'Harry Potter' sequel DVD adds to the magic

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

The DVD release of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (Warner Home Video) is notable not just because it is an instant must-own for any kid who saw and loved the movie, a decided improvement over "Sorcerer's Stone." It also says reams about how the DVD industry has evolved in a year's time.

For starters, "Chamber" is the only major release of the week, meaning that DVD marketers are now following movie industry protocol: Give a blockbuster a wide berth and save potential hits for a week when they can get a piece of the consumer's attention and budget.

And now that DVD has become completely mainstream, techie and gamer mentality no longer rules. Although buyers of the "Sorcerer's Stone" DVD had to navigate a complex and frustrating maze to unlock the "room" where the deleted scenes were contained, on the "Chamber" set the deleted scenes are the first menu option on disc two, with no wizardry required to access them.

There are no fewer than 19 of these, but 15 of them are either "coverage" — movie lingo for alternate-shot selections — or longer versions of scenes that were trimmed down for the movie. Four qualify as bona fide outtakes, the best of which is a classroom session with self-absorbed professor of the dark arts Lockhart, played with just the right amount of ham by Kenneth Branagh.

A section called "Behind Hogwarts" contains a conversation with author J.K. Rowling and screenwriter Steve Kloves about adapting the novel, an in-depth look at how Dumbledore's office was re-created, interviews with the cast members and an interesting look at the production art.

But the real attraction remains the movie itself on disc one, mixed into Dolby Surround 5.1 EX (which sounds no different from regular 5.1 Surround to me). It's well-mastered, though the full-screen version lops off so much of the wide-screen composition that Hogwarts looks like a day care center.