Rowling's novel, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," loses some of its luster when transferred to film. One reason the movie doesn't live up to the quality of the novel is the fact that some notable characters from the book we're omitted from the film.
Among the characters who are noticeably absent are two house elves; Dobby, who is introduced in a previous Harry Potter novel and Winky, who's a character in the book, but never appears in the movie. Although the movie is excellent, and certainly worth watching, leaving these two characters behind on the pages of the book is a distraction for the true Potter fan.
The elf, Dobby, gains the reader's affection when he explains the difficult life of a house elf in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. His return in the fourth novel reminds readers what a well-written character Dobby is, but he is conspiculously absent in "HPGF". .
In keeping with Dobby's view of friendship, Dobby helps Harry complete the second task of the tournament of champions by telling him that Gillyweed will help him recover Ron, or as Dobby calls her, Harry's "Wheezy" (490) from the mere people. Dobby helps Harry because Dobby still considers Harry his savior in helping him gain his freedom. This idea is lost in the film because Neville Longbottom is given the honor of mentioning, in an offhand manner, that Gillyweed will allow a person to breathe underwater. This transference makes it possible to leave even more out of the film. Although there is friendship between Harry and Neville, there is no feeling of indebtedness that inspires this revelation; Neville mentions this in response to a comment from Harry that he is not interested in herbology unless there is some magic herb that will help him breathe underwater. Giving Neville this small bit of heroism perhaps makes up for information about his family that is vital to the story line but is not revealed in the movie, but it detracts from Dobby's importance so much that Dobby becomes unnecessary.
