The Spiderwick Chronicles (film)

The Spiderwick Chronicles
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mark Waters
Written by	Holly Black Tony DiTerlizzi Karey Kirkpatrick
Produced by	Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy Karey Kirkpatrick Holly Black Tony DiTerlizzi
Starring	Freddie Highmore Sarah Bolger Mary-Louise Parker David Strathairn Martin Short Nick Nolte Seth Rogen Andrew McCarthy
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	James Horner
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures Nickelodeon Movies
Release dates	February 14, 2008
Running time	97 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	$100 million

The Spiderwick Chronicles is a 2008 adventure-drama-family-fantasy film adaptation of Holly Black's and Tony Diterlizzi's bestselling children's book series of the same name. The story is about three children who battle goblins and other magical creatures who are after Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide. The movie will follow the adventures of the Grace children: Simon, Mallory and Jared as they encounter many different types of faeries. The faeries themselves are left ambiguous as to be an integral and yet non-interjectional addition to the plot.

Simon and Jared Grace will both be played by Freddie Highmore, and Mallory Grace will be played by Sarah Bolger. David Strathairn will play Arthur Spiderwick.

Plot

A blue screen set used during filming

Peculiar things start to happen within the Grace family (Jared, his twin brother Simon, sister Mallory and their mother) when they leave New York and move into a secluded old house owned by their great, great uncle Arthur Spiderwick.

Cast

• Freddie Highmore as Jared and Simon Grace
• Sarah Bolger as Mallory Grace
• Mary-Louise Parker as Mrs. Grace
• David Strathairn as Arthur Spiderwick
• Martin Short as Thimbletack (voice)
• Nick Nolte as Mulgarath (voice)
• Seth Rogen as Hogsqueal (voice)
• Andrew McCarthy as Richard
• Joan Plowright as Aunt Lucinda

Critical reception

The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of February 15, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 78% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 73 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 23 reviews.

Trivia

• Arthur Spiderwick is Jared Grace's great-great-uncle, but Lucinda Spiderwick, Arthur's daughter, is described as a great-aunt when, in fact, the daughter of one's great-granduncle would really be one's First Cousin Twice Removed.
• This marks the second time Martin Short has played a character in a Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies film, previously playing Ooblar the Yolkian of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
• This was Nick Nolte's second family film to be released by Paramount Pictures. In 2006, the first being Over the Hedge, which was made by DreamWorks Animation. Paramount had distributed the film as a result of its acquisition of DreamWorks, whose animation division became its own company in late 2004.

Video game

A video game of the same name based upon the movie was also commissioned and made.

External links

• Official site
• The Spiderwick Chronicles at IMDb
• The Spiderwick Chronicles at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Spiderwick Chronicles at Metacritic
• The Spiderwick Chronicles at Box Office Mojo
• The Spiderwick Chronicles at AllMovie
• Spiderwick Visual Effects by Industrial Light & Magic
• Spiderwick Visual Effects by Tippett Studio
• The Spiderwick Chronicles at BeenToTheMovies - Including Exclusive Trailer
• The Spiderwick Chronicles interview with writer Holly Black at HollywoodChicago.com
• The Spiderwick Chronicles Review