20 Biggest Things The Harry Potter Movies Left Out
18. The Gaunts
In The Book
In The Half-Blood Prince we get a huge slice of Tom Riddle's back-story, showing how he became Voldemort.
As part of that, the book tells the story House of Gaunt - dominating patriarch Marvolo (whose ring became a horcrux) and his two children, repressed Merope (Voldemort's mother who becomes obsessed with a muggle Tom Riddle) and son Morfin, who Voldemort later framed for the deaths of the Riddle family.
And of course, it provides an essential piece of the puzzle - that Voldemort cannot feel love because he was conceived while his father was victim of a love potion.
In The Film
The Riddle backstory is relegated to just two scenes, with Tom already clearly evil when we meet him and the other with him seeking the definition and secret of Horcruxes.
Was It A Positive Cut?
The backstory was hugely interesting, and added depth to Voldemort's story: it should have been handled the same way the Tale Of The Three Brothers was, animated or presented in a different style for effect. Robbing Riddle of his meaning and just having him be a twisted orphan was a massive misstep.