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Wizard People, Dear Reader
	Topic by: Cinenaut Posted: June 8, 2004 - 2:38 PM PDT Last Reply: April 9, 2005 - 10:31 PM PDT

author	topic: Wizard People, Dear Reader
Cinenaut	post #1  on June 8, 2004 - 2:38 PM PDT   Has anyone checked out Wizard People, Dear Reader, yet? A guy named Brad Neely recorded an alternate (and allegedly funny) audio track / narrative for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and gave it out to his friends. It caught on and now it's been shown at various film festivals and the Alamo Draughthouse theater. I managed to download the audio (they have major bandwidth problems), but I haven't put the audio with the video yet. via daily.greencine.com
Cinenaut	post #2  on June 8, 2004 - 4:28 PM PDT   Wizard People, Dear Reader Iain Aitch Friday April 16, 2004 The Guardian Comic artist Brad Neely's unofficial voiceover for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone looks set to become the next hit Grey Album-style "collaborative" bootleg. Sitting somewhere between cult, web-only versions of Phantom Menace with Jar Jar Binks deleted and unofficial MP3 remixes of chart hits, Neely's darkly-voiced narration is available as a downloadable file that Potter fans can play while watching the Philosopher's Stone DVD with the sound on the TV turned down for a unique interpretation of the story. Wizard People, Dear Reader recently made its cinematic debut at the New York Underground film festival, but don't hold your breath waiting for it to arrive at your local multiplex. Neely claims his version is more faithful to the original tale than the first Potter film, but he also heads off in an altogether more bizarre and somewhat adult direction.There are expletives dotted throughout the MP3 file and Neely's story labels Potter's cousin as "a mean little puke who is borderline retarded and must shout moistly every stupid sentence he manages to piece together". Not a slogan you are likely to see coming to a T-shirt, lunchbox or mousemat near you soon.
sinisterguffaw	post #3  on June 8, 2004 - 9:03 PM PDT   So... for slower people like me, how would one go about putting the audio with the video, if one wanted to watch it on the big screen? Or is it easier to to with a pc? And if so, how does one do it that way then?
cathycathy	post #4  on June 8, 2004 - 11:28 PM PDT   Thank you so much for recommending this, I don't think I could imagine a world without this nutty narration. Hilarity in it's purest form! It changed my life. Seriously.
Cinenaut	post #5  on June 9, 2004 - 8:58 AM PDT   After you burn the two MP3 files to CDs, if you have the DVD version of Sorcerer's Stone, you just hit PLAY on your CD and DVD player at the same time. With the VHS version, there are more precise synching instructions on the web page. The narrator gives chapter numbers, so if you get lost, you can synch back up again (although this can be kind of hard, since each audio portion is one big track). I listened/watched around the first 9 chapters last night. It has lots of crazy word-play. So far, I think it's getting funnier as it goes along. Professor McGonagle becomes "Hardcastle McCormick," Hagrid becomes "Hagar the Horrible," and cousin Dursley becomes "Roast Beefie Weefie." "Hagar gets up from the couch and produces a letter. It is clear now that Hagar is a bird-friend, because indeed the letters are the same as before." The narrator also refers to "Roast Beefie Weefie" as a "chilly barrel" at one point and at another point exclaims "It's a bat! Sweet moustache! Willikers!" Great fun.
sinisterguffaw	post #6  on June 9, 2004 - 10:16 AM PDT   Thanks! Oh I can't wait!
Cinenaut	post #7  on June 9, 2004 - 5:03 PM PDT   Brad Neely says he'd like to do a movie with lots of action next time, maybe Jurassic Park. That made me wonder what movies would lend themselves to this kind of treatment. I'm thinking any recent Tom Cruise movie would be excellent fodder for enhanced narration.
Cinenaut	post #8  on June 10, 2004 - 9:14 AM PDT   Okay, I finished watching the whole thing (actually I dozed a bit towards the very end). As something Brad Neely created to entertain his friends, I'd call it magnificent. As a piece of commercial entertainment, it would be embarrassingly amateurish. As a hairball Internet stunt, it's pretty darn good. I got a few genuine belly laughs out of it, but it's hard to sustain the mirth for an entire movie, and I think Brad loses steam (and inspiration) towards the end. He's apparently seen the movies, but not read the books. That said, it was definitely worth the download for me with Brad's kooky delivery, crazy brandishing of the English language and his wacky take on J.K. Rowling's mythos. At the very end, he makes a little plea for Ms. Rowling (or her business asscociates) to email him with any feedback (or cease and desist orders).
artifex	post #9  on June 10, 2004 - 11:12 PM PDT   On a related tangent (suuuuuure), has anyone here seen that Indiana Jones remake made by kids in the 1980s? I've heard the rights have actually been bought... I'd love to see GC get a copy of it, or better yet, have a free screening sometime. (oh, wait, how am I going to get there?)
Cinenaut	post #10  on June 11, 2004 - 4:16 PM PDT   Yeah, I'd like to see that, too. Or at least maybe the highlights. Isn't there a web page where somebody is redoing Star Wars in Legos, too?
Cinenaut	post #11  on June 22, 2004 - 10:43 AM PDT   Salon.com article.
sinisterguffaw	post #12  on June 22, 2004 - 1:12 PM PDT   So in a fight, who would win between these three: Gandolf, Merlin, or Harry Potter?
Cinenaut	post #13  on June 22, 2004 - 2:52 PM PDT   I don't know, the universe might implode or something. Maybe Harry Potter would get his butt kicked because he's inexperienced and he's not fighting what's-his-name-that-can't-be-mentioned-except-by-Master-Potter. If it was T.H. White's Merlin, who was moving backwards through time, he'd be hella old by the time he got to Middle Earth, but he'd already know the outcome of the battle.
dh22	post #14  on June 23, 2004 - 6:40 AM PDT   Gandolf would win. They'd all beat the crap out of each other and then he'd just get reincarnated as a diferent color. I think after nine of ten deaths he'd turn into the gay-pride rainbow Gandolf.
hamano	post #15  on June 23, 2004 - 7:09 AM PDT   > On June 22, 2004 - 1:12 PM PDT sinisterguffaw wrote: > --------------------------------- > So in a fight, who would win between these three: Gandolf, Merlin, or Harry Potter? > --------------------------------- How about Gandalf/Merlin/Harry Potter VS. Hermione/Saint Tail/Sailor Moon? In a pool of Mazola?
Cinenaut	post #16  on June 23, 2004 - 9:12 AM PDT   > On June 23, 2004 - 7:09 AM PDT hamano wrote: > --------------------------------- > How about Gandalf/Merlin/Harry Potter VS. Hermione/Saint Tail/Sailor Moon? In a pool of Mazola? > --------------------------------- LOTR/Arthurian/Harry Potter/Anime crossover slash fiction?
madamotaku	post #17  on July 8, 2004 - 12:21 AM PDT   I heard about this interesting bit of "new art" from a HP news site today, downloaded the mp3s, burned a couple of cds, and played them while I watched "Sorceror's Stone". Well, one thing I can say is, it certainly beats watching "The Wizard of Oz" while listening to "The Dark Side of the Moon" for sheer entertainment value. I was literally in tears all through the first part, and the uncontrollable laughing became quite painful. Like Cinenaut, though, I felt that the laughs petered out by the end. But as the momentum of the film itself also loses its steam near the end, this seems appropriate to me. Neely seems to be more about surrealism than he is about delivering belly laughs. I found I wasn't disappointed that his narrative eventually degenerates into a monotonous, incoherent ramble and that he ocassionally loses his place and starts giggling stupidly about it...it's part of the whole fascinating curiosity of the thing. It's definitely worth repeat viewings (the first half moreso than the second, admittedly).
Cinenaut	post #18  on July 8, 2004 - 3:11 PM PDT   It'd be fun to see him do it live.
hamano	post #19  on April 9, 2005 - 10:31 PM PDT   > On July 8, 2004 - 3:11 PM PDT Cinenaut wrote: > --------------------------------- > It'd be fun to see him do it live. > --------------------------------- Apparently he HAS been performing this live, but now the Harry Potter publishers have put a stop to it! Listen to the story that aired on NPR Weekend Edition Saturday!