Set some 70 years before the events in the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them centers on Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), author of what will become the official textbook for magical creatures at Hogwarts, as he fumbles about New York City with a suitcase full of magical creatures. Predictably, some of them escape, Newt must recapture them, and something less than hilarity ensues.

Fantastic Beasts is J.K. Rowling’s first attempt at writing a screenplay, and, apparently, what she really wanted to write was an episode of Dr. Who. If you put the fourth, fifth, and sixth doctors into a blender and hit puree, Newt Scamander is what you would get in terms of both look and mannerisms. Instead of a sonic screwdriver, he has several magical creatures small enough to carry on his person, and they serve the same function of facilitating lazy writing by simply doing whatever the plot requires at any given moment. Newt doesn’t have a TARDIS, but he’s got a suitcase that contains an extra-dimensional space large enough to accommodate an entire zoo of magical beasts. Continue reading →