12-year-old Tom O'Byrne gives his impressions of two current children's films
THE MOVIES
The Spiderwick Chroniclesstars Freddie Highmore as twins Jared and Simon Grace, who get caught up in a fairytale world. The film opens today with a PG cert and is reviewed on page 13
Horton Hears A Who!stars Jim Carrey as the voice of Horton the elephant and Steve Carell as the Mayor of Whoville. The film is on general release with a G cert. Read a critic's summary on page 18
The Spiderwick Chroniclesis a fantasy adventure about a city family that moves into a country house. One of the kids, Jared, is not happy with the move. While exploring, Jared finds a secret book. Reading it, he discovers that his great, great uncle discovered fairies and other magical creatures. One of the creatures, a goblin called Mulgarath, wants to steal the book and kill the other fairies.
The Spiderwick Chronicles is an exciting movie with lots of action. I didn't expect it to have lots of killing but it did. The storyline was easy enough to follow and it kept you interested. The animation was great, especially the goblins, which looked so disgusting. The bit I didn't like was when Simon's voice went a bit hoarse at the start.
All the characters were played well. My favourite was Jared because he was willing to do anything to protect the book from the goblins. I would recommend this movie to kids from six to 12 because some parts could be scary to kids younger than that.
Horton Hears A Who!is about a happy elephant called Horton, who finds a flower with a speck of dust on it. There's a tiny world inside the speck called Whoville. The mayor of Whoville talks to Horton, and the little world is put in danger when a kangaroo sends a vulture named Vladicov to destroy it. Horton has to face his fears as he tries to take Whoville to safety.
I enjoyed Horton Hears a Who! because it was so funny, the characters were great and the voices were brilliant. I would recommend it to families of young children because the storyline is easy to follow and even, in some parts, the adults were laughing as well as the children. At the screening I was at, kids of all ages enjoyed the movie.
