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"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was a very bad movie. Ignore the hype for a moment and the movie starts to look like a hodge-podge of disconnected scenes that are utterly dependent on loving and intimate knowledge of the book or submission to the J.K. Rowling/Warning Brothers juggernaut reality-distortion field to make any sort of sense.

Which brings me to an interesting take on the movie from a comic book artist named Brad Neely. Mr. Neely never read the book and seems a little too laid back to be taken in by a reality-distortion field. So, he re-dubbed the film to make it a bit more sensible. The alternate soundtrack may be a fair use of the Harry Potter franchise, but as we all know, the MPAA doesn't give a rat's ass about such trivial things as Constitutional rights. And so, the work resides on the rebel Illegal Art web site until squashed by a writ.

In the re-dub, the characters' names and motivations get a little confused from time to time and Harry's alcoholism adds a both drama and comedy relief. The narrator's voice is often grating, but it never gets quite as dull as the original work. Back when VCR's were new and interesting gadgets, my friends used to re-dub movies like "Star Wars" and "Highlander," but the combination of ubiquitous FBI copyright warnings and the ease with which anyone can make redubs on a computer (making it far less cool to do so) seem to have killed the sport.

Multimedia companies have a tight hold on this nation's balls. It's refreshing to see a little friendly rebellion now and then.