The video: With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 gearing up for a big summer release — and its three stars now old enough to become legally drunk in America — it's easy to forget how young, precocious, and green Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint were when they started shooting the first movie. Here's a simple reminder: A snippet of the magical trio's first screen test together, filmed more than 10 years ago, has been spliced into a teaser for the franchise's final installment. (Watch the video below.) Even during that initial screen test, Hermione was already chastising the boys for their failure to study.
The reaction: "Ah, youth!" says Darren Franich at Entertainment Weekly. With the looming finale promising to be ominous, violent, and "emotionally brutalizing for audiences," this clip is at least "a flashback to happier times." I've barely survived to say, adds Amanda Dobbins at New York, the video is "unbearably cute." And look how far the three performers have come, says Christopher Rosen at Movieline. In this old clip, "They're such bad actors!" See for yourself:
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