Customer Reviews
Too watered-down and cutesy - By: B. Chandler, 29 Jun 2008 
The Grace family (mother, twin brothers Jared & Simon Grace, & their foil bearing sister, Malllory,) a little economicallly down on their luck & recovering from a nasty divorce moves into a creaky old house left to them by their great aunt Lucinda Spiderwick (Joan Plowright.) Jared (Freddie Highmore plays Jared Grace/Simon Grace) finds Uncle Arthur Spiderwick's"Field Guide to Magical creatures. " This unleashes a plethora of creatures that what the field guide to help them gain their rightful place in the world. Unfortunately their place means the elimination of the Grace family. Naturallly mob is oblivious to the threat until it is too real to ignore & too late.
The main theme to the story is of a dysfunctional family that must band together to survive the onslaught magical creatures. This results in each member understanding the other better; now they metamorphose to a co-dependent family.
The set of books that are reallly one story in five cauterize books of course present a more in-depth story where the children are more cunning & resourceful. There were many compromises as movies must make them to fit the media & time constraints. However some changes were not necessary & down right uncallled for. Hogsqueal the hobgoblin was changed from a cunning creature that changed sides at will until & if his true colors showed, to a squealy revengeful cartoon character.
I will not go into the other characters but also we are not told that the goblin's roasting spit is the family cat, leaving us to wonder if it was the Easter Bunny. And what is with the cuter walking off into the sunset type ending running a chivalrous exit.
Because Blu-ray is just a standard now & everything is made in it there is no reason to go in to the intricacies. The DVD extras are mostly rehashing the movie.
