I’m not sure if it’s the Harry Potter franchise or whether it goes back even further to the Peter Jackson Lord Of The Rings films. Somewhere along the way the studios began to cater to the children’s fantasy genre, and the rewards have often been huge. Just about every literary secret fantasy world either has now been explored or is about to be converted to film soon. Even the Tom Swift books of my childhood are about to join in the box office party. While many of these fantasy stories are older classics, some, like Harry Potter, are far more recent. The Spiderwick Chronicles falls into that contemporary category. To date there have been five books in the series written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. The books are rather small, totaling about 600 pages in all. Somewhere in on the road to filming a smart decision was made to incorporate the entire series into a single film. I find that many moviegoers get overwhelmed when they see a film as merely the first part in a longer journey. Certainly that hasn’t stopped people from flocking to Harry Potter or The Lord Of The Rings, but still, we’re not talking about original work nearly so well known. Honestly, I had not heard of the stories until buzz began on the film a year or so ago. If the film is a success, which this one wasn’t terribly, the creators are still out there, and more material can be added to the mix should a sequel be warranted. In this case I rather doubt there is a huge clamor for one, which, of course, doesn’t mean there won’t be.

The story centers on the Grace family. They are recently separated from the father and Mom (Parker) has moved her three children to her New England ancestral home. It’s a rather large mansion in a decidedly Victorian style estate. Young Jared (Highmore) is having the hardest time dealing with the separation. He’s got anger issues and has demonstrated some rather aggressive and disruptive behavior. His brother, Simon (also Highmore) is an almost opposite personality. He’s overly calm and logical. It’s rather apt that he’s referred to as Spock by his family. The third child is Mallory (Bolger) who appears to be the anchor for the children. Mom’s merely trying to begin a new life. Things quickly get out of hand when strange things begin happening around the old house. Jared is naturally blamed for the activities that appear to be malicious pranks. In reality, these events are caused by the fantastical creature Thimbletack (Short). When Jared, in spite of a note warning him not to, opens a strange book, things go from bad to worse. The book was created by his great great uncle Arthur Spiderwick. It’s a field guide to the creatures of the world that, by and large, go unnoticed around us. Unfortunately, opening the book has alerted the evil ogre Mulgarath (Nolte) who wants the book which will give him extraordinary power over both the fantasy world and the real world. He sends his minion Redcap (Perlman) to lead his army against the Grace family. The house is protected by a magical ring of stone, but Mulgarath gains enough pages of the book to learn how to defeat it. The children must protect the book while learning more of its secrets. There are three ways for normal humans to see these creatures. A stone with a naturally worn hole through its center will enable one to see these creatures by looking through the hole. If one of the creatures spits in your eye it gives you the power of this second sight. Finally the creatures themselves can allow themselves to be seen.

There really isn’t anything new here. The creatures are well done, but I didn’t see any breakthrough f/x here at all. It’s a shame on some level that we expect better and better visuals with each new fantasy we see. The creatures reminded me a lot of the style seen in the last two Pirates Of The Caribbean films. The skin textures and movements are almost identical. The child actors here were actually the highpoint of the film. Freddie Highmore deserves a ton of credit for one of the best child performances I’ve seen. There appears to be a quality about him that the camera simply loves. His ability to make the two characters so distinct is a marvel in itself. It was such a seamless performance that I did not know immediately it was the same actor. I only suspected when Redcap was reporting two kids with the same face. Freddie’s got a ton of talent, at least on display here. Sarah Bolger was also better than average in her role of Mallory. She has the best character for range. Mallory changes the most in the film and her presence was standout throughout. Although not given a ton of screen time, some credit must be given to the casting of David Strathairn as Arthur Spiderwick and Joan Plowright as Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick. Both of these veteran actors made good use of the limited time they had to develop their characters. They provided the wise voice in the anarchy that literally drives the quest of the children. The voice actors were well matched, but I found Martin Short just too over the top as Thimbletack.

Finally, the best character in this film has to be the incredible sets and locations. The level of detail in the house was incredible and added greatly to the atmosphere. Even if the film was not much of a standout great film, it has enough wonderful craftsmanship to make it a fun hour and a half of family entertainment.

Video

The Spiderwick Chronicles is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The MPEG4/AVC 1080p transfer is actually quite impressive. The few complaints I have about the visual presentation involve created choices and have nothing to do with the hi-def transfer here. The level of detail is remarkable, most notably on the creatures themselves…I was particularly impressed with the image of Redcap who likely displays the greatest variant of nuance. It’s nice to see set designers have their work rewarded. This HD transfer allows you to really examine the detail of the set designs. When they are allowed to be, colors are bright and incredibly lifelike. Unfortunately there was a conscious decision to oversaturate much of the film, which I found took away rather than enhanced the experience. The bit rate was a solid mid 30’s mbps throughout the film. The HD transfer also reveals itself in the magnificent black levels. There is layer upon layer of shadow definition here, which comes in handy during the film’s climax.

Audio

The Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 track is mostly a very grand affair. The James Horner score was the first thing that I noticed. It reaches out and grabs you in its own forceful invitation to experience the film. During the flight of the Griffin the soaring music was exceptional. There isn’t quite the aggressive use of surrounds I might have expected on such a modern and fantasy filled film. The rain storm near the end was particularly well done, offering a strong feeling of being surrounded by the elements. There isn’t as much of that feeling during the chase scenes. Dialog always stands out and is well placed at all times. Sub levels are fair. I could’ve done with just a tad more punch during that aforementioned storm or the final battle.

Special Features

All of the features appear in HD.

Spiderwick – It’s All True!: This 7 minute feature is hosted by the film’s director, Mark Waters. He’s not really the best man for the job. He’s over the top here as he tries to explain that the film is real and gives us sage advice on how to protect ourselves from these creatures. Unfortunately, he’s extremely monotoned throughout, which counters any excitement he’s trying to provoke.

It’s A Spiderwick World: Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi talk about the creation of the story. Again they continue this “it’s all real” motif which might have been fun for like one minute. They talk about a strange letter they got from the “real” kids which led to the books. We learn that Arthur Spiderwick was based on the real life Arthur Rackham who illustrated such classics as Peter Pan and Alice In Wonderland. We get some folklore history behind the creatures and the other magical items of the film.

Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide: The actual field guide prop is an extremely detailed affair. This feature allows you to look at each page and then see a film clip related to the creature of artifact shown.

Spiderwick – Meet The Clan: This is a meet the cast feature and plays for about 14 minutes. You get interviews with the cast and crew talking about each of the actors and characters from the film. The voice cast is included here as well. Much of the time is spent, appropriately enough, on Freddie Highmore.

Making Spiderwick: The sets and locations are the focus of this 20 minute feature. There’s a great look at the wonderfully detailed sets and props. The set director was James Bissell, who also did the work on E.T. for Spielberg. Included are the costumes and the field guide itself. There’s a ton of behind the camera footage showing the actors reacting to sticks with cardboard pictures of the creatures attached.

The Magic Of Spiderwick: Of course, by magic we mean special f/x. Two houses provided the work for the film. We get to meet folks from both ILM and Phil Tippett, who talk about their philosophies and the evolution of the visual CG work. There’s the required pre-vis stages to see as well as some early concept designs.

A Final Word Of Advice: Mark Walters returns to remind us how to protect ourselves. We know, Mark: Honey, Tomato Sauce, and Salt. Check! Got it!

Deleted Scenes: There are 4 scenes with an optional play all feature. It comes to about 8 minutes of extra footage, but there isn’t anything revealing here at all. They are merely extensions of stuff already in the film.

Finally there are some TV Spots and Trailers to finish off the generous list of features.

Final Thoughts

There have been a lot of these sorts of things of late. While there are some really fun moments in this adventure, I didn’t find it captivated me as well as some of the others. It rises above such fare as Neverwas and Bridge To Terabithia, but it can’t stand up to Harry Potter or even Narnia. For some reason it all seemed a little thin to me, almost like a television film with extra money for CG work. It’s harder to buy into this world at all. Throughout Mark Waters insists he was trying to make an “American” version of these fantasy films he sees as largely foreign affairs. He’s right, but this film never feels American at all. The kids are English and Scottish. Most of the crew appear British. The style of filmmaking does much to lessen the New England nature of the setting. The result is this film feels just as foreign as the others. It’s certainly worth a look, and the HD version will certainly give you your rental money’s worth, but I’m afraid before long it is rather forgettable. I’ve given you what I can. Now it’s up to you to “use this information wisely”.