harry grows up, loses childhood whimsy.(Life-Family)(Movie review)

Byline: ROGER EBERT - Universal Press Syndicate

Whatever happened to the delight and, if you'll excuse the term, magic in the Harry Potter series? As the characters grow up, the stories grow, too, leaving the innocence behind and confusing us with plots so labyrinthine that it takes a Ph.D. from Hogwarts to figure them out. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" still has much of the enchantment of the earlier films, but Harry no longer has as much joy. His face is lacking the gosh-wow-this-is-really-neat grin. He has internalized the secrets and delights of the world of wizards, and is now instinctively using them to save his life.

An early scene illustrates this change. Harry and his cousin Dudley are attacked by dementors, and in desperation he uses a secret spell to defeat them. But that earns the disapproval of …