When you’ve seen a movie like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire a hundred and one times, you might start to pick up on some odd details. Perhaps a strip of tape on the ground in the Great Hall, or the Slytherin serial killer mouthing the words to his favorite song. Alfonso Cuarón’s successor, Mike Newell, brought a fun, zany Harry Potter adventure to the party, but it’s not without its goofs.
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We’ve found some of the funniest and most egregious production mistakes in the fourth film adaptation of JK Rowling’s hit series; moments where the veil of continuity thins and you can almost see the muggles behind the camera bringing Hogwarts to life. Warning: once you spot these errors, it’ll be nearly impossible to unsee them.
7) Hermione Takes Back the Towel
After Harry completes the underwater second task in the Triwizard Tournament, Hermione wraps a white towel around him. He did, after all, just save everyone’s lives. But continuity sticklers have noticed that the towel didn’t stay loyal to the Chosen One. In one shot, it sits snugly on Harry’s shoulders; in the next, it has jumped back to Hermione, only to return to Harry a few frames later.
Once you notice it, the towel completely steals the scene. Did Hermione get cold again and Accio Towel? Were there pixies hiding underneath? Or did someone in wardrobe forget to consult the script supervisor? Looks like even magic isn’t a match for a sleepy continuity department.
6) Dumbledore’s Little Helper
During the dramatic arrival of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang in the Great Hall, there are a ton of moving parts, so naturally, the filmmakers wanted everyone hitting their marks. Fleur Delacour bows gracefully, Dumbledore kisses Madame Maxime’s hand, and then the focus shifts to Dumbledore getting up to introduce Durmstrang.
The issue appears in the next shot, a bright white tape mark appears on the platform directly beneath Dumbledore’s feet. It’s not visible in any previous or subsequent frames. For a moment, it almost looks like Dumbledore dropped a to-do list that says: 1. Clean Fawkes’ cage. 2. Call dragon guy. 3. Send Filch to pick up trash in the Great Hall. It’s a tiny blunder, but one that’s hard to ignore when you see the greatest wizard of all time standing on it.
5) What Happened to Wormtail’s Wand?
Peter Pettigrew’s scene blocking during Voldemort’s resurrection is pretty precise. He’s at the Dark Lord’s beck and call, but even a sniveling devoted Death Eater can’t seem to keep track of his wand. After tossing out an Avada Kedavra and presenting the “bone of the father,” Wormtail places Voldemort’s wand on the left side of his coat. Yet when Voldemort demands his wand moments later, Wormtail retrieves it from the right.
It’s an admittedly minor continuity slip, one that only people with an official house on Hogwarts Legacy will catch. But once you see it, it’s impossible to forget, especially in such a high-stakes scene. In all honesty, though, it kind of makes sense. Voldemort and company obviously rehearsed the whole graveyard takeover numerous times, but leave it to Wormtail to nearly drop the ball.
4) Voldemort Lip Sync Scandal
Speaking of the cemetery scene, it’s one of the most terrifying set pieces across all eight films. Voldemort speaking four inches away from Harry’s face is enough to send a shiver down anyone’s spine. In one close-up, Voldemort says, “If they speak of you, they’ll speak only of how you begged for death,” but before he continues his villainous monologue, we can see that his lips are still moving, even though no sound is coming out.
The weird audio hiccup makes He Who Must Not Be Named briefly look like he’s mouthing his next lines in an attempt to remember them. Or perhaps using the debate technique where you speak so quietly that your opponent is forced to lean in. In all likelihood, though, it was simply a post-production oversight. Frankly, I’m surprised they weren’t sued by Tom Riddle’s PR team.
3) Weasley Where’s Waldo
During the iconic “Dumbledore asked calmly” scene when the headmaster announces the Triwizard Champions, the camera pans across the students seated at the long tables in the Great Hall. If you’re paying attention, your eye might catch the changing placement of red locks. In some shots, either Fred or George is sitting beside Harry, Seamus, Hermione, Ron, and Neville near the wall. Then, in the very next shot, both twins have magically relocated to the opposite side of the table, sitting together
Classic Weasley twins gag? Something to do with them trying to coax the goblet into spewing their names? More likely, it’s a simple case of discongruent shot compositions. The alternate angle may be from a pickup shot months after principal photography, or could even be repurposed footage from a deleted scene. Thankfully, the twins are already comic relief anyway, so it doesn’t significantly change the tone.
2) Invisible Ink Conspiracy
Suspiciously also involving the Weasley twins is the moment when Fred (or George?) passes Ron a note encouraging him to “get a date before all the good ones are gone.” It seems innocent, but if you pay attention, the note itself undergoes a magical transformation. The number of lines shifts from four to three, the placement of the words jumps lower on the paper, and even the handwriting style changes.
Ever write an invisible ink note to your sibling, and put a decoy paragraph at the top in case your boarding school professor catches you? Sure sounds like something the twins would do. Besides being the lost page of Riddles diary, it’s the only logical in-world explanation for what was very obviously a blunder on the part of the props department. Why they had multiple copies of the note that varied so much in appearance, we’ll never know.
1) Self-Transporting Triwizard Cup
The graveyard scene strikes again. When Harry and Cedric are transported to the cemetery, the Triwizard Cup lands, glowing, on the grassy slope, no longer a simple MacGuffin. But in the ensuing chaos of Priori Incantatem, the cup magically migrates: sometimes on the corner of the Riddle monument, sometimes back on the slope, facing different directions each time.
Typically, film crews take Polaroid photos of the set dec to ensure consistency throughout different shots within a scene. However, for some reason, the continuity of the cup was left behind in the labyrinth. I’m sure the VFX team was scratching their heads when they received the inconsistent footage, as the cup was a combo of practical prop and CGI. It could be explained away by any number of magical properties, namely, the Triwizard Cup being a mode of transport itself. And it’s also an easy mistake to miss, given the international implications of Voldemort’s return, but once you see it, there’s no going back to the Wizarding World as it was.
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