November 6, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba’an 19, 1422

LONDON: Witches, wizards, white owls, dwarfs, trolls and other magical creatures were joined by a mob of Muggles on Sunday night in the heart of London as children of all ages gathered for the world premiere of the movie version of the first book in the blockbuster Harry Potter series.

More than 10,000 fans turned out, police said, to cheer, touch and beg for autographs from the stars of the new Warner Bros. film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” The opening on Leicester Square drew the usual movie-premiere crowd of pop stars and princesses; what was unusual was that the biggest cheers were saved for an author: the unassuming single mother who created the Potter phenomenon, J.K. Rowling.

The new film about the most famous student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will open in US theatres on November 16. Advance ticket sales guarantee it will be the hottest movie of the holiday season, Warner Bros. says. In the United States the film, like the book it’s based on, is called “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” because Rowling’s American publisher thought the word “philosopher” in the title might turn away young readers.

In fact, nothing can turn young people away from Harry Potter and his adventures. The first four volumes in Rowling’s promised seven-book series have become the greatest success in publishing history. In four years they have sold more than 110 million copies in roughly 45 languages. The books became extremely popular in America; the New York Times started a separate bestseller ranking just for children’s books after Harry Potter spent weeks atop its fiction bestseller list.

Choosing not to gamble with success, filmmaker Chris Columbus — director of the “Home Alone” movies and “Mrs Doubtfire” — has adhered to the original text.

The movie has a strong feeling of magic right from the opening moments, when Rubeus Hagrid’s flying motorcycle roars through a foggy English sky carrying the infant wizard Harry Potter.

The film faithfully captures the surprise and spectacle of other key elements in the now-familiar text, including the massive mail drop by hordes of owls, the Hogwarts Express train at platform 93/4 of Kings Cross Station, the 2,400-year-old shop selling magic wands on Diagon Alley, the three-headed dog named Fluffy, the astounding Hogwarts sport of Quidditch and the life-size chess set where the knights brutally slay the bishops.

As is almost obligatory for hit movies, “Harry Potter” has a soundtrack by John Williams (“Star Wars,” “E.T.,” etc.), a brassy score that the director plays ever louder to ratchet up the tension. —Dawn/The Washington Post News Service.