T., part Labyrinth, with a dash of The Goonies. He has Mean Girls and Freaky Friday on his CV, and clearly has great recall of what he enjoyed on screen as a kid, because the real strength of The Spiderwick Chronicles is how well it brings to mind a lot of older entries in the genre.įrom its opening, James Horner’s spot-on score and some great production design on the Spiderwick house will put even adults right where it wants you - part E. Kudos to whoever thought to bring on Mark Waters as director. Boy finds book of goblins, faeries, trolls etc., and presto: the house is attacked by an ogre called Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) and his army. At first glance, you’re not presented with much: single-parent family - Freddie Highmore as twins Jared and Simon and Sarah Bolger as their sister - moves to big old house in New England countryside, owned by distant and odd relatives. When Paramount announced its intentions to turn some comparatively little-known books into its next big kid’s flick, the initial reaction was, “Spider-whatnow?” But, as with most of Paramount’s 2008 output, it knew what to do with a good thing. Consequently, any addition to this newly crowded genre needs to really pull out the stops to impress.

The scramble that followed those two franchises by studios anxious to adapt every last children’s fantasy book was like watching trolls at feeding time.

Loveable as they may be, The Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter have a lot to answer for.

Spiderwick chronicles twins