As action packed as any more adult action movie

Rating: 7/10 (20 September 2009)

There seems to be a trend in children's movies to borrow the intense action scenes from "grown up" action flicks and animate them. This film keeps up a frenetic pace. This is good for today's under 14 viewers who have been exposed in equal doses to blockbusters like Spiderman, Transformers, X-Men, and even the Die Hard movies as they are to "cartoons". The field has grown so that it's not only Pixar as the only game in town.
My daughter wanted to see it because she remembered it as one of her favorite books that my mother read to her. But also, as she said, "How can you make a feature length movie out a slim little book?" I'm glad, actually, that I hadn't read the book first. I'm glad I didn't really see the trailers first. I'm glad because then I would have had preconceived notions. I did think, however, that it was going to be a silly movie that appealed to my daughter but was slight torture for me. I was pleasantly surprised that it was entertaining enough for me. What kept it from being rated higher for me were some, "Ew, gross" moments and some things I was surprised made it into a children's movie. It wasn't quite non-stop hilarious like "Over the Hedge", but I think they did make a true effort to appeal both to the kids and to the adults that would be bringing them.
One thing the Barretts can be thanking this movie for is that, hopefully, their classic book will be flying off the shelves now. I know I went to the bookstore right after the movie to seek out and read the book the movie was based on. What is pleasant is that, surprisingly, a lot of the elements were retained in the movie, even the clever in-jokes that the book had, like the stores' names. Of course, A LOT of elements were added to flesh out the story but there were some elements I wish they would have added in like the followup story in the second book, in which they found a good use for all that food and the fantastical grandfather narrator.
These days, all that matters is that at least one of us enjoys the movie. I hate when we sit through a turkey that neither of us enjoys.