Another Magical Day

May 29, 2013

Amanda, Emily and I went to the midnight opening of the final Harry Potter a few years ago in special t-shirts, capes, hats and wands. So, when they decided to come visit, going to Harry Potter Studios was something that had to be on our list. Despite the fact that I went a few months ago, I was beyond excited to go again. It was just as magical the second time and so much fun to share the experience with fellow Potter enthusiasts!

I had no idea until our arrival that this week was actually a special week. Some of the stars were on hand to visit with we muggle visitors. No, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson were not there, but the slimy, furry and feathery actors were there! Harry Potter movies included many animal actors with hours worth of training and today, a few of those actors were there, posing for photos as their trainers told us more about them and how they were trained.

This is one of the actors that played Trevor, Neville's toad, and he is about eleven years old. Toads are trained mainly by controlling body temperatures, meaning if they want the toads to sit still, they keep the area cool so the animals go into a sort of hibernation and if they want the animals to hop about, the temperatures are brought up.

There were several cats that played Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, but this one was the one who was in 90% of the shots because as the trainers said, "He is just brilliant." He loved posing and earning his treats of chicken today!

Apparently, owls just appear wise: it takes months to teach owls to do something simple. This owl, Oreo, was one of the owls that played Hedwig. Oreo was trained to sit in the cage Harry would carry her around in. Yes, she was trained to sit.

The rest of the tour was again, incredibly magical, and still as impressive, learning about ALL that went on behind the scenes and all of the details that went into place to make the movies so incredible.