Since Christians are focusing a lot on what they don’t like in the Harry Potter movie, I’m going to say what I think affirms Biblical values…I’ll try not to discuss the plot though 😉
The big-picture theme of a ‘predestined’ child is very…Christian, I’d say.
Harry has a growing awareness that he is ‘famous’, ‘different’ (not because of anything he did; this is something about him that he neither chose nor requested…). As Harry goes from not knowing who he is, to knowing, he finds the acclaim embarrassing rather than something to be gloried in. He never presumes upon it overtly; the things he does can all be understood as the behavior of a ‘normal kid’ (with big dreams ;-).
Twice, the desire to ‘lay down one’s life for a loved one’ is upheld as a laudable intent…in fact the carrying out of that, is cited as something which bestows incredible power of good, on the one [voluntarily] sacrificed for.
As Harry is about to face a difficult situation alone, there is a short ‘mutual affirmation’ sort of exchange where he praises someone else’s knowledge/intellect and they say ‘no but bravery and friendship mean the most…’
The people in the story are flexible in understanding that there may come a time when even the best intended rules have to be broken, to do what is right. There are times when ‘law’ fails. It is never an end in itself…and so in those cases the usual punishment for lawbreaking is adjusted to fit the situation…grace is shown.
Loyalty and a true concern for others is upheld when children go to help another child they have mixed feelings about…
The concept that ‘there is no good or evil, only power’ is presented as a very evil one.
Selfishness and self-serving motives are consistently presented as a bad thing.
Implicitly it is shown that appearances can be very deceiving, about people. To be ‘scary’ is not necessarily to be evil. To be harmless is not necessarily to be good.
There is not that ‘mixing’ of good and evil in character which is often used to rationalize that.
Unlike a lot of ‘school’ stories, most of the adults who are in charge are kind and fair and care about the children. They are not all-knowing (therefore they make mistakes) but…what human is? 😉
Motives are all-important.
And in the movie I think that the ‘magic’ theme seems more minor than ever, as something to worry about…movies often have magic in…it’s just a plot device, folks…the more you make of it the more you will incite curiosity about real witchcraft/sorcery..like I said elsewhere on my site, do you worry about children opening doors in every wardrobe looking for other worlds, because they’ve read C.S. Lewis’s book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”? (Well, if you do then worry about this movie, I guess…)
Ok, that’s all I can think of for now….