20 Easter Eggs In Harry Potter Films You Didn’t Notice
11. The Tale Of The Three Brothers
Warner Bros.Film: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1
The animated sequence in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is widely regarded as one of the most visually arresting sequences in the entire film series, temporarily discarding live action in favour of animation inspired by the style of Austrian-born animator Lotte Reiniger who plied her craft in the mid-20th century. This three minute sequence used an austere silhouette style to bring The Tale of The Three Brothers from the The Tales of Beedle the Bard to life. It seems somehow fitting that this tale of life and death should use just tones of black and white to animate it.
Surprisingly the films creators were interested in employing a fully-animated sequence not just to reflect the fact that the fairy tale was traditionally told to wizard children. Nearing the end of the long-running series they wanted to reference the fact that originally Warner Bros. had intended to make every film with CGI animation. The studios reasoning was that they believed the rapid ageing of child actors combined with the meandering nature of producing films could spell disaster for the series. Thankfully J.K Rowling vetoed the idea and the studio opted to produce the films back-to-back.
The animated Easter egg in the penultimate film reflects the direction Warner Bros. initially intended to take the series in.