Warner Bros. Studio Tour – The Making Of Harry Potter

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour of the Making of Harry Potter should be on any film buffs agenda, even if you’re not the biggest fan of Harry Potter, just to wander around the studios and sets themselves is enough to keep anyone amused and intrigued. The tour starts off with a short video (a very quick look at each movie made), once that’s finished the curtains retract and you’re left facing the doors to The Great Hall!…*goosebumps are likely to happen at this point! The Great Hall itself is a vast room and you don’t feel like you’re in a studio at all as the decor and everything within it is so well crafted. You then move onto rest of the hanger which contains the likes of the Gryffindor boys dormitory, the common room, Dumbledore’s office, Potions, peak inside Hagrid’s hut, The Burrow – complete with moving objects and many many more things from the film. You’ll find little gems that you remember from the film and discover new items that are just as an important prop to complete the effect of the movie. In this stage you can get to ride a broomstick or ride in the Weasley’s car, you can choose to have a photograph set in front of a scene from the movie or you can film your own scene and purchase these afterwards. *Do make sure you take your time in this hanger as once you leave to go to the outside prop area you aren’t allowed back in. Moving onto the outside area, you’re faced with items like the famous Hogwart’s bridge, the entrance to Privet Drive and the Knight Bus.  In this area you can also get a small bite to eat or if you brought a picnic you can eat it here…you also can try the sickly sweet Butterbeer….if you do, I’d love to know what you thought of it! The final hanger takes you into the special effects, many many masks and prosthetics and the creatures (including a very big Aragog!). You then walk through Diagon Alley which is really cool as it just takes you back to the first Harry Potter movie where Harry is buying all his supplies for school and you can just visualise him being there.. Next up is the probably the biggest wow moment of them all, you see the Hogwart’s Castle Model.  It’s huge!  There’s so much detail in the model it’s truly amazing. Leaving the stage on a real high you are likely to spend the next 30 mins deciding on what to buy in the gift shop! Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to anyone. A few tips I learnt before going and worth passing on:

• Try and get an early time slot, as supposedly it can get quite crowded inside as the day goes along.
• Take your time in the first part of the tour
• The tour takes around 2-3 hours but you could easily spend longer there.
• Take a picnic if visiting around meal times, the food is quite pricey and you want to save your money for the gift shop!
• This is a tour not a theme park, there are no rides!

Have you been to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour?  What did you think to it?