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Street Date: June 24
Official Synopsis:
From the beloved, best-selling series of books comes an extraordinary fantasy adventure, revealing the unseen world that exists all around us. From the moment the Grace family moves into a secluded old house peculiar things start to happen. Unable to explain the accidents and strange disappearances, the Grace children, Jared, Simon and Mallory start to investigate and find the unbelievable truth of the Spiderwick Estate and the amazing creatures that inhabit it.
Our Take:
It’s kind of a bummer that Hollywood seems to have already burned out the family fantasy film genre in only a few years. When will they learn that not every young adult series of novels should be turned into a movie? Especially not back to back to back to back to back. The Spiderwick Chronicles is one of the movies that came and went quicker than most would have expected because of this trend, and after viewing it I’m even more surprised by this than before.
To start with, it has Freddie Highmore (just about the only child actor with any real talent) starring in not just the lead role but also a lead/supporting role. That’s right, he plays twins! It’s pretty easy to enjoy a movie that has two Highmores in it. Then, of course, we have the lovely Mary-Louise Parker as the mom, David Strathairn as the great great uncle, Seth Rogen lending his voice to Hogsquel, and Nick Nolte even shows up for a bit just to get in his dose of creeping the hell out of children.
The creature design and CGI is as good as it gets in The Spiderwick Chronicles. There are enough fresh, new designs on goblins, fairies and what-have-you creatures to make the film stand out on its own, and the animation team behind it all pulled it off better than some other Oscar-winning family films. (*cough* Golden Compass *cough*.)
There are both single and double-disc sets for The Spiderwick Chronicles and the two-disc not only has some great special features but also an incredibly well put together DVD case that resembles the Spiderwick book in the film.
* Spiderwick: It’s All True! (7 minutes) – The ins and outs of all the creatures from the film.
* Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide – Navigate through the book.
* Field Guide: In-Movie Mode.
* Spiderwick: Meet The Clan! (14 minutes) – The director shares his vision and creative process with us.
* Making Spiderwick! (21 minutes) – This one mostly features production design.
* The Magic Of Spiderwick! (14 minutes) – Learn the craft of CGI.
* A Final Word Of Advice! (2 minutes) – They’re really trying to hammer home the story that all of Spiderwick is real.
* Deleted Scenes (8 minutes) – Four scenes.
The Spiderwick Chronicles is sure to become a hit on DVD with many families. And despite the opening 15 minutes of the film or so being almost exactly the same as Jumanji (unfortunately, I mean that in a negative way) it really takes off after that and separates itself into its own league. Don’t get burned out on these movies quite yet, mom and dad.
RECOMMENDED!
Overall Picture:
Movie: B+
DVD: A-
- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer
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