Spiderwick Chronicles is a dark delight of Harry Potter-type goblins, ghouls, and griffins with violence enough to make it a howler for the nine year old but a sleepless night for the seven.
Arthur Spiderwick decades ago wrote a private field guide to faeries, a much sought after tome by gremlins who hate them.
Besides the usual CGI gymnastics is the now common dad-is-gone-by-divorce-and-mom-isfrazzled motif, along with the usual nobody-believes-me-but-I-can-see-them suspense builder. The production design of the old mansion is Psycho-worthy, and the ever serviceable James Horner provides the right chilling music.
Not to be missed, however, is the shape-shifting leader of the baddies played by Nick Nolte, whose freaked out visage eclipses the shock of his infamous California mug shot.
Arthur Spiderwick decades ago wrote a private field guide to faeries, a much sought after tome by gremlins who hate them.
Besides the usual CGI gymnastics is the now common dad-is-gone-by-divorce-and-mom-isfrazzled motif, along with the usual nobody-believes-me-but-I-can-see-them suspense builder. The production design of the old mansion is Psycho-worthy, and the ever serviceable James Horner provides the right chilling music.
Not to be missed, however, is the shape-shifting leader of the baddies played by Nick Nolte, whose freaked out visage eclipses the shock of his infamous California mug shot.