One of the best family films of the year (and one I didn’t expect to even enjoy, let alone love!), ‘’The Spiderwick Chronicles’’ combines the magic of the ‘’Harry Potter’’ series, the adventure of the ‘’Indiana Jones’’ series, and, er, the voice of the portly bloke from “Knocked Up”, to tell a magical story the likes of which you’ve – probably – never heard before (unless of course you’ve read the book it is based upon).

Based on a series of illustrated Children's fantasy books written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi, ‘’Spiderwick’’ follows the adventures of Jared Grace (the slightly-overexposed Brit Freddie Highmore of ‘’Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’’ and “Finding Neverland” - here playing a Yank) and his family as they discover a field guide to fairies and battle goblins and other magical creatures.

Jared and siblings learn via a petite creature named Thimbletack (voiced by Martin Short) that the new house they’ve just moved into is surrounded by evil trolls – in particular, a shape-shifting ogre named Mulgarath (voiced by Nick Nolte).

Seems there’s a “field guide” to this world of fairies and freaks buried somewhere inside the house (David Straitharn makes an appearance as the late owner of the estate, Arthur Spiderwick, the creator of the Field Guide to fairies) and Mulgarath wants it for himself so he can rule over all fairie-kind.

Mary Louise-Parker (TVs ‘’Weeds’’) is Jared’s mother, Nick Nolte (‘’48 Hours’’) is a shape-shifting ogre named Mulgarat, Seth Rogen (‘’Knocked Up’’) is a hobgoblin who has a liking for birds, and 80s icon Andrew McCarthy (‘’Pretty in Pink’’) plays the hero’s Dad. Not a bad cast, but not nearly as good as the ridiculously fun story that’s in tow. If I were 13 again, this would be better than a large bag of mixed lollies!

Like the terrific “Bridge to Terabithia”, “Spiderwick Chronicles” looked, from the outset, about as exciting as mowing the lawns (Jim need not email in to let me know how much he enjoys cutting grass - we know!) and whaddyaknow!? It’s much more fun! (Sounds like a couple of folks need to get their Marketing degrees, hey!?). Give it a whirl!

DVD EXTRAS A multitude of fun bonus bits, including featurettes on how they created those terrific-looking creatures and interviews with the core cast members.