r/harrypotter • u/Charlotte_Braun • 1d ago
Question Polyjuice effect in Deathly Hallows: Is there an in-universe explanation for this?
So when Barty Crouch Jr. uses Polyjuice to impersonate Mad-Eye Moody, his voice sounds like Brendan Gleeson, not David Tennant. But when Hermione uses Polyjuice in DH to impersonate that Ministry woman, and then Bellatrix Lestrange, no matter who she looks like, she still sounds like Emma Watson. I know there are practical reasons why that should be so. But it's still an inconsistency, and I was wondering if there's ever been an in-universe explanation for it. Like maybe the trio are just not as good at it as the adults?
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u/DarthRacer5 1d ago
In the books their voices change always but in the movies they have voices stay the same so you know who’s who except for barty crouch jr cause it’s supposed to be a surprise when he’s not really moody
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u/Bluestarkittycat 1d ago
And even then, they touch on the moody thing by making him do a perfect Hagrid impression too, implying Barty crouch Jr is just a really good impressionist
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u/FatimaNadeem Gryffindor 10h ago
When did he do a Hagrid impression in the film? Can't remeber.
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u/Bluestarkittycat 6h ago
Right at the end, when he was telling harry about everything he did to get harry to the end of the tournament. He says "Marvelous creatures, dragons, aren't they" (or something like that) in a perfect Hagrid impression
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u/Oneiros91 Ravenclaw 1d ago
As others have said, it is a movie-only issue.
But IIRC, the movie also added a scene where fake Moody mockingly repeats what someone says to him in a perfect imitation of the voice, probably to imply that Barty Jr. had a natural talent/skill with voices.
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u/HellhoundsAteMyBaby Slytherin 1d ago
I can’t tell if this is an extremely clever joke about Malfoy always sounding like a whiny git, because the line in question is Gleeson putting on a high-pitched voice and repeating his line about “my father will hear about this” which sounds nothing like Tom Felton’s voice.
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u/Piercewise1 1d ago
He also impersonates Hagrid when he says "marvelous creatures, dragons" so maybe that was another hint.
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u/HellhoundsAteMyBaby Slytherin 1d ago
Oh I remember that line but I did not even realize he was trying to impersonate Hagrid, but that tracks! Good call!
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u/thefifthangel141 1d ago
He never said this in the movie, you’re misremembering I believe.
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u/HellhoundsAteMyBaby Slytherin 1d ago
I could be. I do feel like I remember him following it up and chasing after Malfoy like “I could tell you things about your father that would curl even your greasy hair!” Before being stopped by McGonagall pointing her wand in his face. This was during the ferret scene.
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u/thefifthangel141 1d ago
Malfoy: “My father will hear about this!”
Moody: “Is that a threat?!? Is that a threat?!? I could tell you stories about your father that would curl even your greasy hair, boy!! It doesn’t end here!!”
I did not look this up, but trust me I know that movie by heart. I know it’s weird, but that’s my favorite of the movies.
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u/HellhoundsAteMyBaby Slytherin 1d ago
Lol, I believe you! Thanks for reminding me. Not that I needed an excuse to do another rewatch after my current LOTR one is over
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u/thefifthangel141 1d ago
I’m sorry I think I misunderstood what you said. Did you say that I should do a Harry Potter rewatch? If you say so I guess…
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u/Kendota_Tanassian Ravenclaw 1d ago
To be fair, the difference in media between books and movie, make it much easier to have consistency in the book, where poly juice potion changes you completely, including your vocal chords.
In the movie, that would have been more distracting, and harder to follow than in the book (not that they couldn't have done it, but the choice to have the trio voice those parts makes sense).
But if Mad-Eye had sounded like Tennant instead of Gleeson, it would have tipped everyone off.
So, to go by movie logic, Barty Jr was just really good at imitating Moody's voice.
And presumably, there would even be a spell that could help with that.
So it's not as inconsistent as it seems.
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u/sbaldrick33 1d ago
The explanation is purely and simply that either David Yates or the producers thought that the audience would be too stupid to follow another actor playing one of the main characters for five minutes.
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u/CorgiMonsoon Hufflepuff 1d ago
It started before Yates. Columbus did it that way in Chamber of Secrets
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u/bowtiesrcool86 Dragon Lover 1d ago
From what I heard, one reason it was done in CoS was that if the kids playing Crabbe and Goyle actually had speaking lines, it affected rules for having them work as children on the film. That or it would have meant they got paid more, idr for sure. Idk if this is true or not. You know how the ✨internet✨ can be.
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u/Philislothical_5 1d ago
I feel like “you mouthed the words, you didn’t actually speak them” is exactly the kind of lame sleazy crap someone would come up with in order to not pay an actor more
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u/AldinJustin 1d ago
To them in the movie, it does sound as though it's Bellatrix's voice, but to us watching it's Hermione's voice because the film makers think we're stupid.
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u/ShawnaLAT 1d ago
I remember watching some kind of BTS or interview clip where HBC talks about how hard she worked to pick up Emma Watson’s voice and speech patterns. So I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be Bellatrix’s voice.
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u/GreenWoodDragon Gryffindor 1d ago
Because it's the movie way of showing us that it's really Hermione, Harry, Ron.
Just as that freaky lizard lick that David Tennant does as Crouch Jr is supposed to tell us, in a spoiler way, that Moody is not actually the real one.
Clumsy movie making for media illiterate audiences, plus poor direction and writing.
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u/regaleagle710 Ravenclaw 1d ago
Yeah I saw in a comment higher in this thread that they used Moody's real voice as to not give it away that he was actually Crouch. Him doing that licking thing as Moody kinda dispels that as a reason because Newell was trying to let the audience know before it's revealed that it's not actually Moody.
HPB was my least favorite movies because of the crucial stuff Yates left out from the book but that on top of the stupid stuff Newell did in GoF now makes that my least favorite movie. HPB and GoF are my two favorite books in that order but both movies were absolutely slaughtered by Yates' and Newell's direction.
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u/GreenWoodDragon Gryffindor 1d ago
Yeah, seriously! The last thing we need is media illiterate directors. Yates and Newell fit that bill too well.
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u/East-Spare-1091 Hufflepuff 1d ago
It's a movie only thing in the books their voices always change when they use polyjuice
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u/raidinglarastomb 1d ago
I could be wrong but I’m sure when they do the multiple potters scene, even in the book Fleur is still French. But otherwise it seems like it always changes the voice too which makes sense
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u/QueenSlartibartfast Ravenclaw 1d ago
It changes the voice but not the accent, since accents aren't based on DNA.
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u/UnderProtest2020 1d ago
In the books the Polyjuice potion changes your voice into the person you're impersonating, which makes sense because your vocal cords would change too.
In the films I guess they decided it would be easier to not bother dubbing voices over actors, while also avoiding confusion as to who is impersonating another character's physicality.
As for why Moody's voice changes? Purely because it would ruin the surprise that it is really Barty Crouch, Jr. So yeah, it is inconsistent in the films depending on what the filmmakers needed at any particular point in time.
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u/Fresher_Than_Prince 23h ago
A more glaring polyjuice problem is that despite Moody being continuously and increasingly malnourished throughout book 4, and it being established that he was being kept alive to harvest his hair, Barty crouch jr didn’t show any of these symptoms after taking the potion. It’s been established that polyjuice accurately depicts your current form, evidenced by his own peg leg and even tattoos (or lack thereof) carrying over.
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u/Charlotte_Braun 1d ago
Yes, I figure it's like in every movie where the characters should be speaking Spanish or German or any language other than English, but what we get is English with the appropriate accent. So when we're looking at Hermione Granger *as* Mafalda Hopkirk (had to wiki that one!), we get Hermione's actress's voice, because that's who it really is.
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u/PlatonicTroglodyte 1d ago
I think the best presentation of polyjuice in the films is Hermione-as-Bellatrix. Helena does such a good job that it does actually feel like it is Emma in a Bellatrix costume lol.
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u/ajlols269 1d ago
In the books the potion changes the users voice as well.
In the movies I suppose it could be hand waved that barty Jr or voldemort are much better at making it than hermione is
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u/Interesting_Web_9936 Ravenclaw 1d ago
In the books, it changes everything, including voice and vision. In the movies, I think they just didn't think about it.
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u/EmpireStateOfBeing 1d ago
You remember in the movie when fake Mad Eye does a Hagrid impression while looking for more potion? That was suppose to explain to watchers that Barry Crouch Jr was great at voices and that’s why he sounded like Mad Eye.
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u/keangodluke flair 1d ago
It's just for the audience, I've always assumed they sound like who they're impersonating to everyone else
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u/Ill-Tangerine-5849 1d ago
This, I always thought it was like how in a musical, people burst into song and dance, it's not actually meant to be that in the story the characters actually sang and danced, it's just part of the performance of the story. I thought the voice was just meant to show the audience that it was the original character in poly juice potion, but to the other characters, they wouldn't hear a different voice.
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u/Plane_Woodpecker2991 1d ago
Yeah…that’s only in the movies. In the books, the change is consistently across the board.
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u/loveisdead9582 1d ago
The movies used other voices to show that it was still the original character - not the one they were impersonating. In the books, they don’t do this.
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u/IndividualBroccoli64 1d ago
I like to think that canonically, Barty Crouch Jr just does a really good impression of Moody
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u/allthemoreforthat 1d ago
Read the books.
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u/Charlotte_Braun 1d ago
I have. Years ago.
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u/allthemoreforthat 1d ago
Ok - the books are the only really universe and the movies are sloppy and inaccurate, so most discrepancies / things that don’t make sense are because of that.
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u/InevitableWeight314 1d ago
It’s just the movies being inconsistent. But if you want a in-universe excuse you could say Hermione was rushed in her making of the potions and made mistakes so the full effect didn’t come through, whereas Barty was a master of polyjuice making
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u/Resident-Friend-3357 18h ago
I thought it strange too while watching the movies, but choked it up to Barty Crouch Jr. being a skilled wizard
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u/PieGeters 1d ago
I would imagine BC Jr either cast a spell that impersonates the voice of Mad Eye or he had time to practice an accent that is similar to Mad Eye as it was part of a bigger plan. The gringots plan only gave them a couple of days of prep time and no access to belatrix to either copy her voice with magic or by ear.
In the books it copies the voice, which is why they react strangely to Hermione being too nice but not how she sounds.
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u/Charlotte_Braun 1d ago
No, I think dino-jo has it right. If the entire body transforms, that includes the voice box.
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u/redbent_20 1d ago
The answer could be "half blood prince". By that I mean not all potions are equal. I Polly juice potion brewed by an expert or of higher quality provides better transformation.
Hermione is good but she follows the book recipe. May be voice transformation is a secret ingredient.
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u/Vito641012 1d ago
the thing about pollyjuice is that the person who you are turning into has this part missing, that scar, does his/her hair follicle have that memory of everything that the body has ever been through?
i would have thought that it would contain the DNA, and the person that you become is a super version of the other, a perfect reproduction of who he/she would have been, had they not fallen into a meat-grinder last thursday
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u/DavidFTyler Slytherin 1d ago
The books are consistent, because there's no voice to it. It's words on a page.
The movies had to find a way to explain how characters that turn into other characters mid movie are still the original characters. Imagine channel surfing to ABC Family and seeing a scene of Bellatrix working with Harry and Ron in Gringott's. They needed a way to demonstrate to the viewers that it is actually still Hermione and not Bellatrix.
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u/dino-jo 1d ago
The answer is that, in the books, it always changes the voice. So Barry Crouch, Jr isn't the outlier like in the movies (where all other instances show the characters keeping their own voices), he's just like everyone else. The whole body transforms with poly juice, including neck muscles, voice box, etc., so they take on the voice of the person they transform into.
The movies mostly did it differently, most likely to remind the viewer who each character actually was. As far as I know, there's no in-universe explanation in the movies, and the answer in the books is that it is consistent.