I have never read "The Spiderwick Chronicles." Trust me, I do like to read, but I never got into the series of "The Spiderwick Chronicles." But after seeing the movie, I just really want to go out and check out the books. But to be honest, when I first heard of "The Spiderwick Chronicles," I feared it to be in the same league to "Bridge to Terabithia." After all, how can you follow up to fantasy movies in the month of February and like January, February is a tragic release of movies.



But all said and done, I actually enjoyed "The Spiderwick Chronicles." If it weren't for Harry Potter, fantasy wouldn't be as believable as it seems. The fantasy is just as believable in this movie as it is to Harry Potter...maybe even more.



"The Spiderwick Chronicles" tells the story of the Grace family whose father is separated from the mother. The mother takes his children: the twins Simon and Jared (played by Freddie Highmore) and their sister Mallory - to an old house who use to be owned by their great uncle Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn). The kids find crazy things going on in the backyard that believe to be fantasy creatures.



The fantasy creatures want Arthur Spiderwick's book that was made 80 years ago. Here's one thing. They never give up on finding Arthur's book that was created a long time ago and they behave even worse when they get the book. So therefore, the kids want to find a way to meet Arthur Spiderwick and have him destroy the book.



There are great performances from a great little actor, Freddie Highmore. Overall, he steals the show. And I'll have to say that this turned out to be Highmore's second best performance tied to his brilliant, holiday-release, musical drama, "August Rush." Although, the worst you can expect is that it's a Nickelodeon movie. We all know that, and the fact that Nickelodeon sucks in their cartoons. But when they come up with live action films based on novels, they are actually pretty good.



Thank God that fantasy is believable for this movie. In restrospect, I thought "The Spiderwick Chronicles" was such an excellent movie. And the fantasy just proves it all.