The Spiderwick Chronicles (DVD, Blu Ray)

I was a Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi "virgin", as I had never read any of their books before.  I was going into THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES  Blu Ray movie tabula rasa.  This can be a good thing, as there are no expectations, and a bad thing as I have no real background as the viewer.

All the actors did a good job with all the blue screen work they had to do, while interacting with the fantasy creatures created by powerful computers.  They also portrayed a regular family with brothers/sister interaction very well.  I particularly liked Sarah Bolger playing the character of Mallory Grace and how she deals with her younger brothers.  Everyone that has an older sister can relate here.

From the voice acting standpoint, the CGI characters came to life.  Hogsqueal, who at first I thought was too simple for the story, came around a bit in the end.  The humor of the character does lend itself to some entertaining moments throughout the film.  Mulgarath , the ogre, was the main villain in the story, but at the end of the day while he seemed so very evil, it did not feel like the character had been built up enough that I felt he had the chance to take over the world. 

This is really where the issues come into play.  The movie felt very rushed, and I am sure it had to be due to the fact it was covering 5 books in the span of a single movie even if the books were not huge volumes.  We are rushed in without too much background and this causes our investment in the characters to be rather small, leading to a low level of concerns for their fate.  The story should have been paced over two movies to give the character time to develop on the screen, which I can only assume they did in the book, or there should have been a warning that reads, “read books first for true background before watching”. 

The strongest part of the movie stems from the special effects, which are pretty darn special.  Mulgarath, the Troll in the tunnels and the goblins themselves are extremely well done and mesh with the environment seamlessly.  The battle scenes draw you in and bring what you only thought you could render in your imagination on the screen.  These are the scenes that up the excitement factor for the movie and make us sit up and take notice.  Mulgarath, with his morphing from one character to the next is truly a marvel of special effects.

The two things from the Blu Ray Extras that stood out (don’t know if they are also on the DVD) were the making of the fantastical creatures in the ILM computer labs as well as the interviews with Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.  There are other interviews with the rest of the actors and then some deleted scenes as well, what one has come to expect from the extras section.

Overall, a rather rushed effort that is really too scary to lend itself to a young child’s viewing.  Maybe being a well versed fantasy reader had an effect on my review, or maybe reading the books may be necessary to fully enjoy it.  The special effects save this movie for a lower score from this reviewer, and everyone should see them in glorious High Definition at some point.