Houlse elves.  Annoying.  Abused.  Doomed to servitude.

And apparently all that Hermione lives for: freeing house elves from the chains of bondage.  Thus she created S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare.)  Hermione feels that they must be seen as equals, paid for their work and so forth.  You see, they're everywhere.  Working behind the scenes, doing he stuff that no one else wants to.  Where does the food for all the banquets come from?  The house elves cook it.  Cleaning?  That's right: house elves.

The real problem, of course, is that this is what house elves WANT to do.  If a house elf can't "work" for someone they get kinda kooky.  Hermione doesn't get it. 

Know why I know all this and you don't?  I read the book.  And much like some other things I've mentioned before (like Peeves*) I'm glad it never made it to the movie.  The thing is house elves actually have a lot to do with the storyline in the fourth book.

734 page book.  157 minute movie.  Incredibly the first 200 (approx.) pages of the book are pared down to the first 20 (approx.) minutes of the film.  Gone with those pages are the veela (women whose mere presence is captivating), the Wronski Feint (a difficult quiditch maneuver),  Winky the house elf (the root of a couple of now-missing subplots), and the fact that that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are, just like Hogwart's, co-ed.

I suggest a drinking game based on this movie.  I'm sure someone's already done it.  Everytime Ron says "bloody hell" take a drink.  What else could we put in there?

Lots of little changes: During the first task the dragon doesn't chase Harry;  In the book Fleur isn't quite the wimp she is in the movie.  No, I'm wrong...she is;  Dobby gives the gillyweed to Harry; there is a Sphinx in the maze.  Blast-ended skrewts anyone?  Moody beats the crap out of Draco while he's a ferret.

And the whole Rita Skeeter angle.  In the book no one could figure out where she was getting her information.  Turns out she was an unregistered Animagus.  Much like Sirius, who could become a dog, she would become a beetle.  Of course Hermione caught on and also caught Skeeter in a jar at the end of the book.  Skeeter was much more of a pain in the ass in the book.

As always the versions I'm watching are the original Blu-ray releases so that means no commentary.  That will be remedied when I finally get my hands on the Ulitimate Editions.  Right?  The extras are nice but by no means extensive.  I look forward to the inclusion of the WB Maximum Movie Mode with Half-Blood Prince.

* I just found out that Peeves was actually filmed for the first movie but never used.  Apparently those shots have never seen the light of day.  Unless that too is in the Ultimate Edition...