Harry Potter is usually heavily protected as a trademark, but a 42-hour film adaptation exists that brazenly copies J.K. Rowling’s story and passes it off as its own.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was the 2001 film adaptation of the first J.K. Rowling book about little Harry, who learns he is a wizard and is sent to the magical school Hogwarts. In Indonesia, 18 years later, the story “Alfa” was written, in which a boy discovers his magical heritage and subsequently goes to a magical school. Coincidence? Or a brazen clone who (so far unchallenged) is riding the Harry Potter wave?
Indonesian Harry Potter copy passes off similarities as coincidence
Sometimes it takes a little longer for plagiarism to be discovered. Or until it becomes big enough to be punished by the brand owner. Behind the unauthorised Harry Potter variation Alfa is the Indonesian production company MD Entertainment . And it seems to have escaped the eye of the Harry Potter copyright watchdogs for the past four years.
“Any similarities in this story to characters and locations are pure coincidence,” it says at the beginning of each of the 40 episodes, roughly translated. But when the protagonist living with his aunt and uncle receives a magical school invitation that his relatives tear up, only to be bombarded by owl mail, it should be clear after just 3 minutes that the parallels are a little too obvious to pass for coincidence.
Here you can watch all 42 hours of the Harry Potter copy Alfa:
Even the cheap sets and poor effects can’t hide the fact that Harry Potter’s bespectacled twin is living through his predecessor’s adventure. A few “highlights” in the first episode:
When three-headed dragons suddenly appear or the beardless Hagrid sneezes a door down, the Indonesian series certainly fills its plot with its own ideas – but whether that makes it better?
