Wingardium Leviosa! Harry Potter Audiobook With Full Cast: Our Verdict

00:05 - Speaker 1 Hello and welcome to Mythmakers. Mythmakers is the podcast for fantasy fans and fantasy creatives brought to you by the Oxford Centre for Fantasy. My name is Julia Golding. I'm primarily an author, but I'm a lover of all things fantasy. So I thought I would jump in and do a quick review of the new Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone audiobook that was published at the beginning of November 2025. 00:38 Now this is a collaboration between JK Rowling's production publishing company called Pottermore and Audible, and they are bringing out the books, I think, at roughly monthly intervals, and these are sort of produced like a radio play that's the way to think of it, but it is the full text, so it's not a dramatization in that sense. So what do I think about it? Let's just go through, first of all, what you get in this audio production and what it made me think about the story, which I hadn't read for many years, and an overall conclusion out of five, five stars or whatever. So first of all, the big question is, obviously I'm an adult listening to this. So I think that take that analytical part into account, because I think a child coming to this would obviously not be doing all this comparative stuff I'm doing and will probably just enjoy it straight out, no questions. But first of all I came to it thinking is this distracting? My own family, after we'd read the books to them. They grew up on listening to Stephen Fry read the story and there seemed to be years where there was always in some bedroom someone listening to the story or already had gone to sleep. So I was already very familiar with that version of it. 02:10 So the question I had in my mind is is it distracting to have all the sound effects and the foley artists and what have you in this production? Does it take away from the text? It's not a film, it's not a radio play where it's all been cut for that purpose. It is the full text with sound effects, and I would say that I found it distracting at first, but after a while my ear got tuned to it and I began to see what advantages it could offer. So there's nothing like your own imagination to provide the sound effects. But what I thought was good here was that, because of the use of the sound, engineering might sound a strange place to start, but that's what I was thinking is that you get the sense of volume and space and environment. So it reminds you in a way that perhaps you forget when you're reading of the size of a cavernous room or the claustrophobia of the cupboard under the stairs, and so the sound fills those spaces, and if you're listening to it on headphones you get the stereo left-right balance as well, so you get that feeling of characters coming at you from different directions. So I did definitely enjoy that. 03:37 I also thought it was an excellent decision to use a female voice as the narrator. It's an actress called Kush Jumbo, who has a very listenable voice, like mother reading it, I suppose. So that was good. Otherwise, any other actor. If it was a male actor, you would also be sort of comparing it to Stephen Fry, of course. So that was a good move sideways, and I think she was great. I also stayed to listen to the very bitter end. There's a massive, long list of people involved in it, more about which in a moment but I noticed that they had done some sound recordings in a real school, leighton Stone School, which is the school in East London which is a very sort of multicultural part of London. So there was a sense of a real school atmosphere going on in the background. So all of those things, yeah, I appreciated that. 04:33 What about the voice performances? Some were disturbingly like the actors from the films. So Mark Addy, who's a fantastic Hagrid, but I kept seeing in my head the Hagrid from the film very, very similar timbre to his voice. Arabella Stanton plays Hermione, and she is playing Hermione in the version which they're doing as a series, the version which they're doing as a series. She often has exact same intonation as Emma Watson. It may be because that's how it's written on the page and that's what a posh girl from the south of London or the south of England sounds like. But it was a bit disconcerting at times where I had to sort of check no, that's not Emma, that's Arabella. I noticed when I was sort of having a hunt around that the young actors doing the three main parts are actually only doing the first three because they're putting them out rapidly. They can't wait for them to grow up, so the cast will have a change for older voices, I suppose. When voices break that kind of thing, so that would be interesting to watch or listen, I should. When voices break that kind of thing, so that would be interesting to watch or listen. I should say, as they do, that there were some really good choices of casting, which I kind of wish they'd done in the TV series version of it. What a great choice. 05:59 Hugh Laurie as Albus Dumbledore Hugh Laurie Laurie many people will know from house where he does an American accent, so forget that. He's doing his normal accent. He does have the blue eyes, I believe, that are described as Albus Dumbledore, but he also has an element of intelligent ruthlessness to him and that is one of the intriguing things of Albus. Though he is definitely good, he's also, like many, a leader, a good leader in times of trouble. He's able to make sacrifices and he has also the whimsicality leans into that very well. So in a way I preferred him to Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, and I know it's too late, but I would love to have seen him do the role on screen. But anyway, too late. We'll enjoy him in this. 06:59 And right at the very end you get a hint of Matthew McFadden and his performance as Lord Voldemort. Hardly enough to sort of get a sense of what he's going to be like. But yeah, obviously lots of people have seen him in various roles. I think he's not challenging Darcy and Keira Knight these private prejudice here, more the succession type infighting person here I'm going to enjoy seeing that. I suppose the thing about Matthew McFadden is there is something charismatic and attractive about Voldemort and I think he'll be able to project that in his voice. So all in all, I'd say a strong voice cast. Riz Ahmed is playing Snape, so lots to look forward to there. 07:52 I noticed that the Weasley twins are played by the same actor. Not sure that's a good choice. We'll have to see how they sound. Engineer that later Could have perhaps cast twins. No, mind you, there are so many people involved. Maybe they ran out of money. That was a joke, because this is one of the most lavish audio productions you'll ever come across. 08:15 Moving on, we have the sort of sound as it appears in the music. The main person who is mentioned as a composer is a chap called Nitin Soni, who is a British Indian composer. I know nothing about him prior to this, though I see he's won many awards. What I think he has a problem with here is that we already think we know what the Harry Potter theme music is, and so what he's gone for is atmospheric music. Possibly that I didn't really pick out a theme I could hum from it, but maybe that's on purpose, and I think the music was fine. It didn't get in the way, so perhaps that has succeeded, but also, I wasn't blown away by it. Maybe if it had been too good it would have been too distracting. So I think there's a sort of probably debates like this were had you know in the production company about how to do this. 09:22 Ok, what about the story itself? Well, it's almost too well known to need to be commented on. Well known to need to be commented on, but it did remind me, listening to it, of the fullness of the book, the funny little quirky bits that don't make it into the film versions, but also the structure of the book, because the first few books of the Harry Potter series have a very clear structure, because it's set by the school year, very similar to the sort of Enid Blyton style in the Sixth at Mallory Tower type stories. Once you're in a school year, you're immediately given a structure. In this case, though, we have a long prologue before we get to the school. We've got the Harry Potter being left with the Dursleys like pre-prologue, and then we've got the Harry living with the Dursleys, which is actually a much longer section than I remembered, which includes the visit to the zoo, the attempt to escape the letters and so on. Very much enjoyed listening to all that because it reminded me how the story does take a while to get to Hogwarts, so that when you get to Hogwarts it's this explosion of colour and friendliness and people. It makes it all the better that once you get there Then the rest of it is. You've got like an autumn term, a winter going into spring and then a summer term, and it does actually fulfill the classic. When you look in the how to write books, this fulfills that classic structure. 10:51 I looked out for the moment of All is Lost, which is what happens at the end of the second act in a classic film, for example, or a classic novel. Enough, it comes at that point when Harry and Hermione, trying to help Hagrid get rid of Norbert, get caught out of bed and lose all the points for Gryffindor. So it's interesting that, even though there's a much bigger stake story of the fear that Voldemort's going to come back, actually the most awful moment is one that children would relate to, which is when you lose all the points and all your classmates and lots of other people hate you because you've ruined the chance of winning the house cup, which of course ties in with the turnaround. The big high point isn't really defeating Voldemort. Harry is actually unconscious when that happens. It's the moment when the extra house points are awarded. So it just reminds you of the schoolness of this story, away from the magic. 11:52 I mean, jk Rowling has got a lot of books to write so she is thinking carefully here about what is going to be the big beat at the end of this story and that's what she went for. And probably part of his success is that it's incredibly relatable, even though it's full of the you know the magical world that doesn't exist in our daily lives. Sadly, there's some very good twists plotted throughout. So when you know what happens you can see how she has put in those plot points along the way. So the clues are there, but you tend to read rapidly past them and it does wrap up nicely like the good sort of murder mystery. It has that feel that when Quirrell says, aha, I did all of this because you, you can see ah, yes, that's what the unicorn was about, that's what the critics match was about. So it's very satisfyingly tied up. 12:53 The other thing that made me think about characterization in Harry Potter, particularly in this first book is how it's really got a very deep satirical bite. Everybody is really a sort of hmm, I was thinking of Roald Dahl that kind of excessive version of themselves. So you can see that in the case of the Dursleys they are a sort of suburban awfulness and very much a Roald Dahl-esque aunt and uncle. They're in that category, so unbelievably cruel and unbelievably ignorant and unbelievably overreact, you know, with Vernon Dursley taking them all off to an island as if that's going to solve anything. I think that there is a move away from that as the books develop. It'd be interesting to watch. I mean, obviously, a lot of the wizards remain in this category, the sort of diggles and Mrs Figs of this world. But I think there is a more gross and understanding of even the satirical characters like the Dursleys as we go along. What's driving their behaviour. But this first book, on its own merits, does feel a bit Roald Dahl, as in the set up, and I expect that's deliberate as well. That's the tradition she's writing in. 14:22 So what's the overall verdict on this? I did enjoy it very much. It was very easy to listen to. I was thinking, though, that I wouldn't want to miss out the experience of reading the book on my own to my own child or grandchild, because you then get the interaction with the reader, the discussion of what's going on, which you don't get when you just put on an audio version for a child. So I would suggest that it's got a place really as well. Children have a wonderful appetite for repetition. They will watch Frozen 10 times and not blink. I would still say it's worth reading the book for the first time with your younger member of the family, whoever that is, or for yourself, but then it's perfectly good as a repetition because it will give you an opportunity to notice other things that you didn't hear the first time through. So as an audiobook I would give it well five-star production. Clearly it's an amazing production. A kind of 4.5 for the story, because one thing that niggles me is some of the clumsiness of the language at times, the repetition of Harry, ron and Hermione, and I think there's actually you can see her changing as a writer as she goes on. So I think this isn't the best of the Harry Potter books, but it's pretty good and pretty entertaining and I know that my own family all loved it when we read it together back in the day. 16:04 And I just want to stop at this point to say if you are listening to it, do just listen on to the list of people involved. Give them their due. But also, just aren't names amazing? There is the beginning. You get a list of names matched to characters and after a while it was hard to work out who were the character names and who were the real people's names. There are some wonderful names amongst the huge, huge cast. So just do listen out to that, because it's almost like a name poem at the end. It goes on for about 10 minutes Anyway. So I would highly recommend it and I'm going to look forward to listening to the rest of this as it comes out. It does do something that you don't get from reading the book and you don't get from watching the film. So there is definitely a space for this in the Harry Potter market. So if that's your thing, I think you will enjoy it. Thank you very much for listening. 17:06 - Speaker 2 Thank you very much for listening online courses, in-person stays in Oxford, plus, visit our shop for great gifts. Tell a friend and subscribe wherever you find your favourite podcasts worldwide.