Comparison Of Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone

The film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was my first exposure to the creature known as the Cerberus. The animal was named “Fluffy” and depicted as a three-headed guard dog. Under the orders of school headmaster Albus Dumbledore, it watched over the trapdoor that eventually led to the titular Stone, an object with the ability to grant its user eternal life. The only way to “defeat” the Cerberus was to play music, lull it to sleep, and run away from it or dive into the trapdoor before it woke up. I initially believed that the animal was invented in the book of the same name that served as the basis for the film. Its true origins, however, lie in Greek mythology, a source far more suitable for representation in the bestiary than a popular contemporary series of novels and films. In the case of fictional animals, the Bestiary ought to contain a three-dimensional character that engages readers, not a temperamental beast that is brushed aside and forgotten.

Three eleven-year-olds discovered that music was the secret to defeating it, and the dated CGI used to create the animal made it clear that what audiences saw wasn’t real. Additionally, its resemblance is too close to a common dog; the only stark physical difference between the creature and man’s best friend is its three heads. In the story, this Cerberus served no other narrative purpose beyond its failing to protect the Sorcerer’s Stone. Its history and future are shrouded in mystery; all audiences know is that the school groundskeeper, Hagrid, purchased the animal from a stranger and loaned it to Headmaster Dumbledore for guard duty. After the Stone was destroyed, the creature is released into the Forbidden Forest on school grounds. Thus, the story of the Cerberus ends in Harry Potter, a curious footnote in the beginning of a lengthy