Harry Potter Kids (DVD)

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A week after "Transformers 2" wowed audiences to the tune of $214 million and prompted critics throughout the country to spend approximately the same amount on alcohol and hard core drugs in an effort to blot the film from their memories, it´s worth mentioning that there are actually a few blockbuster franchises that don´t completely stink.

With just five films, "Harry Potter" has become the top grossing film franchise of all-time though with inflation adjustments it would still be behind "James Bond" and "Star Wars." After the upcoming release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the series will have grossed well over $5 billion globally. "Harry Potter" occupies a unique place in contemporary film, being the only blockbuster franchise that is both a special-effects driven action series and a kids´ franchise. As such, it appeals to virtually every demographic and, like most kids´ films, brings the young ones back multiple times which also means that parents have to pay for multiple tickets. And religious fundamentalist complaints aside, there´s virtually nothing objectionable about the films that would give parents much pause. Attempts to hit the same sweet spot have missed the mark, though the "Narnia" series may still have time to recover from its "Prince Caspian" stumble.

"Harry Potter" had a built-in audience that usually exists only in the shameful, sleazy dreams of studio executives but success still wasn´t guaranteed. As Michael Bay has proven time and again, they didn´t necessarily have to make a good movie to pull in fans, but they had to provide some central appeal. Seeing as giant robots and Megan Fox wouldn´t quite fit into J.K. Rowling´s fictional world, they had to rely on the characters at the heart of the series which meant finding the right actors.

This meant finding 11-12 year old actors who were talented enough not only to launch the franchise, but who could also be projected to fill the same roles as both they and the characters raced through adolescence. What an incredibly difficult job this must have been. Baseball scouts have trouble projecting the way 15 and 16 year old players will grow into their bodies, but imagine having to do the same for mostly unproven child actors. As history has proven, they performed the task admirably. Perhaps it´s time to acknowledge the degree to which the franchise owes its success to casting agents Susie Figgis, Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins, and Karen Lindsay-Stewart. Certainly they were not the only people who had a say in who was cast, but they did some serious heavy lifting.