Big movie tie-ins for 2008

The Spiderwick Chronicles | March 2008

What's it all about?
Faeries. Based on the series of bestselling kiddy books, The Spiderwick Chronicles tells the fantastical tale of three children who find themselves in a world of goblins, ogres and faeries (not fairies, faeries). Needless to say, the bad beasties want something that the mystified trio possess. Spend a spell over at the official Spiderwick Chronicles site andwatch the trailer.

Is it getting gamed-up?
An incy-wincy Spiderwick game is indeed on the way. It's scheduled for release in Feb for DS, PC, PS2, Wii and 360. Development duties are being handled by Stormfront, who is no stranger to magic and trolls and stuff, having previously made Eragon and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Should you be excited?
We love a bit of fantasy as much as the next fairy, but there's something about this that just screams stink horn. The game's press release states that it'll feature 'multiple playable characters, each with unique abilities'. Which, at least in our head, translates directly to 'same old unicorn shit, different fantasy adventure movie tie-in'. Plus, the fact that Stormfront's last game, Eragon, was less fun than falling face first in a freshly laid pile of dragon dump, means we'll only accept hands-on proof before we get our hopes up.

Matt Cundy
I don't have the energy to really hate anything properly. Most things I think are OK or inoffensively average. I do love quite a lot of stuff as well, though.