The making of Harry Potter, the movie

MANILA, Philippines - The story starts in the cupboard under the stairs, and that’s where Muggles also start their tour of the Warner Bros. studio dedicated to the making of the Harry Potter film franchise.

Visitors to Leavesden Studios, which Warner Bros. refurbished at a cost of $160 million, take a train from London’s Euston Station rather than King’s Cross — the setting for platform 9 — where Harry and his classmates took the Hogwarts Express.

But the tour of the studio — originally a World War II airdrome 30 kilometers north of London — recreates the magic of the film franchise well enough to satisfy the most diehard Potter fan.

The sprawling studio, which opened on March 31 this year, features real sets, props and costumes actually used in the Harry Potter movies. The studio is located near Watford in Hertfordshire, where all eight films in the franchise were shot.

From the cupboard that served as the young Harry’s bedroom in his relatives’ home, the tour opens into a hall where visitors meet the people behind the movies, speaking on multiple screens.

Then visitors are led to the main entrance of Hogwarts Castle. The large, ornate doors open, and the magic begins.

Kids screamed in excitement as a tour guide pointed out interesting spots at the Hogwarts dining hall, at the end of which is the professors’ platform, complete with life-size replicas of the wizards who run the school, led by Albus Dumbledore.

From the Great Hall, visitors can explore the other parts of the castle, including Harry’s dormitory quarters, the common room of his Gryffindor House, Dumbledore’s office, and Professor Snape’s Potions room.

In an open area connecting the two warehouse-size sections of the studios, visitors can see No. 4 Privet Drive while drinking butterbeer (a toffee-flavored cream soda) sold in a stall near Hagrid’s flying motorcycle and Tom Riddle’s Gravestone.

You’ll see Hagrid’s hut and his pet Hippogriff, Buckbeak, and learn how a combination of silicon special effects and animatronics turned him into a giant on screen.

When you enter Diagon Alley, where dragon liver and Ollivander’s magic wands are on display alongside the Puking Pastilles created by the Weasley brothers, you are completely transported into the world of wizards.

Elsewhere in the studios you learn about how the candles at the Great Hall were made to float, and how “greenscreen” visual effect was used to shoot those scenes of cars and wizards flying on broomsticks and playing Quidditch. This is where visitors get souvenir photos, in wizard costume and riding a broomstick over London.

All the Potter props are on display: the Sorting Hat, the owls, the ride into Gringotts, the Quidditch snitch, the Goblet of Fire, issues of The Daily Prophet, plus sets that use a technique called forced perspective.

Video shows explain how white card models were used before Hogwarts Castle was developed. You can peer into an office in the Ministry of Magic and inspect the massive door to the Chamber of Secrets. There’s Dobby the Elf, the Death Eaters, a huge Aragog and all the other strange beasts that author J.K. Rowling created in her hugely popular books.

The tour ends with the spectacular 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts, which was used for exterior shots in the first six installments of the franchise. Visitors learn that the model alone, which has some 3,000 fiber optic lights that are switched on in the dark, took six months to build.

OK, the tour actually ends at the gift shop — but which themed destination doesn’t? Besides, the shop offers enough souvenirs for Potter fans, from peppermint frogs sold on Diagon Alley to a Horcrux ring to wands and school clothing for every one of the Hogwarts houses: Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Voldemort’s Slytherin and, of course, Harry’s Gryffindor.

The souvenirs don’t come cheap; a lollipop costs 3.95 pounds (over P260 as of yesterday). But there must be a market for that kind of merchandise. Diehard fans can splurge on a Dumbledore robe, at a whopping 495.95 pounds (nearly P32,900). Entrance fees start at 21 and 28 pounds for children and adults, respectively; tour groups can charge different rates.

The studio was crowded on a weekday when I went there earlier this month, despite the awful weather at the start of winter. The Potter film series is over but Pottermania may endure for a couple more years.

For Potter fans, Warner Bros. Leavesden Studios is surely a welcome addition to the traditional tourist destinations in London.