The Spiderwick Chronicles is showing a lot of promise.
Lately I’ve been disappointed with the young fantasy films that have hit the big screen. When I was a kid, I loved movies like Jim Henson’s Labyrinth or The Neverending Story. And today there seems to be less of that kind of story, but lately, not for a lack of trying. I know people liked Bridge to Terabithia, but I thought it lacked more of a fantasy element which was prominent in the advertising (and don’t get me started on the forced religious subtext). Chronicles of Narnia lacked the action sequences that everyone wanted. And Arthur and the Invisibles… let’s try to forget that ever happened. And Pan’s Labyrinth is probably too graphic for younger viewers (who don’t enjoy reading subtitles).
But the adaptation of Spiderwick has kept my interest. From the first trailer, to the special effects walk-through at Comic Con (okay, maybe that was a little boring…), and now this new trailer. Sure, the computer generated creatures don’t look like the muppets and puppet creatures from my childhood, but this film looks like a lot of fun. Check out the new trailer after the jump.
Check out the new trailer in High Defnition on Yahoo! Movies. The Spiderwick Chronicles hits theaters on February 15, 2008.
November 19th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I agree with you about the lack of good young fantasy films, but this one isn’t impressing me very much. Pans Labyrinth was excellent, but not a childrens movie at all.
I have to disagree with you about Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Everyone wasn’t wanting big action scenes. Adults like you (and many of my friends) who wanted another Lord of the Rings wanted big actions scenes. You all forget that this is a childrens movie based on a childrens book. It was a very good big screen adaptation of a childrens novel that has been popular with kids for over 50 years! Why change it? We are not in the target audience. It was my favorite book as a kid, and I enjoyed it on the level of seeing a book that I grew up with come to life on screen (it took me back to childhood). Kids read it in the 5th or 6th grade, and maybe continue with the Chronicles of Narnia as a whole through middle school. 10-13 year olds is the target audience (and younger too), and that is the audience that loved the film. Adults who disliked it had unreasonable expectations based on LOTR. I was happy with how true to the book the movie was and how it didn’t try to be anything else.
November 19th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I have to agree with Mezz. The film adaptation of LWW was perfect. I even went back and reread the first [the right first book, LWW] after seeing the movie and it made me re-read the entire series. I can’t wait for Prince Caspian. And Reep-A-Cheep. lol.
I also have to agree with the post author that the fantasy genre of late has been lacking. Narnia, and LotR, are amazing books, but also very different types of books. I hope The Spiderwick Chronicles can live up to the genre’s fans’ expectations.
November 19th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
this movie looks great, and as always, I’ll re-read the book before going to the teather… some people say that doing that you go with many pre-judges to the movie, but I think it’s the best way to understand an adaptation: knowing completely the original source.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:27 am
It looks a lot better than the first trailer which was quite horrendous frankly, but it still doesn’t look THAt good. And “Nickelodeon Movies” doesn’t inspire confidence (then again they did A Series Of Unfortunate Events and Charlotte’s Web, so…). Anyway, I’ll go see it, just as I have Eragon, Stardust, The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, Narnia, Harry Potter, LOTR,…
As for Narnia, well, action isn’t everything, if you want a movie with 100% action go watch Die Hard 4. Narnia:LWW was a very good adaptation of the book, a better adaptation, in fact, than the LOTR movies were of THEIR books…
November 20th, 2007 at 6:54 am
This keeps looking more and more promising. If I remember right, it’s going to be released in IMAX. Should be a good time.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:18 am
To be fair, the book Bridge to Terabithia doesn’t really have much of a fantasy element; the marketing just overplayed that in the hopes of bringing in the Harry Potter crowd. The result was an ad campaign with double negatives: people who knew the book saw the ads and said, “wtf? that’s not the book I know and love, and I’m not seeing the movie.” People who didn’t know the book and went to the movie, on the other hand, felt deceived and probably told others not to bother seeing it. As for the religious subtext, well, that’s the modus operandi of Walden Media.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
I am so sick of children’s fantasy, Hollywood.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
I saw this at a early screening a few months ago, and it was very good. Took my 9 year old sister to it, and although neither of us had read the books we both were fascinated.
The CGI was on par with the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; but the mythology was not as developed as I would imagine it was in the books. The soon-to-be-single mother family sub-plot had almost no trace of melodrama, and actually made for some genuine dialogue between the kids and their mom. In fact, the fantasy elements seemed to play such a small role, I’d sooner compare the movie to the recent “The Last Mimzy”, with the main action and story taking place in the real world; simply influenced by fantasy elements that are invading.
Anyways, although the story felt a bit weak because of what seemed like a big piece of the mythology/lore of the fantasy elements missing; but for such a trim movie (80 or 90-something minutes), it was a lot of fun.