by Rotae Lupin

This weekend I was lucky enough to get to review the new Harry Potter Film Wizardry iPad app.

In essence, the app is a digital version of the book of the same title that has been available for over a year. However with the book now being digital, there have been a great number of additions!

In some sense this book actually is more magical than its brother hard copy! As a fan of hard copy books I can understand how some people might find this difficult to believe, but being a digital copy has certain advantages that a hard-copy just cannot give you.

For one thing, there is now the option of zooming in on photos in the book that are quite small. There are a lot of continuity Polaroids that were taken throughout the films, and now one is able to actually chose photos and zoom in to see some of the pretty classic expressions and costumes that the actors are wearing. There are high-resolution production stills along with high-quality scans of building and costume concept designs, which are just absolutely fascinating.

Having also been lucky enough to see the in Sydney recently, I am very happy to say that a number of the most interesting set decorations areHarry Potter: The Exhibition now fully covered in detail in this app. You can delve directly into the Marauder's Map and see Harry about to encounter Peter Pettigrew, you can see the Quidditch World Cup programme (which I was itching to get my hands on at the exhibition; unfortunately it was covered by glass at the time), all the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products are there for viewing, and things that were originally pull-out in the hard copy book - like the Yule Ball invitation - can be directly tapped on to be unfolded digitally. For someone like me who is interested in art and graphic design, this app really is the bees knees! You can really get inside it and see how the details of the sets really can come to life! The detail is just extraordinary!



Another really exciting part of this app that makes it more magical than its hard cover copy, is that there are actually moving pictures in this book! Along with video clips from the films comes Harry magically riding his broomstick on the page, the Snitch flying around just begging to be caught, and the Sorting Hat moving like it's about to put you in the House that you've always so desperately wanted to be in!

Along with reading the words provided by cast and crew, you could literally spent hours delving deeper and deeper into this app. I would recommend that you go through the photos on each page as a slideshow in one go, because there are sometimes hidden photos that you miss out on if you tap each of them individually.

The app is easy to navigate with one being able to choose to go by year and readily jump through chapters and various scenes as well as read it chronologically. As with the other e-books you can also easily swipe to turn the pages. You can directly go straight back to the cover or information extras and the store for other book and film purchases.

Perhaps the only possible addition that could improve this book is the ability, like on Pottermore, to be able to add chapters and items to a favourites section. Though again, if you know what you're looking for, then it is very easy to navigate.

Retailing at just $9.99 US, this app is an absolute steal and a must-have for any true Harry Potter fan with an iPad! The hard cover copy of this app is currently priced at $25 US on Amazon.com, and in all honesty, as much as I love hard cover books, I think this app is actually better!

The only possible downside to this app is its size. The guide to the app recommends that you have at least 2GB of hard drive available on your iPad and that you are connected to high-speed Wi-Fi in order to download it. However, this this being because it does contain so much! You are downloading thousands of high-quality photos along with clips from the actual films, so it's no wonder that it is quite a large size!

And of course, like with any app, there is also the possibility of updates later to come! Unlike a hardcover version of this book, more can be added to it as time progresses.

My only recommendation? Buy it. Buy it now!

Order the Harry Potter Film Wizardry iPad app here now.