Screenlife and Warner Brothers Interactive invite you to test your wizarding wits with Scene It? Harry Potter on the iPhone and iPad. This app is overflowing with movie clips, trivia questions and on-screen puzzles.
Brush up on your Harry Potter trivia and experience a spellbinding voyage that lets you relive your favorite moments from the first six films. Before you can say, “Expecto Patronum,” the magic, fun and excitement of this legendary saga will captivate you and everyone who plays. Scene It? Harry Potter is the ultimate companion app for aspiring wizards.
Scene It? Harry Potter features include:
• 30 distinct quiz sets with 16 puzzle types that provide hours of challenging trivia, puzzles and mini-games
• Dozens of video clips, images and audio clips pulled directly from the Harry Potter films
• An engaging, fast-paced single-player mode
• Head to Head Multiplayer via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (uses multiple devices)
• Table Play Multiplayer (uses a single device)
Luckily my brother has an iPod touch so I was able to play the game, and it does not disappoint. I think in some ways this is better than the DVD version of Scene It? Harry Potter because you can play it alone by doing challenges. When you finish challenges as a single player you can Tweet or share your results on Facebook (or do nothing). You can also do a Pass and Play version where you pass around the device and need to beat the timer or you are eliminated. Finally you can play with other people who have the app by using wifi or bluetooth in the Multiplayer version. The only little problem I had was on the unscrambling letters games it was hard to drag the letter to the right spot, but that is probably because I’m not used to using an iPod Touch all the time. All in all I give the game an A+! And at only $1.99 the game is a total steal!
About a month ago I received a Draco stencil from Ultimate Pumpkin Stencil’s and was finally able to carve my pumpkin last night! After TWO very long hours I finished carving my Draco, it was less like carving and more like peeling and digging (but you can cut if you want) and I was very happy with the results! I will warn you all now: this is not for those who cannot take their time, have arthritis or have no patience. If you can take your time and pay attention to details you will absolutely love these stencils as they make the process of creating amazing pumpkins a lot simpler.
The process starts out with cutting around your stencil and taping it to your pumpkin, after that you take a push pin and carefully make points around all the black areas of the stencil. After you finish that it’s time to take off the stencil and start carving or peeling depending on the look you want. I opted for peeling my pumpkin so the light would shine through the skin rather than having holes. This was the longest part of the process because you have to take your time or you will break the smaller areas and it will look like a big blob. Overall I liked the product, the only problem is that the stencil can only be used once since you print it yourself. It would be nice if it was made of vinyl so you could use it over and over without wasting paper. But otherwise, a great product and nicely priced at only $3.95.
The lovely people at Harper Collins sent me a copy of Harry Potter Film Wizardry to review. Before even opening the book I knew it was going to be the perfect item for Potter fans EVERYWHERE. The book is a nice size and the cover has such a nice texture (I realize it is weird to talk about the texture of a book, but I’m a graphic designer, I notice these things) and the overall design is awesome; inside and out. They even used the stars that are found on the top of the pages in the US editions of the book all over the cover, I loved this little touch. Moving on to the inside:
There are tons of tiny details all over this book, starting with the opening page where it says “If found, please return this notebook to Mr. Filch, Seventh floor, Room 234-00.” So you are going to want to look at every INCH of the book to find all the hidden treasures. The book begins with a forward by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson & Rupert Grint, and then an introduction by David Heyman. After that the book goes through each of the films with tons of behind the scenes information and photos.
In the sections there are lots of fun props to pull out and examine, such as Harry’s acceptance letter to Hogwarts, a mini catalog for Borgin and Burkes, Honeydukes packages, an invite to the Yule Ball, the Maurader’s Map, just to name a few! The pages are full of never before seen behind the scenes photos, concept art, sketches, props (some we have never seen before) and promotional photos. Even the backgrounds of the pages are full of detail, so make sure you pay attention to those while you read.
The book is set up like a scrapbook so it is a really easy read. The text contains interviews with the cast and crew, excerpts written by cast and crew, funny anecdotes, descriptions of the sets including how they went about designing certain things, information on the main actors and characters and how they were developed, and so much more! With this book fans get to see what it was like during the 10+ years of creating the films so we have a sense of what went on behind the scenes while we eagerly awaited the next film.
I don’t have anything bad to say about the book, except that I wish it had gone on forever! Fans of the filming process will really enjoy reading this book as will general fans, there is something in here for everyone to enjoy. This definitely gets an A+ from me, so make sure you get your copy!
The book comes out one week from today, on October 19th, so head over to Amazon and pre-order it: Harry Potter Film Wizardry!
This weekend The Intrepid Traveler kindly sent over a copy of Universal Orlando 2011 so I could check out their new 16 page chapter on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This book also contains a ton of great information on all the other Universal Theme Parks & is a definite must read if you plan on visiting any of the parks.
As someone who has not been able to visit the theme park yet (depressing!) I excitedly opened the book right up to the Wizarding World chapter to read all about it. The section begins with a short introduction on the park noting some pros and cons. Then they get into each ride and rate them, say how long they take and even have some tips and notes such as, “There is a small pouch in the back of each rider’s seat, just big enough for your keys, wallet, and cellphone or compact camera. Don’t forget your belongings when your journey ends!” Everything is very descriptive and gives you a good idea of what to expect when entering the park.
At the end of the chapter the authors tell readers about the food and shopping in the park giving prices for some of the items. This will definitely be helpful for the fans that are trying to decide how much money they need to save before visiting the park.
For those of you that want to know more about other parks as well you can read about Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, CityWalk and the Resort Hotels. The book also lets you know where to stay if you don’t want to stay at a resort hotel. There is also a list of all the places you can eat and where they are located. You will definitely want to get this book before making a trip to the parks and to take it with you to use as a guide.
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If you are interested in purchasing this book, I suggest you do it before Labor Day since the book is HALF OFF with free shipping until then, so you will pay $7.98 rather than $15.95! Head over to this page to order it! You can also pre-order the book on Amazon.com.
Last week the publishers of The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy kindly sent me a copy of their soon to be released book for me to read and review. I read half of it on Saturday, then life took its toll so I wasn’t able to finish until tonight. This book explores many of the themes that are present in the Harry Potter books, such as morality, choice, freedom, racism, love and the soul in a fun way by relating them to Harry Potter.
I pretty much enjoyed the whole book. There were, however, a few chapters that I did not enjoy that much only because I felt like the author was trying to make a whole chapter out of something that did not really need explanation. For example, the chapter entitled Sirius Black: Man or Dog?” seemed a bit unnecessary, but I will let other readers decide that for themselves. On the other side of the spectrum there were a few chapters that I absolutely LOVED. One of these such chapters was “Choosing Love: The Redemption of Severus Snape.” Snape is definitely a favorite character of mine and this chapter did a great way of showing all that he did for Harry and the reasons why he did it. Another chapter I enjoyed was “Dumbledore, Plato, and The Lust for Power” because it shows us how Harry has qualities that even Dumbledore didn’t have. I won’t say much more than this because I want you all to be able to enjoy the book for yourselves, but I definitely recommend it. It has earned its place in my Harry Potter collection.
I will point out that if you don’t like philosophy, religion and other political issues then this book is not for you. But if you don’t mind reading about other peoples views on controversial topics you will definitely enjoy this book.
The book even pointed out a few things that I, a Harry Potter encyclopedia as some friends call me, had never noticed before. So that is definitely a bonus! Most of the contributors for this book definitely know their Potter and it shows in their understanding and love of JK Rowling’s wonderful world. There are a lot of Harry Potter companion books out there and a lot of them don’t know a hippogriff from a flobberworm, but these authors (for the most part) know what they’re talking about.
The book will be released this September and you can pre-order it over at Amazon.com, and I recommend that you do!
You may have seen my post about an upcoming release of Harry Potter Power, a self help book. I received a copy and have written a small review on the book that you can read below.
Harry Potter Power is not your average self help book. This book uses the themes, characters and situations from the Harry Potter series to help you become a better you!
The book is split into 6 different sections and in each section the author talks about different areas of life and how they can help us become more powerful: The Power of Tragedy; The Power of Thoughts; The Power of Action; The Power of Animals; The Power of Nature; The Greatest Power
Throughout the book there are also activities that you can do that will help you along the path to gaining more self power. You answer questions, do word puzzles and more!
I even learned a few things about the Potterverse that I never knew before. One example being that hippogriffs symbolize the fact that people can overcome impossible scenarios and come out for the better. There are countless more little tidbits about the world of Harry Potter that even the craziest Potter fan, like me for example, will find interesting.
All in all this is a great resource for anyone who wants to improve their lives.
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