‘Fantastic Beasts’ proves enjoyable, even for non-‘Harry Potter’ fans

I didn’t hate it!

Look, I don’t have anything against Harry Potter fans. They seem like a good-natured, if somewhat excitable, lot. I’ve just never had much in common with them. That’s why I’ve spent the past few months dreading the spinoff, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

I saw the first movie — I believe it was called “Harry Potter and I’d Rather Be Stoned” — reluctantly, recently and under duress from an ex-girlfriend. I was not impressed.

In fact, here’s everything I know about the Wizarding World: Hogwarts, Dumbledore, Muggles, quidditch, butterbeer and the fact that Rupert Grint sounds more like the name of a “Harry Potter” character than Ron Weasley, the one he portrayed.

Mercifully, “Fantastic Beasts” has very little to do with any of that. For starters, all of the principal characters are full-grown adults, the audience for whom it was (mostly) designed.

Written by J.K. Rowling and directed by David Yates, who helmed the last four “Harry Potter” movies, “Fantastic Beasts” follows magizoologist Newt Scamander (Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne) as he arrives in New York in 1926 carrying a suitcase full of the titular beasts.

Anti-wizarding sentiment is on the rise, fueled by the New Salem Philanthropic Society, its leader, Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton), and Credence (Ezra Miller), her adopted son whose Moe-from-The Three Stooges haircut is the least of the abuses heaped on him.

When one of Newt’s beasts — a pimped-out platypus-type thing that steals anything shiny and valuable it can get its paws/claws on — gets loose, he follows it into the same bank where cannery worker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) is seeking a loan to open a bakery. Their suitcases accidentally get swapped — as movie suitcases are wont to do — sending Jacob home with all sorts of bizarre critters and leaving Newt with a bunch of baked goods.

Seeing Newt use his magic in public — a major violation, as the Magical Congress of the USA is trying to avoid exposure and a war with humans, “X-Men”-style — former investigator Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) arrests Newt in an attempt to escape her banishment to the wand permitting office.

But when Jacob, a No-Maj (American for Muggle), accidentally lets some of the creatures escape, it’s up to him, Newt, Tina and her mind-reading sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol), to round them up and avert disaster. And, while they’re at it, they’re forced to contend with Obscurials, powerful dark magic described as “a dark wind with eyes.”

Newt was expelled from Hogwarts and has devoted his life to rescuing and protecting these animals like a mystical Marlin Perkins. When he heads down into his magical suitcase, it opens up into a world, as Willy Wonka would say, of pure imagination.

And, oh the merchandising potential! There’s a Swooping Evil, which Newt flings like a yo-yo, and an Erumpent, a horny, glowing, rhinoceros-looking beast whose scent Newt sprays himself with before “presenting himself” to it to recapture it. There’s a Niffler, a Bowtruckle, a Demiguise and an Occamy. And don’t forget the Murtlaps, Billywigs, Mooncalves and Graphorns.

Theater managers should hand exiting moviegoers a catalog: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Buy Them.”

Newt and Tina feel like fully formed characters, but Jacob and Queenie are pure 1920s caricatures, the type you’d expect to find in a touring production of “Guys and Dolls and Wizards.”

A subplot involving a newspaper baron (Jon Voight) and his sons goes nowhere. And at times, the filmmakers deploy magic more for the impressive visuals — “Fantastic Beasts” has production values out the wazoo — than any practical purpose. (Really? You couldn’t reach six inches for that glass? You had to make it fly over to you?)

There’s an awful lot of world building to do in “Fantastic Beasts,” so future installments — this is the first of a planned five-part series — should run smoother. But there’s already plenty to like about Newt and the gang.

The result isn’t nearly as fantastic as the beasts.

But at least I didn’t hate it.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch.