dumbledore Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Yes, yes, I'm still in Austin. I'm like that annoying loser who refuses to leave the party even though your girlfriend is clearly vacuuming and it's slowly getting sunny outside. (I actually stayed a few days longer so I could visit with some good friends, if you must know!) Anyway, it just dawned on me that even though we've brought you tons of SXSW coverage, you're still missing out on one very important component: The intro shorts! Every festival has 'em. They're brief mini-flicks that introduce the festival, credit the sponsors, and basically set the tone for the screening. (Sometimes.)

SXSW has always had some good "intro shorts" (my favorite is an old, strange one with Jeff Goldblum), but this year they were particularly amusing. They were put together by Mike Mitchell, Kent Osborne, Dan Brown, and Charlie Sotelo (among others) -- and through the magical power of "embedding," you can enjoy them without visiting some grungy other website. We'll start with my favorite:


Obviously this is a spoof of good ol' Glengarry Glen Ross, but by the time the film festival was winding down, me and my movie-geek posse were quoting this short non-stop and chuckling like morons. ("Brass balls!" Ha!) Check out the rest of the promos right after the jump!

Well you didn't expect that much time to pass before folks started having a bit of fun with this whole Dumbledore is gay thing. As you may recall, late last week J.K. Rowling outed the character during a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sparking much debate on this blog and across these great internets. So, you might be wondering, what's left to discuss? How about a list of some other memorable childhood characters who, quite possibly, wouldn't surprise us in their coming out of the closet. Yes, both Vulture and Radar went there, providing readers with two different lists full of fictional characters who could -- dun dun dun -- be ... gay!

Over on Vulture, they target such beloved characters as Fozzie Bear from The Muppet Show, Schroeder from Peanuts, The Flash (is it because he's flaming?), Spock from Star Trek, and -- here's the shocker -- Lando Calrissian from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. (I think the cape is what does him in, but that's me.) Radar, on the other hand, has Willy Wonka (a fine choice, if I may say so myself) on their list, as well as Happy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Samwise Gangee from Lord of the Rings (Sam's not gay, he's just ... emotional), The Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Mr. Tumnus from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Check out both lists and let us know what you think -- is this taking it a bit too far? Or, are there characters they're missing?

While we've entered the afternoon here on the East Coast, it's still fairly early on the West Coast, and so at least it's morning somewhere in the country. I'm sure most of you are well aware by now that J.K. Rowling officially "outed" the character of Dumbledore during a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Friday evening at Carnegie Hall. When a fan asked whether Dumbledore finds "true love," Rowling responded: "Dumbledore is gay." Furthermore, she revealed that Dumbledore (who is headmaster of Hogwarts) was at one point in love with his rival, Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards.

Reaction to this news so far has been mixed. Some fans couldn't care less when it came to Dumbledore's sexual preference, as the news doesn't change anything in the books. Others, like some of our commenters, would've liked Rowling to keep this information to herself. One reader, Jessica, had this to say: "Bringing his character from a great role model to a power hungry maniac, but now she says he was gay and in love with his rival?? Why make the series into a soap opera? If I had known before, I never would have read them and allowed my daughter to read them as well." Another reader, Dan, chimed in with this: "I think it was totally unnecessary to make this an issue one way or another in the Harry Potter series. I mean, come on, imagine if Disney said Cinderalla was really bi-sexual and secretly in love with Anastasia. Nothing seems to be off bounds today. How sad."

So, what do you think: Should Rowling have outed the character publicly like that? Should she have kept it to herself and, instead, let the fans draw their own conclusions? And, in your opinion, does this help or hurt the series as a whole?

At a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Friday night at Carnegie Hall, author J.K. Rowling revealed what many fans have suspected all along: Albus Dumbledore is gay. The outing of Dumbledore came during a question and answer period following the reading, when a young fan asked if Dumbledore ever found true love. "Dumbledore is gay," Rowling responded. Gasps, prolonged applause. So now it's official, Potter fans, Dumbledore is out of the closet.

Rowling, who has since the publication of the final book in her enormously popular series, revealed to fans bits and pieces of the back stories that aren't in any of the books, further elaborated that Dumbledore was smitten by his former friend and later rival Grindelwald, who figures heavily into the last book, and that his love for Grindelwald blinded him for a while to the Grindelwald's true nature. Rowling called Dumbledore's love for Grindelwald, "his great tragedy" before noting with a laugh, "Oh, my god, the fan fiction!"

Rowling revealed that while working on the planned sixth Harry Potter film, she noticed a reference in the script to a girl Dumbledore once loved, and passed a note to the director, David Yates, revealing to him the truth about Dumbledore's sexuality. Fans have long suspected Dumbledore was gay -- he's had no significant relationship with a woman, and his past has always been clouded in mystery.

Rowling noted that some Christian groups already don't like the Harry Potter series because the books allegedly promote witchcraft. Dumbledore being gay, as she noted will give them one more thing to not like about it. Not that Rowling -- or most Harry Potter fans -- seems to care.

2008 should be a very big year for Jim Broadbent. In May, we'll see the Oscar-winning actor appear alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (as Indy's academic colleague). Then, later in the year, we'll see him in another giant franchise. According to Dark Horizons, Broadbent has definitely been cast in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as the new (formerly retired) potions teacher Horace Slughorn (hmm, from crystal skulls to crystallized pineapple -- next up: a Crystal Gayle biopic?). As one of today's finest English actors, it's hard to believe he hasn't already appeared in the series, which is known for its casting of the best of the Brits. I guess it just took the perfect role to come around for him to finally be considered. Sure, Jette had suggested Simon Callow for the role, but I think Broadbent will do a much finer job. Plus, we already know from Topsy-Turvy and Moulin Rouge! that he looks great with a big mustache.

I must remind that Half-Blood Prince is the first Potter book that I didn't read, and so I'm not too familiar with Slughorn, aside from what I've read and seen. The character returns to his position at Hogwarts, at the suggestion of Dumbledore, after many years of retirement, because he's to be a valuable asset in the battle against the Death Eaters. With Snape now moved to the job of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, Slughorn takes over the potions class he had taught for near-half a century. He also re-starts the Slug Club, an exclusive extra-curricular society made up of celebrated or favored Hogwarts students, including Harry, of course. Compared to J.K. Rowling's description of Slughorn, as well as Mary GrandPré's illustration of him, Broadbent may be too tall and not quite fat enough. But rest assured the actor will be perfect in his "tweedy" costumes and aged makeup. And hopefully the fans think so, since Broadbent will likely be required to return in the role for Deathly Hallows.

On the way home from the midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, my 10-year-old daughter/resident Harry Potter fanatic and I had a lively discussion about the books versus the films, which of the five Harry Potter films she likes the best, and which stay truest to the books from which they are adapted. Interestingly, her least favorite film of the series to date is my favorite -- the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I actually prefer Alfonso Cuarón's directing for Prisoner of Azkaban, and would love to see him back at the helm for the seventh film, but I like better the storyline of Goblet of Fire).

Although I agree with other Harry Potter fans who've said the fourth book was overlong and could have perhaps been shorter without losing much, I felt that the fourth film did an excellent job of trimming away a lot of the fat, while focusing on those key points that drove the plot forward along the arc of the overall series.