photo courtesy of Comingsoon.net

By Rachel Giffin

Director David Yates and writer J. K. Rowling wow us all again with the magical screenplay of the 2016 film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. As a prequel to the already popular Harry Potter film series, Fantastic Beasts was projected to do quite well in the box office polls. However, after its first showing in 4,144 theaters across Europe and North America, no one suspected anything like this.

Marvel’s Doctor Strange now ranks #2 in the box office polls, and other anticipated films,  such as The Edge of Seventeen and Bleed For This, now rank 7th and 8th next to this fantastic film.

And why not? Fantastic Beasts is an ageless story, capturing the wonder and enchantment audiences have come to expect from the Harry Potter world, while incorporating American ingenuity and humor. This film is surprisingly down to earth, while still touching the child in all of us. It has audiences rooting for the hero to beat the bad guy, which is a refreshing taste after so many other wonderful films featuring anti-heroes and jaded protagonists. And not only are the characters lovable, they’re very human, and it’s they who convince the audience that all of this might have happened in 1926, and we just didn’t know about it.