“神奇動物”再燃哈迷情懷

As soon as the familiar music starts up and the blue Warner Brothers logo appears on the screen, you’re transported back to that oh-so-familiar magical world created by British writer J.K. Rowling. But it’s definitely not all-too-familiar– Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is Harry Potter (2001-2011) for adults.

當熟悉的音樂響起，藍色的華納兄弟標志出現(xiàn)在大銀幕上時，人們又回到了英國作家J.K.羅琳筆下那個熟悉的魔法世界。但也不是那么熟悉——《神奇動物在哪里》是為成年人打造的“哈利•波特”系列電影。

Unlike previous stories in the Harry Potter series, there is no Harry, Ron or Hermione this time around. It’s 1926, and our hero is named Newt Scamander, a messy-haired, *freckle-faced young *wizard from the UK, and author of a textbook that Potter later studies at Hogwarts. And it’s from that textbook the film gets its name.

有別于先前的“哈利•波特”系列電影，這一次，電影中沒有哈利、羅恩和赫敏的身影。故事發(fā)生在1926年，頭發(fā)蓬亂、滿臉雀斑的主人公紐特•斯卡曼德是一名來自英國的年輕巫師。哈利后來在霍格沃茨魔法學校學習時，所用的一本課本便是由他所著。而這部電影的名字也源于這一課本。

Traveling from the UK, Scamander arrives in New York carrying a strange suitcase filled with magical creatures, that accidentally ends up being switched with someone else’s. The creatures are soon *unleashed upon the streets of New York, while Scamander spends the rest of the story hunting them down while fighting US authorities.

斯卡曼德帶著一個裝滿神奇動物的古怪箱子，千里迢迢從英國來到紐約。然而，這個箱子卻被意外掉包開箱，里面的神奇動物逃進了紐約城的大街小巷。在接下來的故事中，斯卡曼德不光要將神奇動物們一個個捉回來，還要和美國魔法部抗爭。

Not only providing viewers the thrill of seeing the magical creatures being chased down, the storyline of Fantastic Beasts also contains a more serious angle that relates to the real world.

《神奇動物在哪里》的故事不光令觀眾體驗了一把追擊魔法生物的驚險，也為人們觀察現(xiàn)實世界提供了一個更為嚴肅的角度。

“I dealt with some dark themes,” Rowling told The Guardian when she described writing the movie. “There was a lot of stuff in the *sewers.”

“我設計了一些暗黑主題，”羅琳在接受《衛(wèi)報》采訪時如此形容這部電影的創(chuàng)作。“下水道里有很多東西可以挖掘。”

Through the experience of Scamander, a British man in the US, the movie explores the issues of racial inequality and *discrimination toward immigrants.

這部電影借助英國人斯卡曼德在美國的歷險，深入探究了種族不平等和歧視移民的問題。

The secretive and cruel American Ministry of Magic can be seen as a reference to today’s US political structure. To Rowling, some politicians in the real world are, as she described, “worse than Voldemort”.

隱秘而又殘忍的美國魔法部則可以被視為現(xiàn)今美國政治體制的一個縮影。對羅琳而言，現(xiàn)實世界中的一些政客，用她的話來說，“比伏地魔還壞”。

Despite its make-believe premise, the themes of Fantastic Beasts are very real indeed. It’s a film about immigrants with different values and ideas, but who just might save us from ourselves. It’s about the power of whispering rather than shouting. It’s about accepting others and not holding them back.

盡管電影《神奇動物在哪里》的設定是虛構(gòu)的，但它的主題卻十分真實。電影中的移民雖然有著不同的價值觀和想法，但卻能將人們從自身的桎梏中解救出來。它推崇低聲細語的力量而非大聲怒吼。它讓人們?nèi)ソ蛹{他人而非拒人于千里之外。

Scamander’s tale of heroism could be just what we need right now, and Rowling is the only one who could tell it.

我們?nèi)缃裾眯枰箍逻@樣的英雄故事，而羅琳則是唯一一個能講述這個故事的人。