With its stunning visual effects and amazing story line, the Harry Potter franchise has been nothing short of excellent. The new movie “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is no exception. In terms of the older Harry Potter films, this goes a little off the book, because instead of focusing on the main hero who will defeat the greatest evil that is plaguing the land, it follows a man who just simply wants to collect creatures and study them. It is also the first Harry Potter film to not be based on a canon book.

  The book of the same name is a field guide made by J. K. Rowling, under the pen name Newt Scamander. It takes place 70 years before the events of the original Harry Potter series. It contains all the magical beasts in the Harry Potter realm and information about them. It also has notes from Harry, Hermione, and Ron on a few of the pages.

  This movie is the first in a planned five-part series that follows the adventures of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who is travelling all over the world to collect magical creatures and study them. Upon first arrival, Newt comes across a group of people called the Second-Salemers who seek to destroy all witches and wizards. After a creature called a Niffler escapes Newt’s case, the Niffler becomes greedy and starts stealing gold and gems within a local bank. A No-Maj, which is the American equivalent to a muggle, named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) switches cases with Newt and accidently releases some of the creatures. A muggle is defined to be a person without any magical skill and was not born into a magical family. Together along with Porpentina Goldstein who is a MACUSA worker (Katherine Waterston), they successfully manage to retrieve all the creatures. MACUSA is the American version of the Ministry of Magic and stands for The Magical Congress of the Unites States of America. They are assigned with the task of protecting the muggles from the dangers of the wizarding world with aurors and many other tasks.

  One of the main aurors assigned with containing the beasts and destruction is Percival Graves (Colin Farrell). An auror is a wizard or witch who is charged with the task of keeping the human world safe and unaware of the wizarding world. Percival constantly tracks a child who is believed to be possessed by an Obscurial, which is a magical being that can make havoc and mayhem when angered. The catch with being possessed by an Obscurial is that they don’t usually make it past the age of 10. The child, Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), ends up lashing out in anger because of Percival’s betrayal and causes havoc in New York City. The main villain of this series is Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) who has created havoc across the world and is similar to Voldemort in his ways of achieving his evil goals.

  Overall, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” was an amazing movie. It has received incredible feedback from critics and it wildly acclaimed with a 8/10 on IMDb and a 4/5 on Common Sense Media. The special effects were absolutely stunning and unique, and it held true to the ways that the Harry Potter franchise has done in the past. Although it does not feature our beloved Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, this new series gives us new characters to love and hate. It still stands the tests of time for all ages to enjoy and watch repeatedly for years to come. The next movie is set to come out on Nov. 16, 2018. Hype is already building for the sequel and fans anticipate another addition to the Fantastic Beasts series. Rumors have already been confirmed and the second movie is set to take place in Paris. There has been no other information revealed so far about the new movie.