The Malfoy Insult In Chamber Of Secrets That Puzzles Harry Potter Book Fans
No matter which Harry Potter film you think is best, there's no denying the entire franchise as a whole soars higher than a hippogriff. Over eight films from a variety of different directors, each Harry Potter movie brings something unique to the table. The books they're based on encouraged a generation of kids to start reading as they grew up alongside Harry and his friends.
Naturally, with all those books, there are some things that have to be left on the cutting room floor in the process of adaptation. Sometimes this means getting rid of superfluous scenes, while in other instances it means eliminating entire characters from the story. It makes sense that not every detail within a 400-page novel would make it into a two-hour movie, but every so often, this results in a bit of a discrepancy.
Redditor u/PetevonPete recently started a thread pointing out moments in the Harry Potter movies where the screenwriters kept a line of dialogue from the books but removed the surrounding context, making it so that the line doesn't quite fit in with what's going on. One of the most notorious cases comes during the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
If you thought one of Draco Malfoy's in-match taunts didn't make a lot of sense, you weren't alone.
Malfoy's quip lacks context in the film
In Chamber of Secrets, Draco Malfoy is now the seeker for Slytherin's quidditch team, putting him in direct competition with Harry Potter. We see these two rivals go head-to-head in a quidditch match, which becomes upended when a bludger goes rogue and starts funning for Harry. In the movie, this results in a ton of property damage for what's supposed to be the equivalent of a junior high basketball match. Harry maneuvers around the bludger as it smashes through the stands, and after taking a moment to take in the sight, Draco says, "Training for the ballet, Potter?" It's a dumb thing from Harry Potter that we just couldn't overlook.
Granted, it's a line he says in the books, but there it makes sense. In the novel, it's expressed that Harry has to do a bunch of fancy twirls and loops to avoid getting hit. In the movie, he just outruns it, so it doesn't really make sense for Draco to bring up the ballet. After all, when was the last time you went to the ballet and one of the performers had to slowly move across the stage to avoid getting hit by one of the props?
Perhaps the screenwriter thought he'd be able to work some more CGI magic to have Harry do more intricate stunts to avoid the bludger. As it stands, it's definitely one of Draco's weaker insults, especially for fans who have only seen the films. Fortunately, athletes who play quidditch in real life don't have to worry about any rogue bludgers — although we imagine at some point during a match someone has yelled this now-infamous insult.