echo by Merissa Tan
The Boy who Lived
Let’s play Guess the Famous Book/Movie Franchise! The stories in this universe revolve around a young boy who was abandoned by his parents, and due to the huge emotional distress, developed a mental illness with symptoms such as hallucinations. The boy was then sent to a mental institution, where he spends his days and nights, imagining that he has magical powers and is someone important. As a defence mechanism, he pretended that his parents were murdered, to escape the fact that they gave him up.
Sounds familiar yet? I bet you couldn’t get that, could you? Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was a bad (horrible!) recap of the world-renowned and well-loved series, Harry Potter! Of course, I was just kidding, but it kinda makes sense when you think about it, doesn’t it? For all we know, Harry could just be a normal, human boy living out an imaginary life as he tries to escape the harsh, horrible reality. Won’t we all just like to run away from real life and imagine we live in a fantasy sometimes?
Back to the topic at hand, thanks to the brilliance of J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter is now a multi-million franchise with 7 books, 8 movies and multiple appearances in themed parks. Not just a boy who lived, Harry Potter had become the role model of courage, selflessness and righteousness for children, teenagers and even adults worldwide. The magical stories spread throughout the globe, across barriers of language and culture, and achieved unprecedented success.
Now, the reason I picked this franchise to talk about (apart from being A MASSIVE FAN of it), is that the magical universe of Harry Potter is making a comeback!! YES, I am talking about the film all Potterheads have been waiting for: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM is coming to cinemas this November in the USA! Starring the amazing Academy Award winning actor Eddie Redmayne, the movie follows magizoologist (keeper of magical creatures) Newt Scamander as he tracks down an array of magical beings that went loose in New York. Directed by none other than David Yates (who also directed the last four Harry Potter films) and screenplay written by J.K. Rowling herself, the film will definitely bring back loads of wonderful memories for all the Harry Potter fans out there as the rest of the magical world is explored.
So grab your wands and your cloaks, for we shall return to the magical kingdom that we grew up in! After all this time? Always.
