"You're a wizard, Harry."

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (PG) 

Reviewed November 25, 2001 - Check out the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Website.

Studio Synopsis: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is an adaptation of the first of J.K. Rowling's popular children's novels about Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), a boy who learns on his eleventh birthday that he is the orphaned son of two powerful wizards and possesses unique magical powers of his own. He is summoned from his life as an unwanted child to become a student at Hogwarts, an English boarding school for wizards. There, he meets several friends who become his closest allies and help him discover the truth about his parents' mysterious deaths at the hands of a powerful adversary.

Fuzzydog Review: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of novels has been a staple on bestseller's lists for many years now, and after much anticipation and over $100 million in production costs, we finally get a film version of the first installment of this series: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. As a fan of the Harry Potter novels, I initially thought this movie might be difficult to review objectively, but after seeing the film I found no such difficulty. Directed by Chris Columbus, this adaptation is true to both the spirit and the details of the original novel, and was, at least for me, an absolute pleasure to watch. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson and Harry, Ron and Hermione. Robbie Coltraine as Hagrid. Richard Harris as Dumbledore. And Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman as Professors McGonagall and Snape.

Those who have read the books will have a great time seeing these beloved characters come to life on the big screen, and those who haven't read the books will have the even greater pleasure of meeting them for the first time. Yes, at 2 hours and 22 minutes runtime, Sorcerer's Stone is a bit of a time investment, but for all the creativity, imagination, and visual spectacle to be found in this film, it's definitely an investment worth making. Now the only question is: when does the next one come out???