Harry Potter is one of the most wildly successful franchises in existence. The story of the boy who lived captivated millions, first as a book series and then later over the course of eight films. While most fans appreciate the books and the movies for their respective merits, there are plenty of book fans who think the movies did a fairly poor job of representing the intricacy and beauty of Rowling’s world. The movies had to make some changes -- some out of necessity, and others for reasons that are still fairly mystifying.
Whatever the case may be, there are plenty of book fans that are aghast at movie fans who seem almost entirely uninterested in reading the source material that made those movies what they are. As a result of this astonishment, a variety of memes have popped up that point out the various differences between the books and the movies. For the most part, these memes are pretty disparaging of the movies, although it’s worth pointing out that the movies have their own admirers, and it’s not as if any of them is a total disaster. Many book fans would just rather be reading instead.
Here are 15 Hilarious Harry Potter Book Vs. Movie Fans Memes.
15. Movie Fans Who Think The Books Are Worse
This meme depicts a very real situation that is nevertheless quite confusing. Because the girl in this meme didn’t like the Goblet of Fire movie, she’s uninterested in the book, even though the book is the source material, instead of the other way around. What’s more, she’s uninterested in Goblet of Fire, which is widely regarded as one of the best books in the series and is the book where the most changes were made in the adaptation to the screen.
In the movie, many of the most carefully laid out details that would ultimately explain Voldemort’s elaborate plan to return to his former state were missing.
Understandably, the movie version could never capture all of that intricacy, but it’s undoubtedly what makes the book such a deeply compelling read.
14. Mental People Who Would Rather Watch The Movie
There are reasons to want to watch a movie, and others to read a book. Both are valid ways to spend your time, but book fans have some pretty clear opinions about which option is better when it comes to Harry Potter. Of course, the books offer a much fuller picture of the world, and for many fans who loved the books first, the movies are thought of as something of an afterthought.
Of course, the paradox of this particular meme is that it uses a movie still to assert the supremacy of the books.
Ron’s comment is a great line, undoubtedly, but it’s only given an image because he was adapted into a film. Still, book readers are perfectly justified in thinking that those who’d rather watch the movie are mental.
13. Movie Fans Don't Know Calm Dumbledore
Dumbledore was one of the most vividly drawn characters in JK Rowling’s world. He was benevolent, wise and always seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Because he was so vivid in Rowling’s writing, many fans were a little disturbed by the Dumbledore who occasionally showed up on screen.
One scene is especially noteworthy in this regard, and it comes in Goblet of Fire when the movie version of Dumbledore is rather forceful in interrogating Harry about whether he put his name in the Goblet of Fire.
In the books, it’s explicitly stated that Dumbledore asked this question calmly.
In the films, things get a little more intense, and it’s not totally clear why that is, but it’s been bothering fans of the books ever since.
12. Daniel Radcliffe Is A Lot Like Book Harry
This meme plays on the fact that Daniel Radcliffe may actually have had more in common with Harry than the version of the character that he plays on screen. While that may not be quite accurate -- this meme does show us the sarcastic, funny side of Harry that we probably don’t get enough of in the world of the films.
It’s understandable, given everything else that’s happening in Harry's life, but Radcliffe’s Harry was always a bit more solemn than his book counterpart. This behind-the-scenes moment from Goblet of Fire is funny, but it’s also a reminder that the books were able to contain a multitude of tones and ideas, in part because they were not as restricted in length as films often are.
11. A Very Angry Lupin
This meme is pretty straightforward, but it takes full advantage of a pretty amusing image of Remus Lupin yelling at Harry, telling him to never say what he has just said again. The meme suggests that there are some people out there who believe that the Harry Potter movies are better than the books because they contain fewer “boring details,” although it’s hard to believe those people actually exist.
If they do, the ardent fans of the book are likely to remind them that the details are part of what makes the world of Harry Potter so interesting. While the movies do a fairly good job of representing the core of the story, there are plenty of book fans who felt that important details were missing.
10. Making Good Decisions
Most of the memes on this list were made especially for the purposes of Harry Potter, but this is a great example of a more widely used meme that’s been given a Harry Potter spin. Here, we see the illogic that some book fans feel is at the core of the reasoning behind the movie fans’ decision to leave the books untouched.
Even though these movie fans have heard that the books are even better than the movies, they decide that they’re happy enough with a slightly less engaging experience. To book readers, this logic may not make any sense. After all, why would you be satisfied with the worse option? Still, for many movie fans, the eight films in the series prove to be more than enough.
9. A Great Deleted Scene
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is one of the shorter films in the movie series, which helps with the pacing, but it means that we miss out on some truly iconic moments from the books. One of those is memorialized above when McGonagall offers Harry a metaphorical bone after he’s had a fight with Umbridge.
One of the great aspects of the books that gets a little lost in translation to the films is how much everyone at Hogwarts, including the professors, hated Umbridge.
This moment is a prime example of that, and it’s also a scene where we get a sense of McGonagall’s wickedly funny personality. She never says exactly what she’s thinking, but McGonagall always lets you know somehow, and this scene is a great example that was lost to fans who only watched the movies.
8. The Movies Leave Things Out
This meme isn’t exactly funny. In fact, its meaning is slightly tragic, at least for fans of novels who have to watch those novels change as they are adapted for the screen.
Of course, part of adapting a novel is making it work as a film, but for many book fans, adaptation can feel like pulling teeth.
These fans see every part of a novel as absolutely essential, if not for establishing the plot, then at least for filling in the details and intricacies of the world. In the movie, what we often get is the bare essentials -- the pieces of the story that are absolutely necessary to make it work on screen. The rest, in spite of how vividly it might be drawn, is eliminated to the chagrin of many book lovers.
7. Changes In Characters
As far as casting is concerned, the people behind the Harry Potter films did a pretty incredible job. Each of the actors resembles their book counterpart pretty closely, but there’s no way to channel the descriptions in the book perfectly.
In this meme, we get a look at the differences between the book versions of these characters and their filmed counterparts.
For Harry, that means tamer hair and a slightly larger figure. For Ron, it means the elimination of the signature Weasley freckles. For Hermione, it means she turns into Emma Watson, and for Snape, nothing changes. He’s Alan Rickman in the books, and he’s Alan Rickman in the movies. That casting was spot on, and book fans knew it from the moment he appeared on screen in the first film.
6. What It Means To Be A True Fan
The Harry Potter movies are great. They admirably get at the heart of the story contained in the books and manage to create pretty vivid depictions of all of the story’s most central characters. For many book fans, though, you aren’t a true Harry Potter fan until you’ve read Rowling’s books.
That’s understandable, especially considering how much work Rowling put into making her world as vivid and understandable as possible. Rowling’s characters are so vivid that it often doesn’t matter whether anything of importance is happening. You’re happy just to hang out in this world with these characters.
The books were the original text, and for many, they’re the only real way to fully understand the world of Harry Potter. Everything else is just a pale imitation.
5. Book Fans Don't Know Peeves
Because the movies were so wildly popular, many people claim to be Harry Potter fans even though they’ve only seen the films. While it’s certainly their right to call themselves whatever they want, this label has led some book fans to interrogate whether these movie lovers are truly invested in the world of Harry Potter. The easiest way to do that? Ask them a question or two about Peeves the Poltergeist, a mischievous ghost who haunts Hogwarts in the books but never appears in the films.
Although there are plenty of changes in the adaptation to the screen, Peeves was among the most glaring for fans of the book, and he serves as a great litmus test for determining exactly how in the know Harry Potter fans really are.
4. Dumbledore Is Way Too Much
This is the only change on this list that gets two separate entries, and that’s because it’s so hugely important to many book fans. In this one, we actually see the word “calmly” circled in the book, evidence that when Dumbledore asked Harry if he’d put his name in the Goblet of Fire in the books, he did so without any rage at all.
When Michael Gambon took over the role, he brought more of an edge to Dumbledore, and many felt that it was too much for the character.
This scene became the crux of their argument and led to many fans feeling betrayed by the casting of Gambon, who played the character with much more verve and edge that Richard Harris had in the first two movies in the series.
3. Book Ron Vs. Movie Ron
Ron Weasley never gets enough credit. That’s true in both the books and the movies, but he’s much more deserving of some recognition in the books. In the books, Ron is a loyal, smart friend to Harry who supports him whenever he finds himself in trouble.
In the movies, he’s a little bit more of a caricature, and he’s often there to get easy laughs out of the audience.
Although he’s played admirably by Rupert Grint throughout the series, Ron is given a fairly perfunctory role and is rarely seen to be as noble as he is in the books. He certainly has his moments, but many book fans saw the movie version of Ron as reductive, a suggestion that the character was mostly there to serve as comic relief.
2. All The Things You Missed In The Movies
For many Harry Potter fans, the movies were more than enough for them to get a sense of the world, and the story being told. There are many fans out there who make a great argument for why reading the books is so hugely important. As this meme points out, if you only watched the movies, you missed out on a number of moving stories that only enrich the books and the larger world of Harry Potter.
You wouldn’t know the story of Percy, who betrays his family only to return and be forgiven, or that Dudley’s last words to Harry were a faintly hopeful sign that he wasn’t the monster Harry always thought he was. These details complicate the story and make it richer, and they’re ones that movie fans never got.
1. Harry's Eyes
Harry had his mother’s eyes. That was one of the most well-known facts in the entire series. Unfortunately, there was a mistake in casting, and although they kept the idea that Harry had his mother’s eyes in the films, it made significantly less sense. Anybody who looks at Daniel Radclife’s eyes, and compares them with the eyes of Geraldine Somerville, the actress who played Lily, would see that they have different eye colors.
This meme plays with that fact, pointing out that Harry doesn’t actually have his mother’s eyes in the movies. Of course, it’s understandable that they kept that line in, given how important it is to Snape’s ultimate redemption. Even so, it felt like a bit of a stretch to suggest that they had the same eyes, and it made Snape’s whole story feel a bit more hollow.
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Do you have any Harry Potter books vs movies memes to share? Leave them in the comments.