the mirror, just before the old man comes from behind to talk to him, you can easily see the shadow of a camera man and camera on the wall.

Correction: After seeing this mistake on the site, I started watching that scene very carefully. The only shadow I can see in that scene is Dumbledore's shadow as he approaches Harry.

Corrected entry: When Harry is looking at Mr. Olivander's Wand Shop from the outside the windows are VERY rounded, yet when Harry is inside the shop they are either totally flat or at most a little bit rounded - definitely not as much as the outside.

Correction: The view of the outside of the wand shop shows a different part of the store. Where the doors are, the windows are flat. That is what we see in the view from the inside.

Corrected entry: Supposing Hermione followed Harry's advice and somehow went back through the puzzles and took the one single broom to get out of the dungeon (leaving Harry alone with no method of escape), how could she do that with the burden of taking the unconscious Ron with her?

Correction: Supposedly, as it says in the book, Hermione didn't even leave with Ron to find Dumbledore. Dumbledore had already come back, and he had gotten through Fluffy and was on the way in as Hermione was preparing to leave and go warn him.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Harry is looking at the book titles in the Restricted Section, he quickly pulls off his invisibility cloak. When he does, you'll notice that through the invisibility cloak you can see the book shelf and everything, except for the lantern Harry is holding. The lantern just disappears while he pulling the cloak off.

Correction: The books can be seen because they are outside the cloak. The lamp is invisible for a second because it is inside/along the lined part of the cloak.

Sereenie

Corrected entry: When Harry is 'talking' to the snake at the zoo, he is speaking in English, so viewers can understand it. We know that Harry is a Parselmouth (he can talk to snakes). However, in the 2nd film - Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets - when Harry is confronted with snakes he speaks in Parselmouth - the language we can't understand. Why is it that he is speaking to the snake in English, and not hissing sounds?

Correction: It depends on who's point of view is shown. Harry doesn't know he's using Parseltongue, so we hear him in English, just as he hears the snake. On the other hand, when the other students hear Harry do so, they hear Parseltongue.

Sereenie

Corrected entry: A plot hole about Quirrell getting through the puzzles with no lingering effects was corrected by saying that they probably reset themselves afterwards, which makes sense. However, this itself creates a mistake - if the challenges to get to the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone reset themselves after each person, how is it that the winged key is injured?

Correction: The reason that the key for the door is still injured is its supposed to be like that so you can find it in the room.

Corrected entry: When the troll is discovered during the Halloween banquet, Percy supposedly leads all of the Gryffindors back to the common room. The amount of Gryffindors that follow him aren't nearly as many as those seen at the Gryffindor table during meals.

Correction: Percy is only taking the first years to the common room, the others know how to get there.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone mistake picture

Continuity mistake: At the snake exhibit, while Harry speaks with the Python the snake's body lies curled over a long wood log and a large rock. In the shot from outside the Python's exhibit, after the glass pane disappears Dudley falls over the rail and the snake is gone, not positioned differently or blocked from view, but altogether gone. In the next overhead shot inside the Python's exhibit, while Dudley falls the snake is back lying on the log and rock, in the very same position as in the previous shots. (00:07:10)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hermione Granger: I'm going to bed, before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled.
Ronald Weasley: [to Harry.] She needs to sort out her priorities.

More quotes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Trivia: The Hogwarts motto, 'Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titilandus', is Latin, and means 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon.'

More trivia for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Question: I get that the DADA role is cursed because of Voldemort being denied the role when he applied for it at Hogwarts, but why does Dumbledore not let Snape take the role like he's wanted to every year? I thought Snape was a double agent (he spies on the Death Eaters and Voldemort for Dumbledore, and he pretends to be on Voldemort's side too), so unless Voldemort decides that he wants to get rid of him for being in the role, he's okay to take it on provided he's given it, and yet every year, Dumbledore turns down his application. Is it because Snape's too involved in Voldemort's side of things or some other reason? I hope I explained it well.

Heather Benton

Chosen answer: There are several reasons. First, the position is cursed, so there is little reason to give Snape the job when he will not last any longer than all the previous instructors. If Snape did become the DADA instructor, something could happen to him that could result in his being harmed, having to leave Hogwarts, or be otherwise incapacitated in some way; that would render him useless to Dumbledore as a double agent. Also, Dumbledore trusts Snape, but putting him in an environment where he is teaching about dark magic on a daily basis would be too tempting and emotionally compromising to someone who had been so easily seduced by the dark side. He could possibly relapse. It would be like having a recovering alcoholic work as a bartender. Of course, he does eventually become the DADA instructor, and lasted no longer than his predecessors.

raywest

In the movies it is never mentioned that DADA role was cursed by Voldemort.

This is true; though it doesn't say it's not either. With trying to fit 7 long books and years worth of pages of HP information in 2 and a half hours; as long as the movie doesn't say it's not cursed, with our knowledge, there is no problem with reporting that it is. Even directors of non-book movies do this all the time; leave background information out that helps explain things they just didn't have time so they explained it behind the scenes.

More questions & answers from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

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