Harry Potter fails to ride Royal Enfield to an Oscar

Royal Enfield propels Harry Potter through his final two movies.

Royal Enfield motorcycles missed their best chance to win an Oscar late Sunday evening when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 missed out on the award for best visual effects. The Academy Award for Special Effects went to the movie Hugo.

A flying motorcycle did show up at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony. It was featured in host Billy Crystal's spoof opening montage. In the montage Crystal appeared in a collection of clips that inserted him into key moments from nominated films.

In one brief sequence he was pictured riding a ratty sidecar outfit — a reference to the sidecar combination in the movie The Adventures of Tintin. It's probably a Ural.

Dressed as Tintin, Academy Awards host Billy Crystal "rides" a sidecar rig.

"The visual-effects prize had been the last chance for the Harry Potter franchise to win an Oscar," the Associated Press reported. "The finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, had been nominated for visual effects and two other Oscars but lost all three. Previous Harry Potter installments had lost on all nine of their nominations.

"The teen wizard may never have struck Oscar gold, but he has a consolation prize: $7.7 billion at the box office worldwide, including $1.3 billion from Deathly Hallows: Part 2, last year's top-grossing movie," the AP reported.

We won't know how many Royal Enfield sidecar outfits the movies sold until the young people who watched the films grow up and start buying them.

Harry Potter's flying Royal Enfield takes to the sky with the help of a crane.

Here's Billy Crystal's opening montage from the 84th Academy Awards. Ride along.