Review of The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) by Chelsea C — 07 Dec 2012

''You don't see us, now you do, but only if we want you to.''.

Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.

Freddie Highmore: Jared Grace / Simon Grace.

The Spiderwick Chronicles is on the surface, an alluringly delightful fantasy that blends the very best of character designs, both human and animated, into a story that is fused together without stumbling out of the realm of suspended disbelief.

The story is simple but in no way dull. A family of 4 (mother, adolescent girl, pre-teen twin boys) moves from New York to a quiet, Gothic, old country house the mother inherits. In the prologue, we have already seen how 80 years ago, Authur Spiderwick, the original owner of the house, met with a mysterious fate as a result of his studies that tantamount to an addiction. The result of the study, the Spiderwick Field Guide to things mysterious, fascinating and dangerous, is now discovered by the family, the more assertive and rebellious of the twin boys, to be exact. What follows is the familiar conflict between good and evil.

Everything within the story makes sense as it unfolds, and we don't question why certain things are feasible.

The world of goblins and boggers is defined, we have no reason not to become completely immersed in the fantasy. Director Mark Waters doesn't rush the process of illustrating the multitude of magic and myths, and doesn't overload us with jargon that we couldn't possibly comprehend. The pacing is fantastic for a family film.

Mark Waters has successfully fleshed out all creatures even the boggarts' emotional traits and temperaments that are common to Simon's, very much in line with the book series.

Book fans of the Spiderwick Chronicles will especially be delighted to see one of my fave fantasy artists, Arthur Rackham whos book illustrations of Thimbletack, the faerie creatures, Mulgarath the ogre and his ferociously evil goblins, and even the griffin and Hogsqueal, come alive on the screen.

The main substances are present, cleverly crafted to keep everything dancing and integrated in momentum and perspective for the film version.

The voices of all the characters are well articulated, succeeding in generating audience appeal and interactions throughout, and the scenes are at well-defined pacing to keep the audience's adrenalin flowing. Watch out for the very brief live-cameo take of Nick Nolte who provides the voice of Mulgarath.

Spiderwick was ultimately a very lovely film that even had imagination right up until the credits, mixing energetic music and breath taking creatures from the film that you just witnessed. Worth seeing, with the family and one even Adults who are a big kid at heart can appreciate.