Monitor reviewer Yvonne Zipp began her 2000 review of Book No. 4 – "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" – with a confession. "I expected this review to be titled 'Harry Potter and the Curse of the Bestseller List,'" she wrote. "Potter-mania has reached such absurd proportions, there seemed to be no way the book (despite its Hagridesque dimensions) could equal expectations. I was wrong."
She noted that within this book "the World Quidditch Cup is far more exhilarating than any Super Bowl game, and the triwizard championship offers plenty of soaring fantasy – and a chance for Harry and the readers to learn about the other schools of wizardry."
However, she added, the book is "just too scary for kids under 12." Since, realistically, "there's no way kids are going to put the books down for a year or two," Zipp suggested that "parents read the last 100 pages with anyone under 5 feet."
Reviews of the 2005 movie version of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" were largely positive. The New York Daily News gave a thumbs up to both its humor and its dark tone.
