| The Spiderwick Chronicles | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Mark Waters |
| Produced by | Mark Canton Larry Franco Ellen Goldsmith-Vein Karey Kirkpatrick |
| Screenplay by | Karey Kirkpatrick David Berenbaum John Sayles[1] |
| Based on | The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black Tony DiTerlizzi |
| Starring | Freddie Highmore Sarah Bolger Mary-Louise Parker Martin Short Nick Nolte David Strathairn Joan Plowright Seth Rogen Andrew McCarthy |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Caleb Deschanel |
| Editing by | Michael Kahn |
| Studio | Nickelodeon Movies Kennedy/Marshall |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 15, 2008 (USA) March 21, 2008 (UK) |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $90 million |
| Box office | $162,899,667 (worldwide) |
The Spiderwick Chronicles is a 2008 fantasy film adaptation of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi's bestselling series of the same name. Set in the Spiderwick Estate in New England, United States, it follows the adventures of Jared Grace and his family as they discover a field guide to faeries, battle goblins, mole trolls and other magical creatures. It was directed by Mark Waters and stars Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Short, Nick Nolte, and Seth Rogen. Produced by Nickelodeon Movies and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it was released on February 15, 2008. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 24, 2008 in the United States.[2]
Contents |
The film opens with Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn) in his study, a room filled with bugs and odd creatures in jars. He frantically puts together a book, binds it, and stamps his mark onto the cover, when a strange beastly sound is heard outside.
80 years later: The Grace family: twins Jared and Simon (both played by Freddie Highmore), Mallory (Sarah Bolger), and their mom, Helen (Mary Louise Parker) have recently moved from New York City to the Spiderwick estate after the parents' divorce. While Simon, Mallory, and Helen are excited, Jared hates the move and despises his mother for the divorce. In the boys' bedroom, there is a picture of Aunt Lucinda, Arthur's daughter, as a little girl. She was taken to an asylum when she claimed her father was kidnapped by fairies.
Jared is overjoyed to get a call from his father, who promises to pick up Jared soon. Jared, Simon and Mallory then hear sounds in the wall. Mallory hits the wall with a broom, and an entire section of the wall collapses, revealing a dumbwaiter. Jared uses the dumbwaiter to haul himself up to the attic: a study. In the study, Jared finds a bound leather book titled: "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You." Jared reads the book, despite a note warning him not to, and a montage shows Arthur Spiderwick spending his life putting together a book of all the unseen creatures invisible to the naked eye. He reveals how some are kind, but some are evil, like the ogre, Mulgarath.
The next day, Jared discovers a small creature, Thimbletack (Martin Short). He sees Simon in the yard when suddenly, Simon is grabbed by invisible beings and dragged away. Thimbletack gives Jared the "seeing stone", enabling him to see the invisible, evil goblins carrying Simon away. Jared runs into the forest to look for Simon and finds a campfire with hanging cages around it. In one cage, he finds Hogsqueal (Seth Rogen), a creature who gives Jared the "sight" so he can see the creatures without the stone. Simon is brought into the campfire, where an old man asks him if he knows who has the Field Guide. Simon goes back to the house to get it, and is confronted by Jared, who had seen the old man turn into Mulgarath. When they are attacked, the twins flee and retreat inside a circle of mushrooms surrounding the house. Mallory is attacked by the goblins but is able to get into the house with the twins.
When goblins surround the house, Simon suggests that they visit Lucinda at the asylum. Jared and Mallory take a shortcut to the city and are chased by a mole troll, whom they escape. They make it to the asylum, where they meet their great aunt Lucinda (Joan Plowright). She explains what happened to her father: In a flashback, Arthur is shown making the circle while Lucinda plays nearby. She was attacked by the goblins and Arthur was taken away by fairies, leaving Lucinda to live her life fatherless. Lucinda tells Jared and Mallory that Arthur is still alive, held captive in a sacred glade by the sprites.
Back at the house, Jared has an argument with his mother about the divorce. Hogsqueal informs them that the goblins will destroy the circle tonight and the three siblings ride Arthur's pet griffin to the secret glade, where they see Arthur for the first time. Jared convinces Arthur to destroy the book. After learning the truth that his mom was not at fault; it was his dad who left his mom to live with another woman, Jared apologizes to his mother and chooses to live with her instead of with his dad.
A few weeks later, Lucinda is let back into the estate. Arthur appears in a flurry of sprites and confesses that he let Lucinda slip away from him, promising never to do that again. As father and daughter touch hands, Lucinda transforms into a 6-year-old again. The two return to the fairy world together as Jared, his siblings, and his mother walk back into the house, finally a real family.
In an interview, Sarah Bolger said that filming took four to five months. She said that she "was [in front of] the blue screen like 24 hours a day", and for the most part, she was "kicking and slicing and chopping things that were nowhere near". Since Bolger had many fencing scenes, she had five weeks of intense training, and three hours with the Canadian Olympic fencing coach nearly every day.[3] The MPAA rated this movie PG for scary creature action & violence, peril & some thematic elements.
The Spiderwick Chronicles received generally favorable reviews from critics; it was called "decent entertainment,"[4] "a work of both modest enchantment and enchanting modesty,"[5] and "modest and reasonably charming."[6] However, it was criticized for its reliance on special effects; a reviewer for The New York Times said that the movie "feels more like a sloppy, secondhand pander" and called it "frantic with incident and hectic with computer-generated effects,"[7] and another said that "the sense of wonder and magic is lost in the shuffle."[8]
Despite some negative reviews for the film overall, Freddie Highmore was generally praised for his dual role as the twins Simon and Jared. One critic said that he "skillfully portrays two distinctive personas,"[9] another said he "[had] no trouble grasping the task at hand,"[10] and a third remarked that, "the most special effect is probably Highmore".[11]
As of October 2008, the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 80% of critics gave the film positive reviews with an average rating of 6.6 out of 10, based on 135 reviews,[12] and Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.[13]
In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated $19 million in 3,847 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 behind Jumper at the box office.[14] With the opening day's gross on Thursday included, the film grossed an estimated $21.3 million on its opening weekend.[15] This film has grossed $162,839,667 worldwide.[16]
Sierra Entertainment enlisted Stormfront Studios to develop and produce a video game adaptation of The Spiderwick Chronicles, following the general storyline of the books and film.[17] It was released, shortly before the film's opening, on February 5, 2008 for Nintendo DS, Wii, PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 2, and rated Everyone (E10+) by the ESRB.[18]
| USA | Europe | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| June 24, 2008 | July 14, 2008 | July 31, 2008 |
The Spiderwick Chronicles was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 24, 2008, in both a one-disc edition and a two-disc special edition. Both include several supplementary features, and the special edition includes several more behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, Nickelodeon TV spots, and the theatrical trailer. The Blu-ray edition includes the identical special features of the special edition, along with a Blu-ray exclusive picture-in-picture option called "Spiderwick: It's all true!"
About 1,499,476 DVD units have been sold, bringing in $27,354,612, roughly one third of the film's budget.[19]
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