Adapting a film from a novel or any piece of literature does not come without its challenges. The most pressing of these would be the question as to how close does the film adaptation come to the novel?

That was the challenge director Chris Columbus had with the film Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. Based on the highly successful and beloved novel with the same title by J. K. Rowling, the film centers on the story of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his two friends, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson) as go on a adventure to protect the magical Sorceror’s Stone from the clutches of Lord Voldermort (Richard Bremmer) to prevent him from coming back to human form while surviving their first year as students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

As early as the first scene in the film, it is very clear to see just how much effort was placed to ensure that the film would come as close to the novel as possible. Albus Dumbeldore (Richard Harris) was just as how Rowling described him to look like in the novel. This shouldn’t come as a surprise as Rowling was given the free hand to provide her input and feedback from the screenplay adaptation of the novel done by Steve Kloves down to the casting of the lead actors of the film. They went so far as to be willing to film many of the scenes twice since the American version of the novel was titled Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone while the original British version came out with the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Even the settings seen in the film echoed the faithfulness of both Kloves and Columbus to the actual novel. Take for instance Diagon Alley. From its lopsided buildings down to the clothings of the background characters, it not only gives viewers the impression that this is a completely different world, but also the way how Harry Potter sticks out like a sore thumb with his regular “Muggle” clothes is very obvious.

But perhaps the real clincher for avid fans of the novel is Hogwarts’ Great Hall. Every minute detail described in the book has been taken into consideration in the creation of the Great Hall from its enchanted ceiling down to the floating candles. Even the Sorting Hat (Leslie Phillips) was every single bit that was described here.

Of course, there were a lot of things that were in the book that have been taken out in the film adaptation. But these omissions are highly forgiveable since these possible scenes did not affect the flow of the story one bit. In fact, if you read the book and after watching the film, it is very clear to see that even in the novel, these are bits and pieces that were just merely mentioned in passing. Besides, if Rowling approved of these deletions, who are we to contest and say otherwise?

No doubt, Columbus did an amazing job in bringing this modern children’s classic to life, making the film just as successful and loved as the novel that it was adapted from, and worthy of a two-thumbs up coming from this avid fan of the novel series.