Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (DVD)

I could tell, just from the trailers, that I was going to love Prisoner of Azkaban before it ever hit theaters. It is the best of the first three books and proved to be the best of the first three movies in the Potter saga. This time around Alfonso Cuarón took the directorial duties and along with him came the most amazing approach to an amazing story.

Prisoner of Azkaban is by far the best acted and the best looking of the Potter films as Cuarón paints the film in a brilliant purple palette as he takes the crew to Scotland, which you get a much better look at in the special features, and speaking of features the second disc of this special edition is packed with goodies that follow directly in line with the previous Harry Potter DVD releases and are amazingly good.

Aside from the interactive games and set tours, which I am never all that crazy about, the rest of these features are great giving Potter fans the look they want into the wizardry world.

These features start off with a great collection of deleted scenes that are much better than your average fare, including an extended look at the Night Bus scene, which you can check out by clicking on the DVD Clip to the right titled "Night Bus". Then there are the several cast and crew interviews, which also include conversations with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling who makes known her appreciation and satisfaction of this film.

Next up is a look at Hagrid's Hut, which includes a couple of cool featurettes including a look at the animals that make up the Potter world from the real to the make believe with two featurettes titled "Care of Magical Creatures" and "Conjuring a Scene." The "Magical Creatures" focuses more on animal training such as how they get the bats to fly around Hagrid's Hut and the owls to perform their duties, but the second of the two gives an awesome look at the creation of Buckbeak and the Dementors, which includes several early tests the filmmakers went through trying to get the perfect look for the Dementors.

Then there are the interactive games and set tours, which I already said I don't really care for, but you can try to catch Scabbers, play a memory game, tour Lupin's classroom or tour Honeydukes if you like, but I personally don't care for these as they always take too long.

On top of all that you get the trailers for all three years of Harry Potter films and some DVD-ROM goods, which include a Hogwarts timeline and some Magical Trading Cards. While the Magical Trading Cards section requires you to register for free with the official Harry Potter website the Hogwarts timeline is actually quite cool considering it goes over the history of the wizardry school for years one through three as well as going all the way back to Circa 993 when Hogwarts was founded.

If I was to have one complaint with the whole package it would be that it is offered only in a double-amaray case rather than the cardboard digipaks the first two were offered in, which makes it not fit in so well with the rest of the set, but it is a minor detail that is easily ignored.

If you haven't yet had the chance to see this film or any of the other Potter films you are truly missing out. If you own the other two quickly purchase this one, but if you are yet to own any of them there is a trilogy set being offered with all three films, check it out here.