Why Harry Potter Didn't Show Dumbledore's Funeral (& Why It Should Have)
Dumbledore's Funeral was a very emotional scene in The Half-Blood Prince book. However, David Heyman decided to cut it from the movie - here's why.
Albus Dumbledore's (Michael Gambon) funeral in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince was a very emotional scene in J.K. Rowling's book, yet the movie didn't show it - here's why. The eight-movie series was overall very loyal to Rowling's books, with producer David Heyman even splitting the last Harry Potter book into two films in order to do justice to the book's very dense story. However, the Harry Potter movies did leave out some important book moments, such as The Order of the Phoenix Quidditch season, or all of Peeves the Poltergeist's scenes, which were filmed with Rik Mayall but eventually cut from the first movie.
In The Half-Blood Prince book, Dumbledore's funeral gathers "an extraordinary assortment of people" on Hogwarts' grounds to pay their respects to the great wizard. Olympe Maxime, Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, Ernie Prang (the Knight Bus driver), Tom (The Leaky Cauldron landlord), Aberforth Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix members, the Weasleys, Grawp, centaurs, Merpeople, and even Rita Skeeter and the evil Dolores Umbridge all attend the event. The ceremony saw the Merpeople rise from the lake and sing, and "a little tufty-haired man" give a speech Harry finds inappropriately bland. As white flames surround Dumbledore's body and turn the simple wooden table under him into a white marble tomb, the centaurs send a shower of arrows through the air, scaring some of the attendees. Instead of this ample scene, The Half-Blood Prince movie shows the scene where everyone surrounds Dumbledore’s body and raises their wands in unison to clear the Dark Mark in the sky.
The simple reason for David Heyman not going through with Dumbledore's funeral scene in the sixth Harry Potter movie is that it was "just too expensive" to do. This decision upset Luna Lovegood actress Evanna Lynch, who even went to offer Heyman her paycheck if it meant paying Dumbledore the right amount of respect. However, Heyman stood his ground and the movie sufficed with the short wand-raising scene, where CGI tears were added to Evanna's face, as the scene wasn't sad enough in her opinion (via Digital Spy): "You want to honour the characters that so many people love and have been on this huge journey with." Indeed, the movie should have shown Dumbledore's funeral if only to give a proper send-off to one of the greatest wizards of all time.
David Heyman commented there was another reason for not showing Dumbledore's funeral on screen (via Hypable): "You’d get to Dumbledore’s death, and it felt climactic and moving. And then you got to this grand funeral, and it felt less about the man and more about the pomp of the ceremony, and it felt oddly less connected. So just rhythmically it felt wrong... It’s a beautiful scene in the book, but it felt wrong in the movie." While the book version of the funeral proved highly emotional and a good ending to Dumbledore's character arc, the script version underwhelmed Heyman and was thus left out altogether. The only work done for the Harry Potter movie funeral scene was Adam Brockbank's concept art.
The Harry Potter movies also changed Dumbledore's death: Dumbledore and Harry apparate to the top of the Astronomy Tower (instead of meeting Rosmerta), the Dark Mark isn't in the sky yet, Harry isn't frozen by Dumbledore, and there isn't any Order of Phoenix vs. Death Eaters battle, as director David Yates wanted to avoid repetition with the Battle of Hogwarts. While these changes don't necessarily hurt Dumbledore's character arc, the lack of a proper funeral does. Dumbledore is one of the most important characters in the Wizarding World, and his death in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince should have seen a bigger send-off.