ALL CREATURES GREAT AND NOT-SO-SMALL

When classes reconvene, Umbridge is more determined than ever to track down the rebellious students and put an end to their subversive activities. Long-suffering caretaker Argus Filch isn’t having any luck, so she enlists the students of Slytherin House, led by Harry’s nemesis Draco Malfoy, to spy for her. Tom Felton returns in the role of the young Malfoy, who is all-too-eager to earn extra credit as one of Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad, with the added bonus of one-upping Harry Potter. Meanwhile, as Umbridge’s rise to power goes unchecked, she makes no secret of those she feels have no place at Hogwarts.

Knowing it is only a matter of time before he, too, is banished from Hogwarts, gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid asks Harry, Ron and Hermione for a special favor. In his absence, he will need them to look after his half-brother, Grawp, who just happens to be a 16-foot-tall giant.

Bringing Grawp to the screen involved a combination of design, motion capture, visual effects and the talents of an actor named Tony Maudsley. Heyman says, “We decided that Grawp should be a true innocent with a very short attention span. We brought in Tony Maudsley, and he and David Yates spent a lot of time developing the performance that would become Grawp through motion capture.”

Yates asserts, “Tony Maudsley really became the part and imbued every movement with reason and rationale so, although the final character is more of a visual effect, Tony gave him a heart and soul.”

Grawp’s heart can be seen when he is instantly taken with Hermione, who can’t help but be flattered. “For Hermione, there is something sweet about Grawp,” notes Emma Watson. “He is quite endearing in the way he has a soft spot for Hermione, and she seems to be the only one who has any control over him, which is pretty funny. know he is mostly made of special effects, but they somehow managed to make him feel so real. He had such puppy dog eyes; I couldn’t help but fall in love with him.”

Creature & Make-Up Effects Designer Nick Dudman reveals that they did build a full-size head for Grawp to “act” opposite the actors on the set, as well as to provide a 3D model for the visual effects team to scan into the computer. “We needed to establish the hair, the eyes, the teeth, all of which were controlled by us.”

“The scenes with Grawp were amazing,” Rupert Grint states. “They had this massive head and shoulders on the set and you could almost forget he wasn’t all there. They were some of my favorite scenes to do because when Grawp takes a fancy to Hermione and picks her up, Ron gets jealous and tries to come to her rescue. He tries to play the hero and beat up a giant and you can guess how that turned out,” he grins. “It was fun because I got to do a little stunt work when he sent me flying.”

Hagrid hides Grawp deep in the Forbidden Forest, where the Centaurs also make their home. The visual effects team, headed by Visual Effects Supervisor Tim Burke, collaborated with Dudman and the design team on the creation of these noble creatures, who were first introduced in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Burke offers, “We had Centaurs in the first film, but I think audiences will see that they have come a long way since then. They aren’t a half-man/half-horse combination. They are beings unto themselves.”

“The Centaurs are creatures of the forest, who are powerful and proud and very protective of their land. They also represent everything that Professor Umbridge loathes because she only sees them as half-breeds,” Heyman says.

A new addition to the world of Harry Potter, the skeletal winged creatures called Thestrals also bear some equine traits, but they are decidedly not horses. Looking like a curious combination of horse and dragon, the Thestrals can only be seen by those who have witnessed death firsthand. Having witnessed Cedric’s death, Harry sees for the first time that it is the Thestrals who are pulling the carriages that take them to Hogwarts. Luna Lovegood, who as a child saw her mother die, can also see them and considers the gentle creatures to be her friends.

Although the Thestrals would primarily be brought to life through visual effects, Dudman and his team built a full-size maquette of the creature so the filmmakers could visualize them in relationship to their surroundings. “It’s easy to say a Thestral has a 30foot wingspan,” he explains, “but what does that mean? How will it fit in the set and how will it relate to the actors? Also, because the Thestrals are black and seen at night, a lot of discussion went into what their texture was and to determine exactly the right black- on-black color scheme.”

Despite being invisible to all but Harry and Luna, the Thestrals prove to be invaluable in carrying Dumbledore’s Army into their first battle—one that will try their courage and test every spell in their newly acquired arsenal.

NEXT: BATTLE LINES
Despite his newfound confidence as a leader and his open defiance of Umbridge as a teacher, Harry is still plagued by nightmares. Even more terrifying, his nightmares now seem to be foretelling actual events.