The third installment of the Harry Potter series features the Golden Trio returning for their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. From the start, the tone of this movie is much darker and the plot is more complex.

In this article, we’ll be going over a summary of the movie, a review, some major plot points from the book that were left out, and answers to some questions movie watchers might have.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Summary & Recap

Aunt Marge

At the start of the movie, Harry is back at his aunt and uncle’s house when Uncle Vernon’s sister, Marge, comes to visit. She automatically shows her true colors, revealing her to be just as bad, if not worse, than the Dursleys we know.

During dinner, she starts to say terrible things about Harry’s deceased parents right in front of him, causing Harry to lose control of his anger and magic. Harry accidentally “blows her up”. Her entire body expands like a balloon and she floats out of the open doors and into the sky.

The Knight Bus

After the incident, Harry runs away from home and ends up on the Knight Bus, a magical form of transportation for stranded witches and wizards. Harry unknowingly catches sight of Sirius Black right before the bus shows up. While enduring a very bumpy ride on his way to the Leaky Cauldron, Harry learns from the conductor on the bus that the murderer Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban, a wizard prison. Apparently Sirius is the first person to have achieved such a feat.

The Leaky Cauldron

Harry ends up meeting Fudge, the Minister of Magic, at the Leaky Cauldron, where he absolves Harry of his crimes since his use of magic was accidental. Eventually, Harry reunites with Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and the rest of the Weasley family. Mr. Weasley takes Harry to the side to warn him about the escaped prisoner, Sirius Black. Here, it is revealed that Sirius was a follower of Voldemort and escaped Azkaban just so he could find and kill Harry.

Dementors Attack the Train

The trio are on the train to Hogwarts when it suddenly stops moving and everything goes deathly cold. A creature cloaked in darkness boards the train and ends up unlocking their compartment door. The moment it sees Harry, it begins to suck out his soul. The fourth person in their compartment repels the creature with a spell.

Harry wakes up to find everything has returned to normal and meets the man who saved him, Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. They realize that the dementors, the guards of Azkaban, were on the train searching for Sirius Black, and its attack on Harry was unprovoked.

Buckbeak the Hippogriff

Harry and his friends make it to Hogwarts relatively unscathed, and their third year at the magical school begins with new classes such as Divinations, taught by Professor Trelawney, and Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid has been promoted from Groundskeeper to Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, and he starts off his first lesson strong.

Here, Hagrid introduces the hippogriff, Buckbeak, and Harry, a bit reluctant at first, gets to ride the creature across the grounds in a beautiful scene. The moment is immediately ruined when they return by Draco Malfoy, who approaches the hippogriff the wrong way and ends up getting injured as a result.

The Boggart and Professor Lupin

In the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Lupin teaches the spell Riddikulus and how to use it against a boggart, a creature that will take the form of your worst nightmare. After a few funny moments, such as featuring Snape in grandma clothing, it’s Harry’s turn. His boggart turns into a dementor, and the professor jumps in the way. His greatest fear is revealed to be the moon, an odd thing to fear for a normal person. However, we later learn that he is far from normal.

Sirius Black Attacks the Fat Lady

Not long after, the Gryffindor students find that the portrait of the Fat Lady, the woman in the painting of the secret entrance to the Gryffindor common room, has been attacked. When the Fat Lady is finally located, she reveals that Sirius is the one who attacked her in an attempt to get into the common room. The entire school goes on lockdown while the professors try to locate the fugitive and the students end up sleeping in the Great Hall, where Harry overhears Dumbledore and Snape talking. Snape reveals that he believes Sirius had inside help from an old friend.

The Marauder's Map and Hogsmeade

During the student’s third year at Hogwarts, they get to take a trip to the nearby wizarding town called Hogsmeade. Harry’s guardians never signed his permission slip, so he misses out on the first trip. Instead, he uses his invisibility cloak to try and sneak there on his own. Fred and George catch him on his way there and give him a magical map called the Marauders Map. It shows the entire school layout, the location of each person inside, and all the hidden passageways.

Harry uses a hidden passageway to get to Hogsmeade, where he runs into Hermione and Ron. Soon after, in the Three Broomsticks, he overhears a conversation between Professor McGonagall, Fudge, and Madam Rosmerta. He learns that Sirius was friends with Harry's parents, betrayed them, and is the reason why they’re dead.

The Patronus Charm

Knowing he is susceptible to dementor attacks, Harry asks Remus to teach him how to cast the Patronus charm, Expecto Patronum. The professor teaches Harry how to harness his happiest memory in order to successfully cast the spell and, after a few tries, he succeeds.

A few nights later, Harry is wandering the corridors with his map after noticing Peter Pettigrew's name on it. He ends up running into Snape instead, but Remus comes to Harry's rescue. He scolds Harry and on his way out the door, Harry reveals what he saw: Peter Pettigrew, the name of a dead person. This shocks Remus since, according to the professor, “the map never lies.”

Buckbeak’s Execution and the Whomping Willow

After Buckbeak injured Malfoy, there was a hearing where Buckbeak was sentenced to death. Harry and his friends go to visit Hagrid the day of the execution to comfort him, but have to flee when Dumbledore, Fudge, and the executioner show up. They only manage to escape before being seen after an outside source throws pebbles at them to get their attention.

They watch Buckbeak’s execution from on top of the hill, but before they can properly mourn, Scabbers bites Ron and flees. Suddenly, they’re attacked by “the grim," (an omen of death, which takes the form of a black dog), who drags Ron into a hole under the Whomping Willow. Harry and Hermione have to dodge the deadly moving tree in order to go after their friend.

Moony, Wormtail, and Padfoot

The hole leads to the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, where much is revealed. In fact, the "grim" is Sirius Black himself in his Animagus form, with Remus aiding his entry into the castle. They were never after Harry, and Sirius never betrayed Harry’s parents. All along, Ron’s pet rat has been Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form; Peter is the one who actually sided with Voldemort to aid in getting Harry's parents killed. Hermione also puts two and two together, announcing that Remus is a werewolf.

They are interrupted by Snape, who suspects they’re all up to no good, but Harry knocks out the professor in order to hear the rest of their conversation. Harry believes Remus and Sirius, but would rather Pettigrew face justice the right way than be murdered.

The Full Moon

While Harry and Sirius are getting to know one another, the full moon peeks over the horizon. Remus suddenly falls under its spell and begins to transform. Sirius tries to stop it, and as a result, Peter Pettigrew manages to escape. Hermione tries to reason with the professor once he fully transforms, but his mind is long gone. Snape, in a rare act of selflessness, stands between the trio and the werewolf.

The Kiss of Death

Harry chases after Sirius and finds him by the shore of the lake, injured. The dementors, who are still hunting the fugitive, appear in full force. Harry tries his best to fend them off with the Patronus charm but there are just too many of them. The dementors end up performing the kiss of death on Sirius, successfully sucking out his soul.

But an unknown savior across the lake cast a powerful Patronus charm, forcing the dementors to flee and Sirius’ soul returns to his body before Harry passes out.

Going Back in Time

Harry wakes up in the hospital wing with Ron and Hermione and learns that Sirius has been detained and will be executed. Dumbledore gives some vague hints that only Hermione understands, and she pulls out her Time-Turner, a magical device that is able to move the users back in time. Ron is too injured to move, so only Hermione and Harry go back in time. The mysteries throughout the movie are revealed, such as the person who through the pebbles through Hagrid's window was Hermione herself. The two manage to save Buckbeak from being executed and also successfully fight off a transformed Remus.

Harry believed that his father had rescued him and Sirius because the Patronus he witnessed took the form of a stag. Anticipating his father's intervention, but unable to wait any longer, Harry cast Expecto Patronum, ultimately saving himself. Harry and Hermione proceed to free Sirius from his cell, during which they talk, and Harry discovers he still has family out there, albeit not by blood. Afterwards, Sirius and Buckbeak soar away, finally liberated.

The End

Harry and Hermione return just in time, having successfully saved two innocent lives. At the end of the school year, Lupin retires, much to Harry’s disappointment. The professor gives Harry back the Marauder's Map and leaves.

When Harry enters the Great Hall, he is immediately surrounded by excited faces. He has been given a Firebolt, one of the fastest brooms, after his old broom was destroyed. The movie ends with Harry taking off into the sky.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Review

CGI and Visuals | 10/10

With each and every movie in the Harry Potter series, the visuals get better and better. There’s no denying that the third one is a step up from the last one. The characters interact with more creatures, like Buckbeak and the dementors. Lupin's transformation into a werewolf is shown from start to finish and so is Pettigrew's transformation from rat, to human, and back to a rat again.

There are only a few times where you can tell the background is a green screen, but nearly twenty years have passed and there are still movies today that fall victim to the same thing.

Storyline and Plot Development | 8/10

The story for the third movie is very different from the others. Despite mentions of Lord Voldemort, it’s the one movie where he, or some form of him, isn’t the main antagonist. There really is no main antagonist in this movie, but with a mix of antagonistic characters, the tension is still there.

While some other stories butcher the time travel concept, this one manages to do it right, even if it's only briefly talked about. There are hints throughout the entire movie that Hermione was using the Time-Turner; it's so obvious that even Ron knows something is up, but the big revelation doesn’t come until the end.

Character Development | 10/10

As always, with each movie, our main characters grow. One of the best scenes in the movie happens when Hermione gets tired of Malfoy’s big mouth and punches him in the face. This movie is much heavier than the previous ones, and we watch the main characters adapt and overcome fear, loss, and anger.

Sound and Music | 8/10

The music does a great job at reflecting the darker theme for this movie. While the other movies have more upbeat, magical music, the third movie has soundtracks that are eerie and drawn out. It does a great job and solidifies the direction that the series is headed as the characters get older. The sound design is just as good, bringing to life creatures like the dementors and Buckbeak.

Reception and Impact | 7/10

The third installment in the series has a mix of reviews. Although they are mostly positive, it was the lowest-earning in the box office ($797 million vs the highest with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $1.34 billion). Plenty of people loved the darker atmosphere, but not everyone. One of the biggest complaints from fans is that it steered too far away from the books.

Final Score | 8/10

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Book and Movie Differences

Introduction of Cho Chang

In the movies, Cho Chang isn’t introduced until the fourth installment, where she is the Ravenclaw girl Harry has a crush on. However, in the books, she is introduced in the third installment during a Quidditch game. The movies also leave out one of her key characteristics: she’s the seeker for the Ravenclaw team. Harry and Cho meet during a game together, where she follows him in order to catch the snitch.

Harry’s Happiest Memory

In the movie, Harry tells Lupin that the memory he used to cast his Patronus was one he didn’t even think was real. He thought of his parents talking to him when he was a baby. As sweet as it is, the memory from the books is much different. Harry’s happiest memory in the book is when he found out he was a wizard. This led to him being able to escape the Dursleys, for the most part, and he ended up making friends and finding his place in the world.

Pigwidgeon

In the movies, the only pet Ron has is Scabbers, who turns out to be Pettigrew. However, in the third book, Sirius feels bad that Ron no longer has a pet and gives him a miniature owl named Pigwidgeon. Pigwidgeon, aka Pig, makes multiple appearances throughout the later books, and not including this scene in the movies takes away from Sirius’s character.

The Marauders’ Story

One of the biggest absences in the movies, that enraged a lot of fans and left a lot of questions for movie watchers, is the story of the Marauders. The only mention of them comes from the map. But many wondered who “Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prong” was, and why did Lupin seem to know so much about the map?

Book readers get the backstory of Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Harry’s father, James. They were the marauders and created the map. When Remus' friends discovered that he was a werewolf, they took it upon themselves to learn how to become Animagus. Peter could turn into a rat and they called him “Wormtail”, Sirius could turn into a black dog and they called him “Padfoot”, James could turn into a stag and was known as “Prongs”. And Remus, the werewolf, was called “Moony”.

They even planted the Whomping Willow and knew how to temporarily disarm it in order to use the secret passage. But there are only very vague mentions of this across multiple movies.

The Firebolt

While it isn’t a big difference, the movie could have ended a lot differently if it had stayed faithful to the books. In the book, Harry receives the Firebolt as a Christmas gift, but in the movie, Harry isn't given the broom until the end.