I'm a fan of Freddie Highmore's, having enjoyed the reboot of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as August Rush. So, The Spiderwick Chronicles seemed like a no-brainer, given that we get not one, but two Freddies, as the twins, Jared and Simon Grace. Based on the series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, the movie languished in limbo long, but bounced from the theater to DVD in the span of February to June. Aided by lifers Martin Short, Nick Nolte, David Strathairn, and new star Seth Rogen, the Nickelodeon special throws our twins and their older sister, Mallory (Sarah Bolger) into a world of goblins and fairies, all in defense of Spiderwick's Field Guide to Fairies.

Strathairn's Arthur Spiderwick created said book, charting the movements, powers, habitats, and more of the inhabitants of the magical realm—but attracted the attention of a shape-shifting ogre named Mulgarath. The good fairies made Spiderwick disappear, and his house sat empty for eighty years, with the book safely inside the boundaries of the house. Now, the Grace family (sans father) moves in; the mischievous and somewhat estranged twin finds it, Mulgarath finds out the boy has found the book, and, well, you get the picture.

Along the way, various issues get banged out, in pseudo-C.S. Lewis style. There's the matter of the absentee father who is bedding another woman, leaving his wife and children to fend on their own. Our heroes aren't orphans, but they're struggling, and dear mom is of no help in this one. The power of the book is pretty amazing.

So I'll sidebar here: what would folks say if they saw the Bible as powerful beyond recognition, holding the words that hung over life and death? Would they understand? Probably not in the way we do here.

Moving on, there is, as in many fairy world-real world crossovers, the importance of being believed and having belief, as Jared must first convince his siblings of the existence of the fairy world and gain their aid in fighting Mulgarath.

Overall, the film is rather entertaining, clean, good-versus-evil fun. I don't know that "acting" is necessary, but the humans involved do a decent job of participating in a majority of the movie where they're interacting with CGI/digital-related fairy characters. The settings are pretty, the music works, and overall, you can get behind the Grace family.

Funny thing isn't it: a fallen grace redeemed, and it's the power of the family of grace that the day. That's just amazing&ellips; grace.