Underplayed Gems
The whole movie catalogue

Films and series, searchable by what they are

← Back to the shop

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them poster
Directed by
David Yates
Genre
drama film, fantasy film, adventure film, children's film
Country
United Kingdom, United States
Runtime
2h 13m
Rated
PG-13
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 19,786 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb

How it feels

A magizoologist named Newt Scamander carries a suitcase full of magical creatures to 1920s New York. When some creatures escape, he teams up with odd friends to find them before they cause trouble with both the non-magical public and the local wizard authorities.

whimsicaladventurouswarmmysteriouslivelyoffbeatlightheartedmagical

What happens

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling in her debut as a screenwriter. It is the first instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the ninth overall in the Wizarding World franchise, serving as a spin-off of and prequel to the Harry Potter film series. Newt Scamander's guide book of the same name—written by Rowling under the pen name in 2001 for the charity Comic Relief—inspired the film. It features an ensemble cast including Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman and Colin Farrell. A new Wizarding World film series was first announced in September 2013, two years after the final Harry Potter film—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2—was released. The following month, it was also announced that producer David Heyman and writer Steve Kloves, who were both Potter film franchise veterans, will return in the new film series. In August 2014, Warner Bros. announced that Yates would direct at least one film of the planned trilogy, after rumors in which Alfonso Cuarón would direct, of which he refuted three months earlier. Filming took place from August 2015 to January 2016, at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, and also on location in England. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them premiered at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on 10 November 2016, and was released in theatres in the United States and in the United Kingdom on 18 November, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and emerged a commercial success, grossing $814 million worldwide, finishing its theatrical run as the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2016. It received five nominations at the 70th British Academy Film Awards, including Best British Film, and won for Best Production Design. The film was also nominated for two awards at the 89th Academy Awards and won for Best Costume Design, becoming the first Wizarding World film to win an Academy Award. Two sequels—Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)—have been released. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? Tell the Catbot what you feel like watching and it picks from the whole catalogue, or browse by genre, country and year.

Lists: Korean thrillers worth the evening · Anime films beyond Studio Ghibli · Slow films for a rainy night · Horror that unsettles instead of startling · Series you can finish in a weekend · Nordic crime worth the subtitles · Good films that end in under 90 minutes · Documentaries that play like thrillers

Loading movies…

What should I watch?