Seth Rogen and Martin Short are among the biggest comedians working today. Many recognize Rogen and Short for their recent work on Apple TV’s *The Studio* and Hulu’s *Only Murders in the Building*, respectively, with both earning 2025 Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Rogen took home the statuette.
Rewind the clock back to 2008, and the two stars were joining forces in *The Spiderwick Chronicles*, a charming family film currently available on Paramount Plus. *The Spiderwick Chronicles* was one of many fantasy children’s book adaptations released in the 2000s following the massive success of the *Harry Potter* franchise.
Directed by *Mean Girls* filmmaker Mark Waters, the film follows the Grace family as they move into a crumbling country estate once owned by a distant relative, Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn). Jared Grace (Freddie Highmore) discovers Spiderwick’s illustrated field guide on magical creatures and stumbles into an electrifying world of faeries, ogres, and hobgoblins.
Martin Short voices Thimbletack, a tiny, CGI-animated brownie living in the estate who is fiercely loyal to the memory of his missing master. Seth Rogen voices another animated creature: Hogsqueal, a piggish hobgoblin with a taste for live birds and a tragic past.
A family-oriented fantasy film that tells a complete story rather than setting up a barrage of sequels, *The Spiderwick Chronicles* is worth rediscovery. Sporting an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was warmly received by critics, with special praise going to Freddie Highmore in the double role of identical teen twins Jared and Simon Grace.
Another shared sentiment among reviewers—and noticed by plenty of adults—was that the film was too scary for some young children. Produced by Nickelodeon Studios and given a modest PG rating, *The Spiderwick Chronicles* nevertheless features intense scenes of fantasy violence that may surprise audiences expecting lighter fare.
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert called the film “truly scary,” and while it was “terrific entertainment,” he concluded his review with caution: “If you’re under 8 or 9 years old, don’t say you weren’t warned.”
The film features a dramatic siege on the Spiderwick Estate by an army of goblins at the command of Mulgarath (Nick Nolte), an evil shape-shifting ogre. CNN’s Tom Charity likened it to “something out of a home-invasion thriller (but with more goo).”
Young children may not be ready for scenes of knife-wielding teens defending themselves, or goblins painfully melting under acidic sprays of tomato sauce (one of their greatest weaknesses). But for older kids who enjoy edgier family films like *The Dark Crystal* and *Goosebumps*, *The Spiderwick Chronicles*, now streaming on Paramount Plus, is a must-see adventure with an all-star cast.
https://www.looper.com/2017470/seth-rogen-martin-short-fantasy-movie-the-spiderwick-chronicles-streaming-paramount-plus/
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