Don’t turn the lights out, and don’t forget the salt at the window seals.
Helen Grace, and children, are moving to a new house out in the country (way out in the country), after living in New York City for some time. Helen has separated from her husband and inherited her great aunt Lucinda’s home. Jared, Simon and Mallory are adjusting to the move as best as the can. Jared is the violent one, Simon is the pacifist (he says so in the film) and Mallory is the second mother. Resisting the change and wishing he were somewhere else, Jared regrets the move so much that he ends up taking his anger out on his new living quarters. In the process, Jared finds out that there are more things living in the Grace’s home than just his siblings and parent. Hearing noises behind the wall, he stumbles upon his great uncle’s secret office that holds many terrible, yet wonderful, truths that seem unreal. When he finds his great uncle’s book, the Spiderwick Chronicles, he really has his eyes opened on what’s truly living outside the world he thought he knew. Again, wonderful things lie outside for him to discover, but on the flipside to that terrible things wait for him and his newly found prize, the Spiderwick Chronicles.
Sounds pretty darn innocent, doesn’t it? Well it certainly isn’t! There are plenty of scares in this film to send chills up the spines of adults. Goblins, Ogres and other nasty little bits out there that make The Spiderwick Chronicles tough for a very young crowd. At the same time, the movie brings along a very fascinating world of creatures where creativity certainly doesn’t stop in just one place. The different personalities from the creatures make this movie sweet in some regards. You have characters like Thimbletack (played by Martin Short — you hath redeemed yourself, Short!) who are both lovable and hilarious with a hint of frightening. Not familiar with the character? He’s an angry mouse-like creature who loves honey and crackers. When he gets mad he turns green, sort of like the Incredible Hulk (except he’s barely a half-foot tall). Short brings him to life very well. Opposite of that, the non-CGI actors play the roles perfectly. Freddie Highmore’s dual role as Jared and Simon (can you guess they’re twins?) is fascinating to watch. For about 20 minutes I had no idea they were the same actor. Anyway, you have to give credit to Sarah Bolger who also did a strong job as Mallory Grace, the sister. She saw Mallory’s character as the secondary mother figure for this very opposite twins and played it exactly the way it should have. Normally, this role fails, but it sometimes works out (I.E. Adventures in Babysitting) and it worked out well here. She comes off strong, tough and protective. Those three things are needed for this type of story.
As for the story itself, yes it was another children’s book brought to film. How did it do? It wasn’t perfect. There should have been a bit more explanation about the Chronicles and maybe a bit of build for the bad guys, but it all comes together towards the end, which makes it good. Not this this has any story comparison to The Spiderwick Chronicles, but The Other Boleyn Girl had the exact same problem as this one did. It didn’t know how to translate from book to movie well. Regretfully The Other Boleyn Girl did a piss-poor job going to the screen. It cut out the important roller coaster builds that generally are included in a good story, and brought in only the climax moments. It certainly was my fear that The Spiderwick Chronicles was going to make the same mistake, but they kept enough build in the script to keep the vision of the original story alive and well. It lasted a bit over two hours and it could have garnished a bit more of the story, but it all came together at the end, which makes it worth while.
So the big question that alludes this review so far is…. ‘Is the movie kid friendly’? Yes and no. Yes, it is kid friendly for anyone that is five or up. While the wonderful Nickelodeon logo at the beginning says, “Yes, come to us! We’ll amuse you.”, the terrifying scream of a goblin attacking says otherwise. If you have anyone under five, shove them off to bed, let them know that Wall*E is coming out Friday. Anyone older than that can stretch their imagination enough, and rest comfortably in a parent’s arms, to sit through and enjoy the film. As an adult, sometimes I can be at least, I found this film terrifying, beautiful and funny at moments. It’s a good, solid story that needs to shine and it deserves a very restricted audience. Enjoy, but you’ve been warned otherwise.
Overall, it’s an excellent film that I hope continues in the very near future. It deserves a sequel or two and we need something to do after Harry Potter ends.
The Blu-ray fairies have arrived
There are few things in this world that look so good on Blu-ray that you have to stand up and shout it out. I’m standing. I’m shouting. The Spiderwick Chronicles look fantastic on Blu-ray. The fantasy spin on things make the HD look good. CGI like this is the reason why HD exists, so it can look more believable. Aside from looks, it sounds great too. You’ll be happy and terrified to hear the goblins approach the house through 5.1 speakers. Nothing like scaring the crap out of your kids with advanced technology. God bless technology.
Aside from sights and sounds, here’s what you’re getting in the special features department:
-Spiderwick: It’s All True!
-It’s A Spiderwick World
-Special Enhanced Blu-ray Version of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide
-Spiderwick: Meet the Clan
-Making Spiderwick
-The Magice of Spiderwick!
-A Final Word of Advice…
-Deleted Scenes
-TV Spots and Trailers
Not a bad set of features. They have some very cool things, especially the field guide, that will make your child and your experience that much better with the movie. I think they are good overall.
Feel free to cross the circle for this one
The Spiderwick Chronicles sports a very good story with some good features on an excellent format. What more could you want? Again, be weary of showing this to anyone who can’t take monsters very well (that includes adults), but enjoy the story that was crafted from the book. It’s quite worth the viewing.
