The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother (Mary-Louise Parker), twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace (both played by Freddie Highmore), along with their sister Mallory (Sarah Bulger), find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures. Hilarity ensues when mysterious noises start to appear while everyday object start to disappear, the family blames Jared. When Jared finds a hidden room belonging to his great uncle Arthur Spiderwick, he finds Spiderwick's Field Guide and uncovers the fantastic truth of the Spiderwick estate and of the creatures that inhabit it.

Trivia: Film prints were shipped to some theaters under the fake title -- "Widow". The movie contains plotpoints from all 5 Spiderwick novels but most of the fouth novel is left out.

Okay, let me get this straight. You took 5 novels, right? 5 Novels to pull information out of, according to Amazon.com, 672 pages and all you got was a measly 97 minutes? What is up with that? You spend the money to invest in cutting edge special effects dozens of CGI characters and you can only come up with 97 minutes of movie? Yes, it is a children's movie but still, who said children's can't be engaging? Did you ever think that the reason children are all supposedly inflicted with very short attention spans is because we are forcing them into it? I have not read the Spiderwick books so I can only go with what I saw so I recommend renaming this movie The Undiscovered Country because that is what it is. There is a whole new world out there that looks really promising but you only get a glimpse. Like I said, there are literally dozens of fantasy characters but only 4 of them talk. The rest are basically soldier trolls that run around. Thimbletack, a little mouselike creature pretty much just shows up and with one or two sentences is excepted into the family so to speak. Hogsqueal is rescued by Jared Grace and the next thing you know, they are bosum buddies. And speaking of Jared. He finds the Field Guide left by his great uncle and 3 hours into reading it, he has a full and complete knowledge of this new world and can navigate through it easily. We get to a point where the hero's quest is revealed. Now we are getting somewhere, right? Adventure, perils, struggles? Nope. He pulls the book out, flips it open to a page in less then a second, reads some words outloud and poof, quest complete. Then there is Simon. He didn't even read the book and he can grasp the concepts and fashion pretty devestating weapons to use against the bad guys. That is pretty devestating to the bad guys, completely harmless to the good guys. Whoo Hoo! Oh yeah, there is a "Wait a minute, who are those guys and when did they come from" moment added in for good measure. If you want the wonder this movie provides AND prefer a good story, watch The Bridge To Teribithia. Way better movie.