The Spiderwick Chronicles

A constant sense of fairy tale danger gives a palpable edge to this otherwise PG kid's flick. The Spiderwick Chronciles successfully condenses the five short books in the series into a film that nicely ties the bow to the ribbon. There's a feeling of closure to the story in contrast to, say, Golden Compass (obviously bigger books), which still has two-thirds of its story untold by the credit roll.
A mom separated from her husband moves her three kids to a country mansion that holds mysterious secrets of their ancestors. A long gone relation leaves behind a book that explains how to communicate with the various fairies, elves, and hog goblins that live in the surrounding woods. Moody interiors and spewing creatures hold your interest mainly through the relentless pacing of director Mark Waters (Mean Girls) working with a script whose writers include John Sayles. For those familiar with the story a couple of the creatures have been skipped and the climax takes place in the mansion as opposed to the book's underground lair.
I never noticed that a couple of the creature voices were played by Seth Rogen and Martin Short, which is a good sign since I wasn't pulled out of the movie by that fact. Freddie Highmore last seen hustling guitar licks in August Rush plays twins and could be the male movie equal of Dakota Fanning he's lately become so ubiquitous. Adults coast in and out (where has Andrew McCarthy been?) but the real stars here are the kids and CGI creatures.
The CGI brownies and orges don't seem out of place in the thick woods and a griffin (head of a lion and body of an eagle) makes a cool pet for the kids. I was caught up in the effects until this one scene where the kids are in a 3-shot along with the family cat. At a sound cue the kids look up towards the sky to indicate the griffin is flying overhead. The cat just looks the other way - he's a method actor. Also there was a young kid, about six, sitting next to me, only during the last ten minutes of the film he got scared at the action and moved to sit in his mother's lap. We all can't be as brave as the cat.