Reply #38: Also, they say "Happy Christmas" instead of Merry....

[robbedvoter]

When the first (second?) movie came out, The Lord of The Rings was out at the same time. I had not seen either and a (very catholic) friend said we could take the kids to a great movie. "Harry Potter?" I asked naively. The woman's face went white as a sheet. It was scary for a moment, I thought she'll either faint or hit me. Eventually she recovered and said : "LOTR"
I remember asking at the time here why one and not the other. Especially since my kid, after watching a bit of LOTR on TV was scared and repulsed by the violence - but became a Harry Potter fan (like I eventually did)
From the good answers I got then here - I remember the one about the setting in time - LOTR (like Narnia) had all those goings on long before "we've all been saved' - while Harry Potter dared assumed that a wizarding word exists TODAY!!!
And challenging authority was mentioned.
Consider the social commentary in Harry Potter - the press lies as pressured by the minister of Magic, the headmaster Dolores Umbridge loves torturing children, censoring their reading, activities and making learning devoid of interest.
Harry has to "look into his heart" for answers - rather then up there- and that's BAAD!