History YMMV / HarryPotterandthePhilosophersStone

* {{Moe}}: Watch the film and gush at the cuteness of Hermione, Harry and Ron!

* SpecialEffectsFailure: On the whole, the effects in this film are some of the weakest throughout the series, and served as the only film to use either Creator/SonyPicturesImageworks, Creator/RhythmAndHuse or Creator/JimHensonsCreatureShop (all of whom were going through slumps at the time, combined with the rush to get the effects done). More specific examples include:

* SpecialEffectsFailure: On the whole, the effects in this film are some of the weakest throughout the series. More specific examples include:

** Speaking of the troll incident, what was Hermione's reason for lying in the first place? Was it because she was embarrassed and didn't want to admit that she'd been crying, was it to forgive Ron and have him evade punishment, or was it both/

* SlowPacedBeginning: Notably, it takes about a third of the novel before Harry gets to Hogwarts. And quite a few children readers were turned off by the first few chapters for being too slow-paced; not to mention most of Rowling's dry satire on middle-class insecurities flying straight over their heads. The film, incidentally, pares this down somewhat, with the pre-Hogwarts section of the story reduced from covering a third of the book to a fourth of the movie.

** Also in the film, avid chess players may recognize Ron's opening move as the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_Defense Scandinavian Defense]], in which White taking the early pawn is entirely expected. Doing this lets the trio check what's going to happen when White captures while leaving them with a perfectly playable position.

** While the Slytherin house are meant to be AssholeVictims, Dumbledore bait-and-switching their House Cup celebrations by giving Gryffindor ''exactly'' enough points to win - for ostensibly rule breaking, at that - at the absolute last minute can come across as surprisingly mean spirited.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The illustrated edition, released in fall of 2015, features over a hundred stunning colour illustrations by Kate Greenaway-award-winning artist Jim Kay.

** The publisher changed the name to ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' because of concerns that children would find an artifact associated with philosophers boring. Now, thanks to popular works of fiction like ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' and ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', many young adults know what a "philosopher's stone" is.

* OutOfTheGhetto: The film. As with its literary counterpart, ''Harry Potter and the Philsopher's Stone'' broke through with a kid-skewing fantasy story that managed to pull in audiences of all ages and genders. Before then, fantasy films centred around and aimed at children typically had low budgets, indistinguished casts aside from maybe a notable actor or two who wanted a new house, and seldom had a story and world comparable to more higher-age fare. Warner Bros. was so skittish over the idea of the film falling into the ghetto that they bandied around ideas to make it palatable for American audiences, from moving the film to the U.S., aging up the characters into teenagers, making it an animated film, or making sure there was a reputable name behind the camera (Steven Spielberg emerging as a strong candidate) and in front (recent Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment was a highly rumored name for an Americanized version). J.K. Rowling, however, vetoed their ideas and strongly insisted the film stay true to the source and its British roots. As a result, WB threw all its weight behind that focus, spending blockbuster resources, grabbing cutting-edge effects houses, a laundry list of British acting legends, legendary composer John Williams, and highly successful director Chris Columbus. Hewing close to the beloved novel and marketed with an all-out blitz, the film was a massive success, scoring the biggest opening weekend of all time and finishing with the second-highest worldwide gross ever, even beating fellow ghetto-busting fantasy ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' at the money till. This opened a wave of more fantasy and YA adaptations with more resources behind it, as well as kicking off one of the most profitable series in cinematic history.

** [[IncomingHam TROLL! IN THE DUNGEON! TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!]] [''beat''] [[DissonantSerenity I thought you oughtta know.]] [''fainted''][[note]]It's memetic enough for someone to claim that after she texted her boyfriend that she was bored in her English class, said boyfriend didn't text her back but instead [[RefugeInAudacity came bursting to her classroom while yelling this and]] ''[[RefugeInAudacity then]]'' [[RefugeInAudacity collapse to the floor in the similar way Quirrell did.]] [[ActuallyPrettyFunny Apparently, the English teacher laughed so hard that he allowed his students to go home early.]][[/note]]

* WhatAnIdiot:
** In the film, Hermione says this word-for-word when Harry goes flying after Draco and the Remembrall.
** Hagrid [[spoiler:takes Harry, Ron (only in the film), Neville (in the book), Hermione and Malfoy into the Forbidden Forest to look for a Unicorn killer]] for detention. HarmfulToMinors does not begin to describe Hagrid. Then again, he didn't really know what to expect. Justified in-universe by Hagrid telling Malfoy that this is the sort of useful thing students do for detention instead of 'writing lines'.
** Vernon insults magic and threatens Harry in front of Hagrid, ''a half-giant with super strength,'' who happens to be ''from the wizarding world''. It's a good thing Hagrid isn't malicious, or Vernon would've probably ended up with a broken neck, or ''worse''.
** In the film the trio choose to visit Hagrid at night to talk about the Philosopher's Stone, which results in them getting caught and punished with detention and the loss of massive amounts of house points. Why couldn't they have gone to see him during the day, and if they had to go see him at night, why didn't they use the invisibility cloak? The book has a lesser case of this, with Harry and Hermione getting caught after [[FailedASpotCheck leaving the invisibility cloak]] on the top of a tower after giving Norbert to Charlie's friends, which was something that needed to be done discreetly.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** One moment that could be this or (even more) HilariousInHindsight is the passage in the Christmas chapter describing the Weasley Twins enchanting snowballs to bounce off the back of Professor Quirell's turban after you've read the end of the book and discovered what he's keeping under there. This arguably sails into HarsherInHindsight after ''Deathly Hallows'' has [[spoiler:Voldemort get some payback.]]
** Percy Weasley telling Harry at the Start-of-Term Feast that Dumbledore is a genius, but "a bit mad" becomes this by the fifth book, when Percy is loyal to the Ministry of Magic that's trying to make Dumbledore look like a power-hungry loon.
** Dumbledore, when asked by Harry about what he sees in the Mirror of Erised, amusingly replies that he sees himself holding a new pair of socks. WordOfGod after the seventh book has confirmed that he was lying; what he actually sees is [[spoiler:his dead sister Ariana alive and well, and his estranged brother Aberforth having forgiven him.]]
** Harry magically freeing the boa constrictor at the zoo and setting it on Dudley is funny, until you read the next book and realize Harry, unintentionally, did the same thing as Tom Riddle when the latter first opened the Chamber of Secrets. Only the fact that the snake was more interested in escaping prevented something far worse from happening.
** Sending the students to their dormitories because there is a troll in the dungeon. Turns out that's where the Slytherin Common Room is.

** The troll in the movie looks a lot like [[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} a certain ogre introduced that same year]].

** In the film the trio choose to visit Hagrid at night to talk about the Philosopher's Stone, which results in them getting caught and punished with detention and the loss of massive amounts of house points. They have no reason to do so, since they can easily visit him during the day. What's more is that they don't bring the Invisibility Cloak with them. The book has a lesser case of this, with Harry and Hermione getting caught after [[FailedASpotCheck leaving the invisibility cloak]] on the top of a tower after giving Norbert to Charlie's friends, which was something that needed to be done discreetly.

** In the film the trio choose to visit Hagrid at night to talk about the Philosopher's Stone. They have no reason to do so, since they can easily visit him during the day. What's more is that they don't bring the Invisibility Cloak with them. This part is somewhat true to the book, as Harry and Hermione mistakenly leave it on the Astronomy Tower and walk right into Filch.

** "Yes, yes, well done Slytherin, well done Slytherin - ''[[DeusExMachina HOW]][[SuddenlyShoutingEVER!]]''"[[note]]A reference to Dumbledore's last minute reversal of Slytherin's victory in the House Cup.[[/note]]

** "Yes, yes, well done Slytherin, well done Slytherin - ''[[DeusExMachina HOWEVER!]]''"[[note]]A reference to Dumbledore's last minute reversal of Slytherin's victory in the House Cup.[[/note]]

* CompleteMonster: The evilest character in the series makes his debut here (see [[Monster/HarryPotter this page for details).

* CompleteMonster: The evilest character in the series makes his debut here:
** [[Characters/HarryPotterLordVoldemort Lord Voldemort]], born [[EvilCounterpart Tom Marvolo Riddle]], is a sociopath who refuses to accept love. Obsessed with becoming all-powerful and immortal, Voldemort murdered people to rip his own soul apart and create Horcruxes, even knowing how dangerous that can be. Of those murdered were his Muggle [[{{Patricide}} father]] and grandparents, whose deaths he framed his maternal uncle for. Beginning his career proper as a Hogwarts pupil, he opened the Chamber of Secrets to let a monster loose on Hogwarts to murder all Muggle-born students, while amassing [[Characters/HarryPotterDeathEaters a cult of loyal "friends"]] to do his bidding. Deeming Muggles and Muggle-born Wizards lesser than "pure-bloods", [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Voldemort]] waged a genocidal war against them, [[BoomerangBigot despite being a half-blood himself]]. Learning of a prophecy that foretold his defeat, Voldemort murders the Title Character's parents before trying to kill baby Harry himself. Upon his return he resumes his genocide, eventually turning Magical Britain into a fascist state while trying to kill Harry no matter how many innocents or allies had to die first, even murdering the seemingly loyal Severus Snape the second he believes doing so would grant him greater power. [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse Subverting any possible tragic childhood]], it was Voldemort's unyielding choice to pursue power and hurt anyone who got in the way that defined him, set him as Harry's opposite and earned him his place as the most feared and hated Wizard for a thousand years.

* The troll in the movie looks a lot like [[WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}} a certain ogre introduced that same year]].