Since the first time I watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001, I’ve been hook into this magical world or wizardry and witchcraft. I am not a bookworm and had not read any of J.K. Rowlings’ books but I did watch all the eight movies. On the other hand, Mr C had read the books and knew the story in much better detail than me.
Mr C and I have been wanting to go to The Making of Harry Potter at the Warner Bros Studio Tour in London since it opened in 2012. We had heard from friends who been there that this tour is ideal for older children who were familiar with the films, so we waited for the right time to bring both of our children along. Anyway, we were so lucky that my friend bought us a family ticket! I would suggest that this is suitable for children aged 5 onwards, particularly if they enjoy the films. Both of my children had watched the first four Harry Potter movies. So they both have some good knowledge of the scenes, props and characters etc. We haven’t allowed them to watch the rest of the movies as it get darker and scarier.
It would be a wasted opportunity if we were not doing crazy things at the Harry Potter studios! So I decided to get ourselves into characters! A few days before, I had a quick brainstorm with friends and I decided to get or make one item from the seven titles of the books.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Can you spot Mr K holding the Philosopher’s Stone in the mirror? I had tried my best to get a good shot but as you can see the place is very crowded!
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Ms C pretending to be Ginny holding Tom Marvolo Riddle’s diary that I made with felt and using a Baker Ross Deco pen to decorate the felt.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
That’s me pretending to be Sirius and holding my made up mugshot! I didn’t manage to find any Prison related props so this was taken on the last stop of the tour! This is a massive model of Hogwarts and it’s grounds.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
I tried to find a cup that looked like the Goblet and managed to find a plastic champagne glass to pretend to be the Goblet!
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I didn’t manage to make or buy a Phoenix, so I made a Lego bird instead! So that is Mr K letting the bird sit on his shoulder next to the Pensieve. I had tried to take it next to Dumbledore but it was hard when there were so many people crowded in front of his office.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In this episode, it is about Harry finding out who is the Half-Blood Prince after finding the potion book. I had managed to print out the cover of the potion book via a google image.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
For this book, I found it hard to find a suitable object and so I had made Xenophilius Lovegood’s necklace using a pipe cleaner and tin foil. The necklace simply bears the symbol of the Deathly Hallows to show that the person believed in them and was used as a symbol to recognise other seekers.
We totally loved this experience and so did the children. They all had a lot of fun pretending to be Harry and Hermione. We of course loved the whole experience! We also experienced flying in the magic car and also took a virtual flight on the broomstick. We bought four of the photos for £24 as a souvenir of the experience.
The whole tour takes about 3 hours. We managed to spend four hours in there as we had a stop for food. The whole tour is a one way system. After you see the first part of the prop department, the next stop is the outdoor food area. Here you can see number four Privet Drive, the Riddle family grave and the triple-decker purple Knight Bus. It is also one of two places in the world where you can buy Butterbeer. We didn’t try it though, but we thought the hot dogs were very tasty. After our pit stop, we continued on the tour in the creature effects department.
I would definitely recommend going with fans of the books and films. I made a video clip of the studios. Hope you enjoy watching it!