Fan art by Zaionczyk at DeviantArt.com
As a
kid in the 80’s, I loved watching the made-for-TV movie The Worst Witch, starring Fairuza Balk, Charlotte Rae and Tim Curry
on HBO. It was a Halloween classic. I had some of the songs replaying in my
head all the way into my adulthood (especially Tim Curry’s epic Halloween song)—so
much so that I watched some of the movie on You Tube the other day and never
realized until then just how similar Harry Potter was to it. I can’t believe I
didn’t realize it before. The similarities are too close not to be noticed.
Now,
to those of you who may not be familiar with the The Worst Witch series of books by British author Jill Murphy, the
first book was published in 1974, with sequels following in the 80’s, 90’s and
early 2000’s. So, obviously, The Worst
Witch was published way before J.K. Rowling ever conceived the idea of
Harry Potter. Besides the film that was released in 1986, there was a British
television series that ran from 1998 to 2001.
I
knew I couldn’t have been the only one to notice the similarities between Harry Potter and The Worst Witch, so I “googled” it and found some links that go
into more detail on the similarities (see them below). Now, a lot of people use
words like “rip-off” and “plagiarism”, but I don’t know if I would go that far.
I love the Harry Potter series and
there are things in the series that are crazy similar to the The Worst Witch, but J.K. Rowling
still made Harry Potter a story and world in and of itself, despite the
similarities. The only thing that kind of bothers me is that Rowling never
mentioned any inspiration from Jill Murphy’s books or the The Worst Witch film in any interview. She had to have been
influenced by Murphy’s creation. Either she just doesn’t want to admit it, or
she just forgot, or it’s just a coincidence. You be the judge.
Below
are some thoughts on this topic throughout the web:
Many critics have noted that Jill
Murphy's The Worst Witch series
(first published in 1974 by Allison
& Busby), is set in a school for girls,
"Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches", reminiscent of Hogwarts. The story concerns an awkward pupil at
a boarding-school for witches, who faces a scheming rival student. Her
professors include a kindly and elderly headmistress and a bullying,
raven-haired potions teacher. Murphy
has commented on her frustration at constant comparisons between her work and Harry
Potter: "It's irritating … everyone asks the same
question and I even get children writing to ask me whether I mind about the
Hogwarts school of witchcraft and pointing out similarities. Even worse are
reviewers who come across my books, or see the TV series, and, without taking
the trouble to find out that it's now over quarter of a century since I wrote
my first book, make pointed remarks about 'clever timing' – or say things like
'the Worst Witch stories are not a million miles from J K Rowling's books'. The
implications are really quite insulting!"
* Charles Webb at MTV.com states:
“If you squint a little, you can see a little bit of The Worst Witch making its way into J.K. Rowling's work, with the same emphasis on a parallel world of magical whimsy with its own rules of reality. I'm not saying there any kind of lift here between the two authors' work--in fact, Rowling was more concerned about her characters growing up and maturing in school than Murphy was in her own work. Not better, not worse--just different focuses.”
“If you squint a little, you can see a little bit of The Worst Witch making its way into J.K. Rowling's work, with the same emphasis on a parallel world of magical whimsy with its own rules of reality. I'm not saying there any kind of lift here between the two authors' work--in fact, Rowling was more concerned about her characters growing up and maturing in school than Murphy was in her own work. Not better, not worse--just different focuses.”
In
this precursor to the Potter books, a young girl from a Mugg – uh – non-magical
family attends a boarding school for witches. Which is in an ancient castle
surrounded by an enchanted forest. While Mildred Hubble is enrolled at Miss
Cackle's Academy for Witches, where she attends Potions, Broomstick Flying,
Chants and Charms classes, she must deal with conflicts with her classmates, a
cursed broom, and an attempt to overthrow the school. Also, Mildred and her
friends make an invisibility potion. Here's an old Geocities page listing more similarities, including
the fact that there's a mean teacher who hates the main character, and a
popular blond kid who gets off on the wrong foot with the hero on the very
first day.
* From a forum at MythicScribes.com:
Is
there a Case? The
series of Worst Witch books skews younger and tends to the lighter side of
magic than the Harry Potter books. Many of the similarities are of the
superficial, non-copyrightable type, though Murphy got there first.
I am sure that Jill
Murphy's The Worst Witch is actually the roots of Harry Potter, even though J.K. Rowling has never admitted
that. There are simply too many similarities between both worlds for it to be a
coincidence, and if Murphy never sued I guess that it's because she did not
want to suffer all the hassle.
Just consider these unusual coincidences:
1- Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches is a lonely castle, surrounded by forest.
2- The castle is invisible to non-magical people.
3- There is a village nearby the castle.
4- The forest is forbidden to the students.
5- Mildred Hubble comes from a non-magical background.
6- Mildred has two best friends, Maud and Enid.
7- Mildred has a cat.
8- Miss Hardbroom (scary potions teacher) hates Mildred.
9- Elitist fellow student from an elitist family of Witches hates Mildred.
10- Benevolent, warm-hearted Headmistress loves and helps Mildred.
11- The first year students take special lessons to learn to fly with broomsticks.
12- Miss Cackle's Academy was founded by a witch called Hermione Cackle.
All of these sound familiar, right? There are other similarities, these are just a few!!
Now, if Harry Potter had come first then everyone would scream that The Worst Witch is a Harry Potter rip-off, but in fact the first Mildred Hubble book was written back in 1974... J.K. Rowling is a wonderful writer and a superb storyteller and there are also many differences between WW and HP, but I think that all HP fans (myself included) should accept that WW is actually the roots.
* The
fan art by Zaionczyk on DeviantArt.com is a fun comparison which illustrates the
similarities. A portion of the artwork is shown above for this post, but you
can see the whole thing here.
* Lastly,
below is a video that someone posted on a Worst Witch fan channel on You Tube…
Just consider these unusual coincidences:
1- Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches is a lonely castle, surrounded by forest.
2- The castle is invisible to non-magical people.
3- There is a village nearby the castle.
4- The forest is forbidden to the students.
5- Mildred Hubble comes from a non-magical background.
6- Mildred has two best friends, Maud and Enid.
7- Mildred has a cat.
8- Miss Hardbroom (scary potions teacher) hates Mildred.
9- Elitist fellow student from an elitist family of Witches hates Mildred.
10- Benevolent, warm-hearted Headmistress loves and helps Mildred.
11- The first year students take special lessons to learn to fly with broomsticks.
12- Miss Cackle's Academy was founded by a witch called Hermione Cackle.
All of these sound familiar, right? There are other similarities, these are just a few!!
Now, if Harry Potter had come first then everyone would scream that The Worst Witch is a Harry Potter rip-off, but in fact the first Mildred Hubble book was written back in 1974... J.K. Rowling is a wonderful writer and a superb storyteller and there are also many differences between WW and HP, but I think that all HP fans (myself included) should accept that WW is actually the roots.
JK.Rowling owes Jill Murphy a massive debt. It's about time she acknowledged the fact.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
DeletePotter is a total rip off! Rowling needs to give Jill Murphy some credit and a bag load of money.
ReplyDeletePotter has a couple of simularities to the worst witch. it's not a rip-off, it's a thousand times better than the worst witch.
DeleteWhy does she need to do that? Because of a few superficial similarities? It's like saying every Mills and Boon owes money to Jane Austen or every high fantasy writer owes money to Tolkien. Harry Potter has a few similarities but the characters are not the same. Even if the story starred Hermione Granger as the main character, you can't cry "plagiarism". The relationship between the characters is different and the overall plot is very different. Rowling didn't "rip off" so much as borrowed ideas. Show me a Quidditch match in The Worst Witch or even a divination lesson. Show me four houses in Miss Cackle's academy that are similar to the Hogwarts four. Authors borrow ideas from other authors all the time. You can't sue for infringement unless the story is exactly the same in appearance, location and events albeit with different character names. Even if somebody rewrote Harry Potter with Harry as a vampire going to a special academy for Vampires, it would qualify as a new series. Only if the series is exactly the same albeit with Harry's name becoming "Marty", or something like that, you can file a suit.
ReplyDeleteIt is precisely the Quidditch match that gives the game away. In the film with Fairuza Balk (and Diana Rigg!) there is the exact same game, including the vandalising of the broom by one of the students, Mildred flying erratically and the rest. The whole sequence is exactly the same. If J.K.Rowling had only replicated the type of school, it would just about have been acceptable, but the first Harry Potter is extremely similar to the Film The Worst Witch. From then on, all the padding and special effects don't really add much to the original idea. What is really annoying is that when asked where the idea of Harry Potter came from, she said she was travelling by train and suddenly the whole thing formed in her mind. Nobody ever had the guts to asked her about The Worst Witch.
DeleteSo while you are arguing that she didn’t “rip off” anything, you do seem to be admitting that she borrowed ideas - and in this case she borrowed basically the whole premise. Yes, a lot of people do it, I just don’t respect people who don’t admit their influences.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteTotally agree! Just started to watch the Worst Witch remake and in every episode there is something Pottery- I also thought it was Jill who copied Rowling, but WTF this is not fair! she should give credit to Jill Murphy!
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious where she got the idea for HP. She should acknowedge that fact at least. Too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteThe similarities are more than superficial. The dynamic between the main character and her blonde, rich, antagonist, and the whimsical/partially crazy headmaster and the potions master who keeps trying to get her kicked out. It is true that Mildred is more of a Neville.
ReplyDeleteYou should also look at Eva Ibbotson. Several of her books were also similar in some ways to Harry Potter, especially The Secret of Platform 13, which bears too many similarities to the first book to be a pure coincidence. I have also seen elements from other stories.
However, the Potter books are much better written than the other books. there was a depth to the characters and a richness of the prose that I did not appreciate in the other books. Unfortunately I have not felt the same way about her post Potter books.
Hola! Escribo de Argentina. Es una pena que no haya una entidad en defensa de los verdaderos literatos para defender a los reales escritores (jill Murphy) que con su intuición y creatividad han llegado a lograr su obra.
ReplyDeleteI used to believe that the main conflict, this is evil v/s good where the boy has to save the world from this evil person who only needs one thing to become master of the universe, was of course based on many books, you only have to add "the prophesy" to make it less original, but I still loved the books because for me, the originality and core of the story was the fact that Rowling had turned witchcraft into a proper leveled study, with teachers, subjects and all that. Me, being a teacher myself treasured that and as I said used to believe that this writer had been so smart and original, but like a week ago, I started watchin "The Worst Witch" the 1998 series and I was like...OMG, this is a copy of Harry...but yeah, I was very sad that what I loved the most of the whole Harry Potter series, was of course, a fraud. I'll read Mrs. Murray's books as soon as possible.
ReplyDelete