With Disney purchasing the rights to Impossible Creatures fantasy book series by Katherine Rundell it got me thinking. Will there ever be another series that has the same cultural impact as Harry Potter or have times just changed? What does this mean for books, television, movies and theme parks? We will give you all the reasons we don’t think that Impossible Creatures or really anything else will find the same success of Harry Potter in books or the parks, but with movies it is still possible. Will you be walking into a Disney recreation of the magical archipelago?
Let us take a step back in time to September of 1998, when there were midnight releases of the Harry Potter books and where everything is was a party like atmosphere during release. People were coming out of the book store and immediately sitting on the curb to start reading and once they finished this physical copy of the story, they may pass that on to their friends, kids, grandparents, their parents to also read the story. Remember this was 1998 and things were much different, social media was not a thing to fracture the audiences, to spoil the ending or become a time suck that infiltrated your reading hours. Not only that but you had to make the trip to the bookstore, there was no instant download of the ebook, there was no television with streaming services, and fantasy books were not popping up in everyone’s Amazon cart for their next read. All of these things gave this fandom a strong connection to each other through shared experiences and Impossible Creatures has to deal with all of these other things sapping our attention. When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone hit U.S. shelves in September of 1998, the world was a smaller place. If you look at the numbers of the top selling book of last year, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold triple the numbers that book did in a year, in the first 24 hours.
The Harry Potter books also released in a manner that allowed the audience to grow along with the characters. The books also continued to get a bit darker as they went on, so while you may not have been ready for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when you started the series that was fine, because by the time the last book came out you were ready for something like that. This created a level of attachment to the journey of the characters growing up.
So we have this wonderful Harry Potter series and we already have a movie releases a little over three years later. This was pretty amazing that it was put together so quickly. The thing about the movie release that makes it so magical is that they spent the big bucks to make the CGI look really good. While that might not seem like a big deal today, it was a HUGE deal then and set that movie apart and made if feel real, like you were in the world. So now you are reading these books and living in the world through the movies with a film that looked that good just added to the Pottermania that was already taking place. The movies also introduced so many non readers to the series, that turned them in to Harry Potter book readers.
A Harry Potter land with rides was now ripe for a park. While there may have been a tentative deal in place with Disney for Harry Potter land, that fell apart and Universal was now building a whole dedicated park. This is also something that was just the right contract, right time, right decision. Over at Universal this park would not have to complete with Mickey and Friends and really gave the Harry Potter IP room to shine. The fact that they didn’t just build a land but also gave it a new ride vehicle technology in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey was another huge swing that paid off.
Harry Potter also did not really miss any book timelines so the biggest gap we have is 3 years, but really with the movies coming up only 2006 was a year with no releases and that is a very dense Harry Potter schedule for 10 years that really keeps the audience engaged. To keep the hype going it also worked out well that the final two movies coincide with the opening of the park in 2010, things just fell into place.
There were a lot of big swings here with a lot of big money involved that all worked out perfectly, which is by itself something that may never get repeated. Most of the time now there is a lot more time and information gathering that has to happen and the swings are a bit more calculated and smaller. We had a solid decade of Harry Potter, where is was just a huge part of everyday culture. The fact that J.K. Rowling was also so involved in everything keep it close to the core material, which is where things needed to be.
This is not a piece to knock the Impossible Creatures series, we love it, looking forward to the third book, this is just a piece to talk about how we think the Harry Potter multi-entertainment package may never be repeated again, and what that means for the Disney and Universal Parks going forward.
Disney has acquired the film rights to the Impossible Creatures fantasy book series by Katherine Rundell to develop it into a live-action movie franchise. As part of the deal, the author will write the screenplays for the first two films and produce them, with the goal of turning the series into a major new franchise for Disney. The story follows a boy who discovers a hidden world of magical creatures and teams up with a girl to save their world as the magic begins to fade.
Future potential: Disney’s deal includes ancillary rights, giving them the potential to expand the franchise into other areas like theme parks.
Even with social media and millions of books, the Impossible Creatures series has a large following, and is well done. You can really enjoy the first two books as we wait for the third book in the series and then again for the other two books to complete the series. The only thing we are not in love with is that Katherine Rundell originally envisioned the project as a trilogy, we hope the extra books still keep the pacing moving. We are also very happy to hear that Rundell is personally writing the feature film screenplays for the first two movies, and we hope that continues. This will really keep the movies true to the source material.
While Harry Potter had the perfect timing there are a few things that Impossible Creatures has going on that make it less likely for the same level of success in the movies and parks. The Archipelago is a group of islands where magic is still alive and it is a glorious place. There are all sorts of interesting creatures and we are looking forward to seeing them on screen, but no one really resonated with us. The Archipelago is just not as defining as the Hogwarts school, something that all people can relate to, as we have all gone to school. Also in the story we also do not have real defining groups for really champion, Harry Potter has the houses and as each reader decides what house they would be sorted it, it makes for an experience, this also holds true for books, movies and the amusement parks. And while we love the Impossible Creatures story it is interesting in the second book…
SPOILER ALERT BELOW
that we end up following Christopher and a new character Anya Argen, and while this makes for a stellar story the connection to Mal is lost. This does make it harder to keep the connection to that character strong in the series.
When it comes to the parks, it feels like Impossible Creatures is about respecting the magic and Harry Potter is about celebrating the magic, we will let you decide which one makes for more enjoyable rides. The merch from Harry Potter just fits that gift shop feel, custom wands, house robes, even the special food make the amusement park experience shine. While we would love a Mal’s Flying Coat or The Immortal’s Compass, (now wait a sec, Mal’s Flying Coat in the parks would be pretty awesome) but in general Harry Potter just has the perfect items to fit into the park scenario. The thing that would work about the Archipelago is you could have different areas in the park for different islands which would be kind of neat. The other thing is we feel like Disney already has a similar area and vibe with Avatar that holds the same sort of message, so how an Impossible Creatures area would do we are not sure.
So we did a lot of talking there to get to what we figured was a very simple point, that we do not think that there will ever be another book series that is able to hold that “monoculture” vibe that Harry Potter does. We are now in a culture that has silos, they may be very deep and loyal silos, but still silos and that is where we feel like Impossible Creatures fits. This all stems from social media, the abundance of books and streaming services that create a more fractured entertainment experience. The timing of how the Harry Potter books came out as well as the relatability factor of a classroom and the aging process as we grew up alongside characters make this magical world come out on top. People don’t just want to watch or read Harry Potter they want to be sorted, wear the robes, and hold a wand. It’s a lifestyle, not just an IP.
Even with Harry Potter launching in a time without huge social media and ebooks there is still a lot that the books do well regardless of the time frame that helped make this series a global phenomenon. They must be doing something right if we are a getting a new Harry Potter series on HBO where they go into even more depth than the movies that already near perfect.
Things that they can do to make the Impossible Creatures movies and theme park attractions grip the culture include Disney ensuring Impossible Creatures feels like a place we belong, not just a place we’re visiting. There also has to be a “sorting hat” level of belonging with Rundell’s world, as well as making sure everyone is wearing Mal’s Flying Coat!
Discussion over at BSCKids Page.