Captivatingly brilliant, the Harry Potter franchise and author J.K. Rowling do it again with another unforgettable blockbuster. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes wizards, witches, muggles, no-majs, and fans of all ages on the adventure of a lifetime, exploring the American counterpart to the Wizarding community in 1920s New York City.

Newt Scamander, self-proclaimed magizoologist, is a former Hogwarts student with an obsession for magical beasts. He sets off from his home in London and heads to America where he hopes to release one of his creatures (the Thunderbird) to Arizona where she belongs. He ports in New York before he can head west, and this is where his plans begin to sadly fall apart.

Scamander keeps all of his beasts in a magical brown briefcase, and when it is mistaken for muggle (or no-maj, as the American wizards say) Jacob Kowalski’s briefcase, the creatures get loose and the plot begins.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows the story of Scamander and his companions as they struggle to recapture all of his lost beasts while fighting a new looming threat to the American wizards.

When brought onto the big screen, this imaginary world looks far from fake. The beasts are larger than life and move with such ease across the screen, it is as if they were living and breathing their mayhem right in front of you.

The actors themselves were also perfectly cast and took on the traits of their characters as if they were their own. Actors Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander) and Don Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) especially stood out, as their characters called for a relationship that bloomed quickly and created a solid bond of trust within the first few scenes.

Of course what was on screen are not the only attributes that deserve recognition. Director David Yates filmed the final four movies of the Harry Potter series, so when he was assigned to be the director of Fantastic Beasts, it was sure that “Potterheads” everywhere could sleep at night knowing their film was in good hands.

Overall, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a stunning addition to the world of Harry Potter with unforeseen plot twists and engaging comic relief when things became too serious. This, of course, is not the end, as there are rumors that this is the first movie of a series of four that will soon follow!