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The enchanting other-worldliness of the excellent Spiderwick Chronicles |
Imaginative ideas make for a fine web sight
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
Directed by MARK WATERS
Certificate PG
THERE has never been a magical mystery tour quite like this one – the effects, the creatures and the surprises are enough to make your eyeballs pop right out of their sockets and do cartwheels on the ceiling.
From the best-selling children’s books by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, director Mark Waters has woven a spellbinding adventure that will keep you glued to your seats from first frame to last.
Peculiar things start to happen the moment the Grace family – Jed, his twin brother Simon (both appealingly played by Freddie Highmore), sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) and their mum (Mary-Louise Parker) – wave goodbye to New York to start a new life in an isolated mansion once owned by their great-great uncle Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn).
“It has that old people’s smell,” declares young Jed, sniffing the stale air as they explore the creepy house.
Unknown things scuttle behind the woodwork, and signs appear in the dust reading: “This is no place for you.” Salt has been spread around the window ledges, and there’s a protective circle of toadstools surrounding the place itself.
So what on Earth is going on?
It seems that 80 years ago Uncle Arthur wrote a magical “field guide” on how to spot a world of secret creatures in your garden. Young Jed stumbles across it in the attic, and unwittingly frees a variety of goblins, imps and assorted oddball beings into the “real world”.
Some, like Hogsqueak, a voracious piglet (voiced by Seth Rogen) are hilarious. Colourful sunflowers become fairies and flutter off into the sky. Others are part of the dark side, like a tribe of malevolent froghoppers led by a huge ogre (Nick Nolte) out to destroy the family and seize the book.
The PG certificate seems a trifle generous, but then kids do like to be scared. One sequence in particular is a real spine-tingler, as the children race for safety in an underground tunnel, unaware that above them the lethal frogs are leaping through the dead leaves, keeping pace and sniffing their progress through the earth below. Shivery.
For sheer thrills and ideas, I salute a family film that has more than its share of excitement, and, yes, enchantment. |
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