History YMMV / HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban

* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper: All three main characters in the console version. While you're wandering around, whoever you aren't playing as at the moment will ''constantly'' remind you where you need to be, what you need to be doing, or just drop endless CaptainObvious hints.

** To an extent, the one against Ravenclaw, but it has a little more plot-relevance, as it introduces Cho and is where Harry first manages to cast a really successful patronus.

* ShippingGoggles: The series has enough of this to fill a page, but this entry probably has the best example, what has been dubbed "The Symbolic Flight." This theory states that because Harry and Hermione flew together on Buckbeak without Ron, that they are destined to be together -- ignoring the fact that Ron was only not present because he broke his leg earlier, or that it's most likely there to make up for Hermione missing out on so much in ''Chamber of Secrets'', where Harry and Ron flew a car, and then had adventures while [[spoiler:Hermione, like Ron in this book, was passed out and missing in the climax]]. This theory also ignores the fact that Hermione doesn't like flying or Quidditch, and this book reveals that Harry prefers girls who ''do'' like flying and Quidditch.

** Hagrid calls out Ron for valuing his pet over his friendship with Hermione when it seems that Crookshanks has eaten Scabbers. [[spoiler:The narrative reveals that Crookshanks knew that Scabbers wasn't a real rat but didn't tell anyone besides Sirius, despite the fact that the Gryffindor Head of House is also an Animagus; Pettigrew took the opportunity to fake his death]]. Here is the thing: Crookshanks's first encounter with Ron was ''attacking him'' and going for Scabbers. From the pet witch's reaction -- "NO CROOKSHANKS NO!" it's reasonable for Ron to believe that Crookshanks is a bit trigger-happy and he ends up being right that the cat was aiming for his pet. The other thing is that Hermione for most of the book refuses to do anything about Crookshanks attacking Scabbers, defending his violent behaviour as acting like a cat because of CatsAreMean by nature. While one could attribute it to Hermione being overworked and not thinking things through, it's an insensitive thing to say. Harry acknowledges this because the evidence points to Crookshanks having eaten Scabbers. Ron even says that he'd forgive Hermione if she just apologized rather than acting like "Scabbers was on vacation," because imagine if ''your'' pet was seemingly EatenAlive with his blood left on your bedsheets. [[spoiler:Pettigrew faking his death ends up resolving the situation]]. And indeed, he does forgive her when she finally apologizes tearfully after he promises to help her with Buckbeak's case.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: In the console versions, one of Harry's Abilities that Ron or Hermione can't do is climb ropes to reach higher places. Since ropes only appear in two areas in the whole game, you'll forget they even exist shorty after using them.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Malfoy has gotten a lot of sympathy from some fans for his injury and see his parents complaints about Buckbeak being justified. This completely ignores that not only was he clearly faking the severity of his injury, but that he explicitly ignored Hagrid's instructions to the class to not insult the hippogriffs.
* EndingFatigue: Not ''too'' bad, but off to [[spoiler:see Buckbeak get executed - diverted to shrieking shack, long PlotDump, Werewolf ensues, time turner, going ''back though the evening'']] and THEN it's over. Depending on your point of view, it either is a tense, fast-paced moment filled with story revelations or feels like too much got crammed in at the end and these should have been sprinkled throughout.

** In the scene in the book where Harry summons the Patronus, it charges the Dementors, ramming them out of the way from his past self and Hermione. In the movie, it just stands there.
** The final scene of Harry riding his new Firebolt gets a horribly smeared freeze-frame to end the film on.
*** While this was supposedly meant to be an inverse of the effect used with the Dementors feasting on happiness, to show Harry's happiness in contrast to the sadness brought on by the Dementors, the idea does not translate well onscreen.

* BreatherLevel: "Buckbeak" in the console versions only has one task: go to Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class and play the Hippogriff flight minigame. The level ends when you do good enough in the minigame.

* SalvagedStory: It's often felt that the Time Turner reveal comes a little too out of nowhere, with only mild bits of foreshadowing that are easy to miss, and [[spoiler: Harry saving his past self casting the Patronus]] is almost completely out of left field. The film builds up to it more by having Hermione turn up out of nowhere during classes, and adding in more instances of [[spoiler: Harry and Hermione's future selves influencing the events of the past]] to build to that reveal.

** Creator/LennyHenry went to being a ShrunkenHead to having a major role as Sadoc Burrows in ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower''.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: While Ron insists that Errol is not his owl, but just his family's in general (when Hermione, thinking about what to get for a pet, considers an owl, saying Harry and Ron both have one) it would have been nice to see him inherit Errol after losing his rat, rather than introducing another one (Pigwidgeon).

* RetroactiveRecognition: Tom Ackerley, future film producer and husband of Creator/MargotRobbie, is one of the students whom Draco shoves aside while he's walking up to Buckbeak.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/LennyHenry went to being a ShrunkenHead to having a major role as Sadoc Burrows in ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower''.

* NeverLiveItDown: Among a lot of fans, Snape never quite recovers from this book, even after re-reading the series with all his motivations revealed. He's wildly unprofessional, sadistically and openly cruel even to students like Neville to a level that would have gotten any teacher fired from a Muggle school, [[spoiler:is willing to send Sirius and Lupin to the Dementor's Kiss even after Sirius makes clear his intentions of turning himself in to Dumbledore, and then outed Remus Lupin as a werewolf publicly. Even the revelation from the later books about Sirius bullying Snape when they were Hogwarts students, and Snape being a spy for the Order, does nothing to vindicate his conduct here, since his incompetence, i.e. neglecting to bring or mention the Wolfsbane Potion to Remus after entering the Shack, play a major albeit unintentional part in letting Peter Pettigrew escape, a detail that slipped him since he wanted to get back at Sirius and Lupin, and causing a bunch of other deaths that otherwise wouldn't have happened]]. While the film version of Snape is [[AdaptationalHeroism generally less cruel and bullying]] than in the book anyway, ''The Prisoner Of Azkaban's'' adaptation notably tones down his behaviour more than any other film in the series does.

* MemeticMutation:
** Hermione's white face.[[note]]This, and a quick mention of "Hermione, very brown" at Diagon Alley when she freshly came from a vacation in the South of France, is the rare time in the entire series indicating Hermione's skin colour, though several other times she is described as pale, and she is depicted as white on some front covers. Used as a justification for fans that were surprised at the casting of a black actress in Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild, notably when J.K. Rowling claimed she'd never mentioned Hermione's race, even though theatre casting has been colour-blind like this for a while now.[[/note]]
** "Turn to page 394."
** Snape's over-the-top final rant to Fudge after Sirius escapes, "This has something to do with Potter!" is often invoked as one of his catchphrases.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The GBA game's final boss [[spoiler: Draco Malfoy]], Is literally a reskin of a previous boss fight with Crabbe and Goyle with almost no upgrades. He can be frozen with Petrificus Totalis and can be wailed on with other spells like Flipendo Trio.

* BrokenBase: Half the fanbase considers this one of the best (if not the best) Harry Potter film in the franchise, or at least when the Harry Potter films started getting good. The other half considers this movie to be one of the worst (if not the worst) Harry Potter film in the franchise. The film was mostly better received by critics than the first two, although it was the first HP film not to get four stars from Roger Ebert. Also, this is J.K. Rowling's favourite film. It generally comes down to either "good scripting" vs. "good cinematography" (with the film lacking in the former and bountiful in the latter), or "DarkerAndEdgier" vs. "whimsical and fun" (with the film relishing in the former, as opposed to the latter which had endeared audiences to the first two films).

* CaptainObviousReveal: [[SarcasmMode You’ll never guess]] what the character with the WerewolfThemeNaming turns out to be!

* CaptainObviousReveal: You’ll never guess what the character with the WerewolfThemeNaming turns out to be!

*** In terms of his behaviour towards [[spoiler:Black]] in the Shrieking Shack, [[spoiler:did he want revenge because he believed Black was the one who sold out Lily to Voldemort? Or was he one of the Death Eaters who knew Pettigrew was the actual spy, but still blamed Black for her death because he decided not to be the Secret Keeper himself.]]
** Was Fudge seriously concerned about Harry's safety because he is a 13 year old boy that so far as Fudge knew a mass murderer wanted to kill, or more worried about the political fallout if The Boy Who Lived had died at the hands of a follower of Voldemort that escaped Azkaban on his watch.