It has been a great year for fantasy fans as we’ve seen some of our favorite books turned into entertaining films.
There is always the fear that the movie will vary wildly away from the written word or choose to delete our favorite scene in the story.
While having some slight alterations, Spiderwick Chronicles does an excellent job of re-creating the world of the written account.
Both older children and adults will find this a grand adventure.
Spiderwick Chronicles is a 21st Century story with roots in the Victorian age, when the educated were trying to study everything “scientifically” and produce field guides for others to use.
There are completely familiar elements, a single parent family down on their luck, forced to move to a less than desirable location, frustration and anger besetting one child while another is in denial, and the third knows way too much for her tender years.
These feel like real children with real problems, and into their lives drops a mysterious Victorian age guidebook to the unseen realm. According to the field guide, the unseen realm has a lot more than just fairies and sprites.
There are malevolent creatures under the control of a monstrous evil, Mulgarath the ogre (played and voiced by Nick Nolte) and his aim is to get Arthur Spiderwick’s guidebook and destroy the world.
The casting for this film is simply perfect. Firstly, Freddie Highmore plays the twins Jared and Simon, and creates personality and character traits so distinct, one can forget this is a single actor’s work while watching. He is phenomenal in both roles!
Mary Louise Parker is always a joy to watch, as she gives such honest interpretation of the character and so much strength and love in spite of the terrible circumstances.
She is the harried mother, trying to do the best for her family and keep it all together. Mallory played by Sarah Bolger is a great role model character for girls, this is no shrinking violet, she is good with a sword! Joan Plowright as Aunt Lucy ,David Strathairn as Arthur Spiderwick and Jordy Benattar as the young Lucy are just right, the perfect faces for their characters as well as exceptional acting.
The voices of Martin Short for Thimbletack, and the above mentioned Nick Nolte as Mulgarath, and Seth Rogen as Hogsqueal give the unseen world denizens many clever facets. Well done all!
The Spiderwick Chronicles are presented in a two disc set appealingly packaged in a box made to look like Arthur Spiderwick’s guidebook. It is such fun to “break” the seal and ignore the “warning” and unleash the world of the unseen on screen.
Disc one contains the feature in widescreen format with Spiderwick: It’s all True! It’s a Spiderwick World, and Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide.
Disc 2 is loaded with more, Spiderwick: Meet the Clan, Making Spiderwick, The Magic of Spiderwick! A Final Word of Advice…and deleted scenes and outtakes.
This is the kind of adventure many children dream of having, and will adore watching. I have even heard that some children have been somewhat successful with calling the griffin.
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Two-Disc Special Edition) is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a July 14th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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