Regardless of why Warner Bros. bumped "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from this fall to next summer, the shift takes this special effects-laden film out of this year's award derby. While you might think that this blockbuster flick would be a major player in the technical categories, it turns out the first five films of the franchise, though boffo in ticket sales, have been busts at the Academy Awards. Try as he might, Harry Potter can't work his magic on Oscar voters, conjuring up six nominations so far but cursed with zero wins.

The first wizard film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001), did the best of the lot to date with three nominations: art direction, costumes and music score. It lost to, respectively, "Moulin Rouge!" "Moulin Rouge!" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

Nos. 2 and 5 — "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002) and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) — weren't nominated for anything! Third time was no charm either as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004) lost its bids for music score and visual effects to "Finding Neverland" and "Spider-Man 2." respectively. For film No. 4 — "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005) — its lone nod for art direction lost out to "Memoirs of a Geisha."

As for the reason for the release date change: Defamer.com disagrees with a Fox News report by Roger Friedman that Warners made the move because of star Daniel Radcliffe's upcoming Broadway appearance in a controversial production of "Equus." While Defamer correctly points out that Radcliffe was stripping off in the London production of the play last year when the release of "Phoenix" rose up, Friedman is right that the rialto run this fall will attract even more attention.

(Warner Bros.)

OK, OK, it's great to go wild about Harry again with the release of the new trailer for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," but beware, kudos nuts. Harry Potter can shake his magic wand over and over, but it fails to enchant Oscar voters.

Turns out, in fact, that Harry Potter is the new Susan Lucci of the Oscars. Since 2001, his five films have netted six nominations and no wins.

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002) and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) weren't nominated for anything! The only Oscar bid cooked up by "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005) was for art direction (it lost to "Memoirs of a Geisha"). "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004) did slightly better, nabbing noms for music score and visual effects. It lost to, respectively, "Finding Neverland" and "Spider-Man 2."

It was the first wizard flick that did the best. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (2001) reaped three nominations: art direction, costumes and music score. It lost to, respectively, "Moulin Rouge!" "Moulin Rouge!" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

However, Harry Potter has had the magic touch at the Grammys where two of Jim Dale's recordings won best children's spoken word album: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2000) and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (2007).

By the way, when you view the new trailer for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," don't be upset that it doesn't include more of your fave characters.

"It’s only a teaser, just to get people excited," Rupert Grint told MTV News.

The MTV report continues: "Ron Weasley nearly dies after he drinks Professor Slughorn’s poisoned mead, a gift the professor was meant to pass on to Dumbledore, in an assassination attempt gone horribly wrong. Ron had already been poisoned in one sense — 'He gets poisoned quite a bit in this film,' Grint laughed — because he ate Romilda Vane's chocolate cauldrons (also meant for someone else, this time Harry) which were spiked with love potion. Harry rushes his friend off to the potions professor for a quick fix, only Ron goes from a bad predicament to a lethal one in mere moments. 'That was a really fun scene,' Grint said."

(Photos: Listening Library)