Great movie for kids, decent movie for adults

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2010)

It's a nice movie, and probably perfect for kids. For me as an adult, it wasn't. I have been missing a lot of things. First of all, I found that the movie wasn't told very well. I don't know the book, maybe the book is told more convincing – the movie simply isn't isn't. Barely anything is explained, the story is full of goofs. Depths is lacking totally. And pretty much every mythical creature shows up. There are centaurs, elves, all sorts of talking animals, unicorns, fauns, gryphons, witches, and even Santa Clause appears. But the fauns, none of that creatures "explained" in any way, they simply exist. The whole movie felt a bit like Smarties*: Colorful, cheerful, but a bit too sweet. All mythologies are mixed and the result is an empty, too colorful and cheesy fantasy story. A sadly too colorful one to create a real atmosphere.
There are way better kid-movies out there. Jumanji, Back to the Future or Harry Potter for example. This movie doesn't even come close the ones mentioned above.
*Extremly colorful, German sweets. Google it if you are interested. ;)