By Charly SHELTON

The magic of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter continues to grow, extending now into the summer evenings with a gigantic Patronus spell. The Nighttime Lights at Hogwarts Castle is a brand new experience in the Wizarding World at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the perfect way to end the day.

Using projection mapping, the castle of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry comes alive in a nightly show that sees magical beasts crashing through the bedrock, entwining around the towers and flying from the cliff sides. Even the walls themselves open to reveal the living and working spaces of the thousand-year-old castle. The show is narrated by the Sorting Hat, which reads students’ minds to place them in their correct house based on personality. The Sorting Hat leads the audience through a visually breathtaking light show that introduces the four houses.

“You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart. You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal,” the Sorting Hat said. “Or yet, in wise old Ravenclaw, if you’ve a ready mind. Or perhaps in Slytherin, whose cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.”

When the name of each house is said, the four mascots – lion, badger, raven and snake respectively – come to life and crawl around, over and through the walls and turrets of the castle. In the end, they come together to form the Hogwarts coat of arms, which features all four animals.

It’s a fun little show, but it is just that – little. Running just four minutes and 30 seconds, it leaves the audience wanting. This could easily be a 25-minute show and it would keep guests enthralled. This is a first effort for the projection mapping specifically and for nighttime entertainment in general for the Wizarding World, so I figure that this was just to test the waters to see how it goes. Audience reactions to the show are undeniably positive and hopefully future iterations will lengthen it and put this amazing technology to fuller use. And luckily the wait for the show isn’t too bad. It runs several times each night and there is plenty of room to see the show from the forecourt between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, so it’s not like Disneyland’s nighttime shows where you need to camp out for three hours to hold a seat.

Overall, the show was really well done and I was impressed, but I would like to see more of it. It was too good to end after less than five minutes.

Running nightly right now in front of the recently upgraded Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, which sports new 4K projectors, it’s a great way to spend a day for any Harry Potter fan.

For more information, visit UniversalStudiosHollywood.com.

  Charly Shelton