In a word, Fantastic. This extension of the Harry Potter world will have people stupefied with excitement. The film follows the story of a Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) in the 1920’s as he journeys from Britain to New York. J.K. Rowling shows us the American style of wizardry from their style of government to changing the name of Muggle to No-Mag (Non-Magic). The Harry Potter character, Gellert Grindelwald, also makes an appearance on the time frame during his period on the lam. Now Rowling Fans everywhere can dig deeper into the mysterious tale of Grindelwald, who was not mentioned much in the books but still is a very important character.

Scamander has been in New York for a few hours before he has broken the wizarding law because, even though magical creature breeding is tolerated in Britain, America is not so lenient on the topic. New York however has a larger problem as an unknown creature is destroying parts of the city and the Wizarding community is no closer than the No-Mags on finding what it is. But maybe all they need, is a master of Fantastic Beasts.

Scamander travels New York in search of some of his creatures that had escaped from his expandable suitcase and travels with the help of ex-auror, Porpentina Goldstein ( Katherine Waterston) and No-Mag Jacob Kowalski ( Dan Fogler). These connections between the characters happen very quickly through the movie, leaving the audience a little confused from the speed of progression. The characters work well together as No-Mag humor is mixed in with the character of Kowalski- a potential entrepreneur who happens to be caught up in the action from Scamander’s carelessness. Law-abiding Goldstein contrasts with the doing what must be done attitude of Scamander as they travel the town looking for the magical beasts.

The beasts themselves showed amazing imagination and design from having a naughty niffler, to a thunderbird named Frank. Scamander is a huge environmentalist and shows the moral that, “We need to protect these creatures from the most dangerous species, humans.”