ost kids might find their second year of school easier than their first—but given the events in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the prodigious young wizard of J.K. Rowling's contemporary classic series might disagree. Rescued by a flying car, pursued by an unruly Quidditch bludger and hunted by giant spiders—these are just a few of the challenges that await Harry during his second year at Hogwarts.
The movie starts out with Harry being locked away in his room by his wretched Muggle uncle. Even before the school year starts, Harry (Radcliffe) has an inkling that something is amiss. First, Dobby the house elf tries to dissuade Harry from returning to Hogwarts; then Harry and Ron are blocked from approaching the Hogwarts Express platform. But it's not until early in the semester that Harry realizes something sinister is truly afoot at Hogwarts: the cat, Mrs. Norris, is found petrified, hanging alongside a bloody scrawl on the wall that states the fabled Chamber of Secrets has been opened. As more students fall victim, Harry, Ron and Hermione (Watson) become increasingly determined to discover what's behind these mysterious events—especially considering that these incidents threaten the future of the school.
The second film adaptation from the books that have enchanted children and adults alike, Chamber of Secrets' story has a more cohesive foundation—and thus feels less like an array of discrete tales strung together, which is sometimes the impression one had of the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Chamber features other improvements, too, over its predecessor. On this outing, the child actors seem more confident and secure, although Grint, who plays Harry's pal Ron, seems to spend too much time mugging for the camera. And the special effects are elevated several notches, such that the Quidditch match feels more organic, and the giant Basilisk seems quite menacing.
This two-disc DVD set is packed with supplemental content: an overview of the first year at Hogwarts; interviews with the cast and crew, including author J.K. Rowling; production sketches; a tour of Dumbledore's office; 19 additional scenes; and an assortment of activities geared for the books' target audience. In addition, there are some DVD-ROM activities for those using the DVD on a PC computer.
Quantity doesn't always equal quality
While Chamber of Secrets is laden with extras, that doesn't give this Potter disc an automatic pass to the head of the class. Quite the opposite, actually: Many of the features on the two-disc set are less than enthralling (or just downright lame), and much of the content is either poorly organized or poorly presented. Plus, there's no behind-the-scenes audio commentary, an omission that seems curious, given how commentaries are increasingly de rigueur on high-profile films such as this.
There is one bright spot in this DVD edition's design, and it becomes evident as soon as disc one is loaded: The themed navigation menus manage to maintain a degree of elegant simplicity, which in turn helps make maneuvering through the menus more speedy.
Other than the widescreen edition of the film, the first disc contains little of interest. The special features amount to an extended trailer for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (dubbed "Year One at Hogwarts"), a decidedly non-interactive listing of the cast and crew and the theatrical trailer for Chamber of Secrets.
The bulk of the extras are housed on disc two. Unfortunately, some of those so-called extras are little more than fluff. For example, the preview of Electronic Arts' upcoming game features just six cutscenes from the game ... each about 30 seconds in length. Likewise, Gilderoy Lockhart's Classroom offers a few "live" clickable items, but nothing of substance worth exploring.
The most interesting material, not surprisingly, goes behind the scenes and delves into the making of the film. However, even this content could have been better produced. The 16-minute "Conversation with J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves" is just that: rather than speaking directly to the camera, an interviewer ably lobs queries at the creator of Harry Potter's rich world, and at her counterpart, Kloves, screenwriter of the first three films (film three is currently in production). While the discussion is interesting (and includes some generic comments about the next film), and certainly a different approach from the typical direct-to-camera first-person production technique, it seems rather incongruous, given how the interviews with other cast members are all from the first-person perspective. Speaking of the interviews with the students, essentially the kids answer seven questions, and in all, the soundbites last just 10 minutes. The "Professors and More" interviews consist of just one- to two-minute, unsubstantial snippets with the actors that play 12 characters in the film.
Selecting Dumledore's Office gives the choice to either "Build a Scene" or tour Dumbledore's abode. The latter is rather neat, providing a 360-degree view of the office that viewers can move around, select items to learn more, and even get closer to the paintings on the wall. But "Build a Scene" is a misnomer: Rather than the viewer constructing a scene, this 17-minute narrated documentary focuses on all aspects of pre- and post-production, ranging from production design to visual effects, wardrobe and makeup, set decoration and music. While the behind-the-scenes perspective is a good one, little of the content is related to Dumbledore, let alone Dumbledore's office, and therefore this short documentary gets hopelessly lost being categorized where it is on the disc.
The gallery of production stills includes three groups of six images, each based around creatures (including Dobby and the Basilisk), set design (such as the Weasley home) and characters (such as Hermione). The stills included offer an interesting glimpse into the preproduction evolution of what we saw on screen, but there's no context for the images.
This halfhearted approach toward context is mirrored in the 19 extra scenes. There's no context for these scenes whatsoever, so we as audiences don't know why the director went with one version over the other, or why he cut certain scenes entirely. Furthermore, some of them duplicate what was seen in the film—yet there's no way to compare the takes so you know what it was that ultimately made the film's final cut. Of the 19 scenes, only six are truly interesting for what they add to either the characters' or the story's development; and all take barely 17 and a half minutes to play, which underscores just how short most of these segments are.
In addition to the Spellcaster's Knowledge trivia game, there are four games under the separate header of "Activities." All of the games can be played via the remote control on the DVD player. The "gotcha" here is that none of these games is particularly challenging—a couple of them quickly bored my 10-year-old cousin. The games include the Chamber Challenge, a matching game that you can't lose; the Forbidden Forest Challenge, in which players race through the forest in the Weasley's flying car; and Colin's Darkroom, which lets kids create their own slideshow of images from the film. The one bona-fide hit here is the tour of Diagon Alley: There are tons of items to click on, and kids can move through the Alley as if they really were there.
