What Are The Differences Between The First Harry Potter Book And The Film?

There are quite a few differences between the first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), and the 2001 film adaptation.

Major differences include:

• Harry's immediate start at Hogwarts: In the book, Harry returns to the Dursley's after purchasing his new school equipment with Hagrid from Diagon Alley. In the film, Harry does not return to the Dursley's and instead spends his time with Hagrid at The Leaky Cauldron before catching the train to Hogwarts. 
  

• Draco's offer of friendship: In the book, Harry encounters Draco Malfoy in Diagon Alley, and begins to dislike him after he insults Hagrid. Later, on the train to Hogwarts, Draco offers Harry friendship, but Harry refuses after Draco insults Ron Weasley, whom Harry has just made friends with. In the film, Harry doesn't meet Draco in Diagon Alley, and Draco offers Harry friendship in the entrance Hall of Hogwarts rather than on the train. 

• The Mirror of Erised: In the book, Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised and sees his whole family. In the film, he only sees his mum and dad.

• Norbert: In the book, Harry and Hermione get rid of Hagrid's dragon, Norbert, by giving him to Ron's brother's friends, who meet them at the top of the tallest tower at Hogwarts. Harry and Hermione are caught out of bed and put in detention, along with Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom. In the film, Harry and Hermione are not involved with Norbert's departure, but are caught out of bed when visiting Hagrid. Ron is with them, whereas in the book he is not. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco all receive detention, Ron replacing Neville, who is not in this scene in the film. 
• The events under the trapdoor: in the book, Harry Ron and Hermione have the Devil's Snare, chess board, flying keys, a troll and some potions to get past in order to reach the Philosopher's Stone. In the film, there is only the Devil's Snare, chess board and the flying keys.
  

Here are the differences that I can think of:

• In the book, Professor Quirrel shakes Harry's hand in the Leaky Cauldron
  
• The Weasley twins help Harry get his luggage on board the Hogwarts Express, and they find out he's Harry Potter and they talk to him a little. 
  
• In the book, Neville is with them when they run into Fluffy, cause he forgot the common-room password and was found sleeping on the floor outside, and Hermione only joined them cause she couldn't get back in the common-room cause the fat lady had gone.
  
• They do not include Peeves in any of the movies, which I think is a shame.
  
• When Harry receives his Nimbus 2000 there is a note that tells him NOT to open it at the table in the great hall, he and Ron open it later in the day on Harry's bed.
  

• In the book, the first years have to wait in a room with all of the ghosts before they get sorted, whereas in the film they have to wait in the hallway. 
• When Wood is first showing Harry all about quidditch, he only shows him the balls and explains the player positions in the film, but in the book, Wood also warms harry up by throwing golfballs in order for Harry to catch them.
  
• The quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was cut out in the movie. 
  
• The bit when harry and the Dursleys stay in a travel hotel is cut out, too. The Madame Malkin's robe shop bit was cut out. 
  
• The potions protection scene was cut out.
  

Harry has jet-black hair and green eyes in the book, but in the movie he has dark brown hair and blue eyes.

• In the first movie, at the Halloween feast, they have nothing but "sweets" —cookies, cakes, candies, and cupcakes, but in the book at the feast they had food like a normal dinner (you find out when you read the part about Harry eating a "baked potato").
  
• When they got detention in the movie it was Harry, Ron, Hermione and  Draco, but in the book, instead of Ron, it was Neville.
  

• In the book, Harry wears sneakers, but in the movie he doesn't. 
  
• In the movie his cousin and aunt have dark hair instead of blond hair. 
  
• The midnight duel isn't in the film. 
  
• In the film, for Dudley's birthday they have ham for breakfast, but in the book they have bacon.
  

• In the book, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are down in the dungeons, there's another puzzle, which Hermione is able to solve: a potions puzzle.
• I think that they should have chosen a plainer, less pretty actress to play Hermione, even if Emma did have bushy hair. They tried to Hollywood Hermione. In the books, Hermione's looks are nothing special. She has BUSHY brown hair and big front teeth. 

  

• None of the Weasleys have fire-engine red hair in the movie. None of them have red-enough hair. The Weasleys' hair is RED. Enough said!
• They weren't freckly enough, either.
• Ron wasn't tall and lanky/gangly, with a long, pointy nose and big hands and feet as the book describes him.
• Harry's hair wasn't JET black, and his eyes weren't green green. His hair wasn't wild or messy enough.
• McGonagal has BLACK hair and square spectacles.
• Dumbledore has moon shaped spectacles.
• They meet NEVILLE first, on the train.
• They meet Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle on the train, not at Hogwarts, the first time.
• Mrs. Dursley has blond hair, not brown.
• I pictured Dudley to be WAY more fat, and he's supposed to have pink skin and blond hair slabbed over his head.
• Some of the script isn't really perfect either, but that can't be helped, you can't rewrite the whole book! :)
• No Piers Polkien
• No 2nd floor bedroom.
• Harry meets Malfoy right before sorting, instead of at Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions.
• The cards found in Chocolate frogs are more like holograms than real moving people (like the portraits and other pictures).
• Harry and Hagrid don't sleep over on the House on the Rock. After telling him he is a wizard, they go straight to Diagon Alley.
• During the Boa Constrictor scene Dudley becomes trapped inside the snake tank (this doesn't happen in the book). This is one of the few scenes in the movie that wasn't in the book that I really liked.
• There is no Railview Hotel in the movie.
• In the movie there is never a scene where Harry and the Dursleys are in the car driving away from the letter-filled house.
• In the movie there are no Herbology, DADA, or History of Magic classes.
• Harry and Hermione never send off Norbert, Dumbledore finds  out about the dragon and sends it back himself. I don't like the way they did this in the movie, but I guess they HAD to do it to shorten up the length of the film.
• In the book Neville gets detention and has to go into the Forbidden Forest. But in the movie Neville is never mentioned, and Ron goes into the Forbidden Forest instead.
• In the movie 'The Forbidden Forest' is called 'The Dark Forest'. What is the purpose of the change in name?
• The first-years meeting ghosts scene never happens, the movie has many more ghosts than are mentioned in the book.
• In the movie Hermione, Ron and Harry meet Fluffy (Neville never does). Not by a midnight dueling match with Malfoy, but because the stairs changed passages and they accidentally meet Fluffy that way.
• In the movie Qurriel and Snape's Forest conversation never occurs, instead it happens inside the castle.
• In the movie, the Mirror of Erised only shows James and Lily Potter (in the book several other people appear, including Harry's grandparents).
• In the movie, the Christmas-presents scene is different from the book.
• They delete the Potions Challenge, Hermione actually leaves with  Ron from the Chess game. I really wish they had put this scene in the movie...
• Devil's Snare scene is very different.
• In the movie, there is no scene where Uncle Vernon is on his way to Grunnings.
• In the book there is a television report about the unusual behavior of the owls. There is no such scene in the movie.
• In the movie, there is only one Quidditch match...but of course, the movie would have been much longer if they had included the other matches.
• The movie starts with Dumbledore summoning the light of the lamp posts with the Light Putter-Outer. The book starts out with Uncle Vernon going to work.
• Professor McGonagall is supposed to take out Oliver Wood from Charms, not DADA as they show in the movie.
• Prior to the sorting ceremony, Professor McGonagall calls out the students' first name and then last name, but in the books they are called by last name first.
• In the movie, Hagrid takes Harry to King's Cross, but in the book the Dursleys are the ones to take him.
• There is no Giant Squid in the movie.
• Harry and Ron weren't late for Transfiguration in the book, though they are in the movie. I like this addition though.
• Mrs. Figg is never mentioned in the movie.
• In the movie the scene in which Neville takes off on his broom is different from that of the book.
• There is no scene with a knocked-out troll in the movie.
• In the movie, Harry only meets Firenze, not Ronan and Bane.

• In the first Harry Potter book, the morning of Dudley's birthday, his birthday presents were on the table, but in the movie they were in the other room by the kitchen.
  
• The sorting hat song isn't in the movie like it is in the book.
  
• In the books Ron and Harry wear sneakers, but neither of them wear sneakers until the fifth movie.
  
• In book two, Fred and George help Harry get his wizard school stuff by sneaking into the Dursleys' house, but in the movie Harry got his own stuff for school himself while the twins and Ron waited in the flying car.
  
• In the book Harry was locked in the room starving for days, while in the movie it was just one day.
  
• In the movie Mr. Dursley fell out the window, but in the book he doesn't. 
  
• The death-day party is also cut from the movie, and in the movie it doesn't show them celebrating halloween like it does in the book—it goes straight to the quidditch game which is in November, then Christmas.
  
• Not to mention, in the book they all drunk the potion in seperate stalls, but in the movie they drunk it all 3 standing together in the same place. And in the movie, the cupcakes for Crabbe and Goyle were floating in the air, for them. But in the book Harry set them on the banister.