The Spiderwick Chronicles (Widescreen Edition)

It was alright, but I think the movie itself could've been better. It went way too fast in the events, I would've liked it better if had been more like the books, but even then, I've seen better fairy tales. All of you can like it if you want, I'm not stoping you, but I prefer other movies.

If you enjoy fun stories of Ogres, goblins, brownies, fairies, et cetera, you will probably enjoy "The Spiderwick Chronicles". This is a movie that the whole family, not just children should enjoy. A working mother and her three children move to a rural home for economic reasons when her and her husband can't reconcile their differences. The young boy finds a book containing secrets of a mythical world which starts events that will impact the whole world. When he finally convinces his family of the existence of this other world they band together to fight an Ogre and his henchmen. Very entertaining with good special effects. Different from other fantasy movies. I recommend it. Great quality DVD with good replayabilty. If you enjoyed this be sure to catch "Labyrinth" and "The Last Mimzy". - C. Luster

I caught this on a plane recently and loved it. It is a fabulous fantasy film for children. Totally creative and whimsical.

First let me say if you did NOT read the books and just want a good film with outstanding and magical special effects for you and your older children then this really is a great choice; go ahead and get this movie and be happy.

If you want to watch the movie and expect it to follow the books you will be greatly disappointed. I am not sure that the Amazon reviewer, Tom Keogh, read the books. This is not a "good adaptation" of the books. The writers of this movie took the characters and then twisted and distorted them into a story vaguely reminiscent of the books. One of the main rewards we use for our children is they can watch the movie if they have read the books. We read the entire 7 Narnia books and have seen the first two movies which are very good (especially Prince Caspian movie).

Let me quickly list just a very few of the differences from the movie and the book off the top of my head (we read the book quite a while ago and just bought the DVD and watched it last night). I am sure there are many more differences but you will get the idea:
1. They don't really play up the love of animals Simon has.
2. There are no Dwarfs/sleeping Mallory in a box scenes.
3. There is no quarry scene.
4. There are no school scenes or mentioning.
5. Jared does not have to solve any mystery to find anything (i.e. like figuring out the riddle of the trunk and that it had a false bottom).
6. They don't have to find the seeing stone Thimbletack just happens to have it and hand it to them/Jared.
7. Mallory and Simon are more antagonistic to Jared and come into believing that there are strange things going on much later.
8. Thimbletack is mostly a green somewhat scary Boggart and very little of the Brownie. He shape shifts before your eyes multiple times and is as addicted to honey as any Meth addict is to their drug.
9. The scene to go find the book is different (Jared goes alone and Simon and Mallory do not help him in the dumbwaiter).
10. The whole story line was changed when they were off to find Simon after he was carried away by the Goblins. Mallory does not go with him and there is no Troll in the water (instead the Troll-which looks more like a giant iguana/dinosaur on steroids- chases them later when they go to see their Aunt).
11. They do not go to see their aunt with their Mom they do through this underground tunnel system chased by a psychotic dinosaur they are saying is a Troll.
12. There is a lot of honey, salt and tomatoes in this movie not found in the book.
13. Hogsqueals initial scene is totally changed; as is his motivation; in the movie he is on some sort of crusade to revenge his family.
14. The Griffin character was changed to Arthur Spiderwicks pet they somehow summon out of thin air and not rescued from the Goblins when trying to free Simon after they discovered Hogsqueal.
15. There are no elves and they do not have to figure out how to get to Arthur Spiderwick (the summoned Griffin just flies there to him.
16. Mulgaraths character is totally changed. He shape shifts into two equally frightening characters, Nick Nolte on his daily dose of drugs and scleral icterus and a demon character that resembles a scary devil.
17. The ending is totally different and has no resemblance to the book. The finale takes place in their house and will scare young children and to my taking would warrant a PG-13 rating. If your kids are desensitized to violence and horror then they will do fine otherwise I would read the stories and let the imagination go. Hope this helps!

I'll keep it short and sweet:

never read the books, 7 yr. boy loved it, 3 yr. boy loved it, wife loved it, I liked it a lot. Lets not be so critical. Its a movie made by Nikelodian here folks.